Saturday, July 24, 2010

A progressive economic vision

As I type, I’m surrounded by a couple thousand other committed lefties in a large meeting hall at the Rio in Las Vegas.  We’re finishing up our box lunches (sponsored by the UFCW) as a number of speakers address the issue described in the title of this post.

Our luncheon guests are, in a word, impressive.  Leading off was a true rock star of financial reform—the damn-well-better-be first leader of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau created by the just-passed banking bill.  Yep, Elizabeth Warren in the house!  Standing O at the beginning and the end of her talk.  Ditto for the next speaker, birthday boy (yes, we sang) Rich Trumka. 

And now, we’re listening to Congressman Alan Grayson, perhaps the unlikeliest rock star in history!

I’ll have more reports from Netroots Nation, including my interactions with a couple of freshman Senators (probably including pictures), in the near future.  But now I need to get up and offer still another standing O for Grayson…

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Way back when, when Robert Byrd joined the Senate

Upon the death of Robert C. Byrd late last month, many commentators marked the remarkable length of his tenure in the Senate by pointing out that Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House when he took office.  Byrd served in the Senate for more than 51 years, having eclipsed the record previously held by Strom Thurmond more than four years ago.  Interestingly, last month Daniel Inouye of Hawaii also passed Thurmond’s mark to take second place.  Inouye also supplanted Byrd as the Senate’s President pro tempore, traditionally reserved for the majority party’s longest-serving Senator ... and thus he now stands third in presidential succession, behind the Vice President and the Speaker of the House.

While the Ike metaphor has been widely noted, I’ve seen next to nothing about the makeup of the Senate into which Byrd arrived.  When the 86^th Congress convened on January 3, 1959, it was a very different body than what we see today, but it was also remarkably changed from the legislative body that had closed its second session of the 85^th Congress on August 24, 1958.  Herewith, a few observations about the United States Senate when Robert C. Byrd first joined the world’s greatest deliberative body™:

• The 1958 election was an unmitigated disaster for President Eisenhower’s party.  When its activities for the 85^th Congress were completed, the United States Senate was narrowly Democratic, 49-47, continuing a status quo of razor-thin majorities that had existed since 1950—48D-48R in the 82^nd Congress (Democratic majority only because Vice President/President of the Senate Alben Barkley broke the tie), 48R-47D-1I in the 83^rd (Wayne Morse was the Independent), 47D-47R-1ID-1I in the 84^th (Thurmond called himself “Independent Democrat”, Morse still Independent, Dems in the majority).  In a sharp break from that deadlock, the 86^th Congress’s Senate convened as a body with 64 Democrats and 34 Republicans.
• If you sum the above counts, you’ll see that the Senate had gained two members at the start of the 86^th Congress.  That’s Alaska, which had become a state in 1958.  It elected two Democrats, Territorial Governor Bob Bartlett and Ernest Gruening (later to gain respect as one of two Senators to vote against the Tonkin Gulf Resolution).  Hawaii, admitted to the Union in 1959, would elect its first Senators in the late summer of 1959, and they (one from each party) would take office immediately thereafter.
• Not only was the 1959 freshman class large—17 members (14 D, 3 R), along with West Virginia Democrat Jennings Randolph, who filled a vacant seat in a special election and was sworn in immediately after the 1958 election—it was also very distinguished.  Among those joining Robert Byrd in taking the Senate’s oath of office for the first time were Philip A. Hart (D-MI), Edmund Muskie (D-ME), Thomas J. Dodd (D-CT), Hugh Scott, (R-PA), and Eugene J. McCarthy (D-MN).
• Except for the two Alaskans, every single Democratic freshman filled a previously-Republican seat, and all but three did so by defeating the incumbent Republican Senator.  The three GOP freshmen all succeeded retiring Republicans.
• In addition to the newly-elected Senators already discussed, the class of 1959 included (alphabetically by state):
  
  • Clair Engle, Democrat, California.  (Male, BTW.)
  • Vance Hartke, Democrat, Indiana.
  • Howard Cannon, Democrat, Nevada.  He beat the incumbent.
  • Harrison (Pete) Williams, Democrat, New Jersey.
  • Kenneth Keating, Republican, New York.
  • Stephen Young, Democrat, Ohio.  Defeated the incumbent.
  • Frank Moss, Democrat, Utah.  Ousted the incumbent.
  • Winston Prouty, Republican, Vermont.
  • Gale McGee, Democrat, Wyoming.  Another one who beat the incumbent.  (Male, BTW.)

Several of the freshman Senators in the 86^th Congress became the first Democrats to hold that particular seat in a long time.  For example, the California seat won by Engle had been Republican since 1899.  He defeated the sitting Governor in that 1958 Senate race, replacing a Senator who had retired to run for Governor(!).  Engle’s Senate predecessor also lost his race, to Pat Brown, Jerry’s father.  The Minnesota seat taken by Gene McCarthy had previously been occupied by Democrats only twice, 1858-1863 (the seat’s first occupant after statehood) and for six weeks while the Senate was in adjournment in 1900-1901.  Ed Muskie’s seat had been Republican since 1917.  For the record, Maine’s senior Senator was Republican Margaret Chase Smith, the only woman in the Senate at that time.

Even more information about the Senate in 1959 follows…

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Filing Week follies

Last week saw one of Washington’s annual exercises in political action.  It was Filing Week, the five days during which all potential candidates for office in the year’s election make their decisions known to the public. 

There’s always some suspense in Filing Week.  Used to be a lot more, back when filing had to be done in person in Olympia or at King County Elections.  For reasons that always escaped me (extra publicity, perhaps?), candidates routinely waited until Friday to file their papers.  Every year, it seemed, somebody showed up at the designated office just before they closed the doors.  Or they’d arrive a few too many minutes late, and be denied the opportunity to file.  Now that they’ve gone to electronic filing, whatever point someone thought they were making by hurrying in at the deadline is moot. 

These days, the only potential suspense is at the State Representative level and in some judicial races—which of the equivalent offices will the person file for?  In Washington, unlike most other states, Senate and House districts are identical.  Each Legislative District has one Senator (elected every 4 years) and two Representatives (both elected every 2 years).  So a candidate can choose either of the two House seats to contest.  One of the incumbents might be more vulnerable than the other, or perhaps there might be an open seat.  Those usually draw bigger crowds.

Now that the odious Top Two primary is firmly entrenched, and even being idiotically copied by California, there’s more suspense in the political party nomenclature than in the office selection.  In his (highly questionable) wisdom, the Secretary of State permits each candidate to write whatever he/she wants, limited only by character count and propriety, in the

(Prefers _______________ Party)

portion of the candidate listing.  Inevitably, as Goldy noted last week, a few Democrats forget to switch to the adjectival form of their party’s name; thankfully, all of those mistakes were corrected.  At least, that’s what the SoS says ... King County Elections shows a few (Prefers Democrat Party) candidates on its website, as well as a few other differences from the SoS listing.

Sprinkled through the party designations are a number of, ummm, gems of creativity.  I’m not talking about the two (Prefers Green Party) candidates, since that’s a legitimate political party.  Nor do I refer to the five candidates who tried to mask their Republicanism by using some variation of (Prefers G.O.P. Party) ... even though that expands to “Grand Old Party Party”.  And (Prefers Independent Party), seen 12 times, isn’t much different from the 11 (States No Party Preference) listings.  Beyond those, however, we’ve got some inventive designations in the listings:

• (Prefers Centrist Party)—Mohammad H. Said, US Senator
• (Prefers Bull Moose Party)—Anthony (El Tigrero) Novack, LD13 House Pos.2
• (Prefers Lower Taxes Party)—Tim Sutinen, LD19 House Pos.2
• (Prefers SeniorSide Party)—Mike Huisman, LD21 House Pos.2
• (Prefers Demo Party)—Jeremy Miller, LD22 House Pos.1
• (Prefers Progressive Dem Party)—Steve Robinson, LD22 House Pos.1
• (Prefers Prolife Democrat Party)—F.G. (Fred) Jensen, LD22 House Pos.1
• (Prefers Reluctantly Gop Party)—Ray Carter, LD34 House Pos.1
• (Prefers (R) Problemfixer Party)—Leslie Klein, LD36 Senator
• (Prefers Happiness Party)—Doug (Yoshe) Revelle, LD40 House Pos.1

Oddly, in this year of the alleged ascendancy of the “Tea Party”, the only candidate who chose that identifier, Rex A Brocki, actually appears to be challenging antediluvian Doc Hastings in WA-04 from the right.  Crazy Will Baker hopped in at the last minute to run for the US Senate calling himself (Prefers Reform Party).  You have to admire the honesty of LD18 House Pos.1 candidate Jon T. Haugen, who notes that he (Prefers Neither Party).

Finally, there’s Christopher Hurst, the incumbent in LD31 House Pos.2.  If this Washington had Blue Dogs, he’d be one.  He’s apparently in such a snit at the House Democratic caucus that he refuses to use the real identifier.  Instead he’s calling himself (Prefers Independent Dem. Party).  When he made that announcement, hepromised (threatened?) that a bunch of other conservative Democrats would join his micro-protest by using the same moniker. 

So how many colleagues did Hurst recruit to his cause?  The answer, it would appear, is exactly zero.  Great move, Chris.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Time flies...

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, thirty-fifth President of the United States, would have celebrated his 93rd birthday today.  As I calculate it, the planet has spun on its axis 16,990 times since JFK was assassinated.  Which is almost exactly the number of days between his birth in Brookline MA and that horrid Friday in Dallas; Kennedy’s life was 16,978 days long.  On May 17 of this year, then, John Kennedy had been dead exactly as long as he lived.

Five days ago on May 24, Robert Allen Zimmerman, far better known as Bob Dylan, turned 69 years old.  He’s been a professional musician for nearly fifty of those years.  Just 22½ in November 1963, Dylan was already a star of the folk/protest/civil rights community when Kennedy died.  Since arriving in New York City in early 1961, he’d released two albums on Columbia Records, Bob Dylan and The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, and his third album The Times They Are A-Changin’ was already in the can awaiting release in early 1964.  Dylan and Joan Baez were so highly thought of at the time that they had been invited to play short sets at the August 28, 1963 March On Washington, where Dr. King gave his renowned I have a dream speech.  The other musicians who performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that afternoon were Mahalia Jackson, Marian Anderson, and Peter, Paul, and Mary.

Below is a public domain photo of Joan and Bob on that day:

I don’t have much of a point to make regarding this awkward juxtaposition of the birthdates of JFK and Dylan.  Merely acknowledging that tempus fugit, whether or not one is having fun.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

(Faint) praise for Dino Rossi

Over the years, I’ve written many negative words about two-time Washington gubernatorial loser, and current US Senate dabbling ditherer, Dino Rossi.  Most of those negative words appeared during the 2004 recounts, in my extended WA Gov series of DailyKos diaries.

I’ve called Rossi smarmy, sleazy, crooked, slimy, and odious.  I’ve likened him to a used car dealer and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BIAW.  I’ve noted with distaste his refusal to concede the 2004 election after his long, long court challenge was dismissed, with prejudice, after Chris Gregoire had already been Governor of Washington for nearly half a year.

But Dino is nowhere near the classless ingrate that is the newly-minted teabagger Republican nominee for US Senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul.  While Rossi wouldn’t concede after losing his race, last night Paul wouldn’t talk to the candidate who was conceding to him!  Talk about a scumbucket…

Dr. Paul (he’s an ophthalmologist) is, of course, the son of US Congressman Dr. Ron Paul (dad’s an OB/GYN).  This rotten apple hasn’t fallen far from the crazy tree.  Father and son represent the ugly union of the worst features of libertarian xenophobia, the Tea Party/teabagger movement, and the putrefying remains of the Republican Party.  Unfortunately, the appellation Know Nothing Party was claimed by their forebears a century and a half ago.  That’s too bad, because it’s as fitting a name as there could be.

Paultards now have two avenues for their devotion and their dollars.  I wonder whether all the cash those wackos poured into Rand’s run in Kentucky, as well as Ron’s nutty presidential campaign in 2008 (FWIW, he’s already running for 2012), were backed by gold ingots buried in their backyards.  I mean, the Pauls want to take the United States back to the gold standard, don’t they?

So what’s my praise for Dino Rossi?  It’s that he isn’t as big a scumbag asshole as Rand Paul.

Faint enough for ya?