Month: August 2004

[warning: new york attitude ahead]

I will always hold a degree of respect for Rudy Guiliani for the courage he displayed in the days after 9/11. He was a true Hero, and many New Yorkers’ opinion of him changed overnight, much to the shock of those who had truly despised him just the day before.

That’s why I was sincerely saddened to watch his speech last night. I was expecting to be inspired or, at least, impressed, but in less than half an hour Rudy went from hero to partisan hack in my esteem. This is all the sadder, because although I loathed him before 9/11, I never thought of him as merely a mouthpiece for the party.

Rudy’s speech—in stark contrast to McCain’s, which (although I disagree with much of it) was measured and respectful—was a laundry list of cheapshots, factual errors, jokes that just died, and outright hackery.

Here’s a sample of the “you-just-made-that-shit-up” nonsense he was spewing:

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In an earlier post about the clandestine changes the Bush administration is making to federal regulations, bypassing Congressional oversight, under the cover of war, one reader noted in response to the list of controversial shifts:

More to the point, this is EXACTLY the kind of thing that should have been expected from GWB in 2000 and up to Sept 20, 2001.

I’ve encountered arguments like this before. They seem to imply the nation got what they voted for, even if all of them didn’t bother to read the fine print. However, given the controversial way Bush was elected, with at least one clear indicator of what the nation wanted (or didn’t want) found in the popular vote disparity, the assertion that Bush is simply giving the people what they want is beyond disengenuous.

Now, the moderates in the GOP, like Senator Collins from Maine who appeared on PBS last night, will tell you they’re working to curb the more extremist ideas in the party. This is meant to make moderates worry less about those troublesome parts of the GOP platform. Should they fail to curb them, however, here’s what you can expect in the next four years: Some of the fine print of the GOP platform (pdf file).

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(Crossposted to Redstate)

That was my rather belated reaction to the secondhand recounting of whatever it was that Mary Anne Marsh said last week on Hannity and Colmes. I say secondhand because I originally got it from Jeff Goldstein: for that matter, the show hasn’t posted a transcript. Jay Nordlinger noted it later on: no transcript there, either, so for all I know there’s a context* issue.

Read on.

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In an effort to provide counterprogramming for the Republican National Convention, I will be writing a short series of posts on what I take to be the most important reasons not to vote for Bush. Three preliminary notes:

First, I am not reflexively anti-Republican. Until about a year ago, of all the Presidential candidates I’ve supported over the years, the one I was most excited about was a Republican (Anderson, 1980.) I try not to be reflexively anti-Bush, though he has long since worn out the benefit of the doubt that I gave him after the decision in Bush v. Gore, and again after 9/11. There are, I think, very good reasons to oppose him; thus this post.

Second, I describe myself as voting against Bush for a reason. I think John Kerry will make a perfectly good President. Nonetheless, he was not my first (or second, or third) choice in the Democratic primaries, and if he was running against someone else who I thought would make a perfectly good President, I might have to think seriously about who to vote for. But since, in my judgment, Bush has not been anywhere near a perfectly good President, I have no such difficult choice to make.

Third, I do not hold Bush responsible for every silly thing that anyone in his administration has ever said. But I do hold him responsible for his administration’s policies, and also for his response to things that members of his administration do, whether or not he himself has ever spoken about the topics in question. He is responsible for hiring and firing his people; for making sure that they do the job he wants them to do; and for exercising oversight over them. The buck stops with him.

That said, on to topic number one: the Constitution.

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An estimated 500,000 people gathered in lower Manhattan yesterday to participate in the largest Focus Group the city’s seen since 1982’s antinuclear rally in Central Park (with some saying even more participants showed up yesterday).

The messages they hoped to convey ran the gamut from A to Z (with each at least partially geard toward stopping W). Here are a few of the more memorable comments participants made:

From totally misguided,

Support the Iraqi Resistance. US Troops out of the Middle East

to faithful, but somewhat deluded

Remember if Gore had been president, the Twin Towers would still be standing.

to theological

What Would Jesus Bomb?

to literary

George Orwell Predicted

to poetic

Bush is Scary. Vote for Kerry

to pop cultural

What would Scooby Do?

One Nation Under Godzilla

to the purely visual:

(Via Kos)

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Via Steve Clemons: Did you know that there is a sitting member of Congress who has:

Said the Congressional Leadership (in 1992) “ought to be lined up and shot”

Said, of protesters against the war in Vietnam, “I would have no hesitation about lining them up and shooting them,” he said. “Those people should be shot for what they did to us over there.”

Said that Bill Clinton was a KGB dupe

Said that some members of Congress “will tell you openly that they’re both Communist supporters and socialist supporters” who want “your kids and my kids … to fall under a socialist, Communist regime”

Said that a rectal procedure he had undergone was “just not natural, unless maybe you’re Barney Frank.”

Besides all this, this Representative — Randy Cunningham of California’s 50th District — was on the board of the Tailhook Association in 1991, the year of the Tailhook Symposium at which 83 women and 7 men were sexually assaulted. In the aftermath of the scandal, the armed forces undertook various efforts to combat sexual harassment; at a House Subcommittee hearing in which the acting Army Secretary described these efforts, “Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham called the efforts “B.S.” and asserted that “our kids don’t like . . . political correctness.”” What makes this particularly relevant now is that, as a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, one of the Committees that might investigate the abuses at Abu Ghraib. As Steve Clemons asks, “How can a guy who thinks Tailhook was just all good fun be counted on to responsibly legislate or investigate matters related to Abu Ghraib?”

As I’ve said before, there are jerks and idiots in both parties, and we shouldn’t criticize either party for the views expressed by their more, um, peculiar members. That being said, however, we should also try to make sure that such people don’t end up as members of Congress. I have voted for Republicans with whom I deeply disagreed when their Democratic opponents seemed to me to be out to lunch, on the grounds that it was better to be represented by someone who was wrongheaded but sane than by someone who seemed to live in an alternate universe. If the universe you live in is not one in which it’s OK to line your opponents up and shoot them, and in which preventing sexual assault is not just “B.S.”, take heart: Cunningham is not running unopposed.

On the subject of the GOP’s fringe: Vernon Robinson, who put out the amusing Twilight Zone ad, lost his runoff in North Carolina. The Republican voters of North Carolina’s 5th District deserve our gratitude.

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