|
Jewish World Review / Oct. 21, 1998 /2 Mar-Cheshvan, 5759
Mugger
Bubba redux?
IT WAS A DISGRACEFUL WEEK FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, permitting a
disabled Democratic president to swindle them in the budget
negotiations, but Bill Clinton isn't in the clear yet.
Watching Marcia
Clark subbing for Geraldo last Friday night you'd have thought that the
President had erased six years of ignominy: He'd outmaneuvered a limp
GOP leadership, who were so terrified of another government shutdown
that they forgot what the '94 landslide was all about; the Dow was in
funny-money mode, helped along by Alan Greenspan; there was alleged
progress in the Mideast negotiations -- how many times have you heard that
before? -- and Ken Starr is now under scrutiny by the Attorney General.
What's her name again? Right, Janet Reno.
Thomas Oliphant, Clinton's personal Pangloss, was downright giddy in a
Boston Globe column last Tuesday, claiming the Democrats had regained
the momentum and proved to the nation once and for all that Starr is the
real villain of this strange election year. Acknowledging at least a
slight GOP gain two weeks from now, Oliphant wrote: "For things of
consequence to happen, the hands either reach across the aisle by the
dozens in the House or by 10 or so in the Senate." Come again? If the
Republicans can win five Senate seats, reaching the filibuster-proof
number of 60, it'll be a major victory for the party.
Clinton was there too, and had the audacity to proclaim,
"Eight days of progress cannot totally erase eight months of
partisanship. The Republican majority is now leaving town to campaign,
but they're also leaving a lot of America's business unfinished." Now
just who was the center of attention in that eight-month gap? Who caused
the government to come to a standstill?
Sen. Chris Dodd told the Connecticut Post that Clinton was an "idiot."
"On issues," he said, "I've stood up and fought for things...and all of
a sudden, the idiot throws [the Lewinsky scandal] in the midst of all of
this. So instead of talking about the other [issues] we get questions
about this stuff."
Dodd also denied a Roll Call report that he was "one of
five senators working behind the scenes to help Clinton avoid
impeachment." Sweet sounds from the cochairman of the Democratic party
in '96.
South Carolina Sen. Fritz Hollings, facing a stiff challenge in a bid
for a seventh term, had to apologize for calling his Republican opponent
Rep. Bob Inglis a "goddamn skunk." Hollings, who at 76 might be fighting
a losing battle as a Democrat in one of the most Republican states in
the union, said he was frustrated "at the gross distortions of my
record." He's a colorful redneck -- last year he said that Clinton was "as
popular as AIDS in South Carolina" -- but when he responds to an opponent's
request for a clean campaign by saying, "Kiss my fanny," that's a sign
that Hollings is fighting for his political life.
Why Clinton was wasting time campaigning for Carol Moseley-Braun in
Illinois is anyone's guess, since her own party has written off her
prospects against Peter Fitzgerald. But there he was in Chicago, not
mentioning the ethical charges against Moseley-Braun that've led to a
10-point deficit in the polls, saying, "Do you believe that if her
opponent had been in the Senate, he would've voted for the Brady bill?"
Well, maybe not, but if that's the best endorsement Clinton can come up
with for the embattled Senator, you know he's on the hustings just for
the hell of it. He loves pressing flesh and raking in dollars; it's a
hell of a lot better than lawyers grilling him on unpleasant subjects.
In Maryland, Gov. Parris Glendening had a sudden change of heart and
decided he was "proud" of Clinton after all, and that the President has
had "a great six years," welcoming him to an event at a Montgomery
County elementary school. Last month, as you'll recall, the incumbent,
who's in a dead heat with Ellen Sauerbrey, canceled a fundraiser with
Clinton, whose personal behavior he found abhorrent. Clinton's in no
position to hold grudges against Democrats, so he told the assembled
that Glendening and his Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend were in
charge of "one of the most innovative state governments in America."
Generic praise, sure, but hypocrite to hypocrite, what's the difference?
As Robert Novak reported in his syndicated column on Sunday, another
bizarre twist to this year's campaign was Microsoft's Bill Gates making
a joint appearance with North Carolina Sen. Lauch Faircloth last week.
Gates, who keeps his political views rather shrouded, but is generally
considered a subdued liberal, toured a Microsoft factory in Charlotte
and praised Faircloth, who's in the midst of a tough reelection battle,
saying, "In terms of technology issues, the senator has done fantastic
things." Michael Kinsley, editor of Microsoft's Slate and America's
number-one weasel, must've choked on his granola.
I spanked George Will last week for his valentines to Rudy Giuliani, but
he's been on better behavior lately, writing a sensible column on the
"hate crimes" controversy and simply eviscerating embattled California
Sen. Barbara Boxer this past Sunday. "There's no doubt that Boxer is in
trouble against Republican Matt Fong and Will takes a rusty knife to her
sanctimonious heart: Boxer has been called the 'Democrats' Jesse
Helms, the senator best at bringing Republicans to a boil. She lives
across San Francisco Bay in Marin County, where political
paleontologists go to study the fossilized remains of liberalism." Boxer
will likely lose her seat; here's hoping that a depressed Democratic
turnout in California will rescue GOP gubernatorial candidate Dan
Lungren, who can't seem to muster the stuff to knock off the drab Gray
Davis.
And it was a little weird seeing the President hosting a fundraiser for
Chuck Schumer in New York City, while the Congressman was back in
Washington, spooked by Al D'Amato's TV commercials about Schumer's high
number of votes missed in Congress. Democrats are confident that D'Amato
will finally be sent back to Long Island, but I wouldn't bet on it: The
incumbent has five times as much cash to spend in the last two weeks and
unless Schumer can somehow bring out a huge vote in Manhattan, it'll be
D'Amato by a nose. There's no getting rid of the Fonz, and that's fine
by me.
Not that New York's Michael Tomasky would agree with that assessment. In
this week's issue, Tomasky doesn't hide his preference for Schumer,
tracing his political career back to his days at Madison High School,
through Harvard and Harvard Law School, to his first election victory,
at 23, as a New York state assemblyman from Brooklyn. Tomasky's portrait
of Schumer is one of a workaholic who's been unfairly tarred by D'Amato
in this campaign as a lazy congressman who misses votes. I agree with
Tomasky; while Schumer has a reputation for being a press and TV hog (as
if that's unusual in Washington), even Republicans admit that he works
long hours. Not the kind of guy you'd want to have a beer with, but so
what.
I grew queasy reading Tomasky's partisan conclusion, and wondered how
he'd follow up next week with his profile of D'Amato. Tomasky wrote:
"D'Amato probably has a late surprise in store—he's got two weeks to
save an eighteen-year career, and there's no limit to what he might pull
under those circumstances. But Schumer understands this, and probably
has a surprise of his own. 'I haven't had a day of regret about this
race,' he says, 'and I haven't had a day when I thought I'd lose.' Still
the cocky kid of 1974? He may have reason to be.” Care to place a $25
wager on this race, Mike?
Gail Collins, one of the dimmest members of the Times editorial team,
wrote a silly piece on the Senate race last Sunday. Blame it on the
cooking sherry, but this was Collins' contribution: "It has been a long
time since New York has hosted an election in which we did not know the
name of the winner weeks before the first absentee ballot hit the mails.
It is worth hearing a lot of nasty commercials to get a contest in which
everyone can imagine that his vote might really count."
First, the
electorate, whether they admit it or not, love "nasty commercials"
almost as much as the press. Second, where was Collins in '94 when
George Pataki pulled a last-minute upset over Gov. Mario Cuomo? And in
'92, Clinton's year, when D'Amato's reelection over Bob Abrams was
hardly a foregone
His uptick won't last
On the other hand, despite misleading polls in The Washington Post and
New York Times that claimed a surge of Democratic votes, under the
surface there was squabbling aplenty in the beleaguered ranks of Dick
Gephardt and company. Don't believe for a minute the absurd spectacle of
Gephardt and his 2000 rival Al Gore campaigning side by side in St.
Louis, telling anyone who'd listen about their rich, 22-year-old
friendship.
Birds of a feather:
Two "winners," Bubba and Dick.
JWR contributor "Mugger" is the editor-in-chief and publisher of New York Press. Send your comments to him by clicking here.
10/16/98: Gore for President: The Bread Lines Are Starting to Form