Gates, the Nixon niche, and more
Catching up on summer stories
Gates, the Nixon niche, and more
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
Regarding a few events that transpired in my absence:
The arrest of black Harvard academician Henry Louis Gates Jr. blew up into a national story, thanks largely to President Obama's ill-considered decision to wax loquacious on the matter. Not that you asked, but here's my take: Gates was wrong to mouth off to the cop. Not morally wrong, just tactically wrong. Given his admirable lifelong sensitivity to racial injustice, Gates arguably held the moral high ground when faced with the embarrassment of producing an ID in his own home. But, as Colin Powell rightly noted on CNN yesterday, it's generally not wise to heap verbal abuse on a cop. A cop has a gun and a badge - and, quite often, a very flexible notion of what constitutes "disorderly conduct." As Gates quickly learned, you can get arrested on that charge if you're pushing 60, walking with a cane, and yelling at a cop on your own property, without ever presenting a physical threat. That's indeed what can happen when you diss a cop and challenge his authority. Gates would have been better off cooperating in the moment...and reserving the right to sue later.
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Watch how grassroots liberals react in the days ahead to the health care reform process on Capitol Hill. Democratic negotiators, in their quest for some kind of bipartisan measure, seem increasingly willing to jettison some of the provisions that liberals deem crucial to the cause of reform - namely, any government-run "public option" health plan, and any language that would require employers to provide health care. If a watered-down reform package ultimately passes and Obama signs it, will liberal voters register their ire by staying home on congressional election day 2010? It's worth recalling that liberal base apathy helped sink Bill Clinton and the Democrats in the '94 congressional elections, following the Clinton health care debacle.
But in fairness to Obama, he's stuck on defense at the moment, trying to assuage the public's most irrational fears about health care reform. During a town hall meeting yesterday, somebody actually asked him whether government bureaucrats would go to door requiring people to fill out forms on how they wanted to die. Obama had to spend valuable time hosing down that ridiculous notion: "You know, I guarantee you, first of all, we just don't have enough government workers to send to talk to everybody, to find out how they want to die...I just want to be clear: Nobody is going to be knocking on your door; nobody is going to be telling you you've got to fill one out. And certainly nobody is going to be forcing you to make a set of decisions on end-of-life care based on some bureaucratic law in Washington."
How bold can Obama afford to be on health reform, when there are citizens who actually think this way?
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Sarah Palin is clearly planning her future and bidding for the GOP's Dick Nixon niche. In her farewell to the governor's job that she adbicated this past weekend, she customized her pitch to the party's conservative populist base, stoking its longstanding cultural resentments. She went after "the media" and "Hollywood" and other "elites," contending at one point that these purportedly monolithic forces are "hell bent maybe on tearing down our nation." (I love the maybe.) There was a line about how the tear-down conspirators like to employ "delicate, tiny, very talented celebrity starlets" to assault the Second Amendment's right to bear arms, which is all a bit rich, considering the fact that Palin would be nowhere if not for her cachet as a celebrity starlet. She understands, however, that an inarticulate, policy-lite politician can potentially go far merely by stoking visceral emotions, reigniting the old culture war, and laying claim to the Nixon-Agnew template circa 1968.
On that score, she's already hard-wired to conservative Republicans, and rivals for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination will succeed only if they can sever her connection to the base.
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The Los Angeles Times ran an interesting weekend interview with Ted Olson, the conservative legal eagle best known for successfully arguing the Bush campaign's case in front of the U.S. Supreme Curt, in the matter of Bush v. Gore. After Bush took office, Olson was rewarded with the job of U.S. Solicitor General. His current passion, however, is very different. He's teaming up with his Bush v. Gore antagonist, Democratic lawyer David Boies, to map a federal court strategy that will culminate in the legalization of gay marriage.
...But wait. Didn't Bush cement his '04 re-election by riding the wave of anti-gay marriage referenda in swing states? And how can Olson reconcile his new crusade with the reality that the GOP's social and religious conservatives remain adamantly opposed to gay marriage?
His answer: "This is about human rights and human decency and constitutional law...I hope some people will open their eyes to the decency of getting to the point where we allow gay and lesbian individuals to be married and have a happy life...It is a conservative value to respect the relationship that people seek to have with one another, a stable, committed relationship that provides a backbone for our community, for our economy. I think conservatives should value that."
Either Ted Olson has the correct read on true conservatism, or he has joined forces with the delicate, tiny Hollywood starlets who (in Palin's read on conservatism) are hell-bent on tearing down our nation. "Maybe."
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The latest New Jersey political scandal - which has resulted in 44 arrests (including three mayors, five rabbis, and two assemblymen), with disproportionate impact on Democratic big shots (including a top Democratic strategist who conveniently turned up dead yesterday) - is juicy enough to further complicate Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine's uphill re-election bid in 2009. He could be judged guilty by association, as candidate of the seamy status quo.
But forget politics for a moment, and consider this:
If only David Chase hadn't condemned Tony Soprano to eternal vigilance in that Jersey restaurant, he could have tapped this juicy scandal (the bribes, the diner meetings, the money-laundering rabbis) and mapped an entirely new season.
...But wait, never mind. The show had corrupt Hasidic Jews in season two, and assemblyman Ronald Zellman had a sweet stake with Tony in the Museum of Science and Trucking.
So I guess Life imitates Art - as Corzine may discover to his detriment in November.
Yippee! ***According to Ken Rosenthal at FOXSports.com, the Phillies and Indians have agreed on a deal that will send pitcher Cliff Lee and outfielder Ben Francisco to Philadelphia in exchange for Jason Knapp, Carlos Carrasco and two other prospects.***— NEPhilly- You know, in this debate about health care, one central issue has struck me. The other day, someone commented using statistics and the small percentage of people in the U.S. without health care coverage. His point was that the percentage is very small, and that evil liberals are always interested in sacrificing the majority for the minority. My reaction to that is simply to say that if he (or I) were part of that small minority without coverage, and one of us contracted cancer or some other serious disease, wouldn't we want to have it treated aggressively? Would we feel like we don't count because we are part of a small minority? Being dismissive of people just rubs me the wrong way.— NigeltheMastiff
- Vandy - first of all, no, arresting him was over reacting. Secondly, you are asserting "Police respond and demand to see identification when coming upon said man in the home. When asked to speak with the officer outside, the egotistical Harvard professor then shouts, "yeah, I'll speak with your mama outside." " My point was that there are other things in the police report that are being hotly disputed. Why should this be more or less true? The charges were dropped because there was nothing to them. Unless Gates either verbally or physically threatened him, once his ID was established, the cop should have just left. Period. Gates acted stupidly. So did the police.— still_independent
- NEPhilly: firast on health care - you're looking at a study of two types of cancers, and projecting one aspect of that (5 year survival rates) to the entire healthcare industry. And leaving cost out of the analysis. I could also show you studies that the "mammogram craze" (since you mentioned it) is largely a waste of money in this country - we do them too early, too often for those with no history or risk factors. But of course, we pay by the mammogram... As far as Phillies - BOOO. That means no Halladay.— still_independent
- still, it was my 1st crack at finding some basis to back up my claim that 'you survive longer from a nasty disease here, than over there'! I will try and find some more backup:) Although I am upset to not get Halladay, I am excited to keep Happ and Drabek and add an AL CY Young award winner to the rotation, no?— NEPhilly
- NEphilly: he's nice for a plan B. Lat year was his only really good season, though.— still_independent
- still, Lee, the 2008 AL Cy Young winner who turns 31 next month, is having another solid season for the Indians, posting a 3.14 ERA while walking just 33 in 152 innings. He will make $8 million in 2010 and then be eligible for free agency.— NEPhilly
- NE--thank you for inviting me to paste my responses to you here. You're a gentleman and a scholar. To wit:Reporting statistics from Glasgow to illustrate European health care is hilarious to a Brit (to whom I relayed this) since Glasgow is all-out the unhealthiest place in Europe. It's mostly diet and exercise at work. As for waiting times, in the English system (which incidentally I wouldn't recommend for the US--the French and German systems, on which both the Clinton and Obama programs are modeled, are better) there' virtually no waiting for primary care, preventive care or diagnosis. Doctors even make house calls. The waiting comes in elective procedures. I can't find any statistics on how this compares with US practices, but most Brits think that theirs are longer than ours. The purpose of these waits, of course, is to save money by avoiding the duplication of facilities that we have in the US. We are moving in that direction already, in the private as well as the public sector, so I think our short waiting times are going to become a historical relic, except of course for people who can pay to "jump the queue." Report abuse Posted by liberal 03:00 PM, 07/29/2009 NE--I'm confused. Do you or don't you want to have a healthcare system that allows you and your family to get the best care, even if everybody doesn't have this? That's the system we have here now. And, as I mentioned in my post, that's the system in England, too, which has socialized medicine. So what's the issue for you?— liberal
- NEPhilly: solid, not great. 7-9. Last four seasons, Lee (48-31, 3.77 ERA, 472 K, 161 BB). Halladay (63-26, 3.12 ERA, 600 K, 141 BB). Again, Lee's a nice upgrade, but definitely not nearly as good a pitcher. Both pitchers had one more year left.— still_independent
- lib, i was inviting you and sully to repost from the last blog as I was posting to both and wanted to be fair:) I was just answering sully's post and the Scotland thing came up 1st on google, but I agree it was not very pertinent! The 2nd article, which sully is discrediting & I posted some of it above, more proved my point that if you have a terrible, life threatening disease, your chances to survive are greater in the US healthcare system than any other! I am looking for more examples. Why not just make tweaks to that system, as far as cost controls, extending coverage & primary care delivery systems (ER compared to a clinic) rather than tear up a system that works for 80-90% of the country?— NEPhilly
Comment removed.
You forgot Tony's friend Hesh.— georgel- "Vandy - first of all, no, arresting him was over reacting." That's a subjective statement, and I'm afraid that's where we'll have to agree to disagree, Still. Simply looking at the picture, you don't see cops swarming over Gates to physically throw him down, which would have unequivocally been overreacting. You see Gates screaming at cops who are hardly overreacting to anything. http://www.thebostonchannel.com/education/20136545/detail.html#— Vandy
- As far as the Gates bruhaha goes, it seems to me that what we have here are two egotistical, testosterone-filled males who got into a name-calling match. I think they both behaved badly. But arresting someone in his own home after he has presented proof of identity seems to go too far. Does rudeness justify an arrest? Seems to me they both need to grow up a bit.— NigeltheMastiff
- "Does rudeness justify an arrest?" No, Nigel, I don't believe it does. However, I firmly believe that showing contempt for those in charge of upholding and enforcing the law does justify it.— Vandy
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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