Politics and Press

The interaction of the press and politics; public diplomacy, and daily absurdities.

Jeff

Russell Feingold’s Presidential Ambitions: R.I.P.

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Senator Feingold (D, Wisconsin) has announced that he will not be running for President in 2008. I imagine Hillary has just heaved a huge sigh of relief.

Feingold joined Senator McCain in promulgating one of the great frauds on the American public in the guise of an Election Reform Bill. Maybe I was in a different country but I think I just witnessed one of the nastiest, most expensive midterm campaigns in American history. According to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics the cost is estimated at over $2.6 billion.  The 2000 election, which included the presidential race cost over $4.2 billion.  McCain and Feingold trumpeted their success in getting their bill passed but strangely do not say much about it in the face of the realities of current campaign spending, much of it on repulsive, insulting TV ads.

Another highlight of the Feingold record was his near-successful effort to close Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in 1993-4. Feingold was a freshman Senator who had run a campaign focused on trimming the federal budget and where better to start now that the Cold War was over?  (full disclosure: I was employed at the RFE/RL Research Institute from 1991-1994).  There is a long story here for future postings on  public diplomacy to this blog.  For now, it is enough to look at the sorry state of America’s public diplomacy program, the lack of a free press in Russia and many of its allied nations (Belarus, Uzbekistan, etc.), the emerging need for improved broadcasting to countries in the Middle East (incl. Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq) and the relatively low cost of surrogate international broadcasting as an historically effective tool of American foreign policy. Feingold never understood any of this and grandstanded his way through Senate hearings that included a mini-scandal related to salaries of some 14 managers of RFE/RL – and the fact that the then President of the Radios used company funds to have his piano tuned.

I suppose I am having a touch of schadenfreude here, but it is not in the interest of the United States to have as President a man who lacked basic understanding of the importance of soft power.

Chafee’s Senate Seat: R.I.P.

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Soon to be unemployed Senator Lincoln Chafee illustrates the problem with being a moderate Republican in a moderate state during the Bush/Cheney regime. In an Op Ed piece in today’s NY Times, Chafee complains that he lost because Cheney and Bush embarked on an “aggressively partisan agenda that included significant tax cuts, the abandonment of international agreements and a muscular, unilateral foreign policy” in spite of his personal letter to Cheney after the 2000 election begging for collaboration, moderation, etc.

Chafee’s letter was written after a meeting with Cheney attended by several moderate GOP Senators. What is of particular interest here is that one of them, Senator Jeffords of Vermont, smelled a big enough rat to leave the Republican Party.  Chafee was shocked to learn that “we seemed ready to return to the poisonous partisanship that marked the Republican-Congress — Clinton White House years.”

On which planet was Chafee living? Bush and Cheney had track records and their weaknesses were not exactly a secret to everyone else in Washington and a lot of people outside Washington.

Chafee is, by most reports, a decent sort – but on the evidence of this Od Ed piece he had no place in the Senate – he helped it organize itself to do Bush/Cheney’s bidding and now regrets “not be[ing] able to participate in the difficult, but critical, healing process that must take place in our government if Democrats and Republicans are going to solve the serious problems facing this great nation.”

We needed good Republicans but did not have enough of them that would buck the craziness and nastiness of the administration. The best thing that could come out of this election would be the return of the Republican Party to its roots of integrity, responsibility and seriousness.  Until then we can hope that the Chafees of the country continue to pay the price for their party membership.

Lame Duck Or Wounded Elephant?

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“It is only when the elephant has been attacked or wounded, that he becomes a dangerous enemy.” (from, The Bush Boys, by Captain Mayne Reid, [1856])

There is much talk in the press of checks and balances, and of the President’s expressed offer to cooperate with the victors in the election. Kiwi has suggested that one good test of this would be for the congress to pass legislation calling for an increased commitment to stem cell research.  Then see if he vetoes it.

But the most worrisome part of the current situation is foreign policy.  While there is a lot of talk about Baker-Hamilton dragging the president out of his fog of denial in Iraq, this President is a man who has commented that God chose him for the job and who is, by all reports, stubbornly committed to a foreign policy aimed at proving how big and strong we are.  This in spite of significant evidence that however big and strong we are it is not big and strong enough to handle Iraq, let along North Korea and Iran – short of using the very big and strong weapons.  But like that wounded elephant he has not much to lose now and if he chooses to bomb Iran – well, let the next guy (or gal) pick up whatever pieces are left.

We have had six years of the President telling us to be very, very scared.  Well, OK – now I am – well – at least worried.

TV Election Coverage Through a Jaundiced Eye

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The current Low Post section of Rolling Stone’s online site has Matt Taibbi’s diary notes made while watching the election results on TV.  These are not for the young or the pious; they are for the news junkie who wonders why they fell asleep early last Tuesday night. Politicsandpress commented on the mindlessness of TV coverage in its earlier blog: “TV or Not TV”.  But Taibbi managed to stay awake long enough to provide greater detail.  Read and laugh and/or weep.

Spanking Jumbo*

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There is little to add to the words from all quarters about the election.  But a few random thoughts;

Much of the press’s analysts (sic) began almost immediately asking what the new Democrat-controlled party will do about Iraq. Their thinking (sic again) seems to be that since they don’t like what Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld have done it is time to put up or shut up.  The problem with this approach is that the war is the President’s – he bought it and owns it. Journalists should not have to be reminded that in the United States form of government the President manages foreign policy and serves as Commander-in-Chief.  This is simple high school government class stuff and the likes of Chris Matthews et alia need to get out their old textbooks.

My Kiwi friend reminds me that the Congress can have an enormously positive impact in two important domestic policy areas: stem cell research and cost of drugs.  I would add health care costs in general and tax reform for the middle class, and environmental issues.  One problem will be that the GOP Congress created so many messes that just managing the agenda will be a challenge.

Some journalists have referred to the possibility of the new Congress holding hearings on issues related to the war, energy policy, and environmental issues as “vengeance”.  The checks and balances that have served the interests of the American people for over two hundred years require such hearings. For example, shortly before the election the administration eliminated the office of the inspector general for the Iraq War.  This must not stand and the Congress is where it can be revived in spirit if not in fact.

The long overdue firing of Rumsfeld will mean little as long as the president continues to live in his fantasy world. Gates is, by most accounts, a smart guy who will work with James Baker and Lee Hamilton to extricate us from this Dubya disaster but the president really needs to face the reality he created and to work with the new Congress to find an honorable way out of his dishonorable war. At his press conference yesterday the president continued to operate in his state of denial although he talks less and less of “victory” and more and more of the need for the Iraqis to take over. We shall see.

Finally, this political upheaval presents opportunities to rebuild relationships between the U.S. and its long-suffering allies.  There is no need to pile on here – only to recognize that the U.S. has lost prestige, honor and friends during the Bush years and we can hope that this election is the first step on the long road back

* With apologies to Matt Taibbi, author of “Spanking the Donkey” the best book on the press and the politics of the 2004 presidential campaign.

Kerry Healey: Lessons Not Learned

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The race for governor of Massachusetts was characterized by nasty, not-so-subtly racist ads by Kerry Healey. I commented in this blog at the time that channeling Lee Atwater at his worst was not an especially effective approach in Massachusetts and that the lesson that Atwater learned, that “…you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. [that] It took a deadly illness to bring me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime.’ Healey did not learn this lesson, suffering a devastating defeat (21 percentage points!).

In this morning’s Boston Globe the youngsters who ran her campaign (Tim O’Brien and Stuart Stevens) defended their approach while seeking to shift blame to the Massachusetts Teacher’s Union, the candidate herself and her mentor (Governor in Absentia) Mitt Romney. From the Globe: “her advisers defend their approach, saying that Healey was in the race to win. Running an upbeat, positive campaign from that point would have amounted to surrender.
“It’s actually quite liberating, because once you understand that, your direction was very clear,” said Tim O’Brien, Healey’s campaign manager.”
There are no regrets expressed by Healey’s campaign staff on the quality of their campaign – only a lackluster blame of the voters who when offered raw meat, refused to bite.

TV Or Not TV: Election Coverage

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Regardless of the results, watching election returns on TV can be detrimental to good mental health. Last night saw us bouncing between MSNBC, NECN (New England Cable News), CNN, and Comedy Central. One “serious” national channel – MSNBC – included a cast of thousands led by Chris Mathews and Keith Olbermann. I mostly avoid cable news stations and I was reminded why last night. Mathews is a self-centered, egomaniacal, know-it-all screamer who turned the elections into a melodrama all about him. Trying unsuccessfully to bully Howard Dean into taking responsibility for ending the Iraq War was not the least of his rants, but one of the more telling ones.  He actually believes that Dean must demand that all U.S., troops pull out of Iraq tomorrow or he has lost his credibility.  This was a theme last night – “all right, mister know-it-all, you won so what will you do to get out of Iraq”.  Hmmm – I thought the president was in charge of foreign policy. Thought he got us in on a whim and a lie, so silly me thought it was his responsibility to find a way out.

The inaptly named Wolf Blitzer led CNN’s efforts  – no more need be said. Simply awful.  Expounding the obvious made into another kind of melodrama.

NECN actually did a better job – quieter, more thoughtful, less self-serving, and no posturing by R.D. Sahl and his colleagues.

As for Comedy Central – Stewart and Colbert were fun for about 15 minutes and then committed the cardinal sin of comedy – they became boring.

Our friend Mackenzie Brothers comments regularly on the fatuousness of American politics and the American press.  He lives in Canada and is in Europe this fall and I am happy for him. But he would have had something to say about the way we report on what would be the most important decisions made in a democracy if they were made and reported on seriously.

“China Seduces Africa While West Watches”

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The above is the title of a piece from Reuters that follows up very nicely on Kiwi’s earlier blog here on China buying Africa for its oil. The price is cheap – $1.9billion and the use of its veto in the UN – when needed. The fact that the deal is in China’s current national interest and not in the national interest of the U.S. or other Western countries points out the fundamental weakness of current Western policies and diplomacies in Africa.

And, in a not-so-funny way we in the West end up complicit by demanding cheap goods from China which contributes to China’s increased demand for oil which leads to a new Chinese colonialism in Africa which will in all probability lead to increased human rights problems in Africa.

Genocide and the Myth of ‘Never Again’

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The Atlantic Monthly online edition has a short piece that accurately and depressingly describes the world’s response to genocides since the Holocaust and the development of the “never again” hypocrisy. It provides some possible insight into the lack of effective response to the Darfur genocide while increasing our discomfort with the world’s inaction.

The Irony of Arab Public Diplomacy

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The United States has reduced its public diplomacy effort to a shadow of its former self – major reductions in surrogate radio broadcasting into Iran, Iraq and Russia matched with increased broadcasts of Western pop music and a tilt towards programs that trumpet the glories of U.S foreign policy.

While this has been going on the Arab TV network Al Jazeera has been preparing to initiate an English language TV network that would present the news of the Arab world with an Arab point of view. This should not be confused with a blind propaganda effort – given the quality of some of its Western hires it would appear to be designed to be less so than the Fox network which presents the news through the prism of personalities like Bill O’Reilly. What we have then is Arab public diplomacy directed to the West, particularly the United States, at a time when the U.S. continues to reduce its public diplomacy efforts to a defense of policies which are not even an easy sell to its own citizens let alone the rest of the world.