22 June 2008
Throw enough mud...
Since Sen. John McCain enlisted the help of former Sen. Phil Gramm for economic advice, various Dems have been testing out a variety of attacks on the economist from Texas, who was a highly popular pol before his retirement.
In the latest National Review (subscriber only, this free link may or may not work for you), Ramesh Ponnuru debunked some of the criticisms coming from the far left. Here's the intro:
Phil Gramm can’t say he wasn’t warned. The former Texas senator, now the co-chairman of John McCain’s presidential campaign, was a principal subject of a front-page Washington Post story on April 2. “Democratic opponents are already plotting attacks” on Gramm, reported Jonathan Weisman.
In the following two months, hit pieces on Gramm have appeared in The Nation, Salon, Mother Jones, The Huffington Post, and many other left-wing publications. For opposing regulation when he was a senator, Gramm is being blamed for contributing to Enron’s fraud, the high price of gas, and the mortgage meltdown. Keith Olbermann, the MSNBC ranter, even links him to 9/11. He has taken to referring to “John McCain’s Phil Gramm scandal.”
The attack on Gramm serves three goals for the Left. It discredits Gramm, McCain, and deregulation all at once. Gramm has been one of the most effective conservative legislators of his generation. He led the fight for Ronald Reagan’s first, and most conservative, budget, and led the fight against the Clintons’ health-care plan a decade later. Forcing McCain to dump Gramm would be payback for decades of conservative victories. Merely sullying his name might keep a President McCain from nominating him to be secretary of the Treasury.
But a full review of the facts exonerates Gramm.
The bulk of the article goes on the debunk the mudslinging, point by point. Fair use precludes me from posting blockquotes of it, but perhaps it will appear on NRO for free shortly (UPDATE: the other link may or may not work for you).
Ponnuru concludes with the following:
So far, the mainstream media have not followed the Left’s lead on Gramm. Their coverage has instead focused on two other issues. Reporters have raised the possibility that Gramm might sustain political damage because of investigations involving UBS, the large company where he is a vice chairman. And they have reported that within the last year he has lobbied Congress to stop a bill that would let bankruptcy judges rewrite mortgages. But if the investigations continue to stay far away from Gramm personally, they should not damage his reputation. The housing bill may not be much of a problem for Gramm, either. Even though the Democrats control the Senate, enough of them sided with the Republicans that a majority voted to defeat the bill.
Don’t be surprised, however, if some of the mud being thrown at Gramm makes its way from left-wing blogs to the mainstream press. The charges against Gramm are convoluted, and new ones keep being added. Few people will take the time to go through them. So even if the charges have no merit, they could put Gramm under a cloud.
In 2002, when Enron’s meltdown was in the headlines, several newspapers ran stories saying that Gramm had muscled an exemption for the company through Congress. Those stories were largely based on a paper put out by Public Citizen, a left-wing group founded by Ralph Nader. Many of those newspapers ended up having to run corrections. But some lies won’t die.
Right on cue today, the Houston Chronicle's generally useless D.C. bureau decided to run with the mudslinging from the Left, with one of those "critics say" sorts of pieces that help the newspaper get around actually assessing whether the claims have any merit:
Gramm's coterie of critics say his actions as a Texas senator contributed to today's mortgage meltdown and energy price speculation that has driven up oil prices.
"Gramm's particular area is opening up financial markets to untrammeled dominance by speculative forces," said James K. Galbraith, a University of Texas economist who is advising Democratic candidate Barack Obama. "He's the sorcerer's apprentice of financial instability and disaster."
Democrats also say that Gramm's post-Senate lobbying activities conflict with McCain's promise to steer clear of lobbyists in his presidential campaign. And left-leaning critics point at Gramm for turning McCain, a longtime fiscal conservative who voted against President Bush's tax cuts, into a supply-sider who wants to make those tax cuts permanent.
The Chronicle has learned that the Democratic National Committee is planning to launch a Web site to shine a negative light on the record of Gramm and two other top McCain economic advisers, former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and ex-Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin.
"With advisers like this, it's no wonder John McCain doesn't understand the economy," said DNC spokesman Damien LaVera. "John McCain's decision to outsource his economic agenda to people like Phil Gramm is one more reason he is the wrong choice for America's future."
Look for this story -- short on actual detail but full of unsubstantiated accusations -- to show up on all your favorite lefty blogs in short order.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/22/08 19:48 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
11 April 2008
Do we get the political rhetoric we deserve?
Democrats and heretics (Kimberley Strassel, WSJ)
These days, corporate bashing, closed borders and class warfare have become staples of the left. The Obama and Clinton campaigns have pushed these positions to new heights, in the process setting litmus tests for what counts as being a good Democrat.
Pharma companies? Rich and greedy. Fossil fuel companies? Dirty polluters. Multinationals who "offshore" jobs? Traitors. Americans who strike financial success? Fat cats. Developing countries working to open their borders? Job stealers. It rarely is noted that this vilification is encouraged by yet another set of lobbyists, those representing unions and environmental groups.
This is simply the ongoing slickification of American politics, and not really exclusive to the left.
As our political system continues to evolve from one of limited government to one that increasingly transfers wealth, regulates all sorts of activity, and dispenses favors, naturally more money flows to those newly political enterprises -- and in particular, to the professional political/media/PR consultants and strategists who craft and focus-group and refine these soundbites and talking points for public consumption/persuasion. We get those soundbites and talking points because they are sticky, and apparently effective at persuading majorities (or pluralities).
This doesn't mean that all the soundbites and/or talking points are necessarily untrue -- ideology can be true even though it is not primarily truth-seeking (like philosophy) -- even if the reduction of our politics to soundbite interest-group pluralism/pull-peddling does sometimes make it seem that way.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/11/08 21:48 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
08 March 2008
Campaign videos
This is pretty good:
This is not:
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/08 23:41 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
04 March 2008
Texas helps make history
It's fun that Texas helped make history tonight, as John McCain clinched the Republican nomination after wins in the Lone Star State and elsewhere.
What a crazy ride McCain's had, after losing all those Summer 2007 primaries and being written off by pundits. Oh wait, there weren't any primaries in the summer, were there? But there were some setbacks, to be sure, although his campaign probably benefited from the setbacks as opposed to a coronation.
It looks like Ohio will go to Clinton tonight, and she may well win the popular vote in Texas (although it appears that Obama will claim more Texas delegates, thanks to the Texas Dems making a complete mess of their primary system in our great state).
Fun stuff! I've been turned off by national politics for quite a few years now, but I'm actually enjoying it this time around. Hell, it's almost as good as The West Wing.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/04/08 22:14 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (6)
27 February 2008
WFB (1925-2008)
William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008) (Kathryn Jean Lopez, NRO)
I’m devastated to report that our dear friend, mentor, leader, and founder William F. Buckley Jr., died this morning in his study in Stamford, Connecticut.
He died while at work; if he had been given a choice on how to depart this world, I suspect that would have been exactly it. At home, still devoted to the war of ideas.
As you might expect, we’ll have much more to say here and in NR in the coming days and weeks and months. For now: Thank you, Bill. God bless you, now with your dear Pat. Our deepest condolences to Christopher and the rest of the Buckley family. And our fervent prayer that we continue to do WFB’s life’s work justice.
May this giant of American conservatism Rest In Peace.
MORE: Orrin Judd.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/27/08 10:52 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
22 July 2007
Maybe that GOP "nuclear option" wasn't such a good idea after all!
Constant filibuster threat is tying Senate in knots (Margaret Talev, McClatchy Newspapers)
Senate Republicans this year are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever, a pattern that's rooted in — and could increase — the pettiness and dysfunction in Congress.
The trend has been evolving for 30 years. The reasons behind it are too complex to pin on one party. But it has been especially pronounced since the Democrats' razor-thin win in last year's election, giving them effectively a 51-49 Senate majority, and the Republicans' exile to the minority.
Seven months into the current two-year term, the Senate has held 42 "cloture" votes aimed at shutting off extended debate — filibusters, or sometimes only the threat of one — and moving to up-or-down votes on contested legislation. Under Senate rules that protect a minority's right to debate, these votes require a 60-vote supermajority in the 100-member Senate.
There's a possible lesson for State Senator Dan Patrick, who would abolish the Texas Senate's "blocker bill" mechanism, which serves a similar institutional purpose as the U.S. Senate's filibuster rules.
Majorities will come and go in our deliberative bodies, just like the political issues that may raise our passions at any given time. While minority obstruction can be frustrating if you're on the 59% side of a given political issue, conservatives really ought not to object to mechanisms designed to temper passions, force deliberation, and "refine and enlarge the public views."
Even if it means we don't get our appraisal caps as soon as we'd like!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/22/07 13:42 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
08 December 2006
Jeane Kirkpatrick, RIP
Jeane Kirkpatrick, ex-ambassador, dies (Merrill Hartson, AP)
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, a political science professor whose support for Ronald Reagan conservatism catapulted her into the post of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has died at 80. She was the first woman to hold the post.Initially a liberal Democrat, Kirkpatrick championed human rights, opposed Soviet Union communism and supported Israel.
"She defended the cause of freedom at a pivotal time in world history," President Bush said Friday. "Jeane's powerful intellect helped America win the Cold War."
Kirkpatrick was, in fact, one of the original neoconservatives (when the term still had meaning), a group of intellectuals and policymakers who broke with the Democratic party on foreign policy in the 1970s, and gravitated to an ascending conservative movement.
AEI posted this short blurb on the great woman:
AEI senior fellow Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, who joined the Institute in 1978, died yesterday. As a young political scientist at Georgetown University, Kirkpatrick wrote the first major study of the role of women in modern politics, Political Woman, which was published in 1974. Her work on the McGovern-Fraser Commission, which was formed in the aftermath of the Democratic Party's tumultuous 1968 convention and changed the way party delegates were chosen, led to Dismantling the Parties: Reflections on Party Reform and Party Decomposition, which AEI published in 1978. Yet it was an essay written for Commentary magazine in 1979, "Dictatorships and Double Standards" (later expanded into a full-length book), that launched her into the political limelight. In the article, Kirkpatrick chronicled the failures of the Carter administration's foreign policy and argued for a clearer understanding of the American national interest. Her essay matched Ronald Reagan's instincts and convictions, and when he became president, he appointed her to represent the United States at the United Nations. Ambassador Kirkpatrick was a member of the president's cabinet and the National Security Council. The United States has lost a great patriot and champion of freedom, and AEI mourns our beloved colleague.
May she Rest In Peace.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/08/06 14:35 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
01 November 2006
Misinterpret?
A statement from John Kerry (JohnKerry.com)
I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member, or American who was offended.
The problem wasn't that any words were misinterpreted. They weren't, thanks to our wonderful digital age and plenty of recordings of the comments.
The problem was the words themselves, properly interpreted. They were offensive, not to mention erroneous.
Ah well, it gave me an excuse to break out that great photo from Halloween 2004. :)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/01/06 19:38 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
24 October 2006
Amen, Bro
TFG puts the coming elections in perspective.
That last sentence works especially well. I may have to adopt that as the blog motto for a while!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/24/06 09:14 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
23 October 2006
True dat!
Madam Speaker? Pelosi likes the sound (Faye Fiore, LA Times)
"The gavel of the speaker of the House is in the hands of special interests, and now it will be in the hands of America's children...."
I'm not yet sold that the Dems are going to take over the House, but you have to love her assessment of what it will be like if they do. :)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/23/06 15:01 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
08 October 2006
Steyn!
Page scandal makes America look silly (Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times)
So the only question now is whether there is any larger issue here worth spending 10 minutes on.
And the answer to that is obvious. This was a honey trap (as they used to say in the Cold War) designed to leverage one peripheral figure's squalid fantasies into political opportunity. It's as predictable as the leaves falling from the trees, except that it only occurs every other autumn. Still, I take my hat off to the media and Democratic Party. Indeed, in the spirit of Bill Clinton, I take my pants off to them. It is a remarkable achievement to have transformed, in little more than a week, the GOP into the Catholic Diocese of Boston with Speaker Hastert as Cardinal Law and the page program as the massed ranks of 7-year-old altar boys. What an awesome force the Dems would be if only the ruthless skill and cunning that went into this operation could be applied to, say, national security.
Steyn wields an absolutely wicked pen.
I wish I could spin off such devastating one-liners with his efficiency.
There's more good stuff to be found in that one, so follow the linky-link if you're so inclined.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/08/06 15:33 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
21 July 2006
The 2% Fore
Corruption Issue Comes to Fore (Jim VandeHei, WaPo)
Three months from the election, the political scandals in Washington are not resonating broadly as a major issue in a campaign dominated by Iraq and high gasoline prices. A series of public polls show corruption ranks near the bottom when voters are asked about the most important issues in this campaign. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll taken in May, 2 percent of voters listed ethics and corruption as their top concern.
That key excerpt really doesn't support the titillating headline.
The Democratic party hoped to nationalize the election with a "culture of corruption" meme, but that meme has utterly failed to take hold as corruption scandals have hit members of both parties.
Now, VandeHei is absolutely correct that individual pols may well suffer repercussions from bad behavior (a sensible, but hardly profound, conclusion). But if the Dems are really hoping to nationalize a Congressional election based on the Republican "culture of corruption," they're going to need to get that salience measure well above 2%, one would think. I'm still bearish on their chances of doing so.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/21/06 07:51 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
18 July 2006
Dreads?
Slip-up reveals Bush and Blair's gossip secrets (Alec Russell, Telegraph)
It is the moment every politician dreads: the private conversation caught by the open microphone.
A chat between George W Bush and Tony Blair was recorded at yesterday's closing lunch at the G8 summit. As he munches on a bread roll Mr Bush confides:
"What they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over." It is unclear who "they" are.
Dreads?
Some of us can't help but wonder if Karl Rove flipped the switch on!
That said, I don't especially like hearing profanities from my President, Republican or Democrat.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/18/06 10:43 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
14 July 2006
But... but... but his approval is in the 30s!
PBS board nomination raises eyebrows (LA Times, via Brothers Judd)
Less than a year after the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was forced to resign amid charges that he injected partisanship into the agency, President Bush has nominated a television sitcom producer who has described himself as "thoroughly conservative in ways that strike horror into the hearts of my Hollywood colleagues" to the nonprofit's board.
The nomination of Warren Bell, executive producer of ABC's "According to Jim" and a contributor to the online edition of the conservative National Review magazine, has raised fears he could revive the sharp political debate that engulfed the system last year.
Rumors of the President's political death have been greatly exaggerated. Maybe even misexaggerated.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/14/06 13:05 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
28 June 2006
What Wave?
Incumbent wins easily as Jacob's immigration challenge fizzles (Glen Warchol, The Salt Lake Tribune)
Incumbency overcame the anti-immigration wave in Utah's 3rd Congressional District Republican Primary.
Five-term Rep. Chris Cannon had a commanding lead over political newcomer John Jacob with 89 percent of the precincts reporting at press time.
Cannon had collected 56 percent of the vote to Jacob's 44, with one-fifth of Salt Lake County's ballots still to be counted.
But by 11:05 p.m. Jacob already had seen enough. He called Cannon to concede.
After the call, Cannon triumphantly told a crowd of supporters gathered at Provo's Historic Court House: "This is my sixth time running for office and this is the first concession call I've ever received."
Cannon was surprised by the margin of his lead. "I would have called it much closer than this," he said.
A poll published last weekend by The Salt Lake Tribune also predicted a tighter race.
There are a couple of ways to read this result. One is that the anti-immigrationists in the Republican party don't have nearly as much sway as they think. Another is that the result may be inconclusive, since immigration doesn't have the same impact on Utah as it does, say, on Texas.
The White House must surely be pleased, as a Jacob win couldn't have been read as anything but a rebuke.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/28/06 12:45 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
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