Grow? I already am.
February 18, 2010
Senator Retires, and Voters, Too, Grow Dismayed
By SUSAN SAULNY
HAMMOND, Ind. — Brent Kruse, a retired railroad conductor, says he is an independent-minded, loosely affiliated Democrat who “votes for the man, not the party.” In the last presidential election, he said, he flirted with the idea of casting a ballot for a Republican, Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, before throwing his support behind Barack Obama. Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana was part of the reason Mr. Kruse chose Mr. Obama.
“This is a Republican state and he’s a Democrat, so that tells you what people think of him,” said Mr. Kruse, 69. “He’s been a very good man for this state, and I do wish he had stuck it out.”
Of all the elected officials, political analysts, and party bosses across the country who were stunned by Mr. Bayh’s announcement on Monday that he would not seek re-election to a third term, perhaps no group was left more flabbergasted than Mr. Bayh’s constituents, particularly here in the working-class towns of northwest and central Indiana that helped make it a blue state — at least temporarily — in 2008.
Now, with Mr. Bayh planning to leave Congress, citing his disillusionment with unyielding partisanship and legislative gridlock, a good bit of disillusionment has settled on Indiana, too.
“This shocked me. Honest to God, it did,” Mr. Kruse said. “I did not see it coming. And every time we lose a good Democrat, it hurts the system as far as getting anything done.”
Mr. Bayh, 54, a centrist former governor and son of a former senator, was among those Mr. Obama considered for vice president. He campaigned across the state for Mr. Obama, introducing him time and again, and the personal touch from such a respected local figure seemed to help turn the tide for the Democrats. What will happen here in the next presidential cycle is anyone’s guess now, as is the more pressing Congressional primary this spring.
“It’s very disappointing that someone so dedicated has reached the point that he’s disenchanted with politics,” said Vivian Sallie, 59, a television executive in South Bend, who described herself as a longtime supporter of Mr. Bayh. “I feel let down by the situation our country is in. I feel that it’s our state’s loss and a loss for the country.”
JoAnna Clay, a homemaker in South Bend, added: “It’s a really sad situation. He was the voice for a lot of us, and you got the feeling that he really cared. I think there are not many people in Washington who really care, and that’s the problem. They’d rather fight. But he got tired of fighting. There’s definitely some discouragement here,” she said.
Kate Blakely, a cafe manager from Mishawaka, struggled with the timing of the announcement, just days before Mr. Bayh was scheduled to film a campaign commercial at her workplace. “One day he was coming, and the next thing we heard, everything was off,” said Ms. Blakely, 25. “It just seemed kind of random.”
And Tyler Bergin, who works in sales for a cellular company, said he also found it hard to accept Mr. Bayh’s timing. “I can’t understand why he stepped down,” Mr. Bergin said. “It’s unfortunate. If he didn’t want to run again, I guess it’s his choice. He doesn’t owe us anything. But,” Mr. Bergin, 28, continued, “it was not a very good strategic move because it leaves the seat open at such a bad time for the Democrats.”
Excellent point.
The filing deadline to qualify for the ballot was Tuesday, and, left with one day to scramble, Democrats failed to submit the petitions needed to qualify for the Senate race, meaning that no Democrat will be on the primary ballot. Instead, party leaders will pick a general-election contender later this year.
Was he sticking it to the party?
Barrett Berry, the chairman of a nonprofit economic development group in South Bend, said he was troubled that Mr. Bayh’s decision did not leave time for anyone to run for the seat. “I’m going to be loyal, but I am bothered that he didn’t give others the opportunity,” Mr. Berry said, echoing concerns of other Indiana Democrats.
Meanwhile, five Republicans qualified for the primary, among them former Senator Daniel R. Coats, Mr. Bayh’s predecessor. Republicans expressed optimism about recapturing a seat in a state that traditionally leans to the right and about possibly adding an Indiana example to a national narrative that shows Democrats struggling to hold on to their majorities in the House and Senate in the 15 months since Mr. Obama’s election.
“I had a very positive reaction to his decision,” said Ben vonBergen, 18, as he sipped coffee with a friend, Mike Houghtaling, 35, who also seemed pleased. “Sometimes I get the impression that elected officials are just trying to hold on to their jobs,” said Mr. Houghtaling, who works at a camp for underprivileged children in South Bend and describes himself as politically conservative. “If he really wanted to see change, I’m glad he did something about it” by not running.
Mr. Houghtaling said he shared a sense of frustration about Washington and could understand Mr. Bayh’s personal dilemma about being an unhappy participant in a dysfunctional system, particularly as Democratic leaders pushed over the past year for big-budget legislation. (Mr. Bayh had grown increasingly isolated as he warned Democratic leaders that costly legislation was bothering independent voters.) “The problem for me,” Mr. Houghtaling said, “is that Republicans tax and spend as much as anyone. It’s frustrating.”
For her part, Ms. Clay, 22, said she used to see Mr. Bayh as part of the solution, but not anymore. “True enough, if he felt like nothing was getting done,” she said, “then he should have stayed to get things done.”
Showing posts with label Politicians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politicians. Show all posts
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
‘Having Fun’ on Capitol Hill
Nice office.
Senator-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts visited his new workplace Thursday and seemed mighty pleased with his surroundings and colleagues. “I’m here, I’m having fun,” the nation’s newest political celebrity said as he beamed and toured Capitol Hill, consulting with his state’s two current senators, leaders of both parties and Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who was an early supporter. “I am meeting people that I have great respect for.”
He was welcomed enthusiastically by his new Republican colleagues and graciously by Democrats, even though Mr. Brown represents the end of their 60-vote rule and ability to overcome Republican filibusters from within their own ranks. “Henceforth,” declared Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, “I will always think of him as 41.”
Big Mitch had better watch his step, and covet his office, lest another surprise hit him.
And in a master stroke of political understatement, Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader, said to Mr. Brown: “Well, we’re going to have an interesting time this year. You’re going to enter the Senate at a time when the country is in deep trouble, as you know. That was a lot what your campaign was about. I look forward to working with you.”
Harry is understated.
Senator John Kerry, the now senior Democrat from Massachusetts, said that Mr. Brown personified the desire of state voters for change and that he was not shocked by the outcome.
Right. Johnny is never at a loss for words (so I wonder what he thinks of his VP candidate now).
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Luis Donaldo Colosio
Hace diez años. Revelaciones sobre el magnicidio ordenado por los neoliberales mexicanosEl asesinato de Luis Colosio apunta al Estado mayor presidencial de Carlos Salinas
por Gastón Pardo*
Muestra un noticiario que el segundo disparo recibido por Luis Donaldo Colosio, candidato del PRI a la presidencia de la República, en México, hace diez años, le fue disparado en el interior de la camioneta que lo conduciría al hospital.
Luis Donaldo Colosio en una foto oficial por su partido político: PRI Partido Revolucionario Institucional. Detrás la foto del presidente mexicano Carlos Salinas actualmente viviendo fuera del país. Foto PRI
Luis Donaldo Colosio en una foto oficial por su partido político: PRI Partido Revolucionario Institucional. Detrás la foto del presidente mexicano Carlos Salinas actualmente viviendo fuera del país.
Foto PRI
Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta recibió un segundo disparo en la camioneta a bordo de la cual fue trasladado al hospital después de haber sido herido en la cabeza en Lomas Taurinas, Tijuana. Esto lo establece una videograbación aportada por la Universidad de Guadalajara.
La grabación es prueba indiscutible de que Luis D. colosio fue víctima de un complot en el que estarían involucrados miembros del Estado Mayor Presidencial que tenían a su cargo la seguridad de Colosio, encabezados por el general brigadier Domiro Roberto García Reyes. La grabación fue desvelada por el noticiario Esferas, que se trasmite en la ciudad de Guadalajara, capital del estado de Jalisco, donde acaba de tener lugar la III cumbre de la Unión Europea y América Latina.
La videograbación fue revelada al público al cumplirse 10 años del crimen del entonces candidato a la Presidencia de la República, y en ella, en cámara lenta, se aprecia el caos que hubo para el traslado de la víctima desde el sitio donde se le dio el primer disparo en la cabeza, hasta la camioneta que usaba en su gira, así como la intromisión en la escena de varios extraños.
En las videograbaciones obtenidas por La Crisis en la página web del noticiario jaliciense, se demuestra que Colosio, ya herido, es subido a la camioneta por la portezuela derecha trasera, y es ahí cuando el conductor de noticiero señala: «Observen al individuo que está atrás de la camioneta; un tipo corta estatura, de lentes, pelón, que luego se le ve por la portezuela trasera izquierda y luego se oye el clarísimo ruido de la detonación y el destello del fogonazo que ésta produce». A continuación el periodista, que pide se pase en cámara lenta la videograbación, va narrando punto por punto los hechos y encerrando con un círculo el destello que produce el fogonazo de la segunda arma utilizada contra el sonorense.
Y para no dejar ningún lugar a dudas, el narrador establece que: «entonces si el balazo no se lo dieron en el sitio del primer atentado, cuando iba cayendo al piso; se lo dispararon en el interior dela camioneta, y con ello se refuerza la teoría del complot en contra del candidato del PRI a la presidencia de la Republica».
Esto concuerda con la primera postura que se dedujo del informe forense de la doctora Patricia Obanel, especializada cardióloga, quien el día de los hechos participó en la autopsia realizada al asesinado y que, al salir del hospital regional de Tijuana, perturbada, declaró que no sólo había sido una herida, sino que tenía más y dejaba entrever que no fue uno el atacante sino varios. Al respecto, el fiscal federal dijo que en su oportunidad fue investigada la versión de la doctora, pero que ésta retiró su declaración argumentando que fue producto de la confusión.
De acuerdo con la investigación realizada por el Fiscal federal Diego Valadez a petición del senador Luis colosio, padre del asesinado, de se reabriera el caso, al señalar por primera vez que su hijo había sido víctima de un clima de profundo deterioro de sus relaciones con (Carlos) Salinas, presidente de la República en el periodo 1988-1994, no se demostró la hipótesis del complot, que al fin, quedó demostrada sin lugar a dudas.
La hipótesis del complot fue respondida las vísperas del décimo aniversario del asesinato del sonorense por el ex presidente Salinas de Gortari, quien aseguró que mantenía una relación muy cordial con Colosio y señaló que en todo caso a quien habría que preguntar es a Ernesto Zedillo, quien sustituyó al asesinado en la candidatura del Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) y alcanzó la Presidencia de la República, además de que fue el principal beneficiario de la muerte de Colosio.
En el marco del décimo aniversario luctuoso de Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, el Gobernador del Estado de Nuevo León (México), José Natividad González Parás, develó una placa en el Monumento al ex candidato Presidencial del PRI que se ubica en la avenida principal de Ciudad Solidaridad.
Foto y texto Estado de Nuevo León (México)
Reabrir el caso Colosio
Mientras tanto, en la conferencia de prensa que dio el 16 de febrero pasado, la coordinadora general de Investigaciones de la Fiscalía federal (PGR), Maricela Morales, dijo que la PGR analiza los 178 tomos del expediente del caso Colosio para definir si el Ministerio Público llama o no a declarar a los ex mandatarios y añadió que el caso «no puede reabrirse por capricho». De tal manera, la funcionaria de la fiscalía se alinea con el autoritarismo inaugurado por Vicente Fox, quien se ha manifestado por el cierre del expediente.
La postura oficial señala que sólo hubo un asesino, Mario Aburto, quien cumple una condena de 45 años de prisión. Por ello, Luis Colosio ha pedido que la fiscalía interrogue a Salinas y Zedillo. Además pidió que en esta confrontación participe el ex regente de la ciudad de México y actual diputado del PRD, Manuel Camacho, quien participó de manera determinante en el empeño de entorpecer la campaña de Colosio. Al respecto, Camacho Solís aceptó el careo y pidió que se reabra el caso, para que se aclararen los puntos oscuros.
Esta postura fue apoyada por el jefe de Gobierno de la Ciudad de México, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, en declaraciones realizadas el 16 de febrero pasado. Dijo que era necesario abundar en todas las pesquisas para conocer quien se confabuló con quién para cometer el crimen. Camacho es el protector del jefe de la policía de la Ciudad de México, Marcelo Ebrard, a quien el periodista Héctor González acusó de proteger a 70 mil expendios de droga en la capital mexicana.
Ni Aburto ni Othón Cortés
La recuperación de la libertad de Othón Cortés Vázquez, detenido y acusado por Antonio Lozano, cuando fue fiscal federal, como el segundo que disparó en el crimen de Lomas Taurinas, con lo cual se fortalecería la tesis de complot, que manejó en su momento el subprocurador Pablo Chapa Bezanilla, que sería el puntal para llegar al Estado Mayor Presidencial (EMP), pues dejó abierta la posibilidad de que otro individuo haya hecho el segundo disparo.
Los peritos Alejandro García López e Isaac Manuel Urrutia Hernández emitieron una conclusión luego de analizar el certificado de la autopsia, un sin fin de dictámenes de balística y criminalística, diversas testimoniales, material audiovisual y juicios de colegas suyos: «Única: Que es prácticamente imposible que Mario Aburto Martínez hubiera podido desplazarse a la izquierda y por detrás del licenciado Luis Donaldo Colosio momentos después de que se produjo el primer disparo, por la rapidez con que que se suscitaron los hechos, la cantidad de gente agrupada y compactada en torno del hoy occiso, así como la acción inmediata de sometimiento de que fuera objeto Mario Aburto Martínez».
Pero vendría un conflicto de constitucionalidad. Mario Aburto Martínez ya fue declarado asesino solitario y condenado como tal. Por tanto, para la Fiscalía no puede haber un segundo participante.
Esta tesis del asesino solitario, que resultó la más favorable para que la clase política mexicana consiguiera impunidad cerrando el paso a una investigación más profunda del asesinato, es echada por tierra por la videograbación presentada en Guadalajara, a la que se ha tratado de desestimar.
Gastón Pardo
Friday, November 20, 2009
House Attacks Fed, Treasury
Actually some on House panel, not the House itself, attacked the Fed and the Treasury.
At the Joint Economic Committee, a couple of House Republicans called for the resignation of Mr. Geithner, who, as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, played a major role in last fall's moves to prevent the collapse of the financial system. "The public has lost all confidence in your ability to do the job," said Rep. Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas.
The public? Who the hell is the public? I'm part of the public, and I haven't lost confidence in Secretary Geithner. I have a lot of confidence in him. Whom I don't have confidence in is a Representative who thinks that by grandstanding and demagoguery he can strongarm fiscal policy.
Mr. Geithner, in an unusual public display of pique, fired back. "What I can't take responsibility is for the legacy of crises you've bequeathed this country," he told Mr. Brady.
Exactly. While Geithner is not perfect, by any means, he is dealing with the mess left by the tram of Bush and Greenspan, the most severe economic crisis in three quarters of a century.
Although several Democrats defended Mr. Geithner at the hearing, some liberal Democrats have been complaining that the Obama administration isn't doing enough to combat unemployment. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D., Ore.) called on Mr. Geithner to resign this week, and said in an interview that Mr. Geithner is too close to Wall Street.
Whom would he have? Paulson?
Treasury chief Geithner faced a House Republican who told him, 'The public has lost all confidence in your ability to do the job.' He shot back: 'What I can't take responsibility is for the legacy of crises you've bequeathed this country.'
You go, Timothy.
The House Financial Services Committee voted, 43-26, to approve a measure sponsored by Texas Republican Ron Paul, vociferously opposed by the Fed, that would direct the congressional Government Accountability Office to expand its audits of the Fed to include decisions about interest rates and lending to individual banks. The Fed says the provision threatens its ability to make monetary policy without political interference.
43 plus 26 means there are 69 members in the committee. What in hell could 69 politicians possibly get done? Less than nothing is what.
At the Joint Economic Committee, a couple of House Republicans called for the resignation of Mr. Geithner, who, as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, played a major role in last fall's moves to prevent the collapse of the financial system. "The public has lost all confidence in your ability to do the job," said Rep. Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas.
The public? Who the hell is the public? I'm part of the public, and I haven't lost confidence in Secretary Geithner. I have a lot of confidence in him. Whom I don't have confidence in is a Representative who thinks that by grandstanding and demagoguery he can strongarm fiscal policy.
Mr. Geithner, in an unusual public display of pique, fired back. "What I can't take responsibility is for the legacy of crises you've bequeathed this country," he told Mr. Brady.
Exactly. While Geithner is not perfect, by any means, he is dealing with the mess left by the tram of Bush and Greenspan, the most severe economic crisis in three quarters of a century.
Although several Democrats defended Mr. Geithner at the hearing, some liberal Democrats have been complaining that the Obama administration isn't doing enough to combat unemployment. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D., Ore.) called on Mr. Geithner to resign this week, and said in an interview that Mr. Geithner is too close to Wall Street.
Whom would he have? Paulson?
Treasury chief Geithner faced a House Republican who told him, 'The public has lost all confidence in your ability to do the job.' He shot back: 'What I can't take responsibility is for the legacy of crises you've bequeathed this country.'
You go, Timothy.
The House Financial Services Committee voted, 43-26, to approve a measure sponsored by Texas Republican Ron Paul, vociferously opposed by the Fed, that would direct the congressional Government Accountability Office to expand its audits of the Fed to include decisions about interest rates and lending to individual banks. The Fed says the provision threatens its ability to make monetary policy without political interference.
43 plus 26 means there are 69 members in the committee. What in hell could 69 politicians possibly get done? Less than nothing is what.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Let's be friends, plu-eez
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had lunch Wednesday with New York's incoming public advocate, Bill de Blasio, a Democrat.
Michael R. Bloomberg, stung by an election outcome that revealed resentment over his undoing of the term limits law and his extravagant campaign spending, moved quickly Wednesday to strike a conciliatory tone as he reached out to the Democratic establishment that backed his opponent in the mayor’s race.
As aides worried that the narrow win — by a margin of less than 5 percent — would embolden previously cowed lawmakers, the mayor made clear in meetings and telephone calls with Democratic leaders that he understood that the roughness of his campaign had upset some people.
It is to be hoped that someone develops some spine, and challenges Bloomberg, denying him the option to rule without opposition.
But in his conspicuous gestures, Mr. Bloomberg and his aides also sought to send another message: we are still in charge.
That is where they have it wrong: the people are, or should be, in charge.
But tellingly, when the mayor tried to meet with John C. Liu, the Democratic comptroller-elect, Mr. Liu said he could not find time on his schedule, a highly unusual slight.
Good. Great.
Later, Mr. Liu told a reporter: “A long time ago, the people of New York decided there would be no king nor a monarch in New York City.”
Amen.
The speaker of the City Council, Christine C. Quinn, another Democrat, summed up her conversation with the mayor Wednesday as: “It’s time to move on.”
Time to move on, indeed. But keeping in mind that the City Council should not be the Mayor's doormat.
Mayor Bloomberg believes people still like him, and support his mayoralty.
But the election results seemed to reveal a much more complicated relationship with those he governs. Despite at least $90 million in campaign spending, Mr. Bloomberg lost large swaths of the city to William C. Thompson Jr.: he was defeated in both Brooklyn, the most populous borough, and the Bronx, the poorest.
“There’s certainly going to be a lot of Council members who are going to take him on,” said Councilman David I. Weprin, who supported Mr. Thompson. “There is a lot of resentment.”
Good. I certainly expect them to do their jobs, which is not to kowtow to the Mayor.
As the city’s political establishment tried to understand the huge gulf between the cocksure rhetoric of the mayor’s campaign and his showing at the polls, Bloomberg aides said that they had relentlessly promoted the mayor as invulnerable in the race when they knew differently, saying it was the only way they for them to keep the Democratic establishment from rallying behind Mr. Thompson.
No one read poll numbers?
Said one top Bloomberg campaign adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect internal discussions: “If a poll had come out showing that the race was within five points, Barack Obama would have swung into town, the United Federation of Teachers would break for Thompson and Mike Bloomberg would not be mayor today.”
Too bad.
Michael R. Bloomberg, stung by an election outcome that revealed resentment over his undoing of the term limits law and his extravagant campaign spending, moved quickly Wednesday to strike a conciliatory tone as he reached out to the Democratic establishment that backed his opponent in the mayor’s race.
As aides worried that the narrow win — by a margin of less than 5 percent — would embolden previously cowed lawmakers, the mayor made clear in meetings and telephone calls with Democratic leaders that he understood that the roughness of his campaign had upset some people.
It is to be hoped that someone develops some spine, and challenges Bloomberg, denying him the option to rule without opposition.
But in his conspicuous gestures, Mr. Bloomberg and his aides also sought to send another message: we are still in charge.
That is where they have it wrong: the people are, or should be, in charge.
But tellingly, when the mayor tried to meet with John C. Liu, the Democratic comptroller-elect, Mr. Liu said he could not find time on his schedule, a highly unusual slight.
Good. Great.
Later, Mr. Liu told a reporter: “A long time ago, the people of New York decided there would be no king nor a monarch in New York City.”
Amen.
The speaker of the City Council, Christine C. Quinn, another Democrat, summed up her conversation with the mayor Wednesday as: “It’s time to move on.”
Time to move on, indeed. But keeping in mind that the City Council should not be the Mayor's doormat.
Mayor Bloomberg believes people still like him, and support his mayoralty.
But the election results seemed to reveal a much more complicated relationship with those he governs. Despite at least $90 million in campaign spending, Mr. Bloomberg lost large swaths of the city to William C. Thompson Jr.: he was defeated in both Brooklyn, the most populous borough, and the Bronx, the poorest.
“There’s certainly going to be a lot of Council members who are going to take him on,” said Councilman David I. Weprin, who supported Mr. Thompson. “There is a lot of resentment.”
Good. I certainly expect them to do their jobs, which is not to kowtow to the Mayor.
As the city’s political establishment tried to understand the huge gulf between the cocksure rhetoric of the mayor’s campaign and his showing at the polls, Bloomberg aides said that they had relentlessly promoted the mayor as invulnerable in the race when they knew differently, saying it was the only way they for them to keep the Democratic establishment from rallying behind Mr. Thompson.
No one read poll numbers?
Said one top Bloomberg campaign adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect internal discussions: “If a poll had come out showing that the race was within five points, Barack Obama would have swung into town, the United Federation of Teachers would break for Thompson and Mike Bloomberg would not be mayor today.”
Too bad.
Morning after regrets
The Vote for Mayor, Block by BlockAs the cheering dies down over at William C. Thompson Jr.’s headquarters, where close almost passed for victory on Tuesday evening, New York’s Democrats are left to consider a colder reality: This was a race most Democrats now believe they could have won. Numbering among the co-conspirators in the Democrats’ defeat, in the view of some party leaders and activists, are Democratic grandees, from President Obama — who did not campaign for Mr. Thompson — to the City Council speaker, whose support could not have been softer, to two powerful labor unions that remained studiously neutral.
Why were the grandees quiet? And why could the President campaign in Jersey but not in NYC? Curious.
By the next mayoral election, it will have been 20 years since a Democrat occupied the mayor’s office, and the second guesses were many on Wednesday.
“The conditions were there all along for a formidable challenge to the mayor,” said Andrew Breslau, an observer of city politics and the executive director of City Futures, a nonpartisan urban policy group. “There was class resentment in this economically fraught time.”
And yet, once again, Democrats struggled to run an effective mayoral campaign. The causes for this are many.
The Democratic political machines stand covered with rust, with bosses ruling as minor potentates rather than boroughwide forces. Mr. Thompson was Brooklyn’s native son, yet the borough president, Marty Markowitz, piped up that he was a Bloomberg guy. The City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, a Democrat, endorsed Mr. Thompson with the enthusiasm of someone facing a tooth extraction.
Nice. Party loyalty, anyone?
Nor did Mayor Bloomberg offer an easy mark. He had good favorability ratings and lavished more than $90 million on his campaign, collecting prominent Democratic consultants as a schoolboy might collect stamps. He created an aura of gilded invincibility, which the media retailed. For labor unions like 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East and the United Federation of Teachers, whose leaders are acutely sensitive to power, it seemed wise to stay silent.
Wise, or prudent? Wisdom implies good judgment and savvy; what labor leaders, among others, exercised was pusillanimity (contemptible fearfulness).
Friday, October 30, 2009
A Discipline in Denial
Earlier this month, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma swooped in on the National Science Foundation budget, offering an amendment that would ban the organization from "wasting any federal research funding on political-science projects." The assumption that the money was better spent on "real science," seemed to cause the entire quarrelsome field of political scientists to rise as one in righteous opposition.
Senator Coburn strikes again.
Querulous academics often are their own worst enemies in these funding battles. They quickly wax hysterical, unaware that platitudes about supporting "free inquiry" do not cut much with the general public. Should NSF be spending $188,206 to support a study of "candidate ambiguity and voter choice," designed to ascertain how politicians benefit from being vague?
188 thousand out of a budget totaling 2.5 trillion dollars; wow, that will make an impact. Seems more pf an anti-intellectual charade than budgetary discipline. Coburn's at it again.
Still, the political scientists have a point. The program has been going since the early 1960s, and the dollar amounts have always been relatively small—the money for political science projects have amounted to $112 million over a 10-year period, compared to NSF's budget request for 2010 of more than $7 billion.
188 thousand out of 7 billion equals 0.00269%
There are other reasons to think that this battle may be ill-chosen. The very program under fire supported the work of Elinor Ostrom, who won a Nobel Prize in economics this year for her work advancing the role of free institutions, rather than governments, in managing natural resources—an analysis Mr. Coburn might find valuable.
Senator Coburn strikes again.
Querulous academics often are their own worst enemies in these funding battles. They quickly wax hysterical, unaware that platitudes about supporting "free inquiry" do not cut much with the general public. Should NSF be spending $188,206 to support a study of "candidate ambiguity and voter choice," designed to ascertain how politicians benefit from being vague?
188 thousand out of a budget totaling 2.5 trillion dollars; wow, that will make an impact. Seems more pf an anti-intellectual charade than budgetary discipline. Coburn's at it again.
Still, the political scientists have a point. The program has been going since the early 1960s, and the dollar amounts have always been relatively small—the money for political science projects have amounted to $112 million over a 10-year period, compared to NSF's budget request for 2010 of more than $7 billion.
188 thousand out of 7 billion equals 0.00269%
There are other reasons to think that this battle may be ill-chosen. The very program under fire supported the work of Elinor Ostrom, who won a Nobel Prize in economics this year for her work advancing the role of free institutions, rather than governments, in managing natural resources—an analysis Mr. Coburn might find valuable.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Dick and Trent
Reading Angler, an utterly fascinating book by Barton Gellman, whom I first heard of and saw two nights ago on the Rachel Maddow Show; ran into my old Mississippi buddy, loosely speaking, of course, Trent Lott, who in between being conservative and right wing, took tome out to write (ahem!) a book: Herding Cats. Surprisingly, Hewlett does not own it. Ommission.
Lott, Trent. (2005). Herding cats: a life in politics. New York: Regan Books.
Gellman, Barton. (2008). Angler: the Cheney vice presidency. New York: Penguin Press.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Meet me in Argentina
Daily News front page: Buenos Airhead - Meet America's latest Luv Guv
NY Post front page: Runaway gov: Cry for me, Argentina. - Lust and found!
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford takes the oath of office for a second term with his wife, Jenny, and four sons, standing by, on Jan. 10, 2007.
State Sen. John Land, leader of the South Carolina Senate's Democrats, stopped short of calling for Mr. Sanford to resign but questioned whether the governor could be effective in office. He is prohibited by law from seeking a third term.
"The position he's taken the whole time he's been in office is, 'I'm smarter than the rest, I'm more religious than the rest, I'm more godly than the rest,'" Mr. Land said. "I just don't see how he can come back and be a sinner like the rest of us and function."
Amen.
Mr. Sanford, who received an MBA from the University of Virginia, was a real-estate broker before forming his own leasing and brokerage company in flourishing coastal Charleston, S.C. Though a multimillionaire himself, Mr. Sanford forged his political identity over the past 15 years around moral virtue and frugality.
Joined in the moral virtue department (and dalliance) by Senator Ensign, and thrice-married Speaker Gingrich and Mayor Guiliani. What a group.
After winning election to Congress in 1994, Mr. Sanford voted to impeach President Bill Clinton after his deceptions regarding an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Around the same time, he said he struggled with whether to support Rep. Bob Livingston, who was in line to be House speaker when he acknowledged extramarital affairs. "We as a party want to hold ourselves to high standards, period," Mr. Sanford said during a 1998 interview with the Associated Press.
Period.
NY Post front page: Runaway gov: Cry for me, Argentina. - Lust and found!
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford takes the oath of office for a second term with his wife, Jenny, and four sons, standing by, on Jan. 10, 2007.
State Sen. John Land, leader of the South Carolina Senate's Democrats, stopped short of calling for Mr. Sanford to resign but questioned whether the governor could be effective in office. He is prohibited by law from seeking a third term.
"The position he's taken the whole time he's been in office is, 'I'm smarter than the rest, I'm more religious than the rest, I'm more godly than the rest,'" Mr. Land said. "I just don't see how he can come back and be a sinner like the rest of us and function."
Amen.
Mr. Sanford, who received an MBA from the University of Virginia, was a real-estate broker before forming his own leasing and brokerage company in flourishing coastal Charleston, S.C. Though a multimillionaire himself, Mr. Sanford forged his political identity over the past 15 years around moral virtue and frugality.
Joined in the moral virtue department (and dalliance) by Senator Ensign, and thrice-married Speaker Gingrich and Mayor Guiliani. What a group.
After winning election to Congress in 1994, Mr. Sanford voted to impeach President Bill Clinton after his deceptions regarding an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Around the same time, he said he struggled with whether to support Rep. Bob Livingston, who was in line to be House speaker when he acknowledged extramarital affairs. "We as a party want to hold ourselves to high standards, period," Mr. Sanford said during a 1998 interview with the Associated Press.
Period.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Feeling Slighted, Rich Patron Led Albany Revolt
Tom Golisano, a major behind-the-scenes player in the State Senate rebellion, in Albany.
In early spring, Tom Golisano went to Albany from his home in Rochester to meet with Malcolm A. Smith, then the Senate majority leader.
Mr. Golisano, a billionaire business executive, had spent heavily to help Mr. Smith and other Democrats win control of the Senate in the November election, and was angry to hear they were now planning to raise taxes on the wealthy. He expected an audience befitting a major financial patron.
Such used to be called bosses.
Instead, he said, Mr. Smith played with his BlackBerry and seemed to barely listen.
That meeting led to the dramatic collapse Monday of the Democrats’ grip on the Senate majority as a frustrated Mr. Golisano secretly planned with Republicans to persuade two Democrats to join them in ousting Mr. Smith.
A man with a lot of money who expected to be listened to got annoyed and spent more money and influence to get his way.
Gov. David A. Paterson vowed not to leave the state during the crisis and said he still considered Mr. Smith to be the majority leader.
Not leave the state; what will that accomplish?
Mr. Golisano, asked by reporters about the legal troubles of Pedro Espada Jr. and Hiram Monserrate, the two Democrats who had joined with the Republicans to oust Mr. Smith, said: “Don’t talk to me about ethical background in Albany,” adding, “We have a governor who stood on a podium on national television and said he had extramarital affairs and used cocaine.”
And he is pure himself, Golisano? Not that Patterson looks anything but a buffoon.
Mr. Espada said the Republicans had promised him and Mr. Monserrate that the Senate would be run in a bipartisan way, and predicted that other Democrats would eventually join the power-sharing coalition.
Bipartisan? Please.
“This cannot become a circus,” said Mr. Espada, faced with the prospect of starting his career as Senate president being locked out of the Senate chamber. "We won’t force our way into any locked chambers. This is childlike, taking home all the marbles."
Cannot become a circus? It is a circus. Every year the NY State budget is late.
"If we’re blocked from the room, we’ll do it outside in the park if it’s a nice day," he added.
And if it isn't, they can go to Chuck E. Cheese.
Along with Mr. Golisano, a key figure who helped pull off the plan to overthrow Mr. Smith was Steve Pigeon, who is not only Mr. Golisano’s top political adviser but also a longtime friend of Mr. Espada’s.
Cronyism, influence peddling, back room politics.
After Mr. Golisano’s fruitless meeting with Mr. Smith in March, Mr. Pigeon and Mr. Golisano returned to Albany to meet with Mr. Smith’s top aide, Angelo J. Aponte, the secretary of the Senate. Mr. Golisano insisted that there had to be a way to balance the state budget without raising taxes, and at one point snatched a pad from one of Mr. Aponte’s aides and began scrawling back-of-the-envelope calculations.
Don't raise my taxes.
Mr. Golisano gave up on the Democrats and Mr. Pigeon moved quickly to set up a meeting with three top Senate Republicans. Secrecy was imperative, so they decided to meet at a small Albany rock club, Red Square, an unlikely locale for lawmakers. “You wouldn’t find anybody there that we knew,” recalled Senator George D. Maziarz, a Republican from western New York who attended.
Certainly not smoke filled, because there is no smoking, but in a back room, out of the sight of others, not in sunshine, as it were.
Mr. Pigeon soon set to wooing Mr. Espada, a Bronx Democrat who had once caucused with the Republicans. Mr. Pigeon and Mr. Espada had a long relationship, going back to Mr. Pigeon’s days as a counsel to the Senate Democrats. Mr. Espada drafted Mr. Monserrate, one of his close friends in the Senate, to join him in his defection.
A pair of twits.
Mr. Espada has said he joined the effort because he wanted to change how Albany does business. Indeed, shortly after taking power on Monday, Republicans enacted new rules for the Senate, including one imposing six-year term limits for the Senate’s leaders and another equalizing distribution of the $85 million the Senate allocates annually for legislative earmarks. But Mr. Espada was said to have grown frustrated about power and money.
Not that the Democrats are anything to crow about.
Mr. Espada has been fined more than $60,000 for ignoring state law requiring disclosure of campaign contributions. A nonprofit organization that he ran for decades, Soundview HealthCare Network, is being investigated by the attorney general on suspicion of having misappropriated funds. And the Bronx district attorney is investigating whether he lives in the Bronx district he represents.
What a guy.
Mr. Pigeon kept Mr. Golisano, who recently moved his primary residence to Florida, apprised of the progress, and Mr. Pigeon told him last Thursday the deal “was real solid,” Mr. Golisano said.
The twit doesn't even live in New York.
In early spring, Tom Golisano went to Albany from his home in Rochester to meet with Malcolm A. Smith, then the Senate majority leader.
Mr. Golisano, a billionaire business executive, had spent heavily to help Mr. Smith and other Democrats win control of the Senate in the November election, and was angry to hear they were now planning to raise taxes on the wealthy. He expected an audience befitting a major financial patron.
Such used to be called bosses.
Instead, he said, Mr. Smith played with his BlackBerry and seemed to barely listen.
That meeting led to the dramatic collapse Monday of the Democrats’ grip on the Senate majority as a frustrated Mr. Golisano secretly planned with Republicans to persuade two Democrats to join them in ousting Mr. Smith.
A man with a lot of money who expected to be listened to got annoyed and spent more money and influence to get his way.
Gov. David A. Paterson vowed not to leave the state during the crisis and said he still considered Mr. Smith to be the majority leader.
Not leave the state; what will that accomplish?
Mr. Golisano, asked by reporters about the legal troubles of Pedro Espada Jr. and Hiram Monserrate, the two Democrats who had joined with the Republicans to oust Mr. Smith, said: “Don’t talk to me about ethical background in Albany,” adding, “We have a governor who stood on a podium on national television and said he had extramarital affairs and used cocaine.”
And he is pure himself, Golisano? Not that Patterson looks anything but a buffoon.
Mr. Espada said the Republicans had promised him and Mr. Monserrate that the Senate would be run in a bipartisan way, and predicted that other Democrats would eventually join the power-sharing coalition.
Bipartisan? Please.
“This cannot become a circus,” said Mr. Espada, faced with the prospect of starting his career as Senate president being locked out of the Senate chamber. "We won’t force our way into any locked chambers. This is childlike, taking home all the marbles."
Cannot become a circus? It is a circus. Every year the NY State budget is late.
"If we’re blocked from the room, we’ll do it outside in the park if it’s a nice day," he added.
And if it isn't, they can go to Chuck E. Cheese.
Along with Mr. Golisano, a key figure who helped pull off the plan to overthrow Mr. Smith was Steve Pigeon, who is not only Mr. Golisano’s top political adviser but also a longtime friend of Mr. Espada’s.
Cronyism, influence peddling, back room politics.
After Mr. Golisano’s fruitless meeting with Mr. Smith in March, Mr. Pigeon and Mr. Golisano returned to Albany to meet with Mr. Smith’s top aide, Angelo J. Aponte, the secretary of the Senate. Mr. Golisano insisted that there had to be a way to balance the state budget without raising taxes, and at one point snatched a pad from one of Mr. Aponte’s aides and began scrawling back-of-the-envelope calculations.
Don't raise my taxes.
Mr. Golisano gave up on the Democrats and Mr. Pigeon moved quickly to set up a meeting with three top Senate Republicans. Secrecy was imperative, so they decided to meet at a small Albany rock club, Red Square, an unlikely locale for lawmakers. “You wouldn’t find anybody there that we knew,” recalled Senator George D. Maziarz, a Republican from western New York who attended.
Certainly not smoke filled, because there is no smoking, but in a back room, out of the sight of others, not in sunshine, as it were.
Mr. Pigeon soon set to wooing Mr. Espada, a Bronx Democrat who had once caucused with the Republicans. Mr. Pigeon and Mr. Espada had a long relationship, going back to Mr. Pigeon’s days as a counsel to the Senate Democrats. Mr. Espada drafted Mr. Monserrate, one of his close friends in the Senate, to join him in his defection.
A pair of twits.
Mr. Espada has said he joined the effort because he wanted to change how Albany does business. Indeed, shortly after taking power on Monday, Republicans enacted new rules for the Senate, including one imposing six-year term limits for the Senate’s leaders and another equalizing distribution of the $85 million the Senate allocates annually for legislative earmarks. But Mr. Espada was said to have grown frustrated about power and money.
Not that the Democrats are anything to crow about.
Mr. Espada has been fined more than $60,000 for ignoring state law requiring disclosure of campaign contributions. A nonprofit organization that he ran for decades, Soundview HealthCare Network, is being investigated by the attorney general on suspicion of having misappropriated funds. And the Bronx district attorney is investigating whether he lives in the Bronx district he represents.
What a guy.
Mr. Pigeon kept Mr. Golisano, who recently moved his primary residence to Florida, apprised of the progress, and Mr. Pigeon told him last Thursday the deal “was real solid,” Mr. Golisano said.
The twit doesn't even live in New York.
Friday, May 29, 2009
2 New York stories
Testy Bloomberg Calls Reporter a ‘Disgrace’ - He is the undisputed front-runner in November’s election. He is the richest man in the city. So why does Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg keep losing his temper?
Because he's a bully. Accustomed to having it all go his way, in adversity he finds patience difficult.
... on Thursday, he seemed to reach new heights of peevishness ...
Peevishness: an irritable petulant feeling; petulant: easily irritated or annoyed
At a news conference in Queens, Azi Paybarah, a reporter for The New York Observer, asked the mayor whether an improving economy would undercut his reasoning for seeking a third term. Mr. Bloomberg had argued, during the battle over term limits, that tough times required his steady hand and business background.
Which is nonsense.
Yet at the Queens news conference, Mr. Bloomberg said he was “very optimistic” about New York’s economy. (Thus Mr. Paybarah’s question.)
A good question.
Mr. Bloomberg cut off Mr. Paybarah midsentence, saying that “the rationale for extending term limits is, the City Council passed it, and the public’s going to have a chance on Nov. 3 to say what they want.”
The rationale he offers is nonsense, misleading, and a lie. He insisted the Council amend term limits that citizens voted in, bullied them into doing so, and got his way because of a spineless, ineffective City Council.
“I don’t think we have to keep coming back to that,” he said, adding, “When you have a serious question about the economy, I’d be happy to answer it.”
That question was a good one, because it probes the very rationale the Mayor offered for extending term limits. He just didn't want to answer it.
With that, the mayor concluded the news conference, thanked the audience, stepped away from a microphone and looked directly at Mr. Paybarah. “You’re a disgrace,” he snarled, nearly under his breath, but just loud enough to be captured by reporters’ tape recorders.
Later a spokesperson apologized. The fact remains Bloomberg is techy, short-tempered, and a bully.
Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times - Michael Mineo’s lawyers say his civil rights were violated, and are seeking $220 million.
A 24-year-old man who prosecutors say was brutalized by a group of uniformed police officers inside a Brooklyn subway station last October filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Thursday against the city, the Police Department and four officers.
The midday attack on the man, Michael Mineo, led to indictments in December against three of the four officers named in the suit, including one who prosecutors said shoved his retractable baton repeatedly between Mr. Mineo’s buttocks, ripping his skin and causing him to bleed.
A spokesman for Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, said the criminal trial for the three officers — Richard Kern, Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales — was scheduled to begin in September, with the next court date Sept. 15.
Mr. Mineo’s lawyers, Kevin L. Mosley and Stephen C. Jackson, filed the suit in United States District Court in Brooklyn. It seeks a total of $220 million in damages from the defendants
Because he's a bully. Accustomed to having it all go his way, in adversity he finds patience difficult.
... on Thursday, he seemed to reach new heights of peevishness ...
Peevishness: an irritable petulant feeling; petulant: easily irritated or annoyed
At a news conference in Queens, Azi Paybarah, a reporter for The New York Observer, asked the mayor whether an improving economy would undercut his reasoning for seeking a third term. Mr. Bloomberg had argued, during the battle over term limits, that tough times required his steady hand and business background.
Which is nonsense.
Yet at the Queens news conference, Mr. Bloomberg said he was “very optimistic” about New York’s economy. (Thus Mr. Paybarah’s question.)
A good question.
Mr. Bloomberg cut off Mr. Paybarah midsentence, saying that “the rationale for extending term limits is, the City Council passed it, and the public’s going to have a chance on Nov. 3 to say what they want.”
The rationale he offers is nonsense, misleading, and a lie. He insisted the Council amend term limits that citizens voted in, bullied them into doing so, and got his way because of a spineless, ineffective City Council.
“I don’t think we have to keep coming back to that,” he said, adding, “When you have a serious question about the economy, I’d be happy to answer it.”
That question was a good one, because it probes the very rationale the Mayor offered for extending term limits. He just didn't want to answer it.
With that, the mayor concluded the news conference, thanked the audience, stepped away from a microphone and looked directly at Mr. Paybarah. “You’re a disgrace,” he snarled, nearly under his breath, but just loud enough to be captured by reporters’ tape recorders.
Later a spokesperson apologized. The fact remains Bloomberg is techy, short-tempered, and a bully.
Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times - Michael Mineo’s lawyers say his civil rights were violated, and are seeking $220 million.
A 24-year-old man who prosecutors say was brutalized by a group of uniformed police officers inside a Brooklyn subway station last October filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Thursday against the city, the Police Department and four officers.
The midday attack on the man, Michael Mineo, led to indictments in December against three of the four officers named in the suit, including one who prosecutors said shoved his retractable baton repeatedly between Mr. Mineo’s buttocks, ripping his skin and causing him to bleed.
A spokesman for Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, said the criminal trial for the three officers — Richard Kern, Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales — was scheduled to begin in September, with the next court date Sept. 15.
Mr. Mineo’s lawyers, Kevin L. Mosley and Stephen C. Jackson, filed the suit in United States District Court in Brooklyn. It seeks a total of $220 million in damages from the defendants
Friday, January 9, 2009
Rudd attacks Howard
Yesterday David Schuster, on his show 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, mentioned that one reason why the Obamas were not given Blair House to live was that John Howard, the former PM of Australia was staying there while visiting W. Bush (who in turn will give the former PM a Medal of Freedom).
Now that the Obamas have been ensconced at the Hay-Adams Hotel in time for their daughters to start school, the White House has revealed why Blair House was not available early.
For politicians, that is powerful. Well done.
Australians may find some irony in the news that their former prime minister bumped Mr. Obama from the coveted Blair House locale. Bruce Wolpe, an American publishing executive in Sydney who is about to join the staff of Representative Henry Waxman, the California Democrat, said in an e-mail message that the news is “rocking Australia this morning.’’
Now that the Obamas have been ensconced at the Hay-Adams Hotel in time for their daughters to start school, the White House has revealed why Blair House was not available early.
It turns out that John Howard, former prime minister of Australia and a longtime ally of President Bush, is spending the night there on Jan. 12, according to Sally McDonough, a spokeswoman for Laura Bush.
The next day, Mr. Howard is receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Several receptions are also scheduled at Blair House over the next week.
Shuster remarked that Howard had attacked Obama in 2006 as the favoured candidate of Al Qaeda, a remark that his opponent, the leader of the Australian Labour Party, Kevin Rudd lambasted. "YouTube it," Shuster said (using the noun as a verb, as has become popular). I did. It makes for good watching.For politicians, that is powerful. Well done.
Australians may find some irony in the news that their former prime minister bumped Mr. Obama from the coveted Blair House locale. Bruce Wolpe, an American publishing executive in Sydney who is about to join the staff of Representative Henry Waxman, the California Democrat, said in an e-mail message that the news is “rocking Australia this morning.’’
That’s because Mr. Obama and Mr. Howard have a history; when Mr. Obama announced his bid for the presidency in February 2007, Mr. Howard – a staunch ally of President Bush’s on the war in Iraq – attacked Mr. Obama’s plan to withdraw troops by March 2008.
“If I were running Al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory not only for Obama but also for the Democrats,’’ Mr. Howard said then. Mr. Obama fired back, saying Mr. Howard was engaging in “empty rhetoric.”
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Specter Attacks Choice for Attorney General
A leading Republican senator issued a broad attack on Tuesday on President-elect Barack Obama’s pick as attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., questioning his political independence.
The senator, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who is the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said Mr. Holder’s support of the White House’s stance on three contentious issues when he was deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration suggested that he was too willing to do the president’s bidding.
After Alberto Gonzalez, who can seem too tame?
The sharp criticism from Mr. Specter signaled that Republicans have identified Mr. Holder as perhaps the most vulnerable of Mr. Obama’s cabinet choices. Democrats say they expect the Democratically controlled Senate to confirm Mr. Holder easily but say he faces a tougher fight than they had expected.
Sam old politics.
Republicans seem eager to use Mr. Holder to assert their ability to make life uncomfortable for the new administration.
Obstruction as policy.
Political advisers said Republicans hoped to come near or to top the 42 votes opposing the 2001 nomination of John Ashcroft as attorney general, but Democrats predicted that the opposition to Mr. Holder would fall far short of that number. Some Republicans, including Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, have voiced support for Mr. Holder.
Payback time?
The senator, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who is the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said Mr. Holder’s support of the White House’s stance on three contentious issues when he was deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration suggested that he was too willing to do the president’s bidding.
After Alberto Gonzalez, who can seem too tame?
The sharp criticism from Mr. Specter signaled that Republicans have identified Mr. Holder as perhaps the most vulnerable of Mr. Obama’s cabinet choices. Democrats say they expect the Democratically controlled Senate to confirm Mr. Holder easily but say he faces a tougher fight than they had expected.
Sam old politics.
Republicans seem eager to use Mr. Holder to assert their ability to make life uncomfortable for the new administration.
Obstruction as policy.
Political advisers said Republicans hoped to come near or to top the 42 votes opposing the 2001 nomination of John Ashcroft as attorney general, but Democrats predicted that the opposition to Mr. Holder would fall far short of that number. Some Republicans, including Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, have voiced support for Mr. Holder.
Payback time?
Friday, January 2, 2009
Claiborne Pell, Ex-Senator, Dies at 90
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times - Senator Claiborne Pell served six terms in office, until 1997.
Claiborne Pell, the quirky, patrician former senator from Rhode Island who created the college grant program that bears his name and wrote the legislation that established the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, died just after midnight Thursday at his Newport, R.I., home. He was 90.
Mr. Pell, a Democrat, was widely regarded as the most formidable politician in Rhode Island history; in six statewide victories over Republican opponents, he received an average of 64 percent of the vote.
36 years in the Senate. Another example of a wealthy person devoting himself to public service.
Mr. Pell was best known for devising legislation that created the program that has dispensed grants to tens of millions of poor and middle-class college students.
But his wealth is different than the Kennedys, say.
Mr. Pell’s vast family wealth was derived from an 18th-century royal charter of land from King George III of England ... His ancestors were the original lords of the manor in Pelham Manor, N.Y., lived among the old-money families in Newport. Five of his relatives have been elected to either the House or the Senate, including his father, a one-term representative from Manhattan’s old Silk Stocking District.
After winning his first Senate term in 1960, Mr. Pell, a Princeton graduate, sponsored the preparation of a large two-volume statistical report in 1963 that became the basis of the bill creating the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant, or BEOG, which provided financial aid for the needy to attend college.
I got BEOG grants, and they were very helpful.
Asked in an interview in 1996 how the programs came to be known as the Pell Grants, he wisecracked: “Because there was no Senator Beog!” In fact, the name was officially changed to Pell Grants in 1980 by his admiring colleagues in Congress.
Quirky, indeed.
Mr. Pell also was the author of the National Foundation of the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965. That legislation paved the way for the National Endowment for the Arts, which makes federal grants to artists and arts organizations, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which channels federal money in literature, history, language and philosophy, among other fields.
Difficult to think of a country as large and wealthy as the United States not having the Endowments.
The creation of the National Endowment for the Arts did much over the years to foster avant-garde styles and techniques that made American artists renowned worldwide for work that Mr. Pell personally disliked.
“I don’t like abstract paintings,” he told an interviewer in 1996, saying he had no use for any artwork “more abstract than Picasso’s Blue Period.”
I agree with that judgement.
“I think that many of the grants made to artists by the endowment were mistakes,” he said, adding quickly, “But I’ll never intrude.”
Thank goodness for such politicans.
Mr. Pell vigorously opposed the war in Vietnam and sponsored a treaty banning nuclear weapons on the ocean floor. He became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1987, only to lose the post to Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina after the Republicans captured the Senate in 1994.
Mr. Pell, in his conduct of the Foreign Relations Committee, was sometimes criticized as insufficiently forceful. “If Claiborne has any weaknesses, he is too much of a gentleman,” Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware and now the vice president-elect, once said. To this characterization, Mr. Pell replied, “I am not confrontational by nature.”
But he also stood out for taking unconventional positions and staying with them. In contrast to almost all his Senate colleagues and to several administrations, he advocated an end to the isolation of Communist Cuba by the United States. He called for a policy of small steps toward normalizing relations with Cuba, an approach that later gained broader support.
Ahead of his time in so many ways, so often.
The Pells traced their New England ancestry to the 1700s and their wealth from vast land holdings in what is now Westchester County, N.Y. In Mr. Pell’s Senate office hung a painting of Vice President George M. Dallas, a great-great-granduncle who served from 1845 to 1849.
George M. Dallas was the nation's 11th Vice President, Serving under James Polk.
After attending private schools, including St. George’s School in Newport, Mr. Pell earned a degree in history at Princeton in 1940. Upon graduation, he went to Europe to help people persecuted by the Nazis and was twice detained. Four months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Coast Guard as a seaman. He served on convoy and did patrol duty in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean. He remained devoted to the Coast Guard, retiring from the Reserve in 1978 as a captain.
He went to Europe in 1940, to help Nazi victims. Amazing.
After 93-year-old Theodore Green, the grand old man of Rhode Island politics, retired from the Senate, Mr. Pell ran for his seat and was elected in 1960. Although clearly patrician, Mr. Pell had a pro-union record, and that, along with his unassuming manner, kept him in good standing with a predominantly blue-collar electorate that had voted Democratic since 1930.
John Chafee, who served as a Republican senator from Rhode Island, recounted a story for The Associated Press that became a favorite in descriptions of his colleague.
Mr. Pell was campaigning in Providence in 1972 when it began raining hard. He sent an aide to get him a pair of rubbers for his shoes, and when the aide returned, Mr. Pell asked in his formal manner of speech, “To whom am I indebted for these fine rubbers?”
“I got them at Thom McAn, Senator,” the aide answered, referring to the shoe store chain. Mr. Pell replied, “Well, do tell Mr. McAn that I am much obliged to him.”
Mr. Pell was an avid jogger, but he often wore a tweed sport coat when running, and he pushed for Congressional investigations into ESP and U.F.O.’s.
And when a campaign opponent once sneered at him for his patrician ways, branding him “a cream puff,” Mr. Pell responded by promptly obtaining the endorsement of a bakers’ union.
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