September 1, 2008
In a perfect world, there would be a floor fight to take Sarah Palin off the ticket at the Republican Convention. It would make for some good TV this week. On the Friday, August 29 program, Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO), National Public Radio’s Michel Martin made the strident claim that those who criticize Sarah Palin “do so at their peril”. Sarah Palin is a Gumball. There. I will say it again, as well. Although I would agree that anyone who resorts to sexist criticism of Palin does so at their own peril, there is plenty of room for reasoned dismay at McCain’s choice. Meanwhile, Michel Martin’s claim that Palin’s experience is analogous to Tim Kaine’s experience, should have been made at Martin’s peril. Actually, it was. Tim Kaine is the Governor of a state that just happens to be next door to our nation’s Capitol. Virginia’s population is 7,702,091 people. The population of Alaska is less than one tenth of that at 683,478. Although Kaine’s time served as Governor of Virginia is equivalent to the time served by Palin as Governor of Alaska, Kaine previously served four years as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia — a job with similar day-to-day duties as those of the Vice-President of the United States. You see, both the Lieutenant Governor and the Vice-President preside over a body called “the Senate”. The Lieutenant Governor presides over the State Senate and the Vice-President presides over the United States Senate. The Gumball made the mistake of asking the question, into a TV camera, of what the everyday duties of the Vice-President might be. Tim Kane learned the answer by presiding over the Virginia Senate for four years. In case The Gumball doesn’t know (and she doesn’t, by her own admission) Kane’s duties as Lieutenant Governor matched those of the Vice President of the United States. Michel Martin must be aware of this … she just might not want anyone else to be so aware. Before Tim Kaine was Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, he was the Mayor of Richmond Virginia for four years. Two years ago, The Gumball was the mayor of her home town: Wasilla, Alaska (population 9,000). Tim Kaine was the mayor of a city with a population over twenty times the size of Wasilla, Alaska, at 200,123 people. Tim Kaine went to law school (Georgetown). The Gumball didn’t, nor did John McCain.
The stupidity of this episode is “off the charts”. On the heels of an outrageously successful Democratic Convention, McCain has made a desperate reach for those disgruntled supporters of Hillary Clinton. At the same time, with his choice of The Gumball, McCain has sold out to the televangelist lobby in the hope of connecting with that ever-elusive Republican “base”. The term “desperate” has been used by many commentators. Jonathan Alter of Newsweek was kind enough to analogize the selection of Palin to a “Hail Mary” or “Hail Sarah” pass at the end of a close football game. McCain’s media sycophants claim that McCain’s selection of Palin as his running mate, reinforces his “maverick” persona. To the contrary, if McCain really were a maverick, he would be standing up to the televangelist lobby, rather than sucking up to it, as he is with this choice.
Sarah Palin (a/k/a “The Gumball”) is a “wing nut” who wants creationism to be taught in public schools and who refuses to believe that global warming has been caused by human activity. To her credit, Palin went to term with a baby known to have Down Syndrome, based on her anti-abortion stance. Her ability to do the anti-abortion walk as well as the anti-abortion talk will give her some degree of “street cred” with a limited population.
Nevertheless, with his choice of Palin, McCain has alienated his own “base” – the independents, moderate Republicans and centrists who believed that once elected President, McCain would tear off the rubber mask and return to his old self. As Arianna Huffington said a while ago: “The John McCain of 2000 is not a candidate in this election.” McCain’s choice of The Gumball just drove that message home.
The fact that The Gumball was not adequately vetted, has become glaringly obvious to many Republicans. She hasn’t been Governor of Alaska for two years and yet, she is already in trouble there. A special prosecutor has been appointed to investigate her activity. She has been accused of “abuse of power”. Our current Vice-President has that as his middle name. This situation should make life easy for those writing the negative ads about the Republican ticket.
As long as Michel Martin has directed our attention to Tim Kaine, let’s remember where he was born: a city named St. Paul, Minnesota. If you want to find out what life is like there now, with the Republican Convention taking place, read Lindsay Beyerstein’s article, “Inside an RNC Raid” at Firedoglake.com. It will make you sick, with reports of warrantless searches at homes — even one owned by a former military police officer. When a woman staying at the house discussed in the story asked for a warrant, she was detained. Local police were blended with apparent “contractors” or private Gestapo-for-hire. Of course, this is all completely illegal in the United States where we have lived for all our lives. Those in control of the 2008 Republican Party don’t care about the rule of law. They make a point of promoting “leaders” who know nothing about it, either. The reasons for this are obvious.
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.