Preseason Review.

In case you haven’t been following along up to this point, the NY Times summarizes the state of the 2004 Democratic field heading into Labor Day weekend (Gen. Wesley Clark excepted, for the time being.) On the other side of the aisle, Dubya’s 9/11 actions are given the rose-colored Showtime treatment (with Timothy Bottoms of That’s My Bush! playing Dubya again, no less.) Let’s see…Lying about witnessing the first attack, reading The Pet Goat for ten minutes while the WTC smoldered, disappearing from public view for the remainder of the day while jetting to Omaha, scampering about atop the ruins (and remains) a few days later while playing fratboy games with a megaphone…It should make for an interesting film, if they pause long enough to stop waving the bloody shirt.

The Big Mo.

Riding the wave of the Sleepless Summer tour, Howard Dean is not only 21 points up on Kerry in NH, he’s just raised another $10 million over the past few months (other than Clinton in 1995, a fund-raising record.) I had planned to go to the Bryant Park rally last night, but opted to watch the aptly-named Chris Moneymaker win the World Series of Poker instead. Ah well…if Dean keeps this type of stride going, I expect he’ll be back.

Special K.

The NY Times delves into K Street, the new life-meets-art political show brought to you by Clooney, Soderbergh, Carville, and Matalin. Should be interesting, if nothing else.

AuH20 + 1964.

“Let Scranton and Rockefeller make their token gestures at the ticket; let Romney and Rhodes snub it altogether. Nixon had been as nauseated by the [1964] convention — literally, he would claim in his memoirs — as any of them. Only he had swallowed his bile — and swallowed the rubber chicken, the back-room whiskey, and the church-basement juice, sitting in airports, sleeping in airplanes (or not sleeping, if it was a prop plane that rattled like the end of the world), gripping and grinning just as he had for his party every two years since 1946. Once more he would pack the bags, kiss the girls goodbye, and set out to collect the chits. It was a habit, strategy, a way of life.”

I did quite a bit of history reading over the vacation, and write-ups will follow in the orals prep subsection in short order. (In fact, expect that portion of the site to heat up over the next few months, since – other than TA’ing for Ken Jackson’s perennial “History of NYC” class – that’s all I’ll be doing for the rest of 2003.) But I’d be remiss if I didn’t hype Rick Perlstein’s Before the Storm here. Simply put, I was awed by this book – Covering the Goldwater movement of the early 1960’s (i.e. the birth of modern conservatism), it’s massively researched and amazingly well-written, and easily the best recent work of political history I’ve read in months. (I do have quibbles – I don’t think Perlstein is completely fair to Kennedy, for example. But they pale in comparison to the strengths of this tome.)

The book also made me realize that I – and most other progressives, liberals, and assorted other lefties – really need to be more of a joiner. As Perlstein’s book notes, much of the rise of Reagan in ’66 can be attributed to the organization of the Goldwater groupies through ’64. As such, I particularly recommend this book to folks out there who’ve already gone full-out for Team Dean, since Before the Storm seems a great primer on how to exploit the niches of the system in order to buck the party establishment. Very good stuff.

Back to the Drawing Board.

Compassionate? Sheah. That dog won’t hunt this cycle…the Bushies had better think of something else.

Blacked Out.

Issuing their final report on the energy task force controversy, the GAO lambasts Cheney for stonewalling their investigation. You’d think the recent blackout might prompt further review into exactly what exactly was going on and where all the money went.

Ashcroft Agonizes, Powell Punts.

Looks like it’s a bad day for imperious Dubya appointees. In the wake of Congress’s recent decision to limit the powers of the Patriot Act, a defiant Ashcroft wants his toys back. Also facing considerable bipartisan and public criticism, Michael Powell appoints a task force on media consolidation. As Copps notes in the article, next time perhaps it’d be better to do the fact-finding before you vote.

Warriors, come out and play…With help from Columbia’s own KJ, David Greenberg attempts to explain the lack of NYC looters during the blackout, particularly as compared to the events of 1977. Also, in blackout news, the Dems (Edwards excepted) point the finger at Dubya’s lousy energy and infrastructure policies. Works for me.

Category: Politics (2002-2004)