Best of the Web Today - July 22, 2005
Best of the Web is off today. In its place, we offer a free sample of Political Diary, the editorial page's daily, subscription e-mail newsletter on American politics (to subscribe to Political Dairy: politicaldiary.com). James Taranto returns on August 1.
In today's Political Diary:
o Judge Rules for Incumbency
o Roberts a Shoo-in?
o Corzine vs. Codey
o Consultants Plan to Get Rich in Michigan Next Year
o Two Front War (Quote of the Day I)
o It's the Hatred, Stupid (Quote of the Day II)
o Kentucky DOT and Bureau of Prisons to Merge
Feudal System Defended
A California judge's decision that a legislative redistricting proposal cannot go on the state's ballot this November throws Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's reform agenda into turmoil. California's Democratic legislators will dance in the streets if the state Supreme Court upholds the lower court's decision: Their gerrymandered political fiefdoms will be safe.
If the redistricting initiative is removed from the ballot, the governor's political supporters will have handed opponents the means by which it was killed. Democratic Attorney General Bill Lockyer leaped to file a lawsuit challenging the initiative when he learned that the version submitted to him was worded differently from the version used in the petition drive to qualify for the ballot. The differences between the two versions included about a half-dozen word changes and two sections where the deadlines were changed for putting together the panel of retired judges that would do the redistricting. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Gail Ohanesian ruled that the changes "go to the substantive terms of the measure."
Supporters disagree, and argue that the minor discrepancies should not be used to usurp the will of the million people who signed petitions to put redistricting reform on the November ballot. Indeed, the California Supreme Court has traditionally been reluctant to remove an initiative from the ballot, having done so only six times in the state's history. Usually, the court waits for voter approval before deciding an initiative's constitutionality.
But on the occasions when the court has indeed struck a measure from the ballot, the subject has frequently been redistricting. By a 5 to 2 vote (with then-Justice Janice Rogers Brown dissenting), the court ruled in 1999 that Proposition 24 violated a state constitutional rule limiting initiatives to a single subject. In 1983, the court -- then led by Chief Justice Rose Bird -- removed a reapportionment initiative that would have preserved the integrity of communities in the design of districts. If Governor Schwarzenegger's current plan fails to pass court muster, you can put down California's gerrymander as a political animal with nine lives.
-- John Fund
Not Very 'Extraordinary'
Liberal groups have been stockpiling millions of dollars along with voodoo dolls and vats of hot tar in preparation for a war over President Bush's Supreme Court nominee. But with the naming of Judge John Roberts, many of them feel all dressed up for battle with a popgun of a war to go to. Moderate Democratic Senators signaled yesterday that unless some bizarre revelation creates "extraordinary circumstances" that makes a filibuster feasible, Judge Roberts is unlikely to be blocked. One Democratic political consultant told me Judge Roberts "was the best stealth nominee I've ever seen."
Not that the liberal groups will give up. Their donors and most fervent allies will demand a Pickett's charge against Judge Roberts, based on their firm conviction that it's dangerous to let him on the high court because his pleasant, easy-going manner could seduce liberal justices in much the same way that the late William Brennan often convinced conservative justices to join his opinions.
The fight against Judge Roberts is likely to center on a battle over the confidential memos he wrote while he was in the Justice Department during the administration of the first President Bush. Similar demands for documents helped derail the nomination of John Bolton as President Bush's pick to be ambassador to the United Nations. Republicans will paint attempts to force release of those lawyer-client documents as an effort to delay the nomination. "We got bushwhacked with Bolton because Democrats kept raising the bar on disclosure," one top GOP Senate aide told me. "This time outside groups will have millions of dollars to spend on TV ads showing just how unreasonable the Democratic Senators are if they pull that stunt again."
-- John Fund
Hmmm, What Would Tony Soprano Do?
The biggest question among New Jersey Democrats is: Should Jon Corzine win the governor's race this November, how will his rivalry with current Acting Governor and Senate President Richard Codey stir up state politics? At issue is Mr. Corzine's U.S. Senate seat. There's no doubt that his seat will remain in Democratic hands -- he'll return to the Senate if he loses. If he wins, he'll appoint his own successor, and his rival, Mr. Codey, says he wants the job.
Tension between the two dates to this year's primary campaign. Mr. Corzine used his fortune to win over party bosses and block Mr. Codey from seeking the gubernatorial nomination. Mr. Codey took a dive rather than get bloodied in a fight he couldn't win. With Mr. Corzine leading Republican Doug Forrester by 10 points, Democrats who backed Mr. Corzine are now salivating for his Senate gig.
It's hard to imagine Mr. Codey returning to the state senate as Mr. Corzine's legislative majordomo. That's not a great job for a man who's now had a taste of heading two branches of government simultaneously, and who clearly loves the attention and influence the dual role brings him. Mr. Corzine is rightly worried: Mr. Codey is currently the state's most popular politician and could cause problems for a Gov. Corzine if not kept happy. Should Mr. Codey be appointed to the U.S. Senate, look for a short-lived honeymoon as he uses the new position to pursue his own gubernatorial ambitions.
Should Mr. Forrester win the governorship instead, Mr. Codey then becomes the strongest player of his party, returning to the state senate as a popular former governor and a natural candidate for governor in 2009. Either way, the Corzine-Codey story isn't over.
-- Christian Knoebel
Billionaire vs. the Million-Dollar Smile
Michigan's hypersensitive Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm recently denounced Republican State Rep. Rick Baxter as "treasonous" after he had the temerity to point out in the Wall Street Journal the devastating effect of Michigan's tax burden on local businesses. Economic issues will doubtlessly remain at the fore of the 2006 gubernatorial race, when Gov. Granholm's incumbency will be challenged by billionaire Dick DeVos, a former Amway president whose father helped found the company.
Mr. DeVos announced his candidacy in June and is the prohibitive favorite for the nomination, barring unlikely challenges from Representative Candice Miller and c-list celebrity Ted Nugent. In addition to revitalizing Michigan's enervated economy -- on this point Mr. DeVos has described himself as embodying "the entrepreneurial spirit the state needs" -- his stated priorities include reforming education and introducing school choice.
One of Michigan wealthiest residents, Mr. DeVos and his family -- along with the family of another Amway founder, the late Jay Van Andel -- have been the state GOP's most generous donors. His wife, Betsy DeVos, served as chairwoman of the state party last year. Michigan Democrats wasted no time in attacking Mr. DeVos as a right-wing corporate fatcat. He "supports free trade, despite how it has hurt Michigan," shrieked party chairman Mark Bremer. The Democratic chief also accused Mr. DeVos of exporting jobs to China while he was at Amway, characterizing him as "somebody who could have invested in Michigan and chose not to."
Not surprisingly, a poll earlier this month put Gov. Granholm ahead of the largely unknown Mr. DeVos, 51% to 33%. Less heartening for the incumbent, 52% of Michiganders thought the state was "on the wrong track," while 46% thought the economy had worsened since Gov. Granholm took office.
All the ingredients are in place for one of the most expensive, nasty gubernatorial races in the country. The shine may have gone off Ms. Granholm as a Democratic wunderkind, but she remains a gifted fundraiser, with $2.6 million already in the bank for next year's campaign. Her political action committee was a top donor to the state Democratic Party the last time around -- second only to the Michigan Trial Lawyers Association. At a July 11 fundraiser, Gov. Granholm invited her "maxers" -- those individuals who have donated the maximum allowed under Michigan campaign finance laws -- to join her in watching MLB's Home Run Derby. "With the election just over a year away, and having a challenger facing off against us with a seemingly inexhaustible amount of funding," her campaign wrote, "we need you... to 'step up to the plate' to bring the governor one step closer to reelection."
Mr. DeVos may be the billionaire, but his opponent is an all-time Golden Glover when it comes to scooping up the dollars to fund her political goals.
-- Joe Rago
Quote of the Day I
"Yes, our engagement in Iraq has increased the risk that we will be attacked but that fact in no way instructs us to get out of Iraq or the Middle East. On the contrary it makes it more urgent than ever that we win there... The right way to tackle that view is not to indulge it, sympathise with it or nurse it, but to correct it. The right way to deal with anti-American and anti-British sentiment in the Muslim world is not to pull out our troops from Iraq and beg forgiveness, but to continue to fight there on behalf of the majority of good Muslims for the kind of country they need and deserve" -- London Times columnist Gerard Baker (www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,19269-1703621,00.html).
Quote of the Day II
"The killers always allege particular gripes -- Australian troops in Iraq, Christian proselytizing, Hindu intolerance, occupation of the West Bank, theft of Arab petroleum, the Jews, attacks on the Taliban, the 15th-century reconquest of Spain, and, of course, the Crusades. But in most cases -- from Mohamed Atta, who crashed into the World Trade Center, to Ahmed Sheik, the former London School of Economics student who planned the beheading of Daniel Pearl, to Magdy Mahmoud Mustafa el-Nashar, the suspected American-educated bomb-maker in London -- the common bond is not poverty, a lack of education or legitimate grievance. Instead it is blind hatred instilled by militant Islam" -- historian Victor Davis Hanson, writing in the Washington Times (www.washtimes.com/commentary/20050721-093747-1994r.htm).
Office Politics Are Stalking Horse for Kentucky Wannabe
A special grand jury impaneled by Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo, a Democrat, last week handed down another round of indictments of top Republicans in the state. Nearly a dozen GOPers, ranging from the state's party chairman to Gov. Ernie Fletcher's deputy chief of staff and the state's acting director of Transportation, now face misdemeanor charges that could land them in jail for up to a year.
At issue are alleged violations of state civil service laws that require promotions and firings to be based on merit, not politics. Gov. Fletcher's administration is accused, for instance, of firing the state DOT's deputy inspector general, Mike Duncan, because he's a Democrat who supported Ben Chandler in the state's 2003 gubernatorial election.
Yet some might wonder if the charges themselves are politically motivated. Mr. Duncan was let go during his six-month probationary period, when the merit system laws explicitly do not apply. Also, some of the charges related to his case were filed after the statute of limitations had expired. Indeed, the legal stakes may be small potatoes -- many expect the charges to be thrown out -- but the political stakes are higher than at the Kentucky Derby. Attorney General Stumbo has his own designs on the governor's mansion and is believed by GOPers to be using the indictments to pave the way for his election in two years.
Republicans are fighting back. Senate President David Williams showed up in court to lend "moral support" to the indicted Fletcher administration officials, telling reporters that the charges are "the biggest political farce I've seen in my 20-something years here in Frankfort. For 20-something years, not one Republican was ever hired into the Merit System. I guess these whistle blowers had sand in their whistles then."
Mr. Williams put his finger on the real issue: After a long period of Democratic dominance, the state bureaucracy is chock full of Democratic appointees who use every opportunity to cause trouble for their GOP bosses. Not content to fight this battle solely in the public relations arena, Gov. Fletcher has set up a 20-member task force to propose ways to fix a confused and contradictory civil service system established in the 1960s. The taskforce is due back with its recommendations in October, a few weeks after the next scheduled court proceeding in this case.
Just for good measure, last week Gov. Fletcher filled out the taskforce by placing Mr. Stumbo on it. That means if the AG wants to use the indictments to get his name in the news, he will simultaneously find himself on the front pages as part of a distinguished group finding fault with the laws he's been using to badger his political rivals. |
