Archive for Politics
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The spot is marked with a round metal plate, embedded in the cement on the doorstep of the University of Michigan Student Union.
It was there, nearly 50 years ago (gulp), where presidential candidate John F. Kennedy stood and delivered a speech late in the evening of October 14, 1960. There were only a few weeks to go before the election. And Kennedy was tired and haggard after whirlwind campaigning.
But he wasn’t too tired to go public for the first time with his vision of an organization that would encourage recent college grads to serve their country overseas as voluntary missionaries.
It was called the Peace Corps, and JFK first stumped for it while in Ann Arbor, running a neck-and-neck race with Vice President Richard Nixon.
There’s doubts that Kennedy was the very first individual to concoct the premise of the Peace Corps, a volunteer program run by the Federal Government. Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey, for example, introduced a bill in 1957 that would have established a program very similar to what ended up becoming the Peace Corps.
So what is the Peace Corps, exactly?
From its Wikipedia page:
Each program participant, or Peace Corps Volunteer, is an American citizen who commits to working abroad in an assignment for the organization for a period of twenty four months after three months of training. Generally, the work to be performed is related to international development. Specialties include education, business, information technology, agriculture, and the environment.
Kennedy won the 1960 election, of course, and signed Executive Order 10924 on March 4, 1961, officially establishing the Peace Corps.
Nixon, by the way, railed against the Peace Corps idea on the campaign trail. One of his gripes is that it would become a “haven” for draft dodgers.
President Kennedy greeting Peace Corps volunteers on August 28, 1961
JFK tabbed his brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, as the Peace Corps’ first director.
In just under six years as director, Shriver developed programs in 55 countries with more than 14,500 volunteers.
I’ve been to the spot where Kennedy stood and first spoke of the Peace Corps. Apparently the late night speech was rather impromptu and was delivered to a less-than-huge crowd of people.
But it’s kind of cool that something so historically significant happened in such an intimate location in such an off-the-cuff manner.
Oh, and Kennedy addressed the Peace Corps idea in his inauguration speech on January 20, 1961. Perhaps you’ve heard the words, which were in reference to the program.
“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country”
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There should be no fence-sitting in this one.
If you have a pulse and have any inclination to vote for who should be the next governor of the State of Michigan, it won’t be acceptable to hem and haw and scuffle your feet and be wishy-washy about the matter.
This isn’t Coke vs. Pepsi. Not McDonald’s vs. Burger King.
It’s not even apples vs. oranges, because if you like fruit, you might choose one of each.
This is Virg Bernero vs. Rick Snyder for the governorship of Michigan, 2011-2015.
Or, rather, it’s loud vs. soft. Labor vs. big business. Coffee black vs. with cream and sugar. Paper vs. plastic.
This is beyond Democrat vs. Republican. These aren’t even similar men.
When you go to the polls on November 2, there may as well be some ushers greeting you, asking if your affiliation is with “the angry mayor” or “the nerd.”
No in between this time.
This is John Engler vs. Geoffrey Fieger, 1998, but less comical.
In one corner is Bernero, Mayor of Lansing—the loud, abrasive, relentless Italian who’ll never tire of telling you about himself and his agenda.
In the other is businessman Snyder, who’s making his first foray into politics, and who when he needs more money, simply goes outside his house and picks some more off the trees.
Big labor vs. big business. It’s like Walter Reuther running against Henry Ford.
Snyder (left) and Bernero: Pick one
It has to be more than that, however. Stephen Henderson, a pretty bright guy over at the Free Press, correctly pointed out that Bernero, especially, needs to fine tune his message in order to broaden his reach.
Henderson reminded us that indications are that Snyder was able to bring some Democrats into his tent, along with some independents. This race might be determined by which candidate can best poach the other’s lukewarm supporters.
A primary campaign can almost be 180 degrees from its general election counterpart. It’s one thing to fight off others from within your own party—quite another to make yourself attractive to those outside your comfort zone.
Bernero is the bull in the china shop. Snyder is the owner of the china shop.
So don’t you dare tell me, come November 1, that you have no idea who you’re voting for tomorrow. That’s not going to fly this time.
They’ve laid the choices out to you in about as polarizing a manner as possible. The chasm is too wide for any fence on which to sit.
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Rachael Ray has no children, but she seems to care about them more than some who do.
Ray, the sometimes ubiquitous TV host/TV cook/author/Dunkin’ Donuts pitch girl, is putting some heat in other people’s kitchens—specifically those in our schools.
Ray is joining a bi-partisan legislative effort in Washington to help move along the “Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010.”
Among other things, the proposed $8 billion bill would improve access and funding to school meal programs, improve access to out-of-school meal programs, help schools and child care improve the quality of meals and encourage public and private partnerships to improve child nutrition and wellness.
Ray spoke at a press conference in Washington Thursday.
“A healthy relationship with food has changed the quality of my life in every way imaginable,” Ray said.
She then drew a parallel between eating healthy and a child’s future.
“I really think that teaching a child good nutrition and the basics of cooking gives them the skills they need for self-esteem and security for the rest of their lives,” she said.
The legislation is in response to the challenge that President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama laid out in their “Let’s Move” initiative to support efforts to improve school wellness and support public and private partnerships to improve child nutrition.
Ray is child-less, but that was a personal choice based on her belief that, frankly, her schedule and lifestyle wouldn’t be conducive to good parenting.
Pity more so-called “parents” didn’t take that tack before bringing little people into the world.
Rachael Ray
Ray says that at a time when there seems to be so much bad and sad news all the time, it’s heartening to see a bi-partisan effort to ensure that not only do kids eat healthy, but that they eat, period.
“Close your eyes and imagine being a child and literally going hungry,” she said as she stressed that eating healthy can be inexpensive as well.
Her voice echoed that of legislators.
Rep. George Miller (D-California) said at a media briefing Thursday that in 2008 more than 16 million children lived in homes without access to enough nutritious foods.
“America’s children should not have to go hungry and they should have access to healthy foods year round, even when school children are on summer break,” said Miller.
Ray added, “Just being able to eat a good, nutritious meal really improves the quality of your life, as well as the longevity of it.”
Ray can be a polarizing entity because of her sometimes over-exposure on television and elsewhere. Other TV cooks/chefs like world traveler Anthony Bourdain have been less-than-enthralled with Ray and her cuisine.
But I’ve never heard Bourdain impart this message.
“Every child in this country is born with a light shining inside them,” Ray said, “and it’s our duty to keep that light shining bright.”
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Helen Thomas has been covering the White House for half a century. Hers was a respected career filled with stature and high on esteem.
In a few gruesome seconds, she just about undid all of it.
Thomas, 89, has retired. Effective immediately. It’s what happens when you’re unmasked.
It’s like one of those scenes from “Mission: Impossible”—the ones where an undercover dude from IMF dramatically rips a prosthetic mask from his face, revealing that he isn’t a 66-year-old banker, after all—but rather a 37-year-old secret agent.
Thomas, the reporter from Hearst Corporation who began covering the White House when John F. Kennedy had just moved in, took off her mask in a video unearthed on YouTube late last week.
She, essentially, called for all the Jews to leave Palestine and return to Germany, Poland, and the United States.
“Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine,” she said to RabbiLive.com.
Unmasked.
Lanny Davis, who served as special counsel to President Bill Clinton, called for her firing, saying, “Helen Thomas, who I used to consider a close friend and who I used to respect, has showed herself to be an anti-Semitic bigot. This is not about her disagreement about her criticisms of Israel. She has a right to criticize Israel and that is not the same as being an anti-Semite.”
Now, it’s not as bad for Thomas to hold these views as the men she’s covered over the years, but for someone who’s sat up front in the White House press room for decades and whose charge it is to provide fair reporting and journalistic professionalism, this kind of stuff can’t go unchecked.
Here’s more Lanny Davis (and I agree with him): “If she had asked all blacks to go back to Africa, what would the White House Correspondents Association position be as to whether she deserved White House press room credentials—much less a privileged honorary seat?”
Hard to make the distinction between the two examples—one real, one hypothetical—isn’t it? Maybe damn near impossible.
Thomas issued the old “close the barn doors after the horses are out” apology, but she should have saved her breath. There was no making this better.
Thomas and President Clinton
Thomas is a Detroit girl—sort of.
She was born in Kentucky, but grew up in Motown, graduating from Wayne State University way back in 1942. She’s been covering politics in Washington for about 60 years, eventually getting the White House beat in 1960.
But now she’s unmasked.
Now she shows us for who she really was/is, and it’s not becoming.
It’s ironic that Thomas’s controversy should have exploded the same week as the 42nd anniversary of Bobby Kennedy’s assassination.
For it was RFK’s sympathy to Israel’s situation which led to his murder at the hands of Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan, who stalked Kennedy for weeks before killing him.
“RFK must die” was written over and over in Sirhan’s handwriting, discovered in a hotel room after the killing.
“Kennedy, you son of a bitch!” Sirhan yelled just before pulling the trigger on his gun.
Seems as though Helen Thomas and Sirhan Sirhan sort of share the same views.
Only, where Sirhan fired his gun at Kennedy, Thomas turned her gun on herself.
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Hold on to your handbags, ladies—Al Gore is available.
High school sweethearts Al and Tipper Gore are calling it quits, it appears—just a couple weeks past their 40th wedding anniversary.
Al is 62, and so will Tipper be this August. I guess they’re ready to get back into the dating scene.
The separation—no divorce plans as of yet—was announced the other day via a simple, forthright, drama-free statement that indicated no infidelity; it was simply a matter of growing apart.
Those with knowledge of the Gores say that no extra-marital affair was involved here. Just two people who have fallen out of love; at least, the kind of love that causes married folks to live together.
Forty years married. That’s nothing to sneeze at.
Al Gore lays the famous smooch on his wife Tipper at the 2000 Democratic National Convention
Al Gore, ever since running for president in 2000, has put himself more squarely in the limelight. He’s also produced some documentaries and is a pretty busy public speaker.
So it’s understandable, I suppose, that maybe Tipper tired of the pace and was perhaps ready to slow it down, while her husband has begun to enjoy an almost second career as a media and celebrity hag.
Who knows?
This isn’t quite Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward parting ways in their heyday, but as far as political couples go, the Gores seemed destined to be an eternal pairing.
If Democrat James Carville and staunch Republican Mary Matalin can stay together, then why not the Gores?
I’m sure the stories will start to materialize within months or weeks. Some of them might even have a droplet of truth in them.
Tipper Gore has confessed to having had bouts of depression after son Al Gore III was hit by a car as a young child. Whether those demons returned and led to this separation, only the Gores know.
The separation was announced via e-mail. What times we live in.
“I fell in love with my wife the day I laid eyes on her at my senior prom,” Al Gore said several years ago.
Not all fairy tales have happy endings. Apparently.
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The Lady and Her Music may be gone, but they’ll be far from forgotten.
That was the title of Lena Horne’s one-woman Broadway show, but that was far from all she was.
She was much more than a lady and her music.
Horne died yesterday, 92 years young. And I mean that sincerely.
Horne, even near the end, had skin like porcelain and Fred Astaire eyes—they danced.
Folks used to make fun of Dick Clark for never showing his age. Lena Horne had Clark beat in a route.
Horne entertained for about 60 years and some change. She was a dynamic performer—one of those precious few whose mere presence in the room created a buzz. If you knew Lena Horne was backstage about to perform, you didn’t settle back to watch—you strapped yourself in and made sure your tray was in the upright position.
Alas, Horne was another performer whose political views (read: left of center) got her blacklisted during the Red Scare. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Washington in 1963 and was quite the Civil Rights activist, in her own inimitable way.
Her ethnicity was a spicy blend of African-American, European, and Native American.
The Lady
Horne started belting them out at the legendary Cotton Club in Harlem, way back in 1933. Her career path would eventually lead her to Hollywood, but she would grow disenchanted in Tinsel Town and focus primarily on her nightclub act.
In a comeback of sorts, Horne won a special Tony Award for Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music in 1981. The show gave her a record she still holds today: longest-running solo performance in Broadway history.
But this was also a woman who worked with Eleanor Roosevelt to help pass anti-lynching laws in the 1940s, and who would refuse to perform with the USO for segregated audiences.
Last but not least, there was the voice. If you listened closely, Lena Horne’s voice would wink at you. I swear it.
“As much as I try,” Horne used to say, “when I open my mouth, Lena comes out, And I get so mad.”
She was a little hard on herself, don’t you think?
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Carl Levin might have a blue streak in him—something he’s kept closeted until recently—but he still has a long way to go before he can touch the master.
According to AOLNews.com:
U.S. Sen. Levin (D-Michigan) was taking testimony of several Goldman Sachs executives alleged to have sold what they knew to be a toxic $1 billion collateralized debt obligation to unwitting investors. While grilling the bankers, Levin quoted from a 2007 e-mail from one former Goldman exec describing the transaction, known as “Timberwolf.”
Here’s where Levin cut loose.
“Look what your sales team was saying about Timberwolf,” said Levin, the committee chair. “‘Boy, that Timberwolf was one sh—y deal.’ They sold that sh—y deal … ‘Boy, that timber was one sh—y deal.’ How much of that sh—y deal did you sell to your clients? … You didn’t tell them you thought it was a sh—y deal … You knew it was a sh—y deal … How about the fact that you sold hundreds of millions on that deal after your people knew it was a sh—y deal? Does that bother you at all?”
All told, Sen. Levin used the word “sh**y”11 times.
Maybe ole Carl learned a bit from his time spent on the Detroit City Council (1969-77).
Levin spent eight years on council, and the last four of those overlapped the first term of Mayor Coleman Young.
Now THERE was a cusser extraordinaire.
Hizzoner considered swearing an art—literally. He said so, on numerous occasions.
What else do you expect from a man whose desk had the famous nameplate that said, “The Motherf***ing Mayor”?
Young could cut loose in epic fashion. Most of it was in private, but the roaming microphones and cameras around town caught a few samplings over the years, too.
Young in a 1989 portrait snapped by the great Tony Spina of the Free Press
I remember watching a bootlegged outtake reel made by some folks who were making a promotional video for the city. In it, Young is making an introduction to the city on behalf of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
Suddenly, Young let loose with a barrage of “F” words that had the video crew guffawing in the background.
Cut!!
Young was a potty mouth and he didn’t care who knew it. To his dying day he believed swearing to be a legitimate method of colorful communication.
Even the supposedly refined have taken to using Young’s tactics.
Vice President Joe Biden was caught on microphone telling President Barack Obama that the passage of health care reform was “a big [effing] deal;” and Sen. Jim Bunning told a fellow senator pleading that he cease his filibuster on extending unemployment benefits, “tough s—.”
But it was Coleman A. Young who had them all beat.
Swearing, he always believed, got people’s attention.
Thirty-three years after leaving city politics, Sen. Levin finally adopted Young’s gospel.
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It was a scene that’s been played out over and over again: beleaguered politico surrounded by wife and family, as he delivers his news of succumbing.
It could have been a resignation in shame, a concession speech, a clumsy explanation for some sort of misdeed. Regardless, there the family is, providing support, no matter how false (in some instances).
I wonder what life lesson soon-to-be former Indiana Senator Evan Bayh has just taught his kids, who were flanking him the other day as he threw his hands up and gave up on Congress.
If the going gets tough, kids, then just quit.
Don’t have any convictions, my children—just get out of the kitchen at the first sign of warmth.
If Evan Bayh was so sick of the gridlock in Washington—and I don’t blame him for being frustrated—then he should have sucked it up and stayed and tried to be part of a solution.
Instead, he walked away and his timing was awful—not even giving any fellow Democrats much of a chance to file, since he quit the day before the signatures were due to the clerk’s office.
Now, the Dems in Indiana might not be able to hold a primary for Bayh’s seat, which is now up for grabs this November. Though the head of the party in that state vows there WILL be a candidate, somehow, some way, and not only that, the mystery candidate will be victorious nine months from now.
Analysts say the timing of Bayh’s decision comes not as a coincidence; it was his last dig at a party with which he’s clashed. Bayh happens to be one of the more conservative Democrats you’ll ever see, which isn’t terribly surprising, considering the state from which he comes.
Whether that’s true or not—Bayh’s ulterior motive—it doesn’t change the fact that he clearly lacks the fortitude and the gumption to be a difference maker, so good riddance to him.
You think he’s the first and only member of Congress who doesn’t like Congress?
“I love serving the people of Indiana,” Bayh said as his wife stood nearby and had that Stepford look about her. “But I don’t love Congress.”
Yeah, that’s a good way to change things: run away.
If Bayh truly loved serving his people, he would have stayed a Senator—he was almost sure to win re-election this year—and fought to change that with which he’s frustrated. He’s only served two six-year terms, and not all that long with his party in the majority.
But now he’s getting out, fed up with the machinations of our Legislative branch of government. On the surface that may seem admirable and taking the high road; but if you scratch a bit, you’ll see that it’s simply another act of the meek, the milk toast.
Maybe Bayh has something else lined up, not that he HAS to work right away. Maybe this is it for him in politics. He used to be governor, so maybe he’ll return to the state level.
Regardless, at the moment he’s simply a quitter; a man who lacks the temerity and the perseverance to fix something that someone of his talents could certainly help fix. He’s a waste—an unrealized asset.
Bayh doesn’t like the way the sausage is made and so he’s fleeing the factory.
He may love serving the people of Indiana, as he said, but clearly not as much as he loves serving himself.
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So Barack Obama’s been in office for one year and he’s already promising us that he won’t quit.
Not sure if that’s a good thing or not—that he has to remind us of that, I mean.
Obama’s State of the Union Address Wednesday night ended with an almost Richard Nixon-like line—but of course delivered with a lot more pizazz and confidence.
“I don’t quit!”
Neither did Tricky Dick, until the goods were too much on him to overcome.
I’m not comparing Obama to Nixon—well, not really. But it just goes to show you the different reactions that can be drummed up by different speakers delivering pretty much the same message.
Obama was at his best Wednesday night—pointedly glaring at the Republicans as he used his bully pulpit to call them out and place them into a tidy box. He also winked at them and joked, so that no one could accuse him of being a sourpuss or petulant.
He even derided the Supreme Court, who was sitting perhaps 30 feet in front of him. I don’t recall any president doing THAT during a SOTU address.
MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews, I think, summed up the president’s speech best.
“This one was to ‘get the audience back’ as they say.”
Obama, essentially, was boldly and proudly putting himself up against his detractors and the other party, side by side, and asking the American people to pick a side. At least, that’s what I got out of it.
“The ‘Just Say No’ party was sitting on its hands and smirking,” Matthews went on. “That, unfortunately, might be good politics…We’ll see.”
Jobs was a hot button topic, and was placed toward the front of the speech. After reciting some “feel good” stories, vis a vis letters he’s received, Obama acknowledged that for every success story, there are many others that are far less so. People still not working, still not sure WHEN they’ll be working again.
But the underlying theme seemed to be Washington and its partisanship.
“Everyday is Election Day,” he said.
Then he challenged both parties to, in essence, get stuff done.
I liked this line: “We not only have a budget deficit, we have a trust deficit.”
He’s right; I don’t have statistics to back this up, but I would submit that trust and faith in the federal government is at or near an all-time low.
Obama’s numbers have been sinking, which isn’t terribly surprising, considering where he started out a year ago. But it has been 12 months, and the bleeding needs to be clotted, so the SOTU address was designed to do just that. It’s not often that you can have 75 minutes of national TV time, unabated.
You give Obama that kind of face time and a TelePrompTer and if you’re on the other side, you’re going to take some hits. No question.
But I recall something an old football coach once said.
Bum Phillips, who coached the Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints in the NFL, was talking about halftime pep talks.
“I don’t give speeches,” Bum drawled. “Because no matter how good a speech is, the first time a player gets the stuffing beat out of him, he forgets that speech.”
That would seem to suit Washington just fine. Unfortunately.
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Well, look at what term limits has wrought.
The governor’s race in Michigan is more wide open than a 24-hour diner. In my almost 40 years of following politics in the state, I don’t recall a race with as many question marks this late in the game.
And it’s late, alright—less than eight months to the primary. That used to be a long time. In this day of the marathon campaign, eight months with this little done is as nerve wracking as it is to a bride planning a wedding—who has no hall, no church, and no dress picked out.
No one has any money to run, nor can raise the loot. Or they’re short on experience. Likely, they’re both.
You can thank term limits for all this.
The first domino to topple is the incumbent herself, Jenny Granholm, who’s being forced out after her maximum two terms.
Her Lt. Governor, John Cherry, quit the race last week, citing the usual—no dough, and little hope of raising it.
John Freeman, a former State Rep. from Madison Heights and a health care activist, bowed out, also from the Democrats’ side. Reason? Imagine Freeman plunging his hands into his pants pockets and pulling the insides of those pockets out, empty.
Two of the folks who could have bankrolled a successful campaign—Wayne County Executive Bob Ficano and U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow—have already said thanks but no thanks.
Thanks to term limits, we now have a state legislature short on experience and, in turn, short on money. And, also in turn, unelectable. Even the House Speaker, Andy Dillon, considered the Dems’ frontrunner by default, may struggle to raise cash.
The Republicans’ presumed frontrunners, Attorney General Mike Cox and Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, would appear not to have any money concerns—at least not now.
Before term limits, there would have been no shortage of candidates from the halls of Lansing from which to choose. That’s how we got Jim Blanchard, and John Engler. And many before them.
Now, no one is allowed to be a state politician long enough to gain any foothold, support, or—most importantly—money.
Denise Ilitch
One person who might run on the Democratic side, who should have no trouble in the money department, is Denise Ilitch, daughter of Mike and current University of Michigan Regent. She was at the White House on Tuesday, part of testing the waters and gauging the support of the officials there. The prez himself dropped by, according to reports.
Yes sir, the guv race is wide open. But not because there are so many great candidates—because there are so few.
Thanks to term limits.
