Year: 2007

Gonzales Resigns, Could Be Replaced with Chertoff

Jon Ponder

We’re learning this morning that U.S. Attorney Gen. Alberto resigned on Friday, and the speculation has already begun about who Pres. Bush will nominate to succeed him.

The early favorite is Michael Chertoff, who currently serves as the secretary of the Dept. of Homeland Defense (DHS). Chertoff is a former a judge and a current loyal Bushie. Unlike fellow loyalist Condoleeza Rice, who got kicked upstairs from national security advisor to secretary of state as a reward for her incompetence in the planning of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Chertoff has yet to receive a promotion for the lack of supervision he provided former FEMA head Michael “Heckuva Job” Brown, his direct report, during the Katrina disaster.

Plus Chertoff has already been vetted. He underwent Senate confirmation to become DHS secretary, so it would make it harder for Democrats to challenge his nomination to AG, or so the thinking goes.

Chertoff received his first national exposure on cable news in the 1990s as an advocate of impeaching Pres. Bill Clinton. Earlier this year, Ted Olson, another figure from the Clinton wars, was floated for the AG job. A longtime friend of Clinton prosecutor Ken Starr, Olson served as the de facto chief operating officer of the Arkansas Project, a smear campaign against the Clintons that was funded by Pittsburgh millionaire Richard Melon Scaife. In 2000, Olson also successfully argued Bush v. Gore at the Supreme Court, for which he was rewarded with the post of solicitor general, a job once held by his buddy Ken Starr.

Starting With No Exit Strategy Means No End in Sight

Trish

The question isn’t “Will we leave Iraq?” The question is, “When will we leave, and how do we begin that process?” Bush answers by insisting we can’t leave now. He never says when we can, and that’s because he never had an exit strategy beyond shock and awe and mission accomplished. After three months, he was out of ideas.

See this film. If your nearest theater isn’t listed here, email them. I did, and they answered immediately and told me it’s coming my way soon.

DNC Leaps Ever Closer to Irrelevancy as It Pledges to Stay the Course

Trish

Democrats in Florida today are of one voice: “Well here we are.”

The day we all dreaded has come and gone, when the DNC would decide what to do about the fact that Florida’s legislature mandated the state’s primary move ahead on the calendar. And the decision we’ve all been waiting for said, “We are rigid and terrified and if we act reasonably with Florida, all the other states will expect us to be reasonable with them. Mayhem will ensue. We must stay the course.”

The DNC said, “We are rigid and terrified and if we act reasonably with Florida, all the other states will expect us to be reasonable with them. Mayhem will ensue. We must stay the course.”

At least one DNC member seemed to understand why it’s not a good idea to cut Florida adrift.

“We have to enforce our rules, but we don’t want to shoot ourselves in the head trying to heal a little cut on the hand,” said former DNC chairman Don Fowler of South Carolina, worrying the move could have long-term consequences. “You put the Republicans down there for a couple of months just humming and drumming and shucking and jiving and there’s an absence of Democrats, that’s going to give them a great advantage.”

Probably so. But now that it’s happened, now that our silver-tongued state party chair has failed to persuade, now that the national Dems have turned their backs on us, I say, “Who needs ’em?”

Florida Democrats don’t. We will vote in our state primary, regardless of whether our votes translate into delegates for a convention whose only real purpose is the official kick-off of the general election campaign cycle.

After all, the convention is either a fun show to watch if you’re wonks like us at Pensito Review (and likely you, dear reader) or a big pain in the butt if you’re like most of the viewing public. Either way, its main value is in entertainment since the “nominee” is long known beforehand.

The drama being acted out now is that everyone has 30 days to think of a way for Florida to send delegates to the DNC’s miniseries. FDC Chair Karen Thurman is exploring pay-to-play caucus options, which the DNC will pretend to accept reluctantly rather than reveal its relief at not having to ax a main cast member in its lavish and irrelevant production.

We’re being asked to stay tuned with hints of a surprise ending. Given the state of DNC leadership, not to mention go along to get along types like Pelosi and Reid in Washington, I will probably reach for the remote.

Obama In Miami — Whole Lotta Audacity Going On

Buck Banks

In what could be the last opportunity for a 2008 Democratic presidential candidate to campaign in Florida without being punished by the Democratic National Committee, Barack Obama spoke today before a packed house at a local Democratic fund-raiser. Today was also the day that the Florida Democratic Party had to lobby the national party to not punish it because the state’s Republican-controlled legislature moved Florida’s primary to Feb. 5, violating the opposite party’s rules.

Overall, Barack Obama was a hit, keeping his audience fired up and on its feet most of his speech.

But nobody mentioned that at the rally, a grass-roots Miami-Dade Democratic committee fund-raiser for its mostly state-level local candidates. An early speaker at the event — and there were many of them — noted that in 2000, nobody could have imagined holding a Democratic Party event in Little Havana for a black presidential candidate.

Indeed, just seven years ago, the Miami Cuban voting bloc was perceived as fundamentally and monolithically Republican, with Spanish speakers seen as loyal to the Republicans who seemed to hate Fidel Castro and were willing to impose an ongoing economic embargo until the Third World island nation saw the error of its ways, collapsed economically or Castro died, whichever came first.

But today a Cuban candidate for the state house stated unequivocally and to thunderous applause that the Republican Party could no longer count on the South Florida Hispanic vote.

Obama said that if he were elected he would remove all restrictions on travel to Cuba and lift all restrictions on sending money or goods to family members. But when he said that he would leave the embargo in place “as an inducement to change” and “use aggressive diplomacy” to begin moving toward normalizing relations with Cuba, he received a few scattered boos and some of the Cuban faction began to leave the theater.

But for the most part, it was a rousing rally with at least 3,000 in attendance, and Obama performing his stump speech, often with the spirited inflections of a preacher and with more piss and vinegar than he usually shows in his nuanced television appearances. Indeed, starting with a woman in the balcony hollering, “We love you, Barack!” to which he responded, “I love you, back, baby,” in a convincing Barry White imitation, there was a casual, ongoing call-and-response aspect to the proceedings that continued throughout his speech.

Not to sound too corny, but I think people felt Obama was speaking to them, not at them, and were inclined to holler out questions to which he invariably responded. These were not hecklers, as they waited for an appropriate pause or responded to a comment from Obama before calling out a question or comment.

Obama hit the “audacity” theme pretty hard, saying that if the Washington press corps were there, they would be calling him a “hope peddler” and “hope monger,” monikers he gladly accepts, but it resonated very well with a very mixed audience of blacks, whites and Hispanics who had paid either $30 or $100 for seats.

Busloads of college students from Florida Atlantic University were brought in (the school bought blocks of tickets) to the event, and most responded enthusiastically to Obama’s positions on affordable education and job creation.

Overall, Barack Obama was a hit, keeping his audience fired up and on its feet most of his speech — and that was after an hour and a half of short speeches by local commissioners, state legislators, party officials and music by Democrat folk singer Ellen Buckstell and a rousing number by the Miami Northwest High School marching band.

Obama hit all his stump themes: universal health care, energy independence and green tech, education, jobs and wages, and the failure of the Iraq War and the failure of the Bush administration to make us safer and more secure.

His abiding message, however, is that to him, politics is a mission, that we all have a stake in each other, and that he has both faith and hope in the “decency and generosity in the heart of the American people.”

UPDATE: You can watch an unedited video of Obama’s entire speech here.

Quotes from Barack in Miami

Buck Banks

Barack Obama’s stump speech is well-oiled and filled with quotable lines. But as often as he has given it — often to crowds 10 times the size of the 3,000 assembled in Little Havana today — it is still delivered with passion and vision. Here are a few choice quotes:

“Crowds remind me of a couple of things: pundits are not right about much, and when it comes to what’s wrong with this country, it’s not the American people who are the problem; the American people are the answer.”

‘I don’t trust Alberto Gonzales with my civil liberties.’

“The American people are tired of being sick and tired. Enough is enough! The American people want to turn the next page in American history.”

“We’ve never had a better marketing agent than George Bush for the Democratic Party. Though Dick Cheney gives him a run for his money.”

“I don’t believe in little change. I believe in big change, and we need big change in America.”

“I’m asking you to be hopeful at a time when it’s easy to be cynical.”

“You can disagree without being disagreeable, and you can find consensus without compromising your beliefs.”

“I want us to out-educate the world today so we can out-compete the world tomorrow.”

“I’m sick and tired of an administration treating our Constitution as something to be negotiated around instead of as the foundation of our democracy.”

“If we can get enough Republican congressmen to change their minds, we can end this war without George Bush.”

“I want to go before the United Nations and say, ‘America’s back.’”

“I don’t trust Alberto Gonzales with my civil liberties.”

Barack and Me in Miami

Buck Banks

So, having seen Barack Obama in person today, what did I come away with? An increased appreciation for the man as orator, an excitement about the Miami-Dade Democratic Party and a nagging thought that will warm the hearts of my co-editors:

Maybe I should join the Democratic Party, if for nothing else, to vote against Hillary Clinton and for Barak in the primary.

It’s probably not likely I’ll drink the Democratic Kool-Aid, but if Obama continues to inspire and motivate people the way he clearly did today in this political backwater of a Third World country, I might just be so inclined.

Not that I’m ready to do that. There’s a lot that could happen between now and primary time (especially if the national Dems punish the Florida Dems and render any party switch or vote of mine meaningless).

Frankly, I wish Dennis Kucinich had a snowball’s chance. I like him, not just for his chutzpah, which he has in spades, but for his sense of humor and mostly for his really progressive ideas, which I agree with. Mostly.

But today I was impressed by my local Dem pols, for a change. Not that I gained any respect for the Florida Democratic Party and Karen Thurman, who fortunately had nothing to do with today’s event. But if the Miami-Dade Dems can pull off a series of these events (which they promised Barak was the first of), and if I see some coalition of Dems in Miami and an ongoing robust intensification, organization and concentration of effort, then I might be inclined to give up my independence and drink the Kool-Aid.

Today I saw representatives of Equality Florida, who are backing a Fairness for All Families measure aimed at providing rights to nontraditional families (read:gays), I listened to the first openly gay Hispanic elected official in Miami and I heard my city commissioner talk about passing a bill of rights for the City of Miami that includes “equality for everybody” (Miami is the only city in South Florida that doesn’t have a bill of rights), I heard a song about how religion shouldn’t be used to take away my right to choose, and at the end of the rally I heard a high school choir sing the old Bill Withers song, “Lean On Me.”

It’s probably not likely I’ll drink the Democratic Kool-Aid, but if Obama continues to inspire and motivate people the way he clearly did today in this political backwater of a Third World country, I might just be so inclined.

But don’t hold your breath, Jon and Trish.

Murder-Suicide Claims Prominent GOP Strategist; Gaydars Going Wild

Trish
The Gonzalez crime scene

Ralph Gonzalez, a former executive director of the Georgia GOP while Ralph Reed was its chair, was found shot to death yesterday with two other men in a home he with shared with one of them in Orlando.

Gonzalez was among the three people found inside the home, and their bodies may have been inside since Tuesday, authorities said.

“The third person was the shooter. He shot my son first and then shot David and then killed himself,” Eva Gonzalez said.

A prominent Republican Party consultant is one of three men found dead in a Central Florida home Thursday in an apparent double murder-suicide possibly sparked by a lovers’ quarrel, according to detectives

The home where the deaths occurred was also listed as the headquarters of the Strategum Group, a Republican consulting firm whose clients include Jack Abramoff-linked U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.).

The other victims were identified as David Abrami and Robert Drake. Gonzalez lived in the home with Abrami, and Drake was a former roommate who was visiting from out of town.

“(It was) horrible. I can’t believe he lied in there, and the more I see all that blood, it was sickening. Why would anybody want to shoot my boy?” Eva Gonzalez said.

The police have an answer for that, Mrs. G. but you might not like it.

A prominent Republican Party consultant is one of three men found dead in a Central Florida home Thursday in an apparent double murder-suicide possibly sparked by a lovers’ quarrel, according to detectives…

“We are working it as a homicide, but there is some early evidence to suggest that this may in fact be a murder-suicide,” Orange County sheriff’s Sgt. Allen Lee said.

An attack ad from the Strategum Group’s portfolio

Reed himself, the former head of the
Christian Coalition, also flies under
the gaydar in Republican
conservative circles. If he’s not gay,
he fooled me.

Our sympathy goes out to
family members of the three men,
along with our hope that you will have answers soon and that you will make your peace with whatever they turn out to be.

Florida Democrats Still Fighting to be Counted — But By Our Own This Time!

Trish

Florida Democrats are having that deja vu all over again feeling some more. But while being disenfranchised feels very familiar, having our own party do it to us is brand new.

Florida Democrats are over this whole, “Your vote doesn’t count but maybe next time,” thing.

Buck explained that the DNC is considering yanking our delegates if Florida holds its primary before Feb. 5, 2008 as the Republican-led legislature recently mandated. Maybe what he, as a registered Independent, didn’t tell you is how galling is this prospect.

Our own FDC Chair Karen Thurman actually summed it up well in a missive yesterday.

Our state has seen far too much of this in the past: the 2000 election debacle, eligible voters purged from the voting rolls based on race, Black voters intimidated at the polls, 18,000 votes vanishing because of touch screen machines in 2006, the list goes on and on.

The list does go on and on, since she didn’t even mention the shenanigans in 2000 in nearby Duval County that led to the ouster of the Jacksonville supervisor of elections and served as the impetus for establishing early voting sites there.

Florida Democrats truly have had it up to here (holds hand over head) with having zero representation at the local level, feeble representation in Tallahassee, and dwindling representation in Washington. If our own party takes away our voice in the 2008 election, I for one would — Jon please cover your eyes — consider leaving this trainwreck of a party and joining Buck in the land of purists, contrarians, and exiles.

Thurman did supply a link to a page where you can register your feelings on this subject, which the FDC will then use to bombard DNC Chair Howard Dean. The page doesn’t even ask for money after you hit “submit.”

Go tell Howie that Florida Democrats are over this whole, “Your vote doesn’t count but maybe next time,” thing. No more.

Foley Won’t Let FDLE See Perv Files on His House Computer

Buck Banks

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has run into a brick wall in its investigation into former Republican Rep. Mark Foley’s sicko come-ons to congressional pages. He won’t let the FDLE have access to his D.C. computer. And the House of Representatives is backing up the pedophile (hebephile, see comment 2), saying his computer is the same as House papers and only Foley can release those.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

The appetite for power is old and irrepressible in humankind, and in its action almost always destructive. When exercised for the seizure of territory or suppression of liberties, it cannot be said to add to the welfare or happiness or improve the quality of life of those it rules, nor bring content to the ruler. What is it good for? As an inveterate activity of our species, it is largely a waste of time.

— Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989) American historian and author

Thanks to VRW for the tip.