Category: Politics

Topic Header

James Baker Probably Regrets What He Did in 2000

Trish

James Baker has to be kicking himself right now. After all, it’s largely his fault this num-nuts is in power. Serving as co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, and having its recommendations likely dismissed by the Cretin in Chief, is just a small pay-back for cursing us with this idiot to begin with.

Climb into the Way Back Machine and go to the fall of 2000. Baker led the Bush team petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to void the decision by Florida’s high court which allowed a recount of suspicious ballots. Baker held a press conference to condemn the “activist” Florida justices and plea to set things right.

Baker in 2000: “Let the country step back for a minute and pause and think about what’s at stake here. This may be the last chance to do that. There is no reasonable end to this process if it slips away.”

The vote here in Florida was very close, but when it was counted Governor Bush was the winner.

Now, three days later, the vote in Florida has been recounted. Over two-thirds of the state election supervisors overseeing that recount are Democrats. At the end of this recount, Governor Bush is still the winner, subject only to counting the overseas ballots, which traditionally have favored the Republican candidates. No evidence of vote fraud, either in the original vote or in the recount, has been presented…

Let the country step back for a minute and pause and think about what’s at stake here. This may be the last chance to do that. There is no reasonable end to this process if it slips away.

…For the good of the country, and for the sake of our standing in the world, the campaigning should end and the business of an orderly transition should begin.

Where to start? Palm Beach County’s Democratic Elections Supervisor, Theresa LaPore, was later forced to resign in disgrace. Vote fraud, in both the original election and the Katherine Harris-supervised recount, was presented and proven. And as for this country’s standing in the world…

But Baker was also right. There was a lot at stake, and it was our last chance to avoid the horrible consequences. I’m not happy that it looks like Bush is rejecting the ISG’s work because we need to figure out how to make the killing in Iraq stop. But there is, as my cousin Jon likes to say, a certain schadenfreude in all this. How do you like your president now, James Baker?

Florida’s New Governor Flip-Flops Again

Trish

In what is probably a harbinger of his new administration, Florida Republican Governor-Elect Charlie Crist has again caved to public pressure and reversed himself. He is cancelling his inaugural ball, planned as the most extravagant in the state’s history, and bought and paid for by developers, Big Sugar, military contractors, and other greedy bastards who want to own a piece of the new governor.

No wonder columnist Mark O’Brien is asking Santa for a backbone for “Charlie Crist (R-All Things to All People)” this year.

Amid mounting criticism from the public and media, Gov.-elect Charlie Crist on Saturday abruptly canceled plans for a pricey inaugural ball, saying he should not have approved the solicitation of donations of as much as $500,000 to pay for events…

Crist’s sudden reversal came on a day when the Times and several other newspapers in Florida carried columns, editorials and cartoons critical of the party plans.

A Tampa Tribune editorial Saturday said “Crist’s solicitations don’t set the right tone for the new day he has promised in Tallahassee.”

In an editorial headlined “The lobbyists’ governor,” the Palm Beach Post said the $500,000 solicitations mean that Crist’s nickname, “Chain Gang Charlie,” should be changed to “Ka-Ching Charlie.”

In the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, cartoonist Ed Gamble’s cartoon Saturday showed a cigar-chomping lobbyist telling two average-looking guests at the ball: “You don’t have to worry about the $2.5-million cost! We covered it!”

Crist’s handlers want his decision/chickening-out to be seen as listening and responding to the will of the people. Throughout his campaign, Crist certainly did that.

He began by introducing himself as Jeb II, promising to continue the previous governor’s policies and initiatives, including using the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test as the only measure of success in public schools. When his opponent moved up in polls by claiming that the test is eroding, not improving, our educational system, Charlie allowed as how he might make some changes. When his opponent said he would require insurers to offer property coverage if they were permitted to offer more profitable auto coverage in the state, Charlie signed on. Twisting and turning, he waffled his way into the governor’s mansion.

Floridians can probably expect more of the same, with Charlie saying one thing one day and something else the next, depending. They don’t call him “Crist-Crossing Charlie” for nothing.

No wonder columnist Mark O’Brien is asking Santa for a backbone for “Charlie Crist (R-All Things to All People)” this year.

Truly Unethical: GOP Engaged in a Conspiracy of Silence about Foley’s Chickenhawking

Jon Ponder

The House Ethics Committee released its report on Friday at the eleventh hour of the last day of the 109th Congress. Aside from stern words directed at House members, especially former Rep. Foley, the report basically gave everyone a pass, saying it found that no rules had been broken.

Apparently, there is no specific rule that forbids House members from diddling the pages.

And yet hidden in plain sight in the report is a matter-of-fact description of a conspiracy of silence around Foley’s improper behavior. His colleagues and their staff members told investigators that they knew about Foley’s interaction with 16-year-old pages but did not turn him in because they were reluctant to out him as a gay man:

“Some may have been concerned that raising the issue too aggressively might have risked exposing Rep. Foley’s homosexuality…. There is some evidence that political considerations played a role in decisions that were made by persons in both parties.”

The report fails to connect the dots on this issue: The truly unethical behavior was how, in service to Foley’s secret sexuality, members of Congress tolerated his predation of teenaged boys.

Word of the Year: Truthiness

Jon Ponder

My new favorite dictionary webpage is Mirriam-Webster. They have just announced their choice for 2006 Word of the Year:

truthiness(noun)
1 : “truth that comes from the gut, not books” (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” October 2005)
2 : “the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true” (American Dialect Society, January 2006

Runners up included “google” and “decider.”

Poll: Bush Sinks to 30%, Lowest Approval Ever

Jon Ponder

How low can he go?

Pres. Bush’s approval rating today is just five points higher than Pres. Nixon’s approval when he resigned in August 1974:

The national job approval rating of President Bush has plummeted to 30 percent, an all–time low in the latest Zogby International telephone poll, sinking below the 31 percent approval rating he dropped to in early June.

On This Date – December 9

Jon Ponder

1958: John Birch Society founded. Organized by Robert F. Welch on December 9, 1958, the John Birch Society was an ultra-conservative politcal force in the era after Sen. Joseph McCarthy disgraced the American right by leading an anti-communist crusade that turned into a witch hunt.

The JBS was based in McCarthy’s hometown, Appleton, Wisconsin, and perhaps its most famous member was Roy Cohn, McCarthy’s evil, closeted gay sidekick, whose death from AIDS is fictionalized in the play, “Angels in America.”

JBS reached its zenith during Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign in 1964, and Goldwater’s resounding defeat was the start of the decline of its influence. The fall of communism pushed it to the brink of obscurity.

Ironically, the policies of Republicans in Washington, especially the Bushes, have re-energized the Birchers:

When Robert F. Welch died in 1985, the Birch Society had shrunk to less than 50,000 members. There then ensued an internal struggle over who would grab the reins of the organization. The victors even alienated Welch’s widow who denounced the new leadership from her retirement home in Weston, MA. Magazine subscriptions, often a close parallel to membership, fell from 50,000 to 30,000 to 15,000.

The collapse of communism in Europe and the end of the Cold War might have signaled the end of the Birch Society, but the UN role in the Gulf War and President Bush’s call for a New World Order unwittingly echoed Birch claims about the goals of the internationalist One World Government conspiracy. As growing right-wing populism sparked new levels of cynicism regarding politicians, and economic and social fears sparked rightist backlash movements, the Birch Society positioned itself as the group that for decades had its fingers on the pulse of the conspiracy behind the country’s decline. Between 1988 and 1995 the Birch Society at least doubled, and perhaps tripled its membership to over 55,000.

Who was John Birch? The society’s namesake, John Birch, was “a United States military intelligence officer and Baptist missionary in World War II who was killed in 1945 by armed supporters of the Communist Party of China, and whom the JBS describes as ‘the first American victim of the Cold War.’ His parents joined the society as life members,” according to Wiki.

In Which Parallel Universe?

Trish

“[O]ur Nation owes him a great debt of thanks, and to his family as well, to his wife, Joyce, and to his children for the sacrifice that all of them have made so that Secretary Rumsfeld could serve our nation…So I thank Secretary Rumsfeld on behalf of Floridians and, I think, a grateful nation as well. The men and women in uniform that he has led, that I know, have thought so much of his leadership; I know he’s given so much of himself to the transformation of our military to prepare us for the future, and I, just for one, want to rise today with a voice of thanks to a great American for his service.”

— Melquiades “Mel” Martinez, U.S. Senator (R-Fla.), incoming GOP chair, former Bush cabinet member, during remarks on the Senate floor Dec. 6

Polls: Americans Agree Generally on Iraq Exit, Bush Worst President Ever

Buck Banks

Several ways out: As reported by National Journal’s PollTrack today, several recent polls show a marked preference among Americans for a measured pullout from Iraq, not a Vietnam-like mad dash. Most Americans agree that the botched war is pretty much due to George W. Bush’s utter incompetence.

Respondents seemed to think it’s still possible to make progress on the ground, although not possible to achieve victory as defined by the administration.

A new Associated Press/Ipsos Public Affairs survey finds that disapproval of the president’s policies on Iraq is at an all-time high of 71 percent. Bush apparently scores few points on non-Iraq policies as well; 64 percent disapprove of the job he is doing in general. That’s a slightly worse appraisal than the one given in mid-November.

It seems unlikely that Bush or Congress will embrace all 79 tenets of the Iraq Study Group’s long-anticipated report. But the two in particular the president has dismissed out of hand — drawing down U.S. forces over the next 15 months and bringing Iran and Syria into the discussion — are both policies Americans would like to see the administration pursue.

When asked about a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops by mid-2007, a half-sample approved by 60 percent. But when presented with a timetable that calls for troops to leave within two years, 71 percent approved. The results suggest that Americans aren’t exactly itching to quit Iraq simply because they feel things aren’t going well there, as supporters of the war might put it. Rather, respondents seemed to think it’s still possible to make progress on the ground, although not possible to achieve victory as defined by the administration.

Nearly two-thirds said a “stable, democratic government” in Iraq was probably out of reach. Thirty-five percent felt that a democratic foothold in the Middle East was still possible; half of Republicans queried said so, compared with 22 percent of Democrats, according to AP’s analysis.

A poll commissioned by WorldPublicOpinion.org and conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes and Knowledge Networks also shows that Americans’ concern over Iraq has at least as much to do with the welfare of that country as U.S. interests. Fewer than two in 10 of those respondents wanted an immediate withdrawal within six months. A 40-percent plurality favored a one-year or two-year timeline, while 38 percent wanted a withdrawal only “as the security situation improves.”

An overwhelming 79 percent backed a major summit on Iraq that would include the United States, Iraqi leaders and Arab nations. When asked if the United States should try to work with neighboring countries “with whom we have other disputes” on the problem of Iraq, three-quarters said yes — including 72 percent of Republicans. Those figures held when respondents were asked if such talks should be held with Syria.

On This Date – December 8

Jon Ponder

1969 – At a news conference on December 8, 1969, Pres. Richard Nixon announced that the war in Vietnam would soon be resolved. Just two month earlier, Nixon had announced at a conference in Midway that the United States would be following a new program he termed “Vietnamization.” Vietnamization has echoes of Pres. George Bush’s “stand-up, stand-down” strategy for Iraq in which the United States forces would redeploy as Iraqi forces became trained and ready to take their places. Nixon proved to be wrong, of course. In April 1970, he expanded the war by ordering US and South Vietnamese troops to attack communist sanctuaries in Cambodia. The resulting outcry across the United States led to a number of antiwar demonstrations-it was at one of these demonstrations that the National Guard shot four protesters at Kent State. The fighting in Vietnam continued until April 1975 when Saigon fell to the communists. [This Date]

St. McCain Hires Creator of Racist Ad to Be Campaign Manager

Jon Ponder

The Republican Party’s putative 2008 nominee St. John McCain has hired Terry Nelson as his campaign manager.

In the Tennessee senate campaign this year, Nelson produced the racist television commercial for Sen.-Elect Bob Corker that depicted a blonde actress who says she met Corker’s opponent, former Rep. Harold Ford, who is black, at a “Playboy party.” Toward the end of the ad, she whispers seductively, “Harold, call me.”

Before the ad ran in Tennessee, Ford was slightly ahead or even with Corker in the polls. After the ad was up for a week or two, Ford’s polling sank permanently to double digits behind Corker, a real estate developer who had served as mayor of Chattanooga.

Nelson and his company were fired by Wal-mart’s advertising department after the ad ran because it was considered to be racist.