November 6, 2008
November 5 (the day after Election Day) left us with a nearly breathless Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball. His guests included their correspondent, David Schuster, who had attended the election night speech by Barack Obama in Chicago’s Grant Park. Schuster described the scene in Grant Park, immediately after the west coast results were announced at 11:00 p.m. (Eastern Time). Strangers were hugging each other and crying. This could have only happened in Chicago. I had been in Grant Park on several occasions to celebrate many a Bulls championship, back in the day when Phil Jackson was coach and Michael Jordan defied the laws of gravity. The post-championship celebration in Grant Park became a rite of summer: the weather was just getting nice and Fourth of July was right around the corner. I still return to Grant Park for the annual Independence Day fireworks show (that actually takes place on July 3) even though I now live a long way from there. The consensual spirit of Chicago’s people brings life to the theories expressed by Carl Jung. Myth, archetype and symbol hold important places in the collective soul of that community.
Chicago has its own approach to politics, as well. The city’s history is rich with tales of “back alley” politics, giving rise to legendary figures and laying waste to contenders. As a result, I can’t keep my mind off the subject of what might be in store for Senator Joe “The Tool” Lieberman of Connecticut. The remark by Stephen Colbert during Indecision 2008 on Comedy Central, caught my attention. After the announcement that Obama had won 64 percent of the vote in Connecticut, compared to McCain’s 35 percent, despite McCain’s unfailing support from The Tool, Colbert wondered: “Where could the people of Connecticut have learned such disloyal behavior?” As you may recall: Lieberman was re-elected to the Senate in 2006 as an Independent candidate (after having lost the Democratic primary to Ned Lamot). Although they were irked by The Tool’s mercenary act to preserve his own political skin, the Democrats struggled to keep Joe in their “Big Tent”. The Senate Democratic Caucus (or Conference) currently consists of 49 regular Democrats and 2 Independents, one of whom is Joe “The Tool” Lieberman, who calls himself an “Independent Democrat”. Prior to the 2008 election, the Democrats had been desperate to maintain their 51-percent majority in the Senate, so they did all they could to make sure The Tool was a happy camper. All that changed when Barack Obama became the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee. Many commentators saw in Obama, not only a winner, but one with long enough coattails to bring more Democrats into the Senate. The Tool realized that his betrayal of the Democrats could result in the loss of his many important appointments, should Obama get elected. He had already “sold his soul” to Bush, Cheney and Rove in his quest for re-election. At that point, he had no choice but to “go for broke” by endorsing John McCain. However, The Tool went beyond that. He spoke ill of Obama at the Republican Convention. He followed McCain around throughout the Presidential campaign, giving rally speeches himself, in addition to serving as McCain’s “nodder” when McCain would question Obama’s patriotism.
It is now time for the Senate Democrats to throw The Tool under The Trash Talk Express, before it departs for that great bus barn in the sky. It has been widely reported that The Tool is scheduled to meet with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, at some point this week. My familiarity with Chicago politics leads me to believe that on his way to this meeting, The Tool will be alone in a dark alley. He will reach a spot alongside a blue dumpster and that will be the signal. Suddenly, Democratic Senators will step out from their positions, in the shadows, to surround him. The Tool will be cut … and he will be cut quite thoroughly. He will be cut from the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. He will be cut from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (where he is Chairman). He will be cut from the Senate Armed Services Committee. He will be cut from the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, including its Subcommittees on: Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection (where he is Chairman). He will also be cut from the Subcommittee on Public Sector Solutions to Global Warming, Oversight, and Children’s Health Protection. He will be left, writhing on the back bench of the Senate. “Backbenchers” have no influence to peddle … or, perhaps I should say: They have difficulty raising campaign contributions.
The Tool assumed that by joining himself to McCain’s hip, he could secure the Vice-Presidential nomination or a high-level Cabinet appointment. This must have appeared as his only route to avoid obscurity. It didn’t work.
The Tool now has a “date with destiny” somewhere in a dark alley . . .
The Republicans Have No Choice
March 2, 2009
Republican pundit Mike Murphy drove the message home on the March 1 telecast of NBC’s Meet The Press. Demographics have changed since the Republican heyday of the Reagan era. The Republican mission, message and strategy must adapt to our changing world.
On the other hand, last week brought us the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Convention) with its unique focus that has no relevance to current reality. The Democratically-inclined pundits on MSNBC were delighted by the CPAC festivities. These commentators were left with visions of Sarah Palin as the 2012 Presidential candidate, dancing in their heads.
We’ve seen and heard plenty of opinions about the current leadership vacuum within the Republican Party. Almost by default, he who makes the most noise, Rush Limbaugh, has found himself as the new, de facto leader of the Republicans. Although he is not a candidate for anything, he enjoys more of a papal role with the diehard Republicans. His message is amplified by people like Chris Matthews on MSNBC (who regularly discourses about how the Republicans always swing back to the “hard right”, when a moderate Presidential candidate fails). Matthews then describes John McCain as the failed “moderate” and proceeds to (hopefully) set the stage for a “wing nut” Presidential candidate such as Sarah Palin or Bobby “The Exorcist” Jindal. In either case, Obama gets re-elected — even if unemployment is at 42 percent and the Dow Jones is at 369.
The problem with Chris Matthews’ logic is that McCain pandered to the hard-right “base” in his quest for the White House and could not really be considered as a truly moderate candidate. The Republicans could wise-up and move toward the center by 2012. Besides: They have no choice.
Here in Florida, we have a fait accompli. Our next Senator, replacing the retiring Republican Senator Mel Martinez, will be our current Governor, Charlie Crist. Governor Crist is a moderate Republican who enjoys a 73% approval rating. Crist’s support of President Obama’s stimulus bill resulted in his appearance in Ft. Myers on February 10, to introduce the new President to an adoring crowd. Governor Crist took lots of heat for that, from know-nothing conservative pundits. Charlie Crist is laughing all the way to the Senate. As the February 24 article by Aaron Blake on The Hill website pointed out: the Democrats don’t have any strong challengers. It’s a lost cause. Here, “on the ground”, everyone knows it.
Meanwhile the “liberal” media are busy snarking at Crist, repeating the “gay” rumors that circulated prior to his recent marriage. This hostility is probably due to the fact that Crist is on the record as opposing any change to Florida’s existing ban on gay adoption. Any useful resemblance to former Republican Senator Larry Craig’s hypocrisy on gay issues would be a convenient “G-bomb” to throw into an election campaign. The Huffington Post is big on these “gay” rumors, as is the current incarnation of Wonkette. What those people don’t know is that the rumors never seemed to matter. For example: I’ve known and worked with many conservative Republicans who assumed those rumors were true. Nevertheless, they still supported and voted for Charlie Crist. It didn’t matter to them, nor did the issue ever matter to any significant number of people in this State. Governor Crist had been married to a woman named Amanda Morrow in 1979. That marriage lasted one year. On December 12, 2008 he married Carole Rome. Many of the rumor-mongers claim that this was a “staged” marriage, to advance Crist’s political career. Nevertheless, you can trust my opinion, as a heterosexual bachelor of approximately the same age as Governor Crist … If he is trying to “fake” a marriage at this point in his life … You will see him running out of the Governor’s mansion within a very short time, yelling: “All right! I’m GAY! I CONFESS!!! I’m GAAAAAAAAAYYY!!!”
I don’t believe we will see that happen. Beyond that, I’m really disappointed that purportedly “gay-friendly” media would be taking these cheap shots at Charlie Crist. He is going to be our next Senator and he will win because a majority of Democratic voters will support his candidacy. Deal with it.
The next question is whether the Republican party will finally figure out, after the 2010 election, that there is a trend here. Republicans are faced with the likelihood that future campaign strategies will nullify the efforts of extremists whose political ambitions have been based on the existence of the political primary system. As Newsweek‘s Howard Fineman has often discussed, the political primary system, by its nature, results in extremists from both sides getting much better traction than they would have in an open election. Politicians are on to this. Watch for more centrists running as independent candidates — and witness the disintegration of the “wing nut” dominance within the Republican Party.