Pataki in 2008, It’s Really That Simple

First, this is not an endorsement; it’s a review of the political realities in the wake of Tuesday’s Election. Personally I’m a Delaware Democrat and as such will support the Presidential aspirations of Joe Biden.

The past 72 hours the network talking-heads have been buzzing about what Tuesday’s Democratic recapture of Capitol Hill means for the Presidential aspiration of the likes of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden as well as Even Bayh, John Edwards, Russ Feingold and even John Kerry and Al Gore. On the GOP side there’s plenty of head scratching and hypothesizing over names like George Allen, Sam Brownback, Bill Frist. Chuck Hagel and John McCain.

You don’t need to do a point-by-point of why each of the names mentioned in the previous paragraph cannot embrace the hope embodied in the old adage, “politics is the art of the possible.”

Certainly anything is possible, but history is a cruel teacher that when it comes to the probable; electing a President whose resume includes “United States Senator,” is, under anything aside from rare circumstance: very unlikely.

November 4, 2008 will be one day shy of forty years since America last elected a United States Senator to the White House. Richard Nixon served a scant two years in the upper house before being tapped by Dwight Eisenhower to fill the second spot on the 1952 GOP ticket. Nixon would become the 15th Senator to eventually find his way to The Oval Office. But it took eight years of relative obscurity following his 1960 loss to John Kennedy plus a rare confluence of events including, Johnson bowing out, Robert Kennedy’s assassination, Vietnam and the overall social upheaval that was the 1960’s to make his return ‘possible.’

Of the fifteen former Senators only two moved directly from Capitol Hill to The White House: John F. Kennedy and Warren G. Harding. Others like Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman, Andrew Johnson and John Tyler found themselves elected to the Presidency by the single vote of the Grim Reaper paying a visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. while they were serving as Vice President. John Quincy Adams was elected by the House when the 1824 election failed to give any candidate the needed victory in the Electoral College. Benjamin Harrison won the Electoral votes while losing the popular vote. Others like Kennedy and William Henry Harrison edged into the office with extremely thin margins in the popular vote.

What was true from 1790 to 1968 is even more so today. In addition to the baggage of a partisan voting record which can easily be spun into a brutal attack ad, today’s Senators are haunted by the specter of a forgotten “macaca moment” captured and waiting like a nuclear time bomb in the arsenal of their loyal opposition.


When you eliminate the Senators from contention you’re left with a small corral of mostly dark horse governors like Richardson, Vilsack and Warner for the Democrats and unelectable long shots like Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani on the GOP side. Wesley Clark and Condi Rice are shear fantasies.

After Tueday’s “drumming” as Bush called it, the Republicans face about as much chance of finding a friendly face north of the Mason-Dixon Line as Robert E Lee’s army did on its march to Gettysburg. And while they did managed to hold the White House without the help of the Northeast’s 117 electoral votes in 2004, such a concession cannot be part of any future GOP victory strategy.

Tuesday’s election results show a pronounced case of Blue State Creep with Santorum’s thumping in Pennsylvania, Michael Steele’s lesser drumming in Maryland and George Allen’s narrow loss in Virginia. The GOP loses in other Red States like Missouri and Montana clearly hearken the end of Carl Roves , “Let them have the Northeast and California. We’ll take everything else and win,” strategy.

Enter Pataki. He heard the footsteps and wisely stepped aside to allow popular New York Democrat Attorney General Elliot Spitzer make mincemeat of the token GOP candidate for Governor. Unlike Bush and Giuliani, he steps from public life with his 9/11 medal of service mostly untarnished. He’s a viable candidate from a big money, big power state without a Senatorial shadow and while he might well lose the home state in a Presidential face-off with Hillary, he will win virtually everywhere else.

So now begins the parlor games, the what-ifs and the exploratory committees. But it’s all little more than cocktail party chatter and fluffy fill for a slow news day. For now, the White House is George Pataki’s to lose…but then again, in the art of the possible, anything’s possible.

Waterboys & Cheerleaders Belong On the Sidelines - Not In the Game

It's a basic plotline that's as old as Mickey Mouse. The hometeam is down by 2 points. It's 4th and long and only 1 second on the clock. Suddenly, the ugly cheerleader or lowly waterboy rushes onto the field and kicks the winning field goal. The crowd goes wild as the unlikely hero is carried triumphantly into the sunset on the shoulders of the winners. But sadly, what works in the movies did not work out so well for the GOP on Tuesday.

The lowly waterboy (as he described himself Wednesday in his self-contradictory post-election pity party) was Rush Limbaugh. While the pundants and pollsters are quick to say the resurgence of the Democratic Party was all about Iraq it is obvious from the many razor-thin GOP loses that "a little thing" could have easily changed the outcome. In key battles like Virginia, Missouri and Montana Rush's 4th quarter effort to jump into the game with his now infamous imitation of Michael J. Fox may well have generated the margin of defeat suffered by the GOP.

During Rush's meteoric rise to popularity in the early 1990's, a quiet scandal bubbled behind the scenes. While Rush was soaring into the limelight as the unoffical spokesman-cheerleader-waterboy for the Right, many major advertisers on network radio were running for cover to avoid any hint of affiliation or support for his unapologetic ultra-conservative agenda. Each week, radio stations carrying Rush would receive a list of major name brand advertisers who were running commercials on other national networks the station was affiliated with. This list became known as the "embargo/shift" list and required Rush stations to swear to timeshift any spot for any company on the embargo list out of and away from Rush's program. In simple terms, if a station was airing network news from NBC Radio at the top of the hour during Rush's broadcast, and the network sponsor for that newscast was on the embargo list, then the station was required to record the commercial (while not letting it play on the air) and play it back after Rush's show.

This was no simple knee-jerk reaction on the part of overly sensitive media buyers. It was during these early days Rush coined and frequently used the term "Feminazi" to describe most if not all the leadership of the National Organization for Women. In response, NOW and other women's groups launched a serious coordinated boycott effort at any brand associated with Rush. Market research showed affiliation with Rush produced a strong negative response in a large part of the female buying public. In fairness to Rush, the list of programs on the embargo/shift list became almost as long as the list of advertisers seeking to avoid them. Other notable radio talkers on the list included Howard Stern, Pat Buchanan, G. Gordon Liddy and The Greaseman.

In the years since Rush's rise to popularity Madison Ave. has become much less sensistive. The current thinking is, if you want the demographic, go ahead and advertise be it Rush, Stern or Fox News. The logic here is people who don't like the program won't be listening and the days of the truly effective organized boycott has gone the way of vinyl records.

On any given day, 15-20 million American's tune in for their daily dose of Rush. His real impact on the political process amounts to little more than preaching to the choir or rallying the party faithful. But obviously the webcam imaging of him childishly squirming in his chair as he accused Fox of feigning or exaggerating the symptoms of his Parkinson's was seen repeatedly by a much larger audience.

Many women, including some of the security/soccer moms who had played an intregal roll in recent GOP victories were reminded of Rush's past machoisims and his brutal insensitivity. Did it tip the scales and send some otherwise conservative female voters to the opposistion? Almost certainly. Was the margin of defeat in some close races; quite possibly.

Rush ended his mea culpa by saying he was tired of "carrying water" for those members of the GOP who failed to openly embrace and promote his singular hard-right, victory at any cost, vision of conservatism. He need not worry. When the deep research into Tuesday's GOP disaster is complete it is unlikely anyone will want him in the stadium, much less on the sidelines and certainly not on the field of play.

Paper Walls WIll Be Back

We are warming up the keyboard so stand by!

Jackson 2005!

Jackson – 2005
WITH DEEPEST APOLOGIES TO JOHNNY AND JUNE
(Female Part In Italic)

We got married in Katrina,
underneath a water spout.
We been talking ‘bout – Jackson
ever since the sun came out
We’re going to Jackson, get some FEMA dough.
I’m coming with ya,
Bet with two they’ll give us more

When I roll into Jackson,
got a big fib to tell!
How the barn blew down and the cows all drown
and poor ole granny fell down the well..
I’m going to Jackson
Need me a new shotgun
And I want a diamond
and a new X-box just for fun

I’ve always voted for the right wing
a fact I’m proud to scream and shout.
But ole Michael Brown he done let us down
so George W. get your checkbook out!
I’m going to Jackson,
But better comb your hair,
Yeah I’m going to Jackson
Get us some Red State welfare!

(Reframe)

We got married in Katrina,
underneath a water spout.
We been talking ‘bout – Jackson
ever since the sun came out
We’re going to Jackson, get some FEMA dough.
I’m coming with ya,
Bet with two they’ll give us more

The Tidewater Project – The GOP’s Top Secret Strategy To Save 2006…Maybe

For most of the year, Easton, Maryland is little more than another quaint little colonial town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It’s location, adjacent to busy U.S. Route 50 and halfway between the Baltimore-Washington Metro area and the Atlantic beach resorts has made it a familiar rest stop for generations of summer travelers.

Surrounded by miles of open farmland, it’s rural isolation, just over an hour from the D.C. beltway has also made Easton a popular out-of-the-way rendezvous for D.C.’s powerful elite. During the height of the Cold War, the CIA actually used some out-of-way farmhouses near Easton as safe houses for defecting Communists.

One weekend each year, the town officially rolls out the red carpet and doubles in size for it’s annual Waterfowl Festival. The event, begun in 1970 to lure wealthy shotgun bearing goose hunters away from other popular shore towns like Chestertown, has morphed into an artsy-fartsy orgy of aging uppiedom.

The pick-up trucks and SUV’s have been pushed out by a phalanx of BMW’s, Lexus and the occasional Mini Cooper. The genuine hunters are hard to find among the throngs of never-held-or-fired-a-gun who eagerly pay $1000 for a beat-up and faded hand-carved wooden rendition of a duck.

This year, Easton celebrated its annual carnival of all that’s “duckey” or “goosey” last weekend. The weather was unseasonably warm and the crowds flooded Easton’s six square downtown blocks in shorts and light-weight tops.

If one were patient and watched closely, they could spot the occasional Senator or Congressperson, perhaps sharing an crab cake sandwich with a recognizable talking head from the Washington-Baltimore or even national network news media.

If one was very observant, and familiar with the junior puppet masters who hide in the long shadows of those who endure the spotlight of the current administration; a few very familiar faces could have been observed.

An unmistakable pair, one of whom you can bet your life has Carl Rove’s private number on the speed dial of her cellular, was seen eating oversized hamburgers at Ruby Tuesday’s. Meanwhile, at downtown’s landmark Tidewater Inn, a party of five with enough clout to not only get a table without a reservation, but one in the “private” dining area, munched oyster fritter sandwiches and kept their conversations at a low whisper.

While the vast majority of Festivalgoers tried to impress their peers with a bogus knowledge of which Maryland Waterfowl Hunter’s Stamp is the most valuable, these “other folks” were cloistered in an old Victorian bed and breakfast reserved exclusively for them.
The objects of their attention were not avian but rather huge three-inch binders packed with fresh exit poll data from the off-year elections just completed. The topics of discussion were not the virtues of a Remington 12 gauge verses a Browning, but instead how to keep their master from resembling a flock of pathetically wounded ducks in twelve short months.

The conclave of GOP strategist held concurrent with this year’s Easton Waterfowl Festival was no accident. Most of these players were in town the weekend after Labor Day to hammer out an operational plan to try and develop a saving strategy as the President and the Party’s popularity went into a fatal flat-spin.

The Tidewater Project, when first conceptualized in late August, was meant to overcome the administration’s Katrina disaster response, soaring energy prices and of course: Iraq. But the static hadn't even faded from those initial Xerox copies when the team was hit with the new challenges of (Tom) Delaygate, Fristgate, Miersgate, Torturegate and Scootergate.

When the numbers came in from the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races, the panic was so severe that an emergency meeting was called and the vested parties were summonsed back to Easton to rework Tidewater from top to bottom.

The basic new outline goes something like this:

(1) Until Carl can rehab George W’s image and get the pop rating above 45%, only those GOP candidates running against long-dead liberal opponents in the reddest of Red States will acknowledge there is a Republican resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

(2) For his part, the Big Guy, scheduled to exit stage west for an economic visit to the orient, should take some wild potshots at the opposition as unpatriotic slobs for criticizing his noble war on terror, then drop off the face of the earth. He should return from his overseas foray directly to Camp Crawford and stay there as long as possible, preferably the entire holiday season, while Senators and Congress flock homeward to begin their 2006 stumping. Meanwhile, old Doc Cheney will stay in DC and fire away at any critic as a treasonous scoundrel, far worse than some poor guy who doesn’t tell the truth to the FBI.

(3) Meanwhile the GOP Senate will act-tough while carrying a toothpick and enact a meaningless piece of legislative drivel calling for “more regular meetings with Administration officials concerning our progress in the Iraq War.”

(4) Any GOP candidate living in the contiguous lower 48 must arrange at least one photo-op handing out frozen turkeys or cheap Christmas stockings to Katrina survivors. (Note: They will be easy to find, clumped together in small groups (the people not the turkeys) outside the motels they were staying in until FEMA evicts them on December 1).

(5) When speaking about Iraq, talk about supporting the troops avoid saying you support the President.

(6) Have your staff examine your record and find at least ten times you voted against the White House on non-substantive issues as a way of stressing your independence without alienating your base.

(7) Unless your district is a solid 50% evangelical Christian, avoid direct contact (i.e. speeches and photo-ops) with Fundamentalist leaders and for God’s sake, don’t accept an invitation from Pat Robertson to join him on the 700 Club to discuss anything.

(8) When asked about record oil company profits in the third quarter point out how fast prices have fallen now that hurricane season is over. (Officially not until December 1…the same day it’s ok for Katrina victims to live on the street again)

(9) Work with your State party to avoid costly and potentially damaging primary contests. You’ll need the money in the fall.

(10) Spin blame into shame. Your opponent can be easily put on the defensive by framing their platform as “shameful” and “unpatriotic” if they criticize Iraq, the Supreme Court nominations, or even the performance of the President.

(11) Avoid a (Doug) Forrester Folly (unsuccessful GOP New Jersey gubernatorial candidate). DO NOT let your opponent draw you out and define your position as solidly anti-abortion, anti stem cell.

(12) Talk about Ronald Reagan.

As Sunday night settled in and the last of the Waterfowl crowd headed towards the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, the GOP spin masters carefully packed their polls and wearily headed back to D.C.
My source tells me the next official Tidewater Project meeting is scheduled for the first week of March. Two media pros from the RNC are planning to join them and present some sample TV ads.

One of the last one’s to leave the bed and breakfast conclave was heard to remark woefully, “Easton’s a great little town but I really hope we don’t have to come back here in the dead of winter.”

What Did He Say and When Did He Say It - Smart Dems Don't Want To Know!

When Scooter Libby was indicted last week, I was working in a building where radio reception is poor and news tends to trickle in slowly with the arrival of individuals. I heard about the indictment first-hand over my car radio, but subsequent "hear-say" updates were not very accurate. At one point someone said they had just heard on the radio that Vice President Cheney was going to resign.

The statement gave me pause and flashbacks to 1973 and Spiro Agnew's departure. But then a very ominous and depressing reality settled over me (until I realized the story was false). My gloom was quickly noted by a co-worker who, knowing my total lack of fondness for the current administration, was perplexed why I would be saddened to see Cheney booted out of Veepdom. The answer is very simple.

With heir apparent like Tom DeLay and Bill Frist on the ropes, the departure of Cheney (who stands about as much a chance of succeeding his boss/protege as I do of having a drinking party with Jerry Falwell) would open the bully pulpit of the Vice Presidency to someone Like John McCain or Rudy G who could win in 2008!

It clear from Bush's ever-sinking popularity and the failure of the Harriet Meirs nomination that Falwell, Fox and Friends are spinning off into their own little fog of ultraconservatism and the illusion that they can actually influence more than 27% of the electorate.

Smart Republicans know that victory in '06 and '08 will mean getting out bed with the fundys and trying to find a safe spot in the middle of the road, or at least in the right lane with a lean towards the center. They also know a visible VP who has mastered the English language to say "one hundred percent," instead of "ah-hundredth purse enith" like their boss, could look incredibly attractive to voters of both parties.

The coming weeks and months will tell but in the meantime, Dems would do well to let their wounded adviser languish in the unending spotlight of cynical scrutiny and find good high middle ground on issues like energy prices, disaster recovery and Iraq.

I believe Bush won both times because he played the underdog to the hearts of the American people. No one likes it when someone beats a dog that's already down.

Texas Lawsuit Could Shatter Religious Right Coalition and Open Door For Biden Presidency

Since 1972, every American President who won the popular vote (and the White House except for Al Gore in 2000) has done so by capturing a majority of the Catholic vote in the United States. Obviously Al Gore's plurality among Catholics, particularly in Florida, could have changed the outcome of the 2000 race had it been a few hundred votes stronger.

Ronald Reagan won the white House in 1980, thanks in large part to Fundamentalist Protestants, lead by Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority. Reagan also benefited from a strong Catholic turnout, many of whom saw Carter as representative to the historically anti-Catholic southern Evangelical church. But Reagan and his strategist realized that the future of the conservative movement in America rested on forging a voting coalition of fundamentalist Protestants and Catholics. The former could break the traditional Democratic lock on the south while the later could prove invaluable in swinging key northern rust belt states.

Towards this end, Reagan took the unprecedented step of extending full diplomatic relations with the Holy See. To insure that the evangelicals stayed in-camp, Reagan had Billy Graham quietly canvas and lobby Evangelical leaders to tone down their traditional anti-Catholic rhetoric. This dogma for years had decried the Roman Church as the seat of power of the future anti-Christ. Popular apocalyptic Protestant writers of the 70's like Hal Lindsey had linked Catholicism to the devil through nearly every doctrine and dogma, even the belt of the Pope which supposedly contained a poorly disguised 6 6 6.

Graham was able to convince the likes of Falwell, Robertson, Swaggert and others that a political coalition of evangelicalls and Catholics on such issues as abortion, euthanasia, and school vouchers was more important than the deep doctrinal differences.

In May of 2004, Carl "The Architect" Rove saw something in the mountain of polling data that sent a chill up his gelatinous spine. What he saw was a 3 to 5% lead for Kerry among voting Catholics. That plus was the result of Kerry's popularity with the key 'center' of the Catholic vote. Rove, (and everyone else) knew Bush would win the hardcore conservative Catholic vote: comprised of those devout Catholics who had joined hands and hearts with evangelicalelicals on the picket lines of abortion clinics. He also knew Bush stood no chance of besting Kerry among the so-called 'liberal Catholic' block. Victory in November could and did hinge on the large swing-center of moderate Catholics. The result of this reality was a hastily arranged visit in June 2004 to the Vatican and a reverencing photo-op of Bush with the severely ailing John Paul II.

The strategy worked and Bush went on to win the non-Latino Catholic vote by 6 points and demolish any Kerry support among conservative Catholics 72 to 28% . Evangelicals were not particularly happy with Mr. Bush's near genuflection to the heir of Peter, but as Rove had accurately deduced, Evangelicals would either have to vote for Bush or commit a sin by either supporting Kerry or shrugging their responsibility to 'save the nation' by electing conservative Christian politicians.

In the scant 10 months since Bush's reelection, it's clear that overall Republican strategy has shifted hard from right to center, not only to maintain strength with moderate Catholics but with the less-than-zealot conservative non-Catholic and non-Evangelical GOP voter. Bush's refusal to direct a Federal rescue of Terri Schiavo, followed closely by his attendance at Pope John Paul's funeral, was like a one-two punch to his loyal Evangelical Protestant base. The visible defection of Senate leader Bill Frist on the issue of stem cell research has been another staggering blow. But a lawsuit in Bush's home state could prove decisive in completely uncoupling the Protestant-Catholic alliance that has been foundational to the conservative power base.

The civil suit, now working its was through the Harris County Texas court, alleges that Catholic Priest Juan Carlos Patino-Arango molested three boys during counseling sessions in the mid 1990's. Patino-Arango is under criminal indictment by a grand jury but is currently listed as a fugitive from justice. While the criminal case is stalled, the civil suit is moving forward and with a question that could present Bush with a no-win conundrum.

Details of the suit and the dilemma facing the White House came to light at a press conference last week in Houston. One of the co-defendants in the lawsuit is Joseph Ratzinger , the person now known as Pope Benedict XVI. The suit alleges that Ratzinger, who at the time of the abuses was head of the Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, conspired with the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and other Catholic Bishops to cover-up Patino-Arango's crime and hide him from authorities.

Daniel Shea, an attorney for one of the boys, cites a May 18, 2001 letter Ratzinger sent to bishops around the world as evidence of his (the future Pope's) complicity. In the letter, Ratzinger in effect said allegations of abuse should be handled in special Church tribunals and subject to the seal of 'pontifical secret'.

At issue is whether Ratzinger, as head of the sovern city-state of the Vatican, enjoys diplomatic immunity from American courts. The Pope's lawyers have launched a potentially lethal political hot potato at Bush by requesting a formal Administration clarification of the Pope's diplomatic status.

A negative ruling would almost certainly strip the GOP of broad based Catholic support in both the 2006 midterms and 2008 Presidential contests. An affirmation in favor of the Pope would likely galvanize hostile Protestant sentiment. Shea has also stated that a positive affirmation of diplomatic immunity for the Pope will force him to the Supreme Court to challenge the ruling under the First Amendment's guarantees of separation of church and state.

If the administration opts to do nothing the decision will fall to US District Judge Lee Rosenthal who is hearing the case, to decide the next step.

Most Catholics feel the sexual abuse scandals in the Church, while serious and troubling, have been greatly hyped by the secular media to the point of labeling every priest as a potential or practicing pedophile. What most Catholics don't know is that this stereotyping is in fact a core belief among many Evangelical Protestants. For years, groups like those associated with Bob Jones University, have produced and distributed millions of small comic book-style pamphlets supporting this belief with some outrageous accusations.

One such booklet explains how archeologists have 'repeatedly' discovered secret tunnels linking Catholic monasteries with near-by convents. The publications charge, among other things, that the tunnels were used for secret sex orgies between priests and nuns. The stories go further to state that "irrefutable archeological evidence suggests these tunnels and chambers were used for satanic sacrifice rituals of the infants born from these unholy unions."

Clearly, a Bush ruling that Pope Benedict is immune from some measure of accountability will only serve to underscore and reinforce the lurid imaginations of the increasingly disgruntled Evangelical right. Some political strategists on the right, particularly those laboring to pull the party more to the center and away from the fire and damnation crowd, see it as a necessary step to future survival. They are pointing to the rapidly emerging 'Christian center' as the new moral anchor for future victory. These same pundits tremble at the scenarios that could unfold if Bush strips the Holy See of the high honor of diplomatic recognition granted it by Reagan.

"You could forget 2008!" one such GOP stalwart lamented to me last week.

"If that happens (Bush ruling the Pope does not have diplomatic immunity) the party could write-off the Catholic vote with about the same numbers as the black vote. What's more interesting is how it would set the stage for a solid centrist Democrat. Someone without the liberal baggage of Hillary Clinton and particularly someone Catholic like your (Delaware's) Mr. Biden."

Biden, for his part, is getting more Sunday morning network face time than Tim Russert. At the same time, he's been quietly courting red state Democrats and playing well with the newly emerging Christian center.

As a Delaware Democrat, Joe Biden has always had my support. If Bush fumbles badly on the Ratzinger immunity play, Joe could well earn the eternal historical distinction of being the first President from the First State. We can only hope.

Bush FCC Blinded By Hypocrisy

All Americans should take careful note of this week’s news that New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has slapped music giant Sony/BMG with a $10 million dollar fine for engaging in payola. What is worth noting is the chilling silence and granite stillness of the Federal Communications Commission: the agency that should be taking the lead in exposing and prosecuting this massive fraud.

Payola, the practice of dee-jays taking bribes to play records, is an illegal act because it constitutes an abuse of public trust. The airwaves of America belong to the people and are utilized by over-the-air broadcasters as “trustees” of this finite public resource. Taking money to play a record specifically violates FCC regulations, which require the sponsor of a broadcast be clearly identified.

It should come as no surprise that the FCC, which is so quick to levy seven digit fines on broadcasters for a stray curse word, is reluctant to go after payola. Any sweeping investigation of “pay-for-play” would ultimately end up at the front door of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

The Bush administration has been unapologetic and unabashed despite numerous “payola” revelations since the 2004 election. These include thousands of dollars to radio commentator and columnist Armstrong Williams to voice a pro-administration stance on education issues. Similar payments went to other “journalists”. GOP shill Jeff “Guckert” Gannon would be another example.

The most flagrant violation of misrepresentation by omission of sponsor identification involved the White House Press office which, hired actors to play TV reporters on pro-Bush puff pieces which were then distributed at taxpayer expense to friendly Red State media outlets which aired them during newscasts prior to the Presidential election.

Payola is no different than a corrupt county government official taking a bribe from a contractor for a favorable zooming decision. If we continue to allow everything in this nation to be sold we may someday have a dollar figure to satisfy the question: “at what price is freedom?”

Carl Rove and The Salvation of the Rotten Carrot

Growing up Baptist in Lynchburg, Virginia during the 1960’s meant going to revivals. Most were forgettable muggy nights where the sounds of thunder and pouring rain often drowned out even the most spirited evangelical vocalizations. But one image-one story-from those countless orations remained with me through the years.
Before Falwell and the fundamentalists arrived on the scene with their “once saved always safe” dogma; the gospel of southern salvation was Jesus and good works. One traveling preacher focused on this fact in a parable about a rich woman…and a rotten carrot.
The story goes that there was this pious church-going woman of comfortable means, who despite her religiosity, was really quite selfish. She was said to have lived her life without ever sharing of herself or the blessings God had bestowed on her. She dies and instantly finds herself in the fires of Hell.
Looking up to heaven she pleads with the Lord for some explanation for her predicament.
“I never broke a single commandant my entire life,” she cried.
“Well,” said the Lord, “it’s not enough to simply not do anything bad in your life, you never did one single thing for another individual.”
“Oh but I’m sure I did…I must have,” replied the woman.
“Dear daughter,” God offered,”if you can give me just one example of when you showed any human kindness to another person I will deliver you to paradise this very day.”
The woman thought long and hard.
“Yes, now I remember,” she cried.
“One day I was cleaning my refrigerator and this old bum knocked on the backdoor looking for a handout. I just happened to have this little old slimy carrot in my hand I was about to put into the trash and I gave it to the bum.”
“Very well,” said God, “ come join me in heaven.”
With the woman watched as the very same slimy carrot drifted downward from heaven to rescue her from eternal damnation.
“Grab onto it and it will bring you to salvation, God instructed.
The woman clutched the pathetic vegetable with both hands and began to slowly rise from the flames of torment only to lose her grip after a short distance and fall back into the fire.
She regained the carrot and began to rise again only to lose her grip once more. After several more failed attempts she cried out in utter frustration.
“Lord! The carrot is too small; you’ve got to give me something bigger to work with!”
“Sorry,” came the divine reply, “but that’s all you gave me to work with.”
After watching today’s round of Sunday talking heads I can hear a hint of the same desperation in the voices of Rove defenders like RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman.
Pitted against an ever-growing mountain of evidence that Rove was neck deep in the leaking of CIA operative Valerie Palme’s cover to the media, Mehlman and his fellow- travelers have seized the single rotten carrot that Rove was apparently not the first source for Robert Novak’s column outing Agent Palme. This despite the fact that Rove was clearly Novak’s second source. When confronted with Time reporter Matt Cooper’s unambiguous sourcing of Rove, Melhman and company fall back to the deeply dug trench of, “we need to wait and see what the investigation uncovers.”
Obviously Mehlman is doing his duty by clutching frantically at this rotten carrot in hopes of avoiding a hellish mid-term election cycle. The only question that remains in this whole sorted affair is whether he can maintain his grip. There are many in both the media and opposition politics that believe he may well succeed where the poor house from the parable did not.
If the Republican spin machine is successful at taking the spotlight off of Time reporter Matt Cooper and redefining the issue to who leaked first to Robert Novac, then I feel compelled to offer one more nugget of wisdom from my childhood. This one, was a simple logic riddle from fifth grade.
“I have two current denomination American coins in my pocket. I have fifty-five cents in my pocket. One coin is not a nickel. What are denominations of the two coins?”

The Bush’s Snub of Jimmy Carter was Carl Rove’s, “UP YOURS!” to Disgruntled Evangelicals

TO HEAR MARK'S AUDIO RECORDING OF THIS COMMENTARY, GO TO ODRADIO.COM


Pope John Paul II’s body is resting in the earth. Rome is starting to recover from the greatest invasion in its long history, and Air Force One is safely ‘wheels down’ near the Texas White House. As the stories, symbolism and sincerity of an incredible week start to fade, one message, albeit uncharacteristically subtle, still hangs in the post-funeral air like the scent of a thousand fading lilies.

The mid-week flap over the White House’s apparent lack of polite accommodation for former President Jimmy Carter to attend the Pope’s funeral has been dismissed as simply a minor hiccup in post-Presidential protocol. Carter even humbly acknowledged this in a brief statement. But Washington sources for Paper Walls tell me the incident was far from a simple misunderstanding and in the micro-managed realm of Carl Rove’s White House, was in fact, a carefully crafted ‘shot-across-the-bow’ of the increasingly disgruntled evangelical Protestant community.

To understand the subtle nuances in play one must understand the world of political imagery of which there is, to my knowledge, no one on the planet equal to The Architect, Mr. Rove.

George W. Bush’s election and re-election have been a carefully scripted dance designed to play on the moral similarities between Fundamentalist Protestants and practicing Roman Catholics. Despite the obvious shared values on abortion, cloning and stem cells, there are monumental core differences between Catholics and Evangelical Protestants. Rove’s challenge has always been to keep his candidate looking enough like a born-again believer to keep a lock on the south and the bible-belt while making him look “Catholic Friendly’ enough to swing large blocks of Hispanic votes in states like Florida and Catholic heavy rust-belts states like Ohio.

It’s a very dangerous strategy because despite Pope John Paul II’s era of ecumenical harmony, when you get past the politics of abortion, the two constituencies have virtually nothing in common. Bush has had to walk a razor thin line. Too much pandering to the Catholic-hating, Klan inspired right like the gang at Bob Jones University could have cost him precious Catholic votes. On the other hand, his last trip to Rome where it looked like he was almost ready to kiss the Pope’s ring would not have played well anywhere in the Fundamentalist Protestant world where the Papacy is general regarded as the future office of the end times anti-Christ.

Despite the fact that he will never run for another political office, Bush still needs to walk this precarious line if his presidency is to do, as Rove as stated, “mark the beginning of a permanent Republican majority in Washington.”

So how does snubbing Jimmy Carter, a man who despite his public pronouncement of being a life-long born again Christian, was swept from office by Ronald Regan and his Jerry Falwell backed Moral Majoirty ,serve Rove’s grand design?

Again, the subtlety of political imagery must be clearly understood.

Both George W. and brother Jeb have seen their popularity plummet in the wake of the Terri Schaivo drama. This freefall took the normally prophetic Mr. Rove by complete surprise according to White House sources. Rove had assumed that the bold but meaningless gesture of Bush and the GOP rushing back to Washington to issue a meaningless and unconstitutional “Save Terri” law, would appease their Fundamentalist constituency.

“Carl is no idiot,” one source told Paper Walls. “He knew any legislative gesture would be immediately squashed by the courts. But to him this was a win-win. It would portray the President and the Republicans in congress as being ardently pro-life. Then, when the courts reversed it, this would help grow public opinion in favor of Bush’s roster of ultra conservative judges pending appointment to the Federal bench.”

But Rove failed to fully appreciate the Protestant right’s mindset that they had given both Bush brothers the “political capital” and “moral authority” to save Terri Schiavo “by any means necessary.” Their failure to set aside the rule of law and simply launch a combined Federal and State rescue of the dying woman has brought their “Christian Credentials” into serious question.

Rove needed a way send a backhanded slap at the Born Again base for their faltering faith in the Bush Dynasty-the funeral of the Pope was the perfect vehicle. He needed to remind them that the President has “other friends” (i.e. 50 million American Catholics) who were just as responsible for his electoral success. First, the President would curry the approval of Catholics by attending the funeral. This act, which has just been completed in the past 24 hours, has already started to increase the growing post-Schiavo rancor among Fundamentalist. Second, he would bring along his Father who now seems attached at the hip to the Fundys most hated political figure, former President William Jefferson Clinton. Finally, Rove chose the exclusion of former President Carter as his final disciplinary smack.

Despite his political failings, in the 25 years since leaving office, Jimmy Carter’s tireless personal efforts on behalf of the poor have earned him high marks from the Protestant Christian community that so chastised him as President. It’s hard to condemn an ex-President who, instead of retiring to a soft life of golf games and six-figure speaking fees (ala Ford, Reagan, Bush Senior & Clinton), has instead personally driven enough nails to build a small city for the poor and under privileged. Snubbing Carter while welcoming Clinton to the party was a message to Southern Born Again Christians not Liberal Democrats.

The message was simple, “If you don’t like the way we do things..we’ll find our friends in other places.”

Who these ‘friends in other places’ might be is sending cold shivers up the spines of bible-thumpers across the nation. First is the previously mentioned paring of Bush Daddy with Slick Willy. Who knows what new cause they might unite against when the memories of last years tsunami have faded. And then there’s Jesse Jackson’s late entry into the “save Terri” drama. A powerful and popular black Christian minister with platinum left-wing credentials, the quintessential anathema of all that Falwell and company have crusaded against for 25 years….openly supporting ‘their’ President!
One is forced to consider the possibility that Rev. Falwell’s harrowing respiratory arrest last weekend might have been the result of political shock and not lingering pneumonia!

In the short term, Carl Rove knows his ‘in your face’ actions will only further aggravate his already irritated base. But come election time, they’ll have no choice but to support Rove’s hand picked successor.

How could God ever forgive them if they did otherwise!