However long I work in politics and government, however much I achieve, and however successful I eventually am, today is and will remain a high point of my career.
However long I work in politics and government, however much I achieve, and however successful I eventually am, today is and will remain a high point of my career.
There has been a lot of internet buzz in reaction to NM Governor Bill Richardson's speech at the DNC winter meeting. After finally getting around to watching it, I have a few thoughts.
1 - The guy is a really good natural speaker.
2 - He needs better speech writers.
3 - His foreign policy positions are incredibly simplistic. Apparently everything in the middle east will be hunky dory if the US pulls its troops out of Iraq and if all of the middle east countries, including Syria and Iran, have a conference and talk.
4 - He's at his best talking about social and economic development in New Mexico.
As the campaigns develop, Richardson could end up offering an appealing alternative to some of the more "polished" candidates like Clinton, Obama, and Edwards. But I'm eagerly awaiting some more nuance in both his speeches and his foreign policy positions.
This post isn't to catch up with the last month and a half. I've been incredibly busy with work and life (a few weddings, lots of nights spent overseeing phone banks, etc), and just haven't had the energy to post.
But this past weekend was different. I was a convention at this year's state Democratic Convention.
A bit of explanation: The state democratic party has a convention during an election year for the following reason: In order to be a democratic candidate for any statewide office (governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, senator, treasurer, attorney general) a candidate has to collect a certain number of signatures from registered voters (the number varies depending on the position) and at least 15% of the delegates' votes at the convention. Additionally, whichever candidate in each race gets over 50% of the delegates' votes is "endorsed" by the party. (Which is basically meaningless since they still have to run against the other candidates in September.)
To be a delegate one has to either a) be an elected official, b) be elected at the caucuses, or c) get chosen as an add-on delegate. I didn't get elected at the caucuses so I applied to be an add-on and was chosen. The final delegate count is between 4000 and 5000.
So that's the purpose of the caucus. This year there were three contested offices: governer, LG, and secretary of state. Going into the convention the big question was whether or not one of the Gubernatorial candidates would get his 15% and make it onto the ballot.
This is getting a bit long-winded, so I'll get to the good stuff. The convention was a blast. Ted Kennedy (running for re-election, has no democratic primary opponent) gave a great speech on Friday night and then there were a lot of parties. I stayed in Worcester overnight (crashed on a friend's couch) and was up bright and early for the main event on Saturday.
The LG race is interesting. Basically, all three of the candidates would be good, so having to choose one was a good dilemma to have. I was pretty confident going into the convention that all three would get their 15% and they did, so that will be a fun race to watch.
But like I said, the big event was governor. There are three candidates: Chris Gabrieli (who was the LG nominee in 2002), Deval Patrick (worked in the justice department under Clinton), and Tom Reilly (the current AG). I have been a big Deval Patrick fan for a while, and his campaign ran a great effort at the caucuses so he was a favorite going into the convention.
His speech was phenomenal. And what's more, the crowd was already packed with his supporters so the energy was amazing. There's a video of the speech if you go here and click on the link to his speech halfway down the page. Seriously, inspirational to the level of West Wing. And this guy's real!
In the end, all three Gubernatorial candidates got their 15% and will all be on the primary ballot in September, so this race should be very interesting over the next three months. And maybe, just maybe, I'll actually have a few minutes to write about it every now and then.
Oh, and I posted some photos from the convention. It was dark, so not many of them came out. I put up the least blurry ones.
I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive Newt Gingrich for his role in the Republican revolution of the early 90's. It was Newt who kicked off the right-wing playbook of shrill character assassination and personal attacks that have long since drowned out any hope of bipartisan discourse. I'd like to think that things were just a little more civil before that.
That being said, I kind of want to meet the man. Joe Klein's column in this week's Time shows Gingrich as a guy with some interesting ideas and a disdain for the direction his party has taken. Whether or not he acknowledges his own role in the creation of today's Republican party isn't clear, but it's a question I'd love to ask.
This Boston Globe op-ed says that Jon Stewart is destroying the Democratic party. Basically the point is that Stewart and The Daily Show make politicians look like buffoons and therefore young people (who make up The Daily Show's primary audience) are turned off from activism in politics.
While I think that the author makes an interesting point, I also think that his logic is incredibly flawed.
1. Jon Stewart doesn't make politicians look stupid. They do that just fine on their own.
2. If The Daily Show informs 10 people about politics who otherwise wouldn't pay attention and 9 of those are so put off by the state of national discourse, then that still leaves one person who will get involved who otherwise wouldn't.
3. Anyone who's going to take the time to get involved is going to see the bad parts too. Trying to whitewash them won't do any good.
This article and it's assertion came up at the Democratic training seminar that I went to and we discussed the fact that yes, younger people are turned off by the rampant hypocrisy, narcicism, and bullshittery that pervades politics at the national level. One suggestion for increasing youth participation (on the activist and also just voting level) was to foster a program where local officials would speak at local high schools. I added that even though many of the national issues listed above also plague local politics, being able to connect with a local official in a person-to-person way might help to change the perception that all politics is crap.
Change is needed at the national level, but we can't wait for that to happen. Steps must be taken to involve people locally and build the activist infrastructure between election cycles. I personally remember when, as a Boy Scout (I was maybe 10 or 11 at the time), our troop went to a city council meeting. I don't honestly remember what was being discussed, but I remember recognizing the fact that government was in place to actually do things for people. I can't honestly say that my experience that night at as a pre-teen led to my activism today, but it certainly couldn't have hurt.
The guy who wrote the above op-ed piece would rather have us ignore the fact that politics and politicians often do stupid things and hope that no one notices. But frankly, if someone wants to get involved, they're going to see the crappy parts too. Instead, let's work on changing the nature of discourse so that we reduce buffoonery. Let's also expose children and young adults to the positive aspects of our political system so that Bill O'Reilly, James Carville , and Swift Boat Vets for Truth aren't the only thing they think of when they think of politics.
Alberto Gonzales testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the president's authorization of warrantless wiretaps -
"I gave in my opening statement, Senator, examples where President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance of the enemy on a far greater scale."
Really? You know, I thought that we won the revolutionary war because of our guerilla tactics and stronger will. Apparently it was because we accomplished a technological breakthrough and bugged the Brits.
Good thing Specter didn't make him swear in...
Stephen Colbert just made my night with a reference to Wiliam Carlos Williams' poem, Red Wheelbarrow. I guess I owe John Capute a thank you. Without that 9th grade lit class I wouldn't have gotten the joke.
Today I ran, and lost, my first official political campaign.
A bit of background: To be on the democratic primary ballot in Massachusetts for Governor, Lt. Governor, and some other state and federal positions, you have to receive a certain percentage of the delegates' votes at the state's Democratic Convention. To be a delegate who gets to cast a vote, you have to be elected at your region's caucus.
I've recently been getting involved with the Deval Patrick campaign and they needed people to show up and run to be on their slate of delegates. So I agreed to show up and run as an alternate delegate on the slate. However, 'twas not to be. Many memebers of the Deval Patrick slate were elected, but a few did not make it and I was one of those few.
So my political career has gotten off to a rocky start. But I am not disuaded. I still signed up to be an add-on delegate, which means that if there are any slots unfilled across the state, they select people to show up and fill them. I don't know when I'll know whether or not I've been chosen for that, but I'd like to be able to go to the convention if possible.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Bush.
John Kerry is pushing for a filibuster of Samuel Alito. Maybe I'm too jaded and cynical, but I think he knows full well it will never hold and he's doing it to gain points with the lefties.
In order to sustain a filibuster, the Dems need 41 votes. There are 44 dems in the senate and 3 have publicly declared that they will vote for Alito. That leaves 41 and at least a few of these have expressed skepticism about using a filibuster.
My point is this - John Kerry knows full well that there isn't enough support from the dems to hold a filibuster. This is a guy who couldn't take a strong stance on anything during his presidential campaign and he hasn't shown a whole lot more backbone since. I have a hard time seeing him sticking his neck out at the forefront of this, even if Ted Kennedy is right beside him.
NOTE: This doesn't change the fact that I'm still proud of my photo with him.
I thought it might be interesting to watch some of the Alito confirmation hearing on CSPAN today, but right now the only thing happening is that each senator on the judiciary committee gets 10 minutes for an opening speech. To summarize:
Republican speech: Judge Alito shows exemplary qualifications and we have no right to ask him how he might vote on issues that could come up before the supreme court.
Democratic speech: Judge Alito seems like a decent guy, but he has some troubling memos and opinions and we want to make sure that he will be an independent justice, not beholden to the philosophies of the president who nominated him. Oh, and don't forget about Harriet Meirs, who got shot down by the extreme right. Can't everyone see the President is beholden to the extreme right???
I think there are 15 members on the committee... this is going to take a while.
UPDATE: Apparently there are 18 members... oy.
Jack Abramoff, former lobbyist and Brandeis class of '81 (yes really) is pleading guilty to felony charges of conspiracy, mail fraud, and tax evasion as part of a deal with federal prosecutors. Why is this a big deal? First of all, it means that someone who played a key role in taking lobbying to its extreme and fostering a cash-for-favors environment in Washington is being punished. But more importantly, it means that he'll probably be testifying about his dealings with various politicians, and I'm betting there are members of congress with their hands quite dirty.
There needs to be lobbying reform in Washington. But since that's not happening at the moment, this is pretty damn good.
UPDATE: Gwen emailed me this page, where one of Abramoff's Brandeis roommates talks about their time in college and what kind of person Jack was then. Interesting stuff.
I'm a big fan of Mike Luckovich's political cartoons. One of his recent ones is particularly entertaining.
Words don't do it justice. Just check it out.
I used to like you Target. You've been convenient, cost-effective, and a one-stop resource for many of my shopping needs.
Which is why it's so hard for me to say goodbye to you today. It's not because you suddenly became inconvenient. Quite the contrary: there's one of you not too far from me at the Watertown Mall. It's not because your prices went up. No, all of these wonderful qualities remain the same. Everything about you is just as it has always been.
But what I didn't know about you, Target, is that you have no respect for reproductive rights. You think it's okay to deny prescribed emergency contraceptives to people if it conflicts with your own personal morality. And that's a quality that I don't like in my friends.
So Iong, Target. I hope that we can reconcile one day, but until then I'll have to search elsewhere for low-priced kitchen and home sundries. I'll have to go to neighboring Best Buy for CDs and DVDs. I'll have to find my 6-packs of socks and 2-for-1 boxers at other retail outlets. If you ever come down from your moralistic high-horse, give me a call. We'll go shopping.
I spent today volunteering for an alderman campaign in somerville and... we won! This one was more uncertain than the state senate race I volunteered on. I'd done some canvassing over the past month and today I got out some votes and held a few signs at street corners. The candidate beat a 22-year incumbent by around 14%, so it was a pretty sweet victory.
Today Harriet Meirs withrew her supreme court nomination.
Tomorrow, indictments are expected in the CIA leak.
And it's not even my birthday!
I've updated the photo section with a selection of pictures from the past few months. Enjoy.
Today was pretty chilly. It was a gorgeous day, but colder than it's been so far. On the plus side, however, I got to see John Edwards speak at Harvard's Kennedy School. He was on campus talking about poverty in America. It was a good speech. Good thing I don't have a job right now and was able to go see him at 3 in the afternoon.
I also passed my emissions inspection today, but that's less exciting.