The Happy Warrior, reconsidered

Hubert Humphrey made a pact with the devil. Believing that it would strengthen Johnson's push for civil rights legislation he joined an administration that was also convinced it could win where Kennedy hadn't -- in Vietnam. And so, he became a forceful defender of a war that, by 1968, was indefensible. And he lost by the proverbial nose to Richard Nixon.

I have to admit, my perspective on one of the last of the New Dealers was heavily colored by Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, in which he describes Humphrey, among other things, as a ward healer and lackey for Johnson.

Rick Perlstein today calls for a reappraisal. I won't excerpt because the whole thing is worth a look.

Southern Strategy

I appreciate Rachel Maddow's spirited and effective counter to Pat Buchanan. But he's not just "dating himself." He's a racist. That's a term that is tossed about too much, perhaps, but in Buchanan's case it's true. And if his tirades against "affirmative action baby," Sonia Sotomayor don't result in him losing his cable television perch (not to mention his long history of airing such views), then we might as well have David Duke hosting "Face the Nation."

On the other hand, says Adam Serwer,

In recent years, the GOP has made attempts—some sincere, some not—to reach out to communities of color. These have failed, largely because a substantial amount of the GOP’s shrinking base sees the nation the way Buchanan does, as being destroyed by outsiders who aren’t real Americans. This remains true even as American demographic trends promise certain doom for the party as it currently exists. As long as that’s the case—and as unpleasant as it may be—progressives should hope those reactionaries have a voice. To the extent that Pat Buchanan is hurting someone, it isn’t liberals, Democrats or even people of color. It’s the conservative cause. If anyone should really want Buchanan to be fired from MSNBC, it’s the leadership of the Republican Party.

More Nixon tapes

Really great stuff!

“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” he told an aide, before adding, “Or a rape.”

Nine months later, Nixon forced the firing of the special prosecutor looking into the Watergate affair, Archibald Cox, and prompted the resignations of Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus. The next day, Ronald Reagan, who was then governor of California and would later be president, told the White House that he approved.

Reagan said the action, which would become known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” was “probably the best thing that ever happened — none of them belong where they were,” according to a Nixon aide’s notes of the private conversation.

[...]

A call between Nixon and Mr. Colson just after midnight on Jan. 20 showed that Nixon anticipated, when the treaty was announced, that he would be vindicated for continuing to bomb North Vietnam. He especially relished the hit that he believed members of Congress who opposed the war — whose public statements he pronounced “treasonable” — would suffer.

Several conversations center on the pressure Nixon placed on South Vietnam’s president, Nguyen Van Thieu, to accept the cease-fire agreement. Ken Hughes, a Nixon scholar and research fellow at the Presidential Recordings Project at the University of Virginia, said he was struck by listening on one of the new tapes to Nixon’s telling his national security adviser, Henry A. Kissinger, that to get Thieu to sign the treaty, he would “cut off his head if necessary.”

Mr. Hughes said the conversation bolstered his view that Nixon, Thieu and Mr. Kissinger knew at the time that the cease-fire could not endure, and that it was not “peace with honor,” as Nixon described it, so much as a face-saving way for the United States to get out of the war. In 1975, North Vietnam would violate the cease-fire and conquer South Vietnam.

And Billy Graham!

The tapes also include a phone call from February 1973 between Nixon and the evangelist Billy Graham, during which Mr. Graham complained that Jewish-American leaders were opposing efforts to promote evangelical Christianity, like Campus Crusade. The two men agreed that the Jewish leaders risked setting off anti-Semitic sentiment.

“What I really think is deep down in this country, there is a lot of anti-Semitism, and all this is going to do is stir it up,” Nixon said.

At another point he said: “It may be they have a death wish. You know that’s been the problem with our Jewish friends for centuries.”

I wonder if Nixon's brain was preserved. It would be a fascinating thing to research.

Extreme reactions

The Times' Opinionator blog has a fairly good rundown of reaction to the tax day of rage out there. I do wish Harshaw had done a little better job at, ya know, reporting on how astro-turfy these protests were and that their very protests over Obama's "tax increases" are based on falsehoods and probably covering their fear of a black president and the specter of Islamasocialism, there's no denying that a lot of people went. And while many of them can be ridiculed for angrily protesting "higher taxes" even as they themselves sip at the government trough, the fear and anger are certainly real.

Their protests may be bullshit, in other words, but we've seen other progressive moments derailed by a combination of events (losing wars) and this type of controlled hatred and fear of dark people gaining power.

Oh, and I don't ever recall the Right being outraged by protesters being arrested and kept in pens for days during the GOP convention. Fainting at the mere thought that DHS may be a tad concerned over anger at a black president is a bit much.

Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman shot and killed

I would like to think this was a personal dispute, but it doesn't sound like it.

The secretary said a man had come into the party headquarters and insisted on seeing the chairman, whose office is the first room behind the reception desk, Ms. Lee said. When the secretary tried to put him off, by offering him bumper stickers, he walked past her into the office. “He kept saying he needed to see the chairman, and then just went around her and started shooting,” Ms. Lee said.

Ms. Lee said the secretary, who had lost her shoes during her flight and entered the store barefoot, repeatedly recited a description of the man: khaki pants, white shirt, silver-gray hair, late 40s. “She said, ‘He didn’t scare me, he was puzzling to me for some reason and I was trying to get rid of him.’ ”

The gunman fired three shots, the secretary told Ms. Lee, and then left, heading up the street toward the Capitol and getting into a blue truck. Other employees fled the building, with one running all the way to the capitol in an attempt to alert security.

Miami '72, or, Groundhog Day

From Rick Perlstein's Nixonland, sweet, sweet memories of campaigns past:

He arrived for his acceptance speech. The hall reverberated with Republican jubilation. Some wore buttons or carried signs reading NIXON IS LOVE and NIXON CARES and HAPPINESS IS NIXON. Others held on to their gold pennies with Nixon's face instead of Lincoln's, and souvenir "McGovern boxes" with a phony $1,000 bill and a white flag of surrender inside.

Then, to 30 million Americans, Richard Nixon, the peacenik they could trust, introduced the Checkers of 1972: little Tanya, a young Russian girl.

"Speaking on behalf of the American people, I was proud to be able to say in my television address to the Russian people in May, 'We covet no one else's territory. We seek no dominion over any other nation. We seek peace not only for ourselves, but for all the people of the world.'... [sic]

"On your television scree last night, you saw the cemetery in Leningrad I visited on my trip to the Soviet Union -- where three hundred thousand people died in the siege of that city during World War II."

(You want civilian casualties? I'll tell you about real civilian casualties.)

"At the cemetary I saw the picture of a twelve-year-old girl. She was a beautiful child.

"Her name" -- his voice broke -- "was Tanya.

"I read her diary. It tells the terrible story of war. In the simple words of a child she wrote of the deaths of themembers of her family. 'Zhenya in December. Grannie in January. Then Leka. Then Uncle Vasya. Then Uncle Lyosha. Then Mama in May.' And finally -- these are the last words in her diary: 'All are dead. Only Tanya is left.'"

Pause

"Let us think of Tanya and the other Tanyas and their brothers and sisters everywhere" -- Nixon's voice caught -- "in Russia, in China, in America, as we proudly meet our responsibilities for leadership in the world in a way worthy of a great people.

"I ask you, my fellow Americans, to join our new majority not just in the cause of winning an election, but in achieving a hope that mankind has had since the beginning of civilization. Let us builllllld a peace that our children -- and all the children of the world! -- can enjoy for generations to come."

At 1 a.m. police stood in formation, rhythmically beating their riot clubs. Their liberal police chief finally unleashed them to make arrests. With brutal dispatch, they collared two hundred miscreants, cheered on by martini-sipping yahtsmen moored at the marina. Though one was disappointed. He had heard the Yuppies were going to firebomb the boats and he was hoping for the insurance money.

Ch. 33, In Which Playboy Bunnies, and Barbarella, and Tanya Inspire Theoretical Considerations upon the Nature of Democracy

What's scary, beyond Perlstein's main thesis that Nixon was both a vessel for and a provocateur of white Middle Class resentment, is that the script hasn't changed all that much. The growing number of Watergate stories "following the money" or covering the trials always needed to balanced in the newspapers (almost exclusively The Post, and I wonder if the editorial staff were like Fred Hiatt's today, undercutting the very reporting appearing in other sections of the paper) by stories of McGovern malfeasance, however technical and minor. A public that reasonably responds, "they're all crooked." McGovern promised a civil campaign and yet "went negative," running ads about...Vietnam or Watergate. Washington columnists appalled that he would impugn the president's character ("bringing viscious slander to a presidential campaign") CBS, under pressure, pulling the rug out from under Walter Cronkite when America's Uncle dared to spend 15 minutes explaining Watergate's direct ties to the White House. Newsweek swallowing every pronouncement that the brilliant team of Nixon and Kissinger would end the war in a fortnight. GOP ads that shoveled lies that the party gleefully continued to run even after they'd been fact-checked and proven to be bullshit (the American people don't read The Times, they watch Bonanza). The campaign press, used as both prop and foil by a Republican who can plead victimhood even as he uses them to maintain the narrative his campaign has concocted.

And a Democratic Party that knows that it just has to win. Voter registration drives! Huge rally crowds. It would be unthinkable for the American voters to elect such an evil crook, a fascistic simpleton, a megalomaniacal liar, or a lightweight crank.

It all sounds familiar. The methodology is still in use today.

Believe me, if you live in Minnesota and you're having trouble finding salad greens in the grocery store later this month, it will be because the Republican Party has bought up the supply to hand out at the convention in Minneapolis so conventioners can wave the leaves and shout "Obama's arugula. Obama's elite." The TV cameras will soak it up.

Groovy

I'm with Digby on this. Not only has McCain made the contrast between his years in captivity and...I dunno...free love... a central tenet of his campaign, it's the only tenet*.

ACCURACY Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, at whom this spot takes veiled swipes, was turning 6 years old during the “summer of love,” and cannot be counted as among those who protested or indulged while Mr. McCain suffered (unless playing with building blocks counts). Mr. McCain’s military service and the torture he endured in Vietnam are well established. Mr. McCain did indeed buck his party’s leadership in helping to draft new campaign finance regulations, though he and his supporters are now being accused of exploiting loopholes to compete with Mr. Obama, who has opted out of the campaign finance system. His moves against Congressional earmarks and wasteful government spending are well known. But Mr. McCain has more recently found new areas of agreement with President Bush and other party leaders, like pledging to make permanent the tax cuts he twice voted against and lifting a ban against offshore drilling that he once supported.

However, we can not question whether getting shot down is a qualification for president. That would be mean.

But the larger question is, will fighting the battles of the 1960s still resonate with undecided voters. Perhaps so; perhaps revulsion with the DFHs, the Panthers, and feminists burning their bras is still powerful. Or perhaps most people will just say, "WTF?"

The results of Nixonland are still with us. But the battles and events that led to our polarization are now so remote as to barely be remembered, if the voter was even born then. So, like Obama, they were unAmerican enough to have failed to be old enough to have been in Vietnam.

Or Woodstock.



* Oh, and fear.

I immediately grabbed my hat!

Haven't had much chance to engage in web logging ("blogging") today, but when I read about the freed hostages I was overjoyed for the captives and their families, but thought, there's a lot more here than is being reported. For instance, what a coincidence (helpful of the NY Times to point that out for us rubes) that John McCain would be in Columbia (during a hotly contested U.S. presidential campaign) just as it was about to take place.

On Thursday, three American officials in Washington, speaking on the condition of anonymity while citing the sensitivity of the assistance, confirmed that the United States provided intelligence to support the operation. They offered few details about the intelligence support, but one intelligence official said that the United States provided satellite imagery to the Colombian government as it planned the operation.

In addition, according to this official, the Colombians for some weeks have also been able to eavesdrop on communications of the FARC leadership — the result of successfully penetrating the group’s communications network.

According to an American indictment against Gerardo Antonio Aguilar Ramirez, the man known as “Cesar” who was captured Wednesday, FARC leaders often communicated through radio call centers located in the Colombian town of Villavicencio.

“These centers have the technical capacity to receive calls from FARC members using short-range radios, and to patch them through to the more advanced and long-range land line and cellular phone network operating in the more urban parts of Colombia,” the indictment reads.

Colombian officials first broached detailed plans for their secret rescue mission to American officials about two weeks ago, top diplomats and officials from both countries said.

“We’ve been working this very closely with the government of Colombia now for about two weeks,” William Brownfield, the United States ambassador to Colombia said on CNN’s “Larry King Live” Wednesday night.

Mr. Brownfield said that while the Colombians planned and executed the operation, the United States provided important intelligence, planning and technical assistance.

“We were able to cooperate,” Mr. Brownfield said. “We were able to endorse. We were able to share our own experiences, and some small bits of equipment for this particular operation.”

"We were able to endorse," Mr. Brownfield said.

To repeat, I'm overjoyed for the victims and their families, and I'm conscious that I sound like a member in good standing of the tinfoil hat community, but, shit, if all it took to fool FARC was to dress up in a Che t-shirt... I mean, fuck the heck??

Nixonland, vol. XXXX

In Rick Perlstein's remarkable history of the late 1960s political upheavals, Nixonland, he describes a Richard Nixon obsessed with -- and profiting by -- his battle of the Franklins vs the Orthegonians -- the "elite" vs. the "strivers." Karl Rove understands this impulse.

Karl Rove's latest to Republicans about how to message on Obama ...

"Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by."

Even if the the country clubs where Rove is welcome wouldn't be a very welcoming place to Obama.

Nixonland

I've been reading Rick Perlstein's fantastic Nixonland. So it's not a surprise to see how an African-American presidential candidate, no matter how accomplished, well-educated, conciliatory, and ground-breaking, would prompt the culture warriors to roll out language from the 1960s.

An Obama presidency would signal the final salvo by the Left in the culture wars. Obama’s advance troops have already taken over our college campuses, have bound and gagged our conservative professors, have ravished our virgins, have pillaged our stores of wisdom, and have ensconced themselves in the thrones of power in deans’, presidents’ and department heads’ offices.

In other words, guard your daughters, 'cause the coloreds are comin'.

And remember, white folks, we're the aggrieved ones.

For decades, teachers have been inculcating an alternative tradition and belief system. The beliefs may be based on such amorphous and sophistical ideas as “social justice,” “tolerance,” and “multiculturalism,” the traditions may lead back to the communist ideology of the nineteenth century and then through the heyday of radicalism in the sixties, but the means for inculcation are entrenched.

The conservative traditions and beliefs, in contrast, are rarely to be found in college syllabi and high school textbooks. Obama connects with audiences because they have been primed for him and his message. Obama, with his scantly [sic] resume, is an affirmative action candidate. But his record as a “community organizer” places him at an advantage with those who believe in “social activism” in the classroom.

"Social justice" -- you know what that means. I'm sure the rumors about handing out AK47s on the South Side will be proven true any day now.

I suppose we should laugh at this, it is Clown Hall, after all. But this is just the extreme fringe of a tact the RNC and their talking monkeys will take in the next few months. Expect to hear a lot about "rising crime" and affirmative action.

Speaking of their talking monkeys.

Bloodiness

Expect more of this kind of thing.

Kathleen Parker, wresting the Douchebag of Liberty mantle from Robert Novak.

But Ms. Parker...fuck you.