Month: April 2009

Senator Arlen Specter joins a distinguished group of party switchers who have made history by their decision to switch parties.

Among the party switchers are three senators who I wrote about in my book TWILIGHT OF PROGRESSIVISM, published by The Johns Hopkins University Press.  The three are George Norris of Nebraska, Robert La Follette, Jr. of Wisconsin, and Henrik Shipstead of Minnesota, all during the 1930s.  Also switching were the following distinguished senators:  Senator Robert La Follette, Sr. of Wisconsin (regarded as one of the top five senators of all time); Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon;  Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont;  Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut;  and now Senator Specter.

Also switching parties were three Southerners who I am  not a great fan of:  Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, Senator Harry Byrd, Jr. of Virginia, and Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama.

Basically, only maverick types who either were ahead of their party on some important issues or Southerners rebelling against the civil rights movement, and therefore representing regression, have been party switchers.  Having said that, Specter joins an interesting group of influential senators who have chosen to break their party bonds.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a good friend of Senator John McCain, has expressed great concern at the marginalization of the GOP that is evident with the switch of Senator Arlen Specter to the Democratic Party.

Unlike his fellow Senator Jim DeMint from the same state, and Senators Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn, and also the talk show host Rush Limbaugh, as well as other talk show hosts, Graham is a realist who worries that the Republican party is doomed to become more weakened if it continues to eliminate or discourage moderate Republicans such as Specter.

Graham is wise in his warnings, and some can wonder if the Republican party might not be doomed to go the way of the Whig Party in the 1850s.  It could  indeed become irrelevant, and the conservatives might be seen as the cause of the downfall of the GOP, which is historically a party that has had great leaders and principles but now seems a skeleton of its old self.

Finally, the 99th day of the Obama Presidency, his cabinet is complete with the confirmation vote for Kathleen Sebelius, the Governor of Kansas, as Secretary of Health and Human Services.  It certainly is a necessary situation to have an HHS Secretary finally, with the Swine Flu crisis that has emerged these last few days in America.  Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Secretary, has been filling in during the early days of this new challenge.

Now the question is how far will Obama go to obtain a real reform of our health care system.  In many ways, this is the biggest domestic policy issue after dealing with the economic crisis that became evident last September.  Sebelius should be able to articulate a program that will gain the backing of the Democratic majority in both houses.  There is no time to waste, as we remain the only industrial democracy still allowing health insurance corporations to control the destiny of the people and allow nearly 50 million Americans to have no health care plan other than the emergency room.

The Second Hundred Days ending in early August will be judged to a great extent by the action on a health care plan.  It is time for the party of the President to unite around the President as he attempts to bring necessary health care reform, which is long overdue.

No sooner than Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announces his switch from the Republican to the Democratic party,  than the GOP  Senate leader Mitch McConnell is saying it is a disaster for the country, and Rush Limbaugh is saying that Specter should take John McCain and his daughter Megan with him to the Democratic Party!  As the saying goes, OY!  LOL

With this kind of mentality, it sounds like Maine Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe are also being pushed by implication out of the sinking Republican minority.  How can the GOP expect to revive if they keep on making themselves more narrow in their base?  A recent poll indicates only 21 percent of the American people call themselves Republicans.  Do the Republicans have a death wish?  Polls indicate vast majorities favor the Obama Presidency at this point, and instead of trying to appeal to these people to come back or at least consider the Republican alternative, instead the reaction is to "cut off their nose to spite their face", as the saying goes.

Until the Republican party can appeal to the moderate center and not consider the word "liberal"  a dirty word, they will languish in the wilderness, seen as an historical curiosity.  New leadership, based on a broad understanding of the American population, is desperately needed if we are to have a viable alternative at any time in the future!

Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announced today that he was switching his party affiliation from the Republican to the Democratic Party, therefore returning to the party he originally was in before switching to the GOP in the mid 1960s, when he was a young ambitious district attorney in Philadelphia, beginning his political career.

Obviously, Senator Specter, having switched parties twice now, at the beginning and near the end of his political career, cannot be praised for party loyalty, but despite that, it must be said that Senator Specter has had a long, distinguished career and has often shown principle and courage in tough political moments, including his decision to back President Obama’s Economic Stimulus bill , one of only three Republican senators ( the other two being the two women Senators from Maine, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins) to do so, which allowed the bill to get through the Senate, instead of being filibustered by the Republican minority. The action by Specter likely assures him another six year term in the Senate as he nears 80 years of age in 2010. 

His addition to the Democratic caucus now makes that a 59 member majority,  and eventually when Al Franken takes the Minnesota Senate seat still being contested by former Senator Norm Coleman in state supreme court, the Democrats will have reached the magic number of 60, therefore creating a filibuster proof Senate, assuming of course that all Democrats stay loyal on every piece of legislation promoted by the Obama Administration.  As a result, Obama should be able to accomplish his goals on health care, the environment, education, as well as other initiatives.

As the First Hundred Days of the Obama Administration is completed, an average of various public opinion  polls shows the President with two thirds of Americans pleased with his performance in office.

The major areas of disagreement with lower ratings are his handling of the auto industry and bank crises, with many people disagreeing with the bailout approach, and also concern about the growing government deficit caused by the tremendous amounts of money being pumped into the economy to deal with the economic downturn.

But overall there is widespread support of his economic and foreign policy.  It is obvious the next hundred days are crucial to his level of success in accomplishing his goals of getting major legislation through Congress on health care, education and energy.  Also, the need to deal with various foreign policy issues will face a test in the coming months.

Obama’s  Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has declared that press coverage of the first Hundred Days merits a grade of "A", while he believes that his President’s performance so far deserves a grade of "B+"  because there is always room for improvement.

It seems obvious that Obama and the majority of the nation’s press, particularly the major newspapers, the major networks,  and two of the three cable channels have been involved in a "torrid"  love affair.  Of course, talk radio and Fox News Channel and a few major conservative oriented daily newspapers have been dissenters. 

The question is how the majority of the nation’s media will react when things get tougher and the sense is that there are major shortcomings in results and reaction to crisis, something that seems realistic to expect over time.  And one wonders whether Gibbs will ever lower his own estimate of his boss’s job performance over time.  Somehow,  I doubt that he will be willing to admit any less positive conclusion.  :)  LOL

A major controversy surrounds the release of the Interrogation Memos drawn up by White House lawyers in 2002 for the Bush Administration, in  order to justify the need for congressional backing of a war against Saddam Hussein, despite lack of evidence of a connection  to Osama Bin Laden or to Weapons of Mass Destruction. 

There are those who say the torture methods used at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, as well as at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, were necessary and justified, but it is clear that Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and others were simply trying to find reasons for the upcoming war and were willing later on to claim a few low level soldiers (so called "bad apples") did this on their own without higher authority.  Several soldiers have been punished but neither the lawyers who drew up these memorandums nor the top government officials who authorized illegal actions have been willing to admit their part in the emerging scandal.  Rather than tell the truth, they have tried successfully until now to "sweep it under the rug" and "cover up" the facts so as to save their own skin.  This is despicable, outrageous behavior, and it makes Nixon’s scandals pale by comparison. 

Now we are told it will hurt national security if we investigate this in detail and that we must look ahead.  I say we cannot look ahead until we expose the total truth and hold those accountable for these illegal activities and crimes in a court of law.  The top officials in the government of the past administration need to be called before the bar of history,  because truth is the most important thing, not the impression it makes on other nations or even our enemy.  We are a special nation, or at least we would like to think so, and we need to emphasize the importance of ethics and morality in our dealings with the world, and also the need to come clean and make sure that NEVER again do we have a rogue government that abuses powers and dumps its crimes on the low level soldiers, the young men and women who sacrifice for their country and deserve our respect, and instead have been utilized as scapegoats.

CBS’s Sixty Minutes just had a story by Lesley Stahl about Vice President Joe Biden and his role in the Obama Administration after 100 days, which will be marked this Wednesday, April 29.

Biden  has played a major role, stating that he is involved in every major decision and is "in the room" until the end of each situation that requires consultation.  He has made no major "slipups" since early February, despite his well  known penchant to talk too much and put his "foot in his mouth".  He and Obama get along splendidly and Biden is the best ambassador the President has for his many initiatives in domestic and foreign affairs.  Biden also gets along very well, without any feeling of rivalry, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who meets with Biden every Tuesday for lunch.  Biden has had to get used to the idea of being a number two and therefore not always being a free spirit who could say whatever he wants to say and do whatever he wants to do, but he expresses the feeling that he is very content in his role as second fiddle. 

It is obvious that Biden is indeed having a major impact on the Obama Presidency and is in the process of restoring the dignity and class to the office that was earlier displayed by Walter Mondale and Al Gore when they were Vice President under Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton respectively.  The country is well served by Biden being in the number two position, and it is obvious that Barack Obama is very happy with his partner as they attempt to "move mountains" in domestic and foreign policy.  The selection of Biden remains one of the very best decisions Obama has made, and it will have a positive effect on the historical image of the Obama Administration.

It is a good sign that the Obama Administration is not sitting on the sidelines, waiting to see whether or not the Swine Flu crisis will be a national health emergency.

Better to plan that it will be, than react as the Bush Administration did with the early threat of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 by doing nothing.  If it turns out that the flu crisis remains smaller than thought likely, all to the good, but the nation’s government agencies must act quickly if it does indeed turn out to be a major epidemic as feared.

In my mind, this is similar to the concept that global warming may turn out not to be a reality, but better to plan for it than be caught up in the midst of a crisis with too little reaction, leading to major catastrophe.  One must plan for the worst, and hope for the best in both areas as well as other potential situations that may arise in the future.

In other words, there is a NEED for government to be activist, not the Reagan emphasis on government being the problem.  Lack of action and preparedness has been the problem.  Repudiation of Reaganism is definitely part of the American scene in 2009!