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Nancy
Pelosi bombs?
by
IseFire
- Tue 01/20/04; 10:21 pm EST
I just heard Pelosi's response to Bush's SotU address. She did a
dreadful job with the exception of an okay line or two, not well
delivered. Ouch. Come on, Dems, we need to hold our uninspiring
and uninspired leaders accountable. E-mail the DNC
and call for a better leader in the House.
Girding
for battle
by
IseFire
- Tue 01/20/04; 10:01 pm EST
"Girding
for Battle: How Democrats Can Win in 2004,"
an article by Al From and Bruce Reed in July's Blueprint Magazine,
is worth a re-read in the wake of Bush's State of the Disunion
address, but also worth a re-read in light of the success
last
night in Iowa of the more DLC-esque campaigns of Edwards
and Kerry. Dean is following a different model (at least in the
Primary phase), and he did horribly in Iowa. Granted, he's still
the candidate with the largest national organization, the most money,
and the most time on the ground shaking hands, especially in NH.
His argument that he's the man to beat Bush thru a combo of bringing
new blood into the Party while also firing up the base has yet to
be proven unviable. But... Iowa was not a step in the right direction
for The Dean Plan, to be sure.
Beware:
Conculsions drawn now could look like ridiculous doodles later.
by
IseFire
- Mon 01/19/04; 10:51 pm EST
Wow--a
lot to think about post-Iowa. (And what a great victory speech by
Kerry!)
Could this be: More evidence of the continued weakening of
unions in America, because
Dean and Gephardt got the lion's share of the union endorsements
and both placed a miserable 3rd & 4th in Iowa, perhaps because
too
many unions have become less about workers' rights and more about
exploitation of the members
by leaders desperate to hold onto their offices?
(Answer:
Not necessarily; Iowa was just one--and the earliest--contest
for these Democratic candidates. Don't be too quick to draw sweeping
conclusions.)
Could this be: Evidence that rhetoric--in
the classical (& good) sense--isn't dead
&/OR that the reality of America as an
increasingly 3rd-world-like economically lopsided nation is
getting though to voters, because John Edwards placed a strong
2nd in Iowa, but only after becoming, in the last month, a populist
with a fantastic stump speech that is positive insofar as it stresses
unifying America, but populist insofar as it also speaks both of
"lifting up" the growing % of Americans in poverty and
curtailing the power of the shrinking mega-elite cabal, the 1%,
who own nearly 50% of all of America's wealth?
(Answer:
[see above].)
Could this be: Evidence that the Internet,
Dean's special weapon, is better for fundraising than for organizing,
or that the enthusiasm of young people sitting behind computers
doesn't translate into real efforts and real votes?
(Answer:
[see above].)
Could this be: the beginning of the end
of Howard Dean, despite the fact that his chances in New
Hampshire are much better, since he's from the region and created
a strong organization there many months ago?
(Answer:
[see above].)
Could this be: the end of the ending
of Al Gore? Fat lot of good his endorsement seemed
to do for Dean.
(Answer:
[see above].)
Could this be: the beginning of the
end of Wesley Clark, since Kerry is surging and is also a
vet (though arguably cut from the failed Dukakis mold--not a Southerner,
someone arguably lacking the "common touch"), despite
the fact the Clark--like Kerry--was prematurely written off once
before as a viable candidate?
(Answer:
[see above].)
Get it? :)
Cheney:
Terrorism requires extraordinary responses. (Martial law?)
by
IseFire
- Sun 01/18/04; 10:51 pm EST
James
Sterngold in
the San Francisco Chronicle: when
VP Cheney spoke this
week to the Los Angeles
World Affairs Council, he stressed "the increasing prospects
of a major new terrorist attack and the extraordinary responses
that are required." He didn't specify what extraordinary responses
were in mind on the domestic front, but he "said Bush was establishing,
as Truman had, a new structure for a new long-term war and spreading
the military into new areas of the globe."
Cheney duck hunted w/Scalia last week
by
IseFire
- Sat 01/17/04; 10:21 am EST
The
Bush/Cheney junta mocks the Constitutional principle of separation
of the three branches of government...and
has learned very few give a shit anyway. From the
Cheney-Scalia duck hunt article: "Dick Cheney
and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spent part of last week
duck hunting...just three weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to
take up an appeal by the vice president in lawsuits over his handling
of the administration's energy task force."
Eye-oh-way
by
IseFire
- Sat 01/17/04; 10:21 am EST
Here's the site to use for all
things Iowa caucus: www.caucus2004.org.
Here's the
agenda all caucuses follow Monday night. (Links to
a PDF file.)
Here's Gov. Dean and me in Newton, Iowa (where my folks live)
on December
27, '03
It's
hard to poll a powwow
by
IseFire
- Fri 01/16/04; 8:21 pm EST
Kerry's lead in a new Iowa poll
is amazing. But, polls aren't always as telling when it comes to
the Iowa caucuses, because in a caucus one doesn't simply pull a
switch in a voting booth, but one has to shows up, sit in a powwow
and vote there with a relatively small--sometimes tiny--group of
other party members. Statewide, it's not just a night of voting,
it's a night of a confederacy of microscopic party conventions.
(In fact, platform
planks for the county to take
to the state convention are
discussed and voted on, too.)
So, while nothing is likely to change a voter's mind while walking
to the voting booth in a primary in another state, at an Iowa caucus
a speech made by your neighbor on behalf of a particular candidate
could very well give you 2nd thoughts at the 11th hr.
Despite what the poll says, as of today the caucus is still Dean's
to lose, I think, because he has the most dedicated and stalwart
supporters. And--to be blunt--his supporters are generally younger
and more likely to brave the cold and actually go to their local
caucus and vote.
Granted, a foot-in-mouth moment, illness (do these candidates EVER
catch a cold?!), or something else could always further affect Dean's
chances at the last minute.
All in all, whoever wins will have worked hard for it. It's been
an incredible race there back home in Iowa.
Phantom estate
by
IseFire
- Thurs 01/15/04; 7:51 pm EST
"The press--the so-called "Fourth Estate"--is nearly
dead," I said to my friend Bob on the phone today. This
article says
it all--and far better than I could. It's probably the first true
"must read" I've linked to since starting
this blog.
No, Howard, no
by
IseFire
- Thurs 01/15/04; 7:31 am EST
Howard
Dean's gone negative against Clark, breaking the
rule Gore reminded all to follow the day he endorsed Howard. Dean
called Clark a closet Republican. Clark's never been a registered
Republican--ever--and his policy proposals are clearly Democratic,
clearly more liberal than, say, Lieberman's. Clark more
than any other candidate sounds
like Clinton on the stump.
The
only thing more distressing to me is that the race in Iowa
has tightened into a 3-way tie. That will suggest
to too many people--many in the media and politics included--that
all the negative attacks vs. Dean worked. Did they? Couldn't Kerry's
rise be due to other factors? Like his campaign simply
getting its act together?
Opening
the window to truth
by
IseFire
- Wed 01/14/04; 7:30 pm EST
The Bush Administration is predisposed towards lying. From Bush's
early lie about his drinking-related
car accident to the Bush/Rove cabal's more recent lie about weapons
of mass destruction in Iraq, the President lives inside untruths
that the media dutifully echoes--being too lazy, weak, and prissy
to challenge any of his statements.
Now Bush is mad as hell at former Treasury Sec. Paul O'Neill, who
in a new book says Bush and cabinet are like "a
blind man in a roomful of deaf people." Of course,
the administration is responding to O'Neill by targeting him with
an investigation (same GOP strategy used on the Clinton's endlessly).
But did you notice: No one, not even Bush, is saying that O'Neill's
lying? The Bush/Rove cabal is angry about O'Neill saying
what he did, but they don't seem keen to dispute what he
said! Hooray for irony and unexpected truth-telling from Republicans!
With all this sudden truth-telling, Sen. Kennedy is getting into
the act, too, accusing
Bush of having unnecessarily waged war. (No shit,
Teddy.)
I would like to advance the theory that this truth-telling was destined
to become a trend after Gen. Anthony Zinni (Ret.), back in September,
raised the specter of the Iraq war being--get this--a "brain
fart." (His term, not mine!) Truth upon its
lofty pedestal having been so marvelously
illuminated, it was bound to be emulated eventually, even if not
covered by the press. Tony Zinni, we salute you!
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