Category: politics

Dems in 08

I have a good sense of the direction of the Democratic presidential candidates so far. Yes, there’s sniping but that’s to be expected. The stakes can’t be much higher. Edwards is consistently pushing to make certain that Iraq is still the big deal, Obama is pumping up health care and Clinton is doing a good job of keeping her head on the swivel.

There are even a couple more candidates for whom I’d feel perfectly comfortable voting. That’s such a change from the last few presidential elections. Thank goodness.

TP

Shields and Brooks

One of the few TV shows I try to watch weekly is the Lehrer newshour. Actually, I want to make a point of watching a single segment. It’s David Brooks and Mark Shields on Friday evenings. They usually get a nice chunk of time and have fascinating, wide ranging conversations like yesterday’s. It’s this kind of political conversation that makes me sad for the folks for whom Fox News and Air America are the sole providers of information. Well, among other things.

TP

uh, really?

the headline speaks volumes…

Bush calls for ‘Culture of Life’
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18091269/

Abortion and war are entirely different of course but isn’t the bottom line the same? It’s so hard to imagine the logical gymnastics Bush must do on a regular basis. Well, I guess, actually, it’s about what someone once told him Jesus woujld have wanted.

TP

Rosie and the Axis of Evil

Combining Rosie O’Donnell’s decision to be the first public figure to question whether or not 9/11 was ‘an inside job’ and ABC News’ revelations concerning the US role in supporting the Iranian Jundullah this may go down in history as the week that the wheels permanently fell off the Bush Administration. Even though it’s been clear for years to all but the most loyal defenders that this has been a profoundly poor presidency, it may take this kind of focused, negative attention to cement in contemporary society the same kind of horrific image of Bush the history books are certainly going to provide.

TP

Clinton vs. McCain

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/30/clinton.mccain/index.html

This can become a pretty significant point scorer for Hillary Clinton. It’s hard to say no to 9/11 anything. Much less a fairly small amount of money. McCain should just say sorry and sign on. Monday.

TP

The Silence That Kills

Although Tom Friedman’s NYT article is ‘behind the glass’ it is worth finding. He indicts the silence of the Muslim world regarding Iraqi violence. He also makes the point that America has no moral authority to comment on it.

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/opinion/02friedman.htm?hp

It seems clear that the most critical battle for the future of the Middle East really is the battle of ideas. It takes a great deal of commitment to choose death over life but that is the choice several people in the Middle East make every single week.

Perhaps the best we can hope for long term American engagement in the region is that it will eventually result in a modern day educational Marshall Plan. In that plan, I might envision a frenzy of school and hospital building with young, cheap volunteers interested in making a service commitment and changing the world. Young people from all over the world would be willing to serve in a program like this, maybe with the carrot of an American visa dangling before their eyes. Perhaps this will be the Powell Plan and our currently embarassed general/Secretary of State can restore his standing by being the point person for this kind of long term building process.

Without some serious, concerted effort at actually engaging the Muslim world in an important fashion, nothing critical will change and the choice of death over life will continue to be applauded while the rest of the world sits in stunned, stupid silence.

TP

Bush’s Billionaires

This article from Matt Taibbi uses comparisons from the Bush budget to illustrate how bizarrely warped our national priorities are. I mentioned the absurdity of Britney Spears media coverage in class today and several students found it very peculiar that they really do know more about her than they do about me. Taibbi makes the point wonderfully that tax cuts for the super rich are not part of any legitimate plan to provide benefits to society as a whole but only those super rich themselves. Really good stuff.

http://alternet.org/story/48278/

TP

Exit Tom Vilsack

The first official casualty of the 2008 Presidential campaign came yesterday in the form of Tom Vilsack. Though he’s probably a good man and certainly has many of the qualities we’d like to see in a President he had no real chance to compete. He claims that it’s all about money but I’d like to suggest that realistically, money follows celebrity. Tom Vilsack is not, nor was he likely to become, a celebrity. No chance to get the money. Now to see who will be next to exit.

The following is from Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics.

Sheila Krumholz

I think it’s a truism at this point that you can have lots of great qualities, you can have name recognition, you can have a good organization, you can have great ideas, if you don’t have the money you don’t have the campaign… Vilsack epitomizes what we’ll be seeing a lot more of in this cycle and that is that here was a good candidate, good ideas, [but] didn’t have the money. He saw the writing on the wall and it said ‘You’re not going to be president,’…

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/23/vilsack.money/index.html

TP

Lieberman loses it entirely

First, the quote from Democrat/Independent Senator Joe Liberman:

This non-binding measure before us is a first step toward a constitutional crisis that we can and must avoid. Let me explain what I mean by a constitutional crisis. Let us be clear about the likely consequences if we go down this path beyond this non-binding resolution. Congress has been given constitutional responsibilities. But the micro-management of war is not one of them. The appropriation of funds for war is. I appreciate that each of us here has our own ideas about the best way forward in Iraq, I respect those that take a different position than I, and I understand that many feel strongly that the President’s strategy is the wrong one. But the Constitution, which has served us now for more than two great centuries of our history, creates not 535 commanders-in-chief, but one—the President of the United States, who is authorized to lead the day to day conduct of war. Whatever our opinion of this war or its conduct, it is in no one’s interest to stumble into a debilitating confrontation between our two great branches of government over war powers.

My response: Senator Lieberman attempts to sound measured and responsible concerning the anti-surge resolution. He fails to understand some very basic realities concerning Iraq that animate a great deal of the reasoning behind the current efforts at publicly denouncing the surge. Realities like: Congress (yes, still one of those branches) has the exclusive authority to declare war and has never done so regarding Iraq. So yes, these ‘constitutional responsibilites’ have been almost wholly usurped by the President.

Also, the possibility of ‘a debilitating confrontation’ is largely the product of an administration that has not only avoided having productive conversation but has deliberately and consistently lied to, equivocated with and ignored Congress. As much as Lieberman may (rightly) feel abandoned by his party, it is absurd that his rebuke to it would take the form of such nonsense. Nicely scripted, finely prepared nonsense, but still, nonsense. We should expect better from him, even if we no longer can from that other fine branch of government.

TP