Looks like I won’t be getting anymore faxed press releases from Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who resigned today in a scandal over e-mails and sexually explicit Internet chats with former male congressional pages. Sick.
For the record, Foley never asked me for my picture. Not that I know of, anyway. After a while I stopped reading the faxes. Why a congressman from Florida was faxing me I have no idea.
So in one week the Internet entangles a staff member for a GOP member of Congress and a member himself. And this is after e-mails helped bring down corrupt super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. You’d think that folks in Washington would have figured out by now that maybe leaving a paper trail of your shady behavior is not a good idea.
In the immortal words of Apu, “What were you thinking?!”
Al-Qaida in Iraq’s tally of its own fighters lost in the war: 4,000.
Lee Smith has an excellent column at The Weekly Standard that makes similiar points to our Recruiting terrorists editorial today. Very much worth a read.
Quoted in a Los Angeles Times column, retired rear admiral John Hutson said of his public opposition to Bush on terrorist interrogations: “None of us feels comfortable speaking out publicly. That’s not the nature of what military officers do. . . . [But we] care very, very much about the country and the military — and that’s why [we] are speaking out.”
That’s curious, since Hutson, dean of Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, issues press releases and op-eds stating his opposition to Bush proposals all the time. This summer he has campaigned with Democratic Congressional Candidate Paul Hodes. He has publicly opposed the Patriot Act, numerous Bush initiatives in the War on Terror, and even Bush’s choice of Alberto Gonzales for attorney general. In 2004 the Nackey Loeb School of Communications honored Hutson with a First Amendment Award for his numerous public stances on controversial issues. Hutson is hardly some old warrior reluctant to speak up against his President. He is and has long been a very vocal anti-Bush partisan.
Ever wonder how much the people employed by our elected representatives in Washington make? Now you can find out. A new site called Legistorm tracks the data.
Here are the listings for the offices of Sen. Gregg, Sen. Sununu, Rep. Bass and Rep. Bradley.
Movie industry watchers are abuzz about the new George Clooney film “The Good German,” particularly its stunningly attractive poster:
Which is an almost exact duplicate of a Casablanca poster, even down to colors and fonts:
So it was not a lowly intern in the office of Rep. Charlie Bass who posed as a liberal Democrat to try to convince readers of two liberal New Hampshire blogs to give up their fight against Bass. It was Tad Furtado, Bass’ policy director, who resigned yesterday.
Quite a big fish for a couple of low-readership liberal blogs to land. The event provided another confirmation that even small blogs can play a serious role in electoral politics.
A few thoughts:
These types of dirty tricks happen in every campaign, but often they are the work of low-level campaign staffers or enthusiastic supporters, not top taxpayer-funded staff members of Furtado’s level. A typical example is the radio call-in. A staff member will call a talk radio show pretending to be a supporter of the opponent to make the opponent look bad, or will pretend to be an undecided voter and ask his or her boss a softball question.
The beauty of the Internet is that when it is used for such shenanigans they can be traced to a source computer. People make the mistake of assuming that merely signing on to a blog with a pseudonym is enough to mask one’s identity. Then they get caught.
In this case Furtado’s ineptitude was matched only by the utter incomprehensibililty of his scheme. What on earth did he think he would accomplish? Could he really have believed that he would convince any readers of the two blogs in question — NH-02 Progressive and Blue Granite — to stop supporting Hodes or to give up and stay home on Election Day?
And of course, there was the complete disregard for ethics. Bass was right to insist on Furtado’s resignation, effective immediately.
There was irony, too. One of the blogs that has been on Bass’ case for months and trumpeted the scandal is Yankee Doodler, run entirely anonymously until this week. When I deconstructed a Yankee Doodler post a while back, he sent me a long rebuttal. When I told him I would not post it unless he identified himself, he refused. Finally, when contacted via e-mail by a reporter asking about the Furtado mess, Yankee Doodler decided he couldn’t criticize Furtado’s subterfuge while remaining anonymous himself. He removed the mask. His name is Dean Barker and he lives in Cornish.
Personally, I think anonymous political blogging is unethical even if the opinions one puts forth are one’s own, which is why I won’t allow anonymous comments on this blog. In politics, a person’s interests are just as important to measure as his arguments. Hiding behind a pseudonym prohibits others from evaluating the sincerity of one’s arguments. Yankee Doodler obviously realized that when our reporter asked him to comment on the Furtado mess.
Furtado’s subterfuge was a few steps down the ethical ladder from anonymous blogging, no question. I don’t think Barker was deliberately unethical, while Furtado unquestionably was. Barker might’ve had some legitimate reasons to blog anonymously and I don’t think he thought of it as an ethical violation, which most people probably don’t. But in the marketplace of ideas, one’s identity is a factor that others ought to be able to weigh along with the heft of one’s arguments. That might not be apparent to a citizen who simply wants to post his own comments without drawing a lot of attention to himself and who is not trying to deceive anyone. But to a paid political adviser it should have been obvious that anonymously selling the boss was unethical and that doing so while disguised as a supporter of the boss’ opponent was even worse.
New York Sun contributing editor Seth Gitell writes today that New Hampshire’s primary is the reason no New York politicians have been major-party presidential nominees since 1950. If New Hampshire keeps its primacy in 2008, that bodes well for Romney and Kerry and ill for Clinton and Giuliani. (Gitell doesn’t consider Pataki a “major candidate.”)
An incredibly brave woman in Afghanistan was killed today, evidently for educating women. Safia Ama Jan, the head of the government’s Women’s Affairs department in Kandahar, had set up several schools for women. She even taught women secretly during the Taliban’s rule.
Yet another example of the barbarity of the enemy.
James Pindell came to New Hampshire four years ago to start politicsnh.com, which he built into a respected political site that all insiders had to read. On Sept. 1 he left to cover the NH primary for the Boston Globe’s Washington bureau. Oh, and he just got married too.
Here is what James has been reading lately:
The Long Tail: Why The Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, by Chris Anderson. “This book by the editor of Wired Magazine is already working its way up the best-seller lists and the reason is obvious: this book is not just about how business is changing with the Internet, but how our lives are changing. Anderson begins with what most of us accept already: the idea that technology has allowed so many alternatives and niches to be carved out that “common culture” and a “common marketplace” is crippling. For example, with I-Pods allowing us to listen to whatever kind of niche music we want all day, does a Top-40 song really mean anything anymore? But Anderson takes this concept much further and says that basically every company must change their ethos from how they can dominate an industry to how they can dominate a niche. This concept can be applied to everything from music, movies, cooking, politics, and even internet dating. This book will be a reference point to cocktail and conference conversations the same way that Tom Friedman’s “The Earth is Flat” and Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” has in recent years. It’s a must read.”
Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage, by Stephanie Coontz. “I got married a few weeks ago so this subject was timely for me. Coontz, the popular sociologist at The Evergreen State College in Washington state, takes an honest look at the history and origins of marriage in this time when the very definition of the word is politically loaded. In her research she rejects to two widespread, but opposing views to how the institution of marriage began. One view is that marriage was invented so that men could protect women and the other that it began so that men could exploit women. Her belief is that marriage began because it served the needs of the larger group. It provided order, stability, division of labor, and created networks of in-laws that helped hedge against a bad crop season or hunting day. Interestingly she argues that it is only in the last 200 years that marriage began to be based on love, with a zenith of that thought in the 1950s, and that’s when marriage as an institution began radical changes. If you need love to be in a marriage, she explains, then if the love fades out does the marriage also, and if so shouldn’t there be a lot of divorce? And if it is straight people who redefined love as the only thing you need to be married, then a discussion about gay marriage is inevitable.”
Letters To A Young Journalist, by Samuel G. Freedman. “Written by a legend professor at the graduate school of journalism I attended, the book inspires and defends the profession by reminding readers of the craft’s main principles and how to find passion in boring local school board meetings.”
Five Days in Philadelphia: The Amazing “We Want Willkie” Convention on 1940 And How It Freed F.D.R. To Save The Western World, by Charles Peters. “As a political junkie I am drawn to great histories of elections of the past, and this reads like a thriller. Peters, who founded the gem Washington Monthly, is honest about being a liberal, but it’s irrelevant to the wonderful detail and rich narrative of the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, and weaving into it the national and international context of the weighty decisions made there. I was also drawn to read the book since Willke’s roots are about 20 minutes from where I grew up in Indiana and I knew little about him. Willke, from the minority internationalist wing of the Republican Party at the time, framed the debate about entering World War II differently than anti-war nationalist Republicans Tom Dewey, Robert Taft, and Arthur Vandenberg, who were front-runners for the Presidential nomination. Willke entered the convention a dark horse and exited the nominee. How that happened is the amazing story.”
Former governors John Sununu, Judd Gregg, Steve Merrill and Craig Benson have issued a joint call for a constitutional amendment to restore the Legislature’s authority on education funding.
From the press release:
John Sununu (Governor 1983-1989): “We need a constitutional amendment to preserve the character of the state of New Hampshire. The irrationality of the meddling in this issue by the court has forced legislators to base their vote on the dollars allocated to their town not the best interests of the state. New Hampshire was the last vestige of participatory democracy and local control in the nation but the court changed that. The only way to return the power to the officials elected by and therefore accountable to the citizens of New Hampshire is to pass a constitutional amendment that makes sure the court can not take that right away from the voters. I can’t believe the Governor and the legislature will let this meddling continue. But let us be clear about what we are suggesting: an appropriate constitutional amendment should not say what education policy is but should allow Governors and legislators to make those decisions.”
Judd Gregg (Governor 1989-1993) “New Hampshire is a special place to live and raise a family for many reasons but clearly one of them is our lack of a sales or income tax. The “New Hampshire Advantage” gives our entrepreneurs, businesses and families throughout our state a chance to prosper without being smothered by excessive taxes. By limiting taxes we have been able to keep government small and encourage local control.”
“ Our other advantage is our reliance on representative government with the largest state legislature in the country. It is that legislature and the people of the New Hampshire who should set tax policy, not a small group of unelected and unrepresentative judges. It is essential that we remove the power of the court to write basic tax policy and laws. This right must be the prerogative of the people through their elected representatives”
Stephen Merrill (Governor, 1993-1997): “A Constitutional amendment permits the people to speak on this critical subject. The Governor and Legislature, and not the Courts, will best represent the will of the people regarding our educational system.“
Craig Benson (Governor 2003-2005): “The New Hampshire Advantage includes education decisions made as close to the people as possible and a tax system that encourages jobs and economic development. After the most recent court decision, we must act immediately to preserve local control of education. A state takeover of education means input from parents, PTAs and school boards will be a thing of the past. Any candidate that doesn’t support an amendment condemns us to job-destroying taxes and the end of New Hampshire’s economic advantage. We need an amendment today to let the voters have a chance to speak.”
