DebateGate

The Two John Edwards

How the '08 hopeful's PlayStation misstep undermines his "Two Americas" meme.

Jeff Taylor | November 17, 2006

Everyone loves a good hypocrite; they make us feel superior just for being consistent, if not competent. Accordingly the Internets are getting a good snort out of Wal-Mart basher John Edwards getting caught looking for Wal-Mart to hook him up with a Playstation 3.


Edwards explains that an overzealous campaign staffer – is there ever any other kind? – took his family's longings for a Playstation 3 a little too seriously. A call was placed to Wal-Mart to see if the Edwards clan could somehow jump to the front of the line for season's hottest gotta' have gift. Aside from the staffer's positively insane decision to reach out to a Raleigh Wal-Mart given all of Edwards' repeated slams of the company, nothing too surprising here. Just garden variety American ruling class behavior.

But Wal-Mart took that request and did something very unusual – it went on the offensive, issuing a mocking press release on the incident:

Just like the millions of Americans who turn to their neighborhood Wal-Mart for their holiday shopping needs, Wal-Mart announced today that former Sen. John Edwards is seeking to be one of the first to get a Sony PlayStation3, one of the most coveted holiday gift items this Christmas season.

That the Edwards request actually made its way to Bentonville, where a decision was made to respond, and to respond forcefully again sets Wal-Mart apart from most of corporate America. Try to imagine that happening with a Big 2.5 automaker, for example. News of the request would take a week to get past an iron guard of executive VPs. Wal-Mart acted in hours.

However, the slapstick of the Edwards misstep should not obscure the really big picture, the fatal flaw in his "Two Americas" spiel. Many thousands of Americans evidently have $600 to spend on a video game machine. What's more, this Christmas is expected to usher in the year of the flat-panel. With price points dropping below the $1000 mark, high-end TVs are moving down-market fast with Wal-Mart leading the way.

Contrary to the Edwards' pitch that labor-hostile companies are leaving American workers destitute, somebody is making some money out there in America. More importantly, they are making it in many, many cases without a union card.  This reality will very hard for union-funded Democrats like Edwards to ignore as the 2008 presidential campaign unfolds. Hewing to the union rules, clear evidence of prosperity, like perhaps a shortage of $600 game machines, will have to be swept out of the campaign.

Impossible you say? Edwards has a head start. From his perch at the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the UNC Law School, Edwards has spent the past year and a half flying around the country telling everyone how bad things are. Predatory lenders, for example, are lending too much money to poor people who in some cases cannot pay the money back. Yes, things are bleak indeed.

The alternative to a Democratic presidential campaign marked by a downward spiral of Pythonseque depravation one-upsmanship might actually address issues like the federal entitlement explosion or comprehensive income tax reform, two areas where Republicans have failed miserably to advance any coherent solution. Should Edwards or Hillary Clinton or someone find away to talk about these things without class-warfare cant, they'll have a head start on the general election.

In any event, maybe the best thing for Wal-Mart to do is stop chortling and go ahead and give John Edwards a PS3 and a couple games. Throw in a flat-panel too. Maybe that way he'll reacquaint himself with American prosperity and abundance and be a better candidate for the experience.

http://www.reasonmag.com/news/show/116797.html

Carville Says Dems Should Dump Dean over “Rumsfeldian” Incompetence

By Scott Shepard | Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 12:00 PM


Democratic strategist James Carville says his party should dump Howard Dean as chairman of the Democratic Party because of incompetence.

Carville, during coffee and rolls with political reporters today, said Democrats could have picked up as many as 50 House seats, instead of the nearly 30 they have so far.

The reason they didn’t, he said, is the Democratic National Committee did not spend some $6 million it could have put into so-called “third tier” House races against vulnerable Republicans.

Carville said the other Democratic campaign committees had borrowed to the hilt.

He said he tried to meet with Dean to argue for additional spending for Democrats in the final days of the campaign, but Dean declined and gave no reason why.

Asked by a reporter whether Dean should be dumped, Carville replied, “In a word, do I think? Yes.”

He added, “I think he should be held accountable.” He added, “I would describe his leadership as Rumsfeldian in its competence.”

Carville likened the Democratic takeover of Congress to the civil war battle at Gettysburg, which the Union army won but failed to pursue the Confederate army when it retreated.

“We should have chased them down,” Carville said. There was no immediate response from Dean or the DNC.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/washington/washington/entries/2006/11/15/carville_says_d.html

Pelosi in top spot to bring home the pork

By SCOTT LINDLAW

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - House Speaker Tip O'Neill secured down payments for Boston's Big Dig. Sam Rayburn sent gushers of cash back to Texas, along with tax breaks that helped its oil industry.

Now Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco is poised to follow them as House speaker -- a perch predecessors used to channel big cash to pet projects back home.

''There's a long tradition where not only can you bring back your average pork as a member of Congress, but speaker pork gives you a lot of money, a lot of influence over the purse,'' said Julian E. Zelizer, a congressional historian at Boston University.

Democrat Pelosi will be the first Californian to hold the post, and congressional watchdogs say they'll be observing her new spending clout with great interest.

There are ''a lot of peeping chicks everywhere,'' said Tim Ransdell, executive director of the California Institute for Federal Policy Research in Washington, D.C. ''And implicitly the House speaker has a nice war chest to start with.''

Aides to Pelosi don't dispute that the state will benefit from a changing of the guard at the Capitol.

''From the speaker's chair to committee chairs, Californians in Congress will have additional clout to help the home state,'' said Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider.

But less than a week after the election, Pelosi has no specific wish list for her home district, Crider said.

As she has moved up through the ranks of spending committees and the Democratic leadership, Pelosi has already helped send millions of dollars back home.

According to Citizens Against Government Waste, a federal spending watchdog, in the past two fiscal years, Pelosi has helped obtain:

• $6.7 million for the Presidio Dental Clinic.

• $2.1 million for the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park.

• $388,000 to the Filipino Cultural Center in San Francisco for ''rehabilitation.''

As she prepares to assume one of the most powerful posts in Congress, second in the line of succession to the presidency, the pressure to funnel money to the San Francisco Bay Area is bound to increase, Ransdell said.

''The transportation crowd will want rebuilding of freeways or the Bay Bridge access, or else more money for a transit project here or there,'' he said. ''The social-services community will want additional funding perhaps for a welfare program, or else maybe construction of additional low-income housing or homeless housing.''

As she considers those requests for hometown projects, Pelosi has powerful partners: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whose home base is also San Francisco. With Democrats taking over the Senate, Feinstein will likely assume leadership of an influential spending subcommittee.

California's junior senator, Democrat Barbara Boxer, has roots just outside San Francisco in Marin County and will assume the chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, key in transportation projects and climate-change research.

Pelosi is set to ascend to speaker in January, and House and Senate members typically make their spending requests to key committee members by February. But interest groups are already lining up.

Pelosi identified stem cell research as one the Democrats' top six priorities during this year's campaign. That has raised hopes at the San Francisco-based California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state's stem cell agency.

Robert Klein, who chairs the committee that oversees the agency, said he chatted with Pelosi three days before the election about her commitment to stem cell research.

During their brief conversation, Pelosi made no federal funding pledge to the stem cell agency, which is authorized to dole out about $3 billion in state bond money for stem cell research.

Still, Klein said the agency will benefit from Pelosi's new influence in passing favorable legislation expanding research funding elsewhere in the country while squelching unfavorable bills such as one that would have criminalized human embryonic stem cell research.

''Expectations are going to be, 'Oh gosh, the floodgates are going to open in California,''' said Scott Sudduth, the University of California's liaison to the federal government.

While Sudduth said that is probably unrealistic, he said he was hopeful that broad political changes will benefit UC. ''It's not for a specific project per se, but it will be (helpful) for more investment in federal research and development,'' he said.

With Congress certain to intensify its interest in alternative energy and biotechnology, Sudduth said UC officials met with Pelosi several weeks ago to make sure she knew the university system's resources are available, Sudduth said.

And having a California speaker can help the federal agencies that finance that research maintain their funding -- money that trickles down to UC's research institutions, he said.

In September, the House changed its rules to end secret pork projects. The resolution banned a practice in which lawmakers anonymously insert ''earmarks'' -- narrowly tailored spending that often helps a specific company or project in their district -- into bills.

The measure required lawmakers to identify the special projects they slip into legislation. Pelosi voted against it. Crider said Pelosi wanted a more stringent package of rules, but that measure ultimately failed.

One of Pelosi's first actions in January will be to try again to pass ''a strong rules package'' that would among other thing renew and strengthen the ban on secret earmarks, Crider said.

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/state/15987914.htm?source=rss&channel=montereyherald_state

A PUTSCH AT THE DNC?:

Some big name Democrats want to oust DNC Chairman Howard Dean, arguing that his stubborn commitment to the 50-state strategy and his stinginess with funds for House races cost the Democrats several pickup opportunities.

The candidate being floated to replace Dean? Harold Ford.

Says James Carville, one of the anti-Deaniacs, "Suppose Harold Ford became chairman of the DNC? How much more money do you think we could raise? Just think of the difference it could make in one day. Now probably Harold Ford wants to stay in Tennessee. I just appointed myself his campaign manager."

http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=56467

“It’s not just committees — our influence within the House Democratic caucus will grow enormously,” Mr. Rangel said in an interview.
To that end, he sketched out an expansive federal agenda: gun control, passing new tax incentives for urban job programs, and redirecting federal money to New York in return for the outsize tax collections that the federal government makes here.

“Mississippi gets more than their fair share back in federal money, but who the hell wants to live in Mississippi?” Mr. Rangel said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/nyregion/09delegation.html

Is it fair that Mississippi got federal money to rebuild after Katrina? These new Democrat leaders are arrogant and condescending to people who live in the south.

No, there's no bias here. The Dow has been hitting record highs for some time now.

Stocks rise after Democratic election wins

Wall Street welcomes big Democratic victory; Dow hits a new high

NEW YORK - Wall Street rose for a third straight session Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average reaching another record close, as investors grew more confident that a huge victory by Democrats in congressional elections would result in gridlock and keep lawmakers out of the way of business interests.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3683270/

Hopefully.

Michael Steele for Republican National Chairman?

Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R), who came up just short yesterday in his Senate race against Rep. Ben Cardin (D), is mulling a bid for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, according to an informed GOP source.

Steele would not challenge current RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, but chatter among Republican insiders is that Mehlman has made clear for months that he might not return to his current post.

"Chairman Mehlman will be making an announcement regarding his future at the RNC in the coming weeks," said RNC communication director Brian Jones.

Mehlman has made outreach to the African American community a priority during his time as head of the party, and Steele would be seen as a logical successor to that effort.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2006/11/steele_for_rnc.html