The Washington Papers Look at the Democratic Candidates

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode LI

WaTi looks at recent... gaffes... by prominent Democrats:

Conspiracy theories continued to sprout among Democrats yesterday in the wake of the capture of Saddam Hussein. Some Democrats expressed alarm that the party was drifting out of the "mainstream."

Madeleine Albright, the secretary of state in the Clinton administration, in a conversation with Morton Kondracke, executive editor of Roll Call and a Fox News Channel political analyst, suggested that Osama bin Laden has been captured by U.S. forces and will soon be produced to the public.

"Do you suppose," she asked, "that the Bush administration has Osama bin Laden hidden away somewhere and will bring him out before the election?"

Mrs. Albright said last night she was kidding. "She was not smiling when she said this," Mr. Kondracke said....

Henry Kissinger, who was secretary of state for Presidents Nixon and Ford, called Mrs. Albright's comment "absolutely ridiculous" and said it exposes a kind of "paranoia" that has engulfed the Democratic Party.

"I am very fond of Madeleine, but there's something about President Bush that blows the Democrats' minds," Mr. Kissinger said on "Fox and Friends" yesterday. "They get so rabid in their dislike that they say things which are absurd. If we could find Osama bin Laden on the same day that we could find Saddam, we would do it. It's just not possible that these captures are timed to embarrass the Democrats. It's a sort of paranoia. I think she got carried away."

Donna Brazile, who ran Al Gore's presidential campaign in 2000, said the comments of Mrs. Albright and Mr. Dean and Mr. McDermott have "no place in our dialogue on this very serious issue. I think most Americans have some lingering doubts about what happened on September 11, but until the commission and Congress completes its investigation, I think it best if people hold these views to themselves. But because we don't yet have a nominee, it's all out in the open." ....

Fascinating. Brazile can't even tell them to shut up without implying herself that there might be something to one conspiracy theory or another.

Tina Brown opines on what the Democratic candidates are lacking:

.... Live-action heroism and a sinking sense that nice guys finish last have reduced the Democratic candidates to little more than the mannerisms that annoyed us in the first place. Lieberman, he of the censorious smile and jungle-book voice. Kerry, the talking tree with the '70s hair. Edwards, hopelessly puppyish at 50. Clark, cyborg hero of places no one can spell. Dean, no longer the exciting insurgent riding to glory on the Internet but a pisher with no past and no neck, poised to lead his party to angry defeat. Only Gephardt retained a certain Great Plains steadfastness; but the nation wants swords, not plowshares — "Top Gun," not "It's a Wonderful Life."

Republicans have co-opted masculinity just when the media keep thinking such images are obsolete. The Fab 5 (of "Queer Eye" fame) exist only to change the straight guy's act, not his core. In California the Democrats still think Arnold won because of his celebrity, but as Berkeley professor George Lakoff, author of "Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think," pointed out to me last week in Los Angeles, Jay Leno is a celebrity, too, and he wouldn't have had a chance. Lakoff is a bearded, articulate progressive who has done a lot of work on the framing of winning issues. He stresses that Arnold was sponsored by Republican kingmakers because he's a fantasy figure who very clearly represents the strict, punishing father people turn to in times of fear....

(Thanks, Patrick.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 12/18/03 08:29:13 PM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode & Political.