I'm just the guy that can't stand cant. ___________

 
CITIZEN WELLSTONE: I was very sad to hear that Senator Wellstone his wife, their daughter and five others died in a plane crash on Friday. I think Wellstone was probably the most principled person in the Senate.

While Wellstone was often described as an ideologue, I think that description missed the mark. Although he was certainly a strong liberal and partisan, Wellstone’s most distinguishing trait was that he was a true man of principle.

Other politicians of both the left and the right all too often tailor their principles to fit the popular passions of the day, supposedly so they can fight battles that are winnable. In contrast, Wellstone was willing to fight for his beliefs even when outnumbered, as he showed in his opposition to the resolution giving Bush a blank check to act against Iraq.

Wellstone showed it was possible to remain true to your convictions and still be a successful politician. Wellstone’s civic life – which proved the possibility of such integrity – was both an inspiration and a great public service in itself.

In a time when so much of our political discourse is infected with mendacity and hypocrisy, a man of such honest spirit will be sorely missed.
posted by Gary at 12:18 AM

 
THE NEW TONE IN WASHINGTON: Today’s Washington Post has good news and bad news about President Bush’s keeping of his campaign promises.

The good news is that Bush is keeping his promise to bring a “new tone” to Washington. The bad news is that Bush is breaking his promise to make that “new tone” a tone of “bipartisanship.”

As the Post reports, Bush is pressuring federal government employees to work on Republican campaigns for the midterm elections, making his presidency probably the most partisan since Herbert Hoover’s. (As reflected by Bush’s economic policies, there’s something about Hoover that makes Bush just love to emulate him.)

President Bush has harnessed the broad resources of the federal government to promote Republicans in next month's elections. ....

More than 330 administration appointees, some of whom were told by White House officials that they needed to show their Republican credentials, have taken vacation time and are being flown by the party to House and Senate campaigns in states where control of Congress will be decided.

....

Scholars called Bush's partisan use of the government unprecedented for a midterm election, and said the aggressiveness and thoroughness of his politicking approached that of a presidential reelection campaign.

Although the Hatch Act is designed to protect federal workers from pressure to work on political campaigns, the Bush administration is twisting that act for just the opposite effect. In a creative skirting of the edges of the Hatch Act that would have made Enron’s accountants blush, the administration is using the words of the act to flout its spirit:

A recent e-mail to the 6,100 full-time headquarters employees of the Environmental Protection Agency reminded them of the provisions of the Hatch Act, which was designed to protect federal employees from political pressure. But some employees said they were surprised by its emphasis on participating in, not abstaining from, campaign activities. The memo said they “are permitted to take an active part in partisan political management and campaigns,” subject to limitations, and reminded them they are free to “express support for the president and his program” when they are off-duty.

If Bush had been savvy enough only to pressure federal employees into campaigning for Republicans – without himself getting deeply involved in campaigning – his politicalization of the government might have paid off. As discussed in yesterday’s Self Made Pundit, however, I believe that Bush’s heavy politicking at a time when he claims Iraq is an imminent threat is likely to backfire. As the Post notes:

Undeterred by preparations for possible war with Iraq, Bush embarks today on 12 days of barnstorming in battleground states and districts, with a break Friday and Saturday for meetings with world leaders in Texas and Mexico.

I’m glad to see that Bush is going to take a few hours to broaden his horizons on the weekend, when he is taking a break from his job as Republican Party leader. It’s now clear why President Bush practices foreign policy as if it were a hobby, making idle reamarks such as his comment that if a regime changes its policies, that’s regime change. To Bush, foreign policy is a hobby. Watch him at his real job on the campaign trail these next 12 days.
posted by Gary at 9:42 AM

 
ROPE-A-DOPE: President Bush could be making a classic blunder by spending the last two weeks before the midterm elections on the campaign trail rather than staying above the fray and focusing on his duties as Commander in Chief.

The party controlling the White House has won House seats in a midterm election only twice in the past century. In 1934, the Democrats gained seats while FDR stayed in the White House fighting the Great Depression. In 1998, the Democrats gained seats while Bill Clinton stayed in the White House tending to presidential duties and fighting off a Republican-led impeachment drive that was unpopular with the voters. By contrast, Bush’s decision to get into the electoral mud of campaigning is likely to squander the Republicans’ chances to keep the House and regain the Senate.

Recent polls have shown Democrats with a slight lead in the overall congressional vote nationwide, due to voters’ preference for Democrats on economic and other domestic issues. Republicans have been able to stay close mainly due to Americans’ rallying round Bush as a war-time leader. This impression of Bush as Commander in Chief has been buttressed in recent weeks by Bush’s focusing on Iraq as an imminent threat to America.

The message that Iraq is an imminent threat, however, is made far less compelling by Bush’s leaving the Iraq problem to be debated by U.N. diplomats while he spends his days on the important tasks of campaigning for Republican congressional candidates state senator Jim Gerlach and former Congressional aide Kevin L. Raye.

Bush’s presence on the campaign trail stumping for obscure Republicans also presents a target for the Democrats who have largely feared to criticize Bush as a war-time leader. Democrats are now free to nationalize the election by asking why Bush is on the campaign trail instead of tending to the faltering economy.

If Bush thought he had the Democrats on the ropes, he may yet discover that on Social Security, the economy and other domestic issues, they can still sting like a bee.
posted by Gary at 11:20 AM

 
THOSE GIDDY REPUBLICANS: Paul Krugman takes a whack at Republicans giddy over the prospect of victory in the midterm elections – the subject of yesterday’s Self Made Pundit – in today’s New York Times. The admirable Krugman, who does not suffer fools, hypocrites, and crony capitalists gladly, notes that the giddiness stops at the Oval Office (though only after making Bush lightheaded with malevolent joy):

The White House also apparently expects Christmas in November. In fact, it is so confident that it has already given business lobbyists the gift they want most: an end to all this nonsense about corporate reform. Back in July George W. Bush declared, "Corporate misdeeds will be found and will be punished," touting a new law that "authorizes new funding for investigators and technology at the Securities and Exchange Commission to uncover wrongdoing." But that was then; don't you know there's a war on?

....

.... But now the administration wants to cancel most of the "new funding" Mr. Bush boasted about.

....

In retrospect, it's hard to see why anyone believed that our current leadership was serious about corporate reform. To an extent unprecedented in recent history, this is a government of, by and for corporate insiders. I'm not just talking about influence, I'm talking about personal career experience. The Bush administration contains more former C.E.O.'s than any previous administration, but as James Surowiecki put it in The New Yorker, "Almost none of the C.E.O.'s on the Bush team headed competitive, entrepreneurial businesses." Instead they come out of a world of "crony capitalism, in which whom you know is more important than what you do and how you do it." Why would they turn their backs on that world?

While Krugman is generally right on the money in his criticisms of the Bush administration’s right-wing policies, perhaps he is being a bit too harsh here since the rapacious instincts of the administration’s crony capitalists are surely reined in by Bush himself, who attained corporate success and wealth as a result of his ability at ... I mean his mastery of ... I mean his knowledge of .... On second thought, never mind.
posted by Gary at 8:45 AM

 
HUBRIS ALERT: Republicans apparently have begun to believe their own propaganda and are rubbing their hands at the prospect of winning both houses of Congress in the midterm elections in 15 days.

It appears that Republicans are overjoyed at the prospect that they can stop pretending (at least until the next election) that they care about corporate responsibility and go back to doing their jobs of serving the interests of the forgotten American (corporation):

WITH POLLS SHOWING many crucial races are too close to call, Republicans are drawing up plans that would aid a broad range of industries, after hammering business during the corporate responsibility debate touched off by this year’s accounting scandals.

Business lobbyists said their wish lists include substantial nationwide limits on the amount of damages that can be awarded in medical malpractice cases, plus a major overhaul of the tax code to reduce the burden on corporations. Both measures have been part of President Bush’’s agenda and would have a better chance of becoming law if the GOP retook control of the Senate and kept a House majority in the Nov. 5 elections.

With the elections 16 days away, Michael G. Franc, the Heritage Foundation’s vice president of government relations, said the mood among business lobbyists and economic conservatives is “guarded optimism, bordering on giddiness.” He said they are laying plans to take swift advantage if Republicans complete the triple crown of the White House, the House and the Senate. “It’’s the domestic equivalent of planning for postwar Iraq,” Franc said.

This phenomenon of the Republicans being gullible enough to believe themselves also occurred in 2000, when Bush fell for his own campaign spin in the waning days of the presidential campaign. Back then, Bush believed Karl Rove’s boasts that Bush was doing so well that he had a chance of carrying California and New Jersey and wasted precious time in the final days of the campaign visiting both states, which went for Gore by landslide margins. The theory behind the spin is that if victory is seen as inevitable, press coverage will be more positive and undecided voters may vote Republican just to go with the winner.

Just as Bush believed Rove’s spin two years ago, the more naive Republicans are falling for the line that Republicans will carry both houses of Congress. However, the chances of Republicans carrying both houses of Congress are certainly too slim for the Republicans to be chortling to the press about what they really plan to do if the win.

Despite the Republican propaganda, the Democrats are likely to recapture the House of Representatives and sightly expand their margin of control in the Senate. While the midterm elections currently look close, the Democrats are likely to gain in the next two weeks.

The Republicans are not likely to get much more political mileage out of Iraq in the next 15 days. Regardless of it ultimate plans, it is clear the Bush administration is committed to playing its next moves in the U.N., which forecloses the possibility of any military action before election day. With Iraq becoming the subject of diplomatic maneuvers for the rest of the campaign, voters are more likely to turn their attention to the economy and other issues that favor the Democrats.

Another ominous sign for the Republicans is that the latest Gallup poll has Bush’s job approval dropping five points to 62 percent. Other recent polls have Bush’s job approval at between 55 and 62 percent.

With Bush’s popularity waning and voters focusing more on the economy, Democrats are more likely to have the stronger finish. Given the number of close races, a last-minute swing to the Democrats – even of modest proportions – would ensure Democratic control of both houses of Congress.

Those giddy Republicans have forgotten the old adage not to count your right-wing judges before the Senate Judiciary Committee has been Hatched.
posted by Gary at 10:23 AM