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(11/06/03 6:00am)
There's no doubt about it. In the last several years the tone of
political discourse in this country has been a lot like the job
market, and it just keeps getting worse. Beyond the usual attack
politics in campaigning, officials have even lost any civility once
they're elected.
(10/30/03 6:00am)
Tuesday night, the campus was honored to host a Distinguished
Lecture Series speech by novelist Salman Rushdie, a man who is in
his own words \famous for the wrong thing.""
(10/23/03 6:00am)
Earlier this month the country's eyes were trained on the recall
election in California against now-lame duck Gov. Gray Davis. It
provided the country a fantastic civics lesson on how an enraged
citizenry can coalesce to throw out a public official who has made
the people so angry they can't wait for the regular election. Not
many people realize this, but before California's freak event, the
Midwest, which had the same progressive movement a century ago that
gave the recall to California, was doing recalls before it was
cool.
(10/16/03 6:00am)
For the last two years, a pall has been cast over Wisconsin with
the so-called caucus scandals. Quite frankly, as a New Jersian, I
found the Wisconsin standard of corruption to be pretty weak. I
practically thought having state employees doing campaign work was
mandated under the law.
(10/09/03 6:00am)
Well, the votes are in. Gov. Gray Davis, D-Calif., was recalled
from his office and replaced by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.
This means a lot. First, California reporters will be living in
hell, looking back on how easy it was to type \Davis"" in news
articles discussing the governor. Second, this recall, along with
the recall of Gov. Lynn Joseph Frazier, R-N.D., in 1921, makes
gubernatorial recalls officially more frequent than a Cubs World
Series win.
(10/03/03 6:00am)
It's a scary world out there. ??With our war on terror, American
intelligence has to work hard, research all their sources, maintain
the credibility of their agents and do all they can to gather
information to keep us safe. Their work is dangerous and difficult
and must be respected. Acts of sabotage must be dealt with
severely. Is that why the CIA wants a full investigation of... the
Bush White House?
(09/18/03 6:00am)
Anyone who has worked on campaigns can tell you that the smaller
the office, the greater the reward for the work. A campaign for
city council provides the greatest impact for the work of the
individual, while a volunteer in a presidential campaign works hard
to keep from concluding that he is just a drop in the bucket.
Campaigns are traditionally top-down affairs, and the very notion
of those at the bottom being in control is simply absurd, by all
acceptable notions.
(09/04/03 6:00am)
Over the past summer, along with war abroad, recalls and a shaky
economy at home, another event has gone somewhat under the radar.
Though sparsely covered, it deserves more attention; it says a lot
about the state of our current political discourse. In Texas, the
Democrats are in hiding.
(08/29/03 6:00am)
It's a crazy world out there. Twenty-three people died in a
bombing of the United Nations embassy in Iraq, our economy is still
in the tank and the international situation gets worse everyday. So
of course those who follow politics are focusing on the recall of
Gov. Gray Davis, D-Calif.
(04/24/03 6:00am)
It's a crazy world out there. With war, a bad economy and a
political system all topsy-turvy, The Onion reads like The New York
Times and The New York Times reads like The Onion. For instance,
the government really doesn't take any pains to disguise their
favoritism to Halliburton. Another piece of news that really has to
strike one as absurd is that people are actually surprised over
recent comments by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.
(04/17/03 6:00am)
In the 1932 presidential election, Herbert Hoover took
two-thirds of the black vote while losing by a landslide to
Franklin Roosevelt. At the time, blacks still saw the Republicans
as the party of Lincoln and distrusted the Democrats, still in
control of their Southern base. That election stands as the last
time that a Republican presidential candidate won the black vote.
In fact, the margins nearly reversed themselves at the very next
election in 1936. President Bush's single-digit showing in 2000
stands as the single worst showing by a Republican among black
voters. Republicans are conscious of this and like to promote
people like Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security
Adviser Condoleeza Rice and former Congressman J.C. Watts,
R-Okla.
(03/27/03 6:00am)
In these tumultuous times, some are unsure of exactly how to
express an opinion that might deviate from our current government's
foreign policies. Taste would dictate that nothing be too harsh
while soldiers are off dying half a world away. Celebrities,
especially, are always on thin ice, if for no other reason than
celebrities blabbing on about their opinions usually come off as a
pack of pompous jackasses. Adrien Brody's speech at the Oscars came
off as sublime, while Michael Moore's tirade was just plain
ridiculous.
(03/06/03 6:00am)
The 1991 Gulf War was so successful because countries throughout
the Middle East lent their institutional support to the
international coalition organized by the elder George Bush. A war
can't be conducted simply from aircraft carriers; an army needs a
host country. President Bush had been unable to find any similar
sort of support, but the Turkish prime minister had agreed. The
U.S. Defense Department was all raring to get to Iraq, when the
Turkish Parliament threw a surprise monkey wrench into things. In a
stunning backbench revolt, they narrowly defeated serving as our
host country.
(02/27/03 6:00am)
Republicans often talk a good line on affirmative action that
almost, just almost, has me fooled. They talk about how race should
not be brought into discussion when examining a person's
credentials, only their professional record. This sounds sensible
enough, but every now and then something pops up that shows they
really don't think in such laudable terms. Two fantastic examples
of racial doubletalk are former-Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott,
R-Miss., and Gov. Sonny Perdue, R-Ga., whose campaign was based
around bringing back the confederate flag. Another is the recent
controversy over judicial nominee Miguel Estrada.
(02/06/03 6:00am)
The other night there was a truly momentous City Council
meeting. After a long procession of futile resolutions dealing with
national and international issues, a resolution dealing with the
issue of slavery reparations--again, something over which the
Madison common council has no power whatsoever--was brought to a
vote. A long line of activists gathered at the speaker's podium to
put in their collective two cents, and after a brief debate the
council voted it down, signaling the end to these annoying
resolutions for some time to come. Granted, it was a close vote,
but the abstentions, counting as polite nays, deliberately
explained as such in statements from those abstaining, defeated the
ayes. It was an especially hard defeat for Progressive Dane, as
alders they could normally count on as allies, such as Ald. Ken
Golden, District 10, broke ranks to oppose the resolution.
(11/14/02 6:00am)
We've all heard it before, there is a difference between certain
behavior when exhibited by a man and exhibited by a woman. A man
can be cunning, clever, on the ball and intelligent, while a woman
exhibiting the same behavior is pushy, uppity, moaning and the
dreaded B-word. However, we must ask to what degree do these
stereotypes become invoked due entirely to gender and to what
extent is it a result of certain behavior conflicting with the more
positive stereotypes of masculinity and femininity that people
assume in their everyday lives. When does shrewdness become just
plain shrewish?
(11/07/02 6:00am)
It is often said that one can learn more from defeat than from
victory. It might be useful to add that an even greater level of
knowledge can be acquired from a mixture of both defeat and
victory. And so we are faced with this week's elections.
(10/31/02 6:00am)
As we head toward Nov. 5, Election Day, Democrats nationwide
look ready for a good night. Challengers for Senate are poised to
win in three states with outside shots elsewhere, while the
stunning and tragic developments in Minnesota will probably end in
the return of former Vice President Walter Mondale to the Senate.
Democrats will probably have at least a one seat net gain in the
Senate, possibly as high as three seats. The House of
Representatives will likely remain in Republican hands with little
movement, though, as redistricting was so partisan across the
country that the current makeup of the chamber has been almost
frozen in place.
(10/24/02 6:00am)
Every election season, Republicans trot out the same old
accusations, sometimes subtle, sometimes less so, impugning the
patriotism of Democrats. One truly horrendous ad in the Georgia
Senate races mixes images of Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and
Democratic Senator Max Cleland, stating that Cleland, a
triple-amputee Vietnam veteran, is against fighting terrorism and
undermines America's defenses. Other such commercials this election
cycle attack the resolve of Sen. Tim Johnson, D-SD, despite the
fact that Senator Johnson's son has fought in the army as part of
our war on terror. Then there was President Bush's infamous slur
during a campaign swing through New Jersey that the Senate
was
(10/17/02 6:00am)
The debate Tuesday night between U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin,
D-Madison, and her Republican challenger, ultra-conservative Ron
Greer, promised huge differences between the two candidates.
Between Baldwin's unadulterated liberalism, Greer's uncompromising
conservatism and the audience's constant booing and cheering
despite the constant begging from the moderators to do otherwise,
it was certainly a fun show. Coming out of the debate, it was
absolutely clear that voters in this district have what some voters
often wish they had between candidates of the two parties: a clear,
unambiguous choice between candidates at the furthest ends of their
respective parties. Is this a good thing? Furthermore, is it what
most voters really want?