Long, Hard Slog
It doesn't take a pundit to recognize that the presidential campaign is shaping up to be one of the nastier ones in recent history. Bush and the GOP are feeling cornered and, being the feral humans that they are, are slashing back with tooth and claw.
And the Dems haven't even picked a nominee.
Take for example, the front page of the Newsmax web site this afternoon:
Dems' 'Dirtiest Campaign in Modern Politics'
GOP chairman Ed Gillespie says Democrats "don't want a debate on the issues, and they don't want to run on Senator Kerry's record. I guess I can't blame them." He warns that Kerry's campaign will falsely accuse President Bush of paying for an ex-girlfriend's abortion.
* Sorry, Dems: Officer Saw 'Very Dedicated' Bush 'Each Drill Period'
* Veteran Exposes Democrats' Phony Smear Campaign
* 'Hanoi' Jane Fonda Rides to Kerry's Rescue
* NewsMax's Fonda-Kerry Photo Angers Veterans
* Matthews: Kerry Has 'Hanoi Jane' Problem
* Kerry Had Phony 'Veterans' Commit Perjury Against U.S.
* Photo: The Kerry-Fonda Connection
* Photo: Kerry Arrested After Protest
* Alert the Media: Bush Had Speeding Tickets and Fender Benders
Oy. But thanks, Newsmax, for alerting us to the abortion thing.
The trouble for Ed Gillespie, Karl Rove, and the Miserable Failure is that it won't be Kerry's record that will be the central focus of the campaign. It will be Ol' Five-to-Four's.
And guys, yes there's a wacky subset who still hate Hanoi Jane, but most of the rest of the world have moved on.
But don't let me stop you.
Because one of the more curious aspects of the primary season thus far has been the fact that the two leaders, Kerry and Edwards, have pointedly refrained from going negative. Even in Kerry's darkest days in December, you just did not hear him attack Dean even as Dean was attacking him. Instead, he and Edwards sat back and let Dean, Gephardt, and Lieberman tear each other apart. And lose. The realist in me tells me that that's just Iowa, and negative campaigns never fail, but one can hope that focusing on policy and philosophy will trump personal attacks.
Yeah, right. What was that about dropping the waitress off at the Houston abortion clinic?
Speaking of Newsmax, it's troubled me for some time. Why do they constantly advertise their "Action Figure Bush", "Action Figure Coulter", and now, just in time for Valentine's Day, "Talking Action Figure Rumsfeld," on such relatively left leaning sites as Slate. Same for the "Conservative Book Club." Are their pockets deep enough that they can appear on any site that is politically-focused?
Or is it the right's payback to Slate for letting Mickey Kaus blather on with irrelevancies?
Or is it counter-intuitive ad placement? As childish as Republicans appear to be these days, you can only sell so many talking Rummys to them, so they have cynically ventured out to sell them to irony-obsessed liberals.
But as much as I am an irony-obsessed liberal, and desperately would love that talking Rummy engaging in all kinds of lurid acts with a supine, talking Ann, I just won't give them my money.
Here's a great timeline of the relevant dates pertaining to Bush's National Guard duties. Here's my favorite entry:
December 1972
Christmas 1972
While visiting his parents in Washington, D.C., Bush goes out drinking with his 15-year-old brother Marvin. On the way home, George W. hits a garbage can with the car. George W. confronts an angry George H.W. by saying: "I hear you're looking for me. You wanna go mano a mano right here?"
SOURCE: U.S. News & World Report, Nov. 1, 1999
Dec. 18-30: "Christmas bombing" of North Vietnam
Priceless.
The great thing about what Kevin Drum calls the "Drip, Drip, Drip" of the White House's handling of the AWOL story, is that we continue to learn new things about the guard, military retirement records, and the state of Alabama.
For instance there's this in the Times:
"MONTGOMERY, Ala., Feb. 12 ? Inside the Alabama Air National Guard an informal search is on for someone, anyone, who recalls encountering First Lt. George W. Bush in 1972.
"At Fort George C. Wallace, the Montgomery headquarters of the Alabama National Guard, officials have responded to growing scrutiny of President Bush's military record by searching through records for proof of his service in the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group. Former comrades from the 187th have been calling and e-mailing one another, always with the same basic question: Did you see him?
"So far, it appears that their efforts have come to naught. Indeed, in interviews this week with The New York Times, 16 retired officers, pilots and senior enlisted men who served among hundreds with the 187th in 1972 all said that they simply could not recall seeing Mr. Bush at Dannelly Air Base, the sprawling compound adjacent to Montgomery's airport that is home to the 187th."
Let me get this straight..."Fort George C. Wallace?" The same Wallace, who led Kennedy to federalize the Alabama national guard in order to force the governor to stand aside and let blacks enter the U. of Alabama?
Did I mention that I'm irony-obsessed?
And here I thought Jimmy Breslin was retired. Ouch.
*****
I don't quite know what to say about the steroid story, and I do agree with Will Carroll here, but it does feel like it's going to shadow the upcoming baseball season like a huge asterisk.
Bonds and, yes, the Yanks' own Giambino are innocent until proven guilty. But Bonds in particular has a legacy (and a record) to protect. Should he come clean and, assuming he's been using something not quite legit -- and I now do assume that -- throw himself on the mercy of the baseball gods and fans? Or just continue stonewalling all the way to Cooperstown?
Still, it's good to remember that Major League baseball has never been quite the upstanding field of dreams that some purists pretend it to be. Rembember the Pittsburgh Pirates cocaine trials?
Similar appearances occurred in the Pittsburgh drug trials in 1985, when Dave Parker, Dale Berra, Keith Hernandez, John Milner, Lonnie Smith and Enos Cabell were among those who were summoned to testify.
Berra and Parker testified that they secured amphetamines from Willie Stargell; Parker said he also got them from Bill Madlock. Milner identified Willie Mays as a source of liquid amphetamines when they played for the Mets.
Those were not proud moments for baseball. Bonds on the witness stand testifying about steroids and his personal trainer would not be a glamorous moment, either. But such moments might be dwarfed by a collapse of the drug-testing agreement in future years if the grand jury gets those test results.
Baseball is a brutal sport for the simple reason that no other professional sport has a 162-game schedule. They play virtually every day for more than six months. The temptation to use something that will help you get out of your hotel bed every morning, or to rub something on that will translate to more strength in the dog days of August is often just too tough to resist.
Or, in Bonds case, help give you the strength and incentive to actually improve your abilities at a point in life when they are supposed to be rapidly declining.
That's not to vindicate these guys, just being real.
Our thoughts go out to Alex Belth and Emily this weekend.
And the Dems haven't even picked a nominee.
Take for example, the front page of the Newsmax web site this afternoon:
Dems' 'Dirtiest Campaign in Modern Politics'
GOP chairman Ed Gillespie says Democrats "don't want a debate on the issues, and they don't want to run on Senator Kerry's record. I guess I can't blame them." He warns that Kerry's campaign will falsely accuse President Bush of paying for an ex-girlfriend's abortion.
* Sorry, Dems: Officer Saw 'Very Dedicated' Bush 'Each Drill Period'
* Veteran Exposes Democrats' Phony Smear Campaign
* 'Hanoi' Jane Fonda Rides to Kerry's Rescue
* NewsMax's Fonda-Kerry Photo Angers Veterans
* Matthews: Kerry Has 'Hanoi Jane' Problem
* Kerry Had Phony 'Veterans' Commit Perjury Against U.S.
* Photo: The Kerry-Fonda Connection
* Photo: Kerry Arrested After Protest
* Alert the Media: Bush Had Speeding Tickets and Fender Benders
Oy. But thanks, Newsmax, for alerting us to the abortion thing.
The trouble for Ed Gillespie, Karl Rove, and the Miserable Failure is that it won't be Kerry's record that will be the central focus of the campaign. It will be Ol' Five-to-Four's.
And guys, yes there's a wacky subset who still hate Hanoi Jane, but most of the rest of the world have moved on.
But don't let me stop you.
Because one of the more curious aspects of the primary season thus far has been the fact that the two leaders, Kerry and Edwards, have pointedly refrained from going negative. Even in Kerry's darkest days in December, you just did not hear him attack Dean even as Dean was attacking him. Instead, he and Edwards sat back and let Dean, Gephardt, and Lieberman tear each other apart. And lose. The realist in me tells me that that's just Iowa, and negative campaigns never fail, but one can hope that focusing on policy and philosophy will trump personal attacks.
Yeah, right. What was that about dropping the waitress off at the Houston abortion clinic?
Speaking of Newsmax, it's troubled me for some time. Why do they constantly advertise their "Action Figure Bush", "Action Figure Coulter", and now, just in time for Valentine's Day, "Talking Action Figure Rumsfeld," on such relatively left leaning sites as Slate. Same for the "Conservative Book Club." Are their pockets deep enough that they can appear on any site that is politically-focused?
Or is it the right's payback to Slate for letting Mickey Kaus blather on with irrelevancies?
Or is it counter-intuitive ad placement? As childish as Republicans appear to be these days, you can only sell so many talking Rummys to them, so they have cynically ventured out to sell them to irony-obsessed liberals.
But as much as I am an irony-obsessed liberal, and desperately would love that talking Rummy engaging in all kinds of lurid acts with a supine, talking Ann, I just won't give them my money.
Here's a great timeline of the relevant dates pertaining to Bush's National Guard duties. Here's my favorite entry:
December 1972
Christmas 1972
While visiting his parents in Washington, D.C., Bush goes out drinking with his 15-year-old brother Marvin. On the way home, George W. hits a garbage can with the car. George W. confronts an angry George H.W. by saying: "I hear you're looking for me. You wanna go mano a mano right here?"
SOURCE: U.S. News & World Report, Nov. 1, 1999
Dec. 18-30: "Christmas bombing" of North Vietnam
Priceless.
The great thing about what Kevin Drum calls the "Drip, Drip, Drip" of the White House's handling of the AWOL story, is that we continue to learn new things about the guard, military retirement records, and the state of Alabama.
For instance there's this in the Times:
"MONTGOMERY, Ala., Feb. 12 ? Inside the Alabama Air National Guard an informal search is on for someone, anyone, who recalls encountering First Lt. George W. Bush in 1972.
"At Fort George C. Wallace, the Montgomery headquarters of the Alabama National Guard, officials have responded to growing scrutiny of President Bush's military record by searching through records for proof of his service in the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group. Former comrades from the 187th have been calling and e-mailing one another, always with the same basic question: Did you see him?
"So far, it appears that their efforts have come to naught. Indeed, in interviews this week with The New York Times, 16 retired officers, pilots and senior enlisted men who served among hundreds with the 187th in 1972 all said that they simply could not recall seeing Mr. Bush at Dannelly Air Base, the sprawling compound adjacent to Montgomery's airport that is home to the 187th."
Let me get this straight..."Fort George C. Wallace?" The same Wallace, who led Kennedy to federalize the Alabama national guard in order to force the governor to stand aside and let blacks enter the U. of Alabama?
Did I mention that I'm irony-obsessed?
And here I thought Jimmy Breslin was retired. Ouch.
*****
I don't quite know what to say about the steroid story, and I do agree with Will Carroll here, but it does feel like it's going to shadow the upcoming baseball season like a huge asterisk.
Bonds and, yes, the Yanks' own Giambino are innocent until proven guilty. But Bonds in particular has a legacy (and a record) to protect. Should he come clean and, assuming he's been using something not quite legit -- and I now do assume that -- throw himself on the mercy of the baseball gods and fans? Or just continue stonewalling all the way to Cooperstown?
Still, it's good to remember that Major League baseball has never been quite the upstanding field of dreams that some purists pretend it to be. Rembember the Pittsburgh Pirates cocaine trials?
Similar appearances occurred in the Pittsburgh drug trials in 1985, when Dave Parker, Dale Berra, Keith Hernandez, John Milner, Lonnie Smith and Enos Cabell were among those who were summoned to testify.
Berra and Parker testified that they secured amphetamines from Willie Stargell; Parker said he also got them from Bill Madlock. Milner identified Willie Mays as a source of liquid amphetamines when they played for the Mets.
Those were not proud moments for baseball. Bonds on the witness stand testifying about steroids and his personal trainer would not be a glamorous moment, either. But such moments might be dwarfed by a collapse of the drug-testing agreement in future years if the grand jury gets those test results.
Baseball is a brutal sport for the simple reason that no other professional sport has a 162-game schedule. They play virtually every day for more than six months. The temptation to use something that will help you get out of your hotel bed every morning, or to rub something on that will translate to more strength in the dog days of August is often just too tough to resist.
Or, in Bonds case, help give you the strength and incentive to actually improve your abilities at a point in life when they are supposed to be rapidly declining.
That's not to vindicate these guys, just being real.
Our thoughts go out to Alex Belth and Emily this weekend.
posted by John at 4:54 PM
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