Holmes & Co.

Worth reading

Posted on May 16, 2008 by Rick Holmes
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Not much blogging for me today: Busy working on print stuff for the weekend (watch for Obama, McCain and the post-American world Sunday) and trying to get away for the weekend.

So read Peggy Noonan, who writes about the disastrous state of the national GOP without the gloating that would slip into anything I would say:

But this week a House Republican said publicly what many say privately, that there is another truth. “Members and pundits . . . fail to understand the deep seated antipathy toward the president, the war, gas prices, the economy, foreclosures,” said Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia in a 20-page memo to House GOP leaders.

The party, Mr. Davis told me, is “an airplane flying right into a mountain.” Analyses of its predicament reflect an “investment in the Bush presidency,” but “the public has just moved so far past that.” “Our leaders go up to the second floor of the White House and they get a case of White House-itis.” Mr. Bush has left the party at a disadvantage in terms of communications: “He can’t articulate. The only asset we have now is the big microphone, and he swallowed it.”

By the way, one little-noted angle on the results of this week’s special House election, the third Republican seat this year won by a Democrat: In deep-red Mississippi, three out of four House seats are now held by Democrats.

And read David Brooks, who is working the same Obama foreign policy waters I’ve been swimming in and finds an affinity for the work of Bush the first:

Obama being Obama, he understood the broader reason I was asking about Lebanon. Everybody knows that Obama is smart (and he was quite well informed about Lebanon). The question is whether he’s seasoned and tough enough to deal with implacable enemies.

“The debate we’re going to be having with John McCain is how do we understand the blend of military action to diplomatic action that we are going to undertake,” he said. “I constantly reject this notion that any hint of strategies involving diplomacy are somehow soft or indicate surrender or means that you are not going to crack down on terrorism. Those are the terms of debate that have led to blunder after blunder.”

Obama said he found that the military brass thinks the way he does: “The generals are light-years ahead of the civilians. They are trying to get the job done rather than look tough.”

School Days School Days

Posted on May 15, 2008 by blogger
Filed Under Larry Bucaria | 4 Comments

I realize that most of our elected officials are properly motivated to do a good job. I have noticed that any attempt at criticism usually meets with raised eyebrows and charges of being anti-education. Whenever a prop 2 override concerning education is launched any opposition to it raises the question: Don’t you care about the education of our children?

In many public schools, cutbacks in programs like music, sports and language arts come across as a direct threat to any recommendation which begs the question: How come we’re suddenly in a budget crisis? I fully understand that good education comes with a hefty price tag which most of us are willing to support. There are, however, a few things which bother me. One is the use or misuse of our school busses.

I pick up my grandson from Walsh middle school and park just beyound the exit road. Every day I see at least eighteen busses depart with none filled to capacity; at least half partially filled and a few with three or four students aboard. All the busses are new and I was told, though I haven’t seen it for myself, that the busses are air-conditioned.

I don’t understand what seems to be a poorly utilized system which involves a large number of new busses and drivers . Does this condition exist in all of our schools? Further, do these busses require air-conditioning when they are not used in the summer? I would like to suggest that a private study be performed by experts in order to assure that this is the most cost-efficient method of transporting our kids especially with gas prices so high.

Small steps on small arms

Posted on May 15, 2008 by blogger
Filed Under Tom Driscoll | Leave a Comment

Business is business. That’s the saying and that must have been the thinking as the ship with 77 tons of weapons and ammunition left port in China. Rocket launchers, automatic weapons and grenades, belts and belts of ammo —all bound for Zimbabwe. Business is business after all and Zimbabwe is simply a trusted trading partner for the People’s Republic of China. The shipment of small arms and ammunition was both “prudent and responsible” as a transaction according to the Chinese government official asked to comment recently. You see there was some question, some concern as to how these arms would be used out there among the international community.

Not in China though.

So what if the massive shipment of weapons was being supplied to a nation that wasn’t at war or confronting any real security threat from a neighboring country? So what if the the guns set sail even as the government of Robert Mugabe “prepared” for national elections —as it had a long history of “preparing”—with brutal crackdowns on opposition political parties?

Business is business.

The arms sale deal was concluded in January. The shipment left China in March, and at first, as the the guns and ammo arrived in South Africa, the government there seemed to agree —that business was indeed business. Defense Secretary January Masilela commented that there was nothing irregular about the “transaction between two sovereign nations.” There was no basis in international law for South Africa to interfere.

Everything fitted into an elegant sequence. The Zimbabwe elections were “prepared” for and even as the results “remained pending” the weapons were on their way.

Then something strange happened. Read more

Dream ticket?

Posted on May 14, 2008 by Rick Holmes
Filed Under Rick Holmes | 4 Comments

Let’s get real. I want the Democrats to kiss and make up after all this is over, but putting Hillary on the ticket isn’t the way to do it.

People point to Kennedy and Johnson to prove rivals who hate each other can share a ticket. But they shared no trust once they were elected, and LBJ wasn’t an especially effective VP. Because of their animosity, the party, government and country split into competing camps after JFK’s assassination. It’s hard to imagine Obama and Hillary - and Bill - forming an effective team given their different agendas.

Besides, LBJ delivered Texas in 1960. Name one state that Hillary delivers where the Democrats wouldn’t be at least competitive without her. The VP pick is about winning the general election, not the primaries.

My choice for Obama’s running-mate: Wesley Clark. Brings gravitas, defense credibility and maybe Arkansas. Second choice: Bill Richardson and win the Rockies.

My choice for Hillary Clinton: Senate majority leader. Shove aside Harry, give Hillary some real power and see how she does.

Specter’s specter-redux

Posted on May 14, 2008 by blogger
Filed Under Larry Bucaria | 5 Comments

Senator Specter’s insistence to de-throne the New England Patriots has resurfaced. Specter’s malaise stems from the second rate performance of his Philadelphia Eagles and their failure to win another Super Bowl. This has propelled the delusionary senator into the throes of maniacal envy to the detrement of both the National Foolball League and the U.S. Senate. He now proposes tighter controls by the government to assure that all ethical standards of behavior are met.

Let’s go a bit further with his conjecture. Effective immediately, all video cameras and cell phone cameras should be banned from the playing field. Infractions would be punishable by stiff fines and the big house for first time offenders. Repeat offenses would cause loss of citizenship, confiscation of all assets, revocation of driving privileges and mandatory listening to all of the senator’s speeches. In this way, all fun associated with the game of football will be eliminated by senatorial dictate. Specter will then be assured that his sub-standard team will enjoy the utmost of respect and the Patriots will be reduced in stature.

The sad fact is that this august Republican senator has made himself the laughing stock of the sporting world. When the commissioner publicly states that he considers the case closed, why does this popinjay continue his tirade? Republicans always claim that they are for less government. Perhaps he has run on the wrong ticket. With Congress’s poor performance ratings being less than President Bush’s, why isn’t he more concerned with doing the work his constituents have elected him to do?

A word of advice for the good senator. Try scrubbing with your Eagles during the next practice session. Only please don’t wear a helmet.

The next speaker?

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Rick Holmes
Filed Under Rick Holmes, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

I’ve watched the Massachusetts House of Representatives from a distance for a long time, but I don’t claim to understand it. It always strikes me as one star politician surrounded by 159 extras. That must be why the House’s constant obsession is “who’ll be the next speaker?” - while the political/media class watches for clues to the subterranean maneuvers like Cold War era Kremlinologists.

I wrote an editorial last week complaining that, while the House appears intensely focused on whether John Rogers or Robert DeLeo will succeed Speaker Sal DiMasi - who insists he’s going nowhere - the people of Massachusetts are entirely left out of the process. Here’s an excerpt (full editorial here):

Does anyone know the differences between DeLeo and Rogers on matters of process, politics or policy? Does anyone know their priorities, has anyone seen their competing visions for the commonwealth? Do constituents have any chance to lobby their representatives on the most significant vote they will cast? No. The Beacon Hill gang is engaged in a political power play, one which the people aren’t even invited to watch.

In Norwood, Rogers read the editorial in our Dedham Daily Transcript. In Waltham, Rep. Tom Stanley, a Rogers supporter, read it in our News Tribune. They agreed, or at least saw an opportunity. Stanley called and offered to bring Rogers in for a visit. Read more

Kinder, gentler?

Posted on May 12, 2008 by blogger
Filed Under Tom Driscoll | 7 Comments

I caught back to back airings of the two-part American Experience documentary on George H. W. Bush this past weekend. My sense of the work was that it might have been a bit kinder and gentler with the old guy than was entirely appropriate. It had that all is forgiven air about it you get with obituaries —and he ain’t dead yet. Still the folks who put the documentary together had a couple of interesting arguments they advanced about politics and statesmanship.

Bush, the elder was described as being a part of the old school “wise men” tradition of the G.O.P. that saw a certain value in —dare I say it —a kind of elitism. The assumption was that an elite became an elite because it was …well, elite. It was about competence, even excellence. This involved an understanding of privilege bound to an ethic of responsibility. The Reagan revolution threw a lot of that thinking out on it’s ear and succeeded in shaking loose a constituent part of the electorate. The old wise men had had an unfortunate tendency to talk above the hardhats. Reagan found real reward in talking down to them.

The American Experience film makers made particularly powerful use of footage from Reagan’s famous “I paid for this microphone” moment. Bush was poignantly helpless in the face of Reagan’s theatrics. Watching the footage of him, almost thirty years later, you can still feel his pain. Bush would have to eat his critique of “voodoo economics” and, in the words of Daniel Webster, submit himself for premature “burial” in the office of the Vice President. For me the real drama of the documentary was in the story of George H.W. Bush’s emergence from that crypt.
Read more

London Calling

Posted on May 11, 2008 by blogger
Filed Under Rob Meltzer | 15 Comments

In today’s paper, Gwynne Dyer, a syndicated columnist I usually trust and respect, leans back on his throne in London and imperiously proclaims Obama the next United States president. But then he goes on to note, as many of us have on this blog, that President Obama comes to office having not identified many substantive policies during his campaign. By my count last night, writers on this blog have been telling us that Obama has made endless policy statements if only we bother to read them. We then point out that his words are not policy statements, but declarations that change will come. When we object that this is not “policy,” the other foks tell us that we are just being racist, or that we lack reading comprehension or something else. But Dyer has now confirmed the fundamental point–there is no there there. During the run up to the Iraq War, I had the same uneasy feeling that I have now about the general media treatment of the issue and the general popular impression of the issue at hand. Remember when Iraq was going to be a cakewalk? Remember peace breaking out all over? Remember the guaranty that weapons of mass destruction would be found? Remember the platitudes that supported the neo con concept of regime change and the justification for preemptive war? Remember how wrong the media, and much of the population was? Well, that’s how I feel right now. Dyer sits in London and declares the race all but over. Many of the syndicated columnists do the same. It’s all over but the final counting. And, like in 2003, little old me, sitting here in the middle of nowhere, has the audacity to hope that there is beef behind the hot air. True, I haven’t talked to every voter. On the other hand, in the past year I have talked to enough voters in enough states to notice the same dissonance now as 2003 between what voters are saying, and what the media is saying, and between political experts, and what the media is saying. Buried in this whole mess is the constant assertion by many on this blog that I just don’t want Obama to win. On the contrary, I desperately want a democrat to win. In fact, it probably is more important to my life on a day to day basis than for most of the people on this blog. A democrat in the White House means judicial appointments, and I am heartily sick of Bush and Romney appointees, who I am forced to deal with on day to day basis. Bring on some young, liberal judges. But I don’t believe Obama is the best hope for this party, or my selfish hope for a democratic president. I still think Clinton has a better shot than Obama, and I am so tired of watching the democratic party commit suicide. So, look at Dyer’s column, and if you agree with him that Obama does not bring any meat to the table, question the conclusion that the American people want to eat with him.

It’s up to Hillary

Posted on May 10, 2008 by Rick Holmes
Filed Under Rick Holmes | 10 Comments

I’ve got a cartoon in my head: Bad Hillary holding Obama from behind, with a gun pointed at his head, saying “Nominate me or I kill the puppy.”

I can’t draw, but I work with someone who does. He likes Hillary though, and Obama people have to tread carefully these days. You don’t want to set them off.

Peggy Noonan has no such compunctions:

In a jaw-dropping interview in USA Today on Thursday, she said, “I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on.” As evidence she cited an Associated Press report that, she said, “found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.” Read more

The “Straight Talk Express” in Hollywood

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Rick Holmes
Filed Under Rick Holmes | 19 Comments

OK, it’s gossip, not policy, but this kind of thing is gradually eroding McCain’s reputation as a straight shooter. Chowing down with the Hollywood elite at Arianna Huffington’s mansion shortly after the 2000 election, McCain allegedly said he hadn’t voted for Bush. Cindy McCain said she wrote in John’s name.

Both John and Cindy deny the story. Top McCain aide Mark Salter got nasty, calling Huffington “a flake and a poser and an attention-seeking diva.” Huffington responded by having two other dinner guests, “West Wing” stars Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff, call the NYT. Here’s how Whitford, who was sitting across from McCain, recalls the conversation:

“McCain was just sort of going off on how much he disliked Bush and the horrible things that the Bush campaign had done to his family in South Carolina, and his exasperation with Bush about his ridiculous tax cuts and he really wanted to talk to him about it, but he said the guy doesn’t have the concentration, and you talk for 10 minutes and then the guy wants to talk about baseball.”

Now that’s the McCain I like.

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