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 tomorrow.
In today's Political Diary:
Phil Gramm Plumps Quietly to Be John Connolly II
New Jersey Republicans Plot a Comeback
Ohio Recount Drama Lacks a Leading Man
Old Man River Keeps on Rolling Rightward (Quote of the Day I)
Faith-Based vs. Handout-Based (Quote of the Day II)
'Newsman' Overlooks Elephant on the Sofa (Quote of the Day III)
Bushies Decline to Gloat at Home, But Gloating in Canada Is Something Else
Is Gramm Too Much of a Cracker for Treasury Slot?
Phil Gramm was one of the most visible and outspoken members of the U.S. Senate until his retirement last year. Then he almost dropped out of sight to focus on his new career as an investment banker in New York. But now the American Spectator reports he is quietly lobbying to replace John Snow if the treasury secretary should depart sometime in the next year or so.
While Mr. Gramm hails from Mr. Bush's native Texas, he and the president have never been particularly close. One White House aide tells me his colleagues worry that Mr. Gramm's background and Texas drawl might even further cement the public perception that the Bush administration wants little to do with the Northeast. But Mr. Gramm, a former Democrat and former professor of economics, does possess a keen mind and served as perhaps the Senate's leading champion of simplifying the tax code and creating private Social Security accounts, two Bush priorities. The White House could certainly use his heft on those issues.
Mr. Gramm, who co-authored the Gramm-Rudman spending limitation of the 1980s, also has credibility with the financial markets as an anti-spending deficit hawk. His appointment to the Treasury slot would signal that the administration was serious about attacking one of its signature weaknesses of its first term: out of control federal spending.
--John Fund
Corzine's Millions May Keep NJ Governorship Blue
New Jersey Republicans will gather in a Trenton hotel tomorrow to pick a new state chairman to lead them into next year's race for governor. Normally such an election would be a humdrum affair but not this time. Republicans scent an opportunity to make a political comeback after a decade of frittering away their control of the governorship and both houses of the state legislature with a do-nothing agenda. Rampant corruption -- a veteran Democratic state assemblyman pled guilty to bribery just this month -- and the tawdry resignation of Jim McGreevey as governor could provide the GOP with a chance to run as a reform party. President Bush also performed well in the state, losing by only six points to John Kerry, a marked improvement over the 16-point edge Al Gore had in 2000.
The two candidates for state chair represent fundamentally different approaches. Tom Wilson, a Trenton lobbyist, was an official in the administration of Governor Christie Whitman and has close ties to the party's consultants. Dick Kamin was a conservative state legislator in the early 1990s, but he has the support of two key moderates: Dick Zimmer, the party's 1996 Senate nominee, and Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen. Mr. Zimmer says Mr. Kamin's candidacy represents a chance for the party to "return to fundamentals" and avoid an image that its officials are "puppets of party bosses."
Whoever prevails tomorrow will have a stiff challenge despite the public's dissatisfaction with the status quo. Democratic Senator Jon Corzine, a former investment banker, is expected to announce his own bid for governor later this week. The last time he ran for statewide office, his 2000 U.S. Senate run, he dropped $60 million of his own money into the race. At that level of investment, New Jersey voters may decide to buy Mr. Corzine's argument that at least he wouldn't be a governor who could be bought.
--John Fund
Waiting for Godot in Ohio
Bloggers trying to fan a recount bonfire in Ohio have discovered a new link on the Kerry campaign website seeking contributions for a "General Election Legal and Accounting Compliance (aka Recount) Fund." Unfortunately, the link is nothing new, having been in place for weeks, a discovery that somewhat deflated hopes that Mr. Kerry will suddenly change course and formally contest the election results in Ohio. His absence from any lawsuit is the big hole in the legal effort to force a recount in the state.
There's no question, though, that there's a market out there for election-theft conspiracy theories, and a willingness to follow up with donations to groups that are to pay lip service to the conspiracy theories. Thus the People for the American Way has in Cleveland to resurrect 8,099 provisional ballots filed by voters who didn't fill them out properly or submitted them in the wrong precincts. Attorney Cliff Arnebeck, representing the activist groups Ohio Common Cause and the Alliance for Democracy, is also planning to file a lawsuit on Wednesday in the Ohio Supreme Court seeking a statewide recount on various grounds. Meanwhile, the national and state Democratic Parties continue to be committed to the artful straddle, lending subtle encouragement to the crazies while trying not to look pathetic in light of a national majority for George Bush. Mr. Kerry himself posted a video on his web site 10 days ago that could only have made admirers nostalgic for his nuanced positioning for/against the Iraq war: "Regardless of the outcome of this election," he declared, "once all the votes are counted -- and they will be counted -- we will continue to challenge this administration." (Huh?)
The Green and Libertarian parties remain the only parties who've officially demanded a recount, and both are undoubtedly raking in more dollars now than they ever did for the presidential campaigns. Last week, however, an Ohio judge threw cold water on their hopes, saying any recount decision would have to await formal certification of the election results on Dec. 3. When that happens, Ohio's Supreme Court can be expected quickly to throw a final shovel of dirt over the cause. Judging from previous precedents, the court is likely to find a fatal flaw in the plaintiffs' case -- to wit, the fact that the one candidate who might conceivably benefit, John Kerry, hasn't officially requested a recount.
Rev. Jesse Jackson on Sunday milked what may turn out to be the last dregs of publicity from the Ohio controversy. From the pulpit of a Columbus church, he demanded that the Ohio Supreme Court overturn the election result, intoning: "We can live with winning and losing. We cannot live with fraud and stealing."
--Holman W. Jenkins Jr.
Quote of the Day I
"Since 1912, whoever has won a plurality of states along the Mississippi has won the presidency. This year, a sense of Republicanism crept up the river. The president won Missouri -- which was always a toss-up state -- by more than seven percent. Iowa flipped in his direction, and in Minnesota and Wisconsin, we waited all night to find out that Kerry had just barely carried each of those states. In state legislatures, the story is even more dramatic: going from huge Democratic majorities in the Seventies to watching the GOP dominate in Missouri and Wisconsin. Only Illinois remains solidly in Democratic hands" -- pollster Peter Hart, quoted in Rolling Stone.
Quote of the Day II
"Republicans are building a different sort of alliance system. For decades, Democrats have built alliances of voters through government programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Support from believers in those programs has enabled the Democrats to dominate national politics for a long time. The Republicans, in shrinking government, have increasingly turned to churches as a way to build alliances and to do their recruiting in quiet ways; it often takes place below the radar screen of the media. That's one of the reasons the election presented some surprises for us" -- the Kennedy School's David Gergen, quoted in Rolling Stone.
Quote of the Day III
"Everybody is going to write what they're going to write, think what they're going to think, but we know the fact of the situation is, my stepping out of the anchor chair is not connected to the storm over the 60 Minutes weekday story ... this is separate and apart from that" -- CBS's Dan Rather, denying his retirement was related to the phony Bush National Guard memos, quoted in the New York Observer.
Bush Visits the Great Blue North
President Bush's visit to Canada tomorrow will be smoothed by signs that the rampant anti-Americanism exhibited by former Premier Jean Chretien's government has given way to a more pragmatic approach under his successor, Paul Martin.
Just this month, Mr. Martin chucked Carolyn Parris, a defiantly anti-American member of parliament, out of his Liberal Party after she appeared on a satirical TV show during which she stomped on a Bush doll with a devilish grin on her face. Previously, Ms. Parrish was best known for calling the U.S.-led forces in Iraq "a coalition of idiots" and referring to Canada's southern neighbors as "Damn Americans, I hate the bastards."
Mr. Bush hopes to make progress with Mr. Martin on lingering trade disputes Canada over mad cow disease and softwood lumber. He will also travel to Halifax to thank residents there for putting up thousand of Americans in their homes when their flights were stranded there after the 9-11 attacks. But the presidential outreach will go only so far. Mr. Bush has decided not to address Canada's parliament despite assurances that members would behave and listen respectfully. "We did not see the need and, frankly, we didn't want to be booed. There are other, better venues," a U.S. official told the Canadian Press wire service. |
