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Jewish World Review /Feb. 5, 1999 /19 Shevat 5759
MUGGER
A Slight Stumble for Bush
IT WASN’T EXACTLY A REPLAY of Roger Mudd’s interview with Teddy Kennedy
in 1979, in which the Massachusetts senator failed to articulate any
coherent idea of why he wanted to replace Jimmy Carter as president, but
George W. Bush’s one-hour appearance on C-SPAN last weekend was
inauspicious.
Even though he hasn’t announced his intention to run for
the 2000 GOP nomination—in fact, his cousin John Ellis, a Boston Globe
columnist, has suggested he might not—Brian Lamb’s chat with Bush wasn’t
aired just because the Governor won a smashing reelection in Texas last
fall.
As my friend Binyamin Jolkovsky would say: Oy!
However, when Bush works from text he can be the charismatic candidate
that Republicans will rally around to recapture the White House. I saw
Bush’s Jan. 19 inaugural address on the tube and he was spellbinding;
passionate, attractive, conveying a youthful sense of hope that
propelled JFK in 1960.
In part, he told the crowd in Austin: "Our diversity gives Texas new
life, new energy, new blood…and we should not fear it but welcome it.
People seeking to improve their lives and move up lift our entire
economy. Societies are renewed from the bottom up, not the top down.
This renewal will continue if government respects individuals, does not
tax them too much and does not try to do for them what they ought to do
for themselves. And this progress will continue as long as we do not
allow race to divide us... There’s a trend in this country to put people
into boxes. Texans don’t belong in little ethnic and racial boxes. There
are such boxes all over the world, in places with names like Kosovo,
Bosnia, Rwanda; and they are human tragedies. As we head into the 21st
century, we should have one big box: American."
That sort of rhetoric wins presidential elections. But if Bush gets
swamped in a debate with the automaton Liddy Dole, pitbull John McCain
(who’s now said to have doubts about running) or even Lamar Alexander,
who’s more practiced in tedious retail politicking, then all his money,
family connections and buoyant conservative philosophy will be for
naught.
The mainstream press, which is begging to forgive St. McCain any
gaffe, won’t be so kind with Bush; he’ll enter the race as the
frontrunner and the slightest Quayle-like slip-up will be exaggerated to
the point that it might torpedo his campaign. I hope Bush runs: He’s
easily the best candidate against a damaged Al Gore, who’ll be carrying
so much Clinton baggage he’ll start the general election campaign at a
10-point disadvantage. But George W. needs some debating lessons.
Bush has already been bashed by Alexander and Quayle for his slogan
"compassionate conservatism," which I take as sour grapes from the two
challengers because the Texas governor is topping the polls even before
he’s announced.
Alexander’s spokesman, reflecting his bitter boss’ pleasure at tweaking
Bush, issued the following hyperbolic statement: "Gov. Alexander is
pleased to have started a debate in the Republican Party over whether we
will stand strongly and competently by our principles and articulate
them forcefully or whether we’ll hide behind Clintonian-like weasel
words which offer nothing more than a pale imitation of Democrat
policies." So, now we know what Alexander has replaced his flannel shirt
with this time around: the phrase "weasel words." Get used to it,
because until he drops out of the campaign that’s all you’ll hear from
the frustrated ex-governor of a tiny state.
THE HYPOCRISY OF THE SENATE knows no bounds. Last Thursday, writing in
the San Jose Mercury News, California Sen. Barbara Boxer had the
audacity to call for an end to the impeachment trial without revealing
that she’s tangentially related to the Clintons: Her daughter is married
to Hillary Clinton’s brother Hugh Rodham, Jr. "This has been a very
difficult chapter for the country," Boxer solemnly reminds readers, "for
Congress, for the presidency and for me. In my recent re-election
campaign, I said I wanted to go back to Washington to legislate, not to
investigate or humiliate. The time has come to do just that—to move on
and do the people’s business." What pious manure.
In fact, most "real people" are woefully uninformed about the business
of politics. Last week, WABC’s radio talk-show host Sean Hannity had a
man on the street interviewing passersby to see if they could identify
the vice president of the United States. Only about one in five passed
the test. (Hannity, by the way, as I mentioned last week, is no mental
giant himself. I got a call from a rival radio station employee who
alleged that one time when Hannity asked who was appearing on a show
opposite his and was told Gore Vidal, he said, "Who’s that?")
Maryland’s paleoliberal Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who’s ready to
rubber-stamp acquittal for Clinton, had a similar view when it came to
Republican Packwood. She said: "It is that history and tradition that I
believe that calls us now, as we get ready to vote, to honor the
precedent of public hearings, for cross-examination of witnesses, to
resolve discrepancies in testimony, to have a fair format."
Yeah, I
agree, that statement was hard to decipher; her simple "no" vote on
witnesses for the Clinton trial was more
Bush badly needs some coaching lessons in speaking without a script;
otherwise he’ll be creamed in the numerous debates that will take place
within a short period of time next year. Asked by Lamb if he likes
reading, Bush said, "Yes, a lot." Prodded as to what kind of books he
enjoys he answered: "I love history. I just finished reading The Sword
of San Jacinto about Sam Houston. I like occasional social commentary. I
say occasional; I occasionally read social commentary. But I love
history. I was a history major in college and I spent a lot of time on
history. I’m trying to wrack my brain now that you asked me to think of
all the great history books. Well, I mean, The River Also Rises, the
book about the Mississippi River that flooded; the ’27 flood, I believe
it was, of the Mississippi. It’s a great book... It’s amazing to be
interested in history and living—making history. It’s an interesting
coincidence."
Bush with wife
Besides, Bush has demonstrated in Texas that there’re
teeth behind those words. And just last week, Sen. Rick Santorum, a
hard-line conservative who faces a tough reelection campaign next year
in Pennsylvania, repudiated Alexander and Quayle in a letter to both
candidates. He wrote: "The Republican Party has a proud tradition of
being both compassionate and conservative, and we should embrace and
promote both." According to Sunday’s Washington Post, Quayle’s camp was
polite in response, simply replying, "Dan Quayle believes Rick Santorum
is a fantastic senator and looks forward to campaigning for his
reelection."
Quayle
Barbara Boxer’s Bunk
It hasn’t been a "very difficult chapter for the country." Most people
don’t care a whit about the proceedings in Washington, even if they do
register approval for Bill Clinton’s performance as president (which
sharply contrasts with their opinion of his personal morality). Those
who’ve followed the Monica travails and Clinton’s succession of lies
view it as entertainment; when it gets juicy every month or so, then
it’s better than the usual fare of film or television. As long as the
economy stays healthy and there’s no war to worry about, "the real
people," as pundits like to say, are tending to their own business,
looking at the trial as a mere sideshow.
Boxer-the-statesman
But back to Boxer. This is the woman who was elected in ’92, the Year of
the Woman, partly on the basis of her pillorying Clarence Thomas, now a
Supreme Court justice, a man accused of far less heinous behavior than
Clinton. In addition, when Sen. Bob Packwood, who resigned in the wake
of sexual harassment charges, was up before his colleagues, Boxer said:
"I have to say, as one U.S. Senator who is going to vote on how to
dispose of this matter in a fair and just fashion to all concerned, I do
not want to base my vote on a stack of papers." But when it comes to
Clinton, a Democrat, she says it’s time "to move on" and no witnesses
are necessary.
Thomas
JWR contributor "Mugger" is the editor-in-chief and publisher of New York Press. Send your comments to him by clicking here.
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