THE candidate leans over her salad of field greens, tomatoes and blue cheese. The reporter seated across from her edges closer to the table, believing some secret is about to be shared—something no one else has heard that will alter dramatically the course of the campaign, which once was the candidate’s to lose. Now, however, the seasoned politico is slipping in the polls; defeat to a young upstart is at hand.
“Do you know who he is? Who are the people around him,” the candidate asks. The reporter, poised with pen in hand, waits for the answer.
Innuendo and warmed over charges come gushing from the candidate’s mouth. The reporter, disappointed, realizes this is a new version of the old version of attack that has been absolutely ineffective in the last two weeks that the candidate has employed it.
The candidate TBR is talking about is former D.C. Council Chairman Linda Cropp, who in 2006 attempted to steady her faltering campaign with the same type of bogeyman tactics currently being used by Republican presidential nominee John McCain and his sidekick, Dick Cheney clone Sarah Palin.
Cropp faced then-Ward 4 Council member Adrian M. Fenty. Not unlike Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama, Fenty had an indescribable charm, a record for understanding the desires of ordinary folks, and a willingness to work hard at all hours on their benefit. It didn’t matter that as a young person he mishandled the case of an elderly client; or that some of his workers were antagonist toward Ward 1 council member Jim Graham and from time to time spouted black nationalist jargon; or that, as the rumor went, his mother was Jewish; or that he had more than a few white folks in his inner circle.
What moved average Washingtonians was that Fenty promised to put the same effort into the job of being mayor, as they perceived he had as councilmember. And, he was talking what they wanted to hear: government reform and improvements in education.
McCain and Palin--like Cropp and even Sen. Hillary Clinton during the Democratic presidential primary—hope the bogeyman will jumpstart their campaign and lead them to victory on Nov. 4.
Political operatives say attack ads work in national campaigns because most voters don’t know the candidate up close and personal as they do in statewide or other local contests. That’s probably true--except when the campaign’s prime message is all negative all the time. When talk is all about the other guy’s foibles or past associations, voters become weary of that message—particularly independent voters, like TBR.
In McCain’s case, there is the growing perception that he really is out of touch and his ticket mate is a one-note airhead, ready to read any script given to her. (TBR has no reason to disbelieve Palin’s assertion that she reads whatever is placed in front of her. Since she landed on the national stage that has been apparent.)
At a time when the country is one step away from the Great Depression Redux, the Republican presidential and vice-presidential candidate, Lee Atwater and Karl Rove disciples, and others want to talk about the 1960s. More specifically, they want voters focused on Bill Ayers, a former member a radical group that wanted a revolution in America and thought bombing specific government buildings might help realize that dream.
Now, suddenly, more than 30 years later, Ayers is a domestic terrorist. Obama, who once had a political fundraiser at Ayers Chicago home, is someone everyone should fear; he should be sent to Guantanamo.
The truth is Republicans, with national and establishment reputations, have sat at the same table with Ayers for years. They have known who he is, what he did, and where they could find him long before Obama came on the scene.
The McCain-Palin campaign doesn’t just want to distract voters, turning their attention away from the economy—a subject where the duo lacks expertise and haven’t offered one viable proposal. It also wants to restore a rage that can be found in economic hard times where one class or race of people blames the other for its lot.
McCain and Palin incite their supporters and others to stand against Obama not because they disagree with his position on important public policy, like what to do about the housing crisis or credit crunch affecting millions of Americas, but because the Democrat is about to get something that belongs to them and they, as white citizens, deserve more than he as a black man
Rep. John Lewis is right. Countless Southern politicos--most of whom have been Republicans--have deployed similar tactics. Obama may want to step away from the civil rights icon’s statement, but Lewis should stand his ground. If it’s true there is no such thing as being a little pregnant, then there certainly isn’t no such thing as being a little racist. The McCain campaign is dangerously close to that line.
THE BIG PAYBACK AT UDC—
EVEN as they prepare to walk out of the door, the Board of Trustees at the University of the District of Columbia continues to muck around with the ailing public institution. Last week, it decided to dissolve the University Senate, which includes faculty and some administrators.
That is a transparent and indisputable act of revenge, say members of the senate’s steering committee, which met on Friday to formulate an official response to the board’s action.
“Our position is clear: It’s business as usual for the senate,” said senate leader Sydney Hall. “This is a terrible affront to the academic community.”
James Dyke, president of the UDC board told TBR “There was and is no ill will against the University Senate.”
He said the board put together an Ad Hoc Committee to deal with faculty engagement. He said members of that committee attempted to get information and documents from the current university senate. Those requests went unanswered.
Further, he said that the board wants “significant reform and change” at UDC, and that “there is a short window to accomplish that mission.
“Dr [Alan] Sessoms [UDC’s new president] needs the best possible organizational support. In order to make the significant progress we seek,” Dyke continued. “We need the full and active involvement of the faculty, students and administration.”
That’s some nice couching. But the timing of the board’s action sends off a whiff of payback. The senate over the past year has challenged some decisions made by the trustees. Hall and others launched a public campaign to persuade the mayor to make changes on the university’s governing body. During the summer, Fenty sent to the council the names of six people to replace trustees whose terms had expired but who wanted to hold on to their seats. (UDC may be a failing institution, but it’s a great platform for those interested in access to the city’s political structure.) The council has not confirmed those six replacements; there is an effort by current members to stall the confirmation.
The faculty senate also had asked the board to consider other candidates for president. Their actions delayed, at least temporarily, the board’s selection of Sessoms, former head of Delaware State University.
It appears the board and, by extension, Sessoms have posted a sign “only yes men and women need apply. ” Why else handpick members of the “Interim Academic Senate”—many are part of the university’s top echelon. For example, Shelly Broderick, Dean of the David A. Clarke School of Law at UDC will serve as the group’s chairman. Instead of being elected by the faculty or the body of the new senate, Broderick is being appointed by Sessoms and the board.
Hall and current senate leaders are vowing to fight. They meet Tuesday. Interestingly, they had invited Sessoms to formally address the group. But rather than accept its invitation, he and the board announced the dissolution, effective a full vote later this month.
“I think we might have a reason to file a grievance with the union,” said Wilmer Johnson a member of the current senate’s steering committee. “I have to explore that.”
What is most disappointing about the board’s and new president’s action isn’t that it comes before any real interaction with the faculty senate’s leadership but that it promises to create conflict at a time when there should be an effort to unite the university around a shared agenda. TBR was at the UDC last week. The physical plant is an absolute mess. And, the campus was not bustling; it was near dead.
The new president, who has been on the job for less three months, may want to focus his attention on major issues confronting UDC, including the plan for a community college that could imperil the entire operation, raising funds to launch a capital improvement plan, and enhancing academic offerings. He shouldn’t permit himself to be pulled into the board’s fight, especially since many of them will be gone in short order.
Sessoms also may want to consider the trouble the country is in following the philosophy “the enemy of my friend is my enemy.”
SIDESHOWS AND SOUVENIRS
COUNCIL Chairman Vincent C. Gray is pressuring the Fenty administration to quickly send a plan for addressing the city’s approximately $200 million revenue shortfall for this fiscal year 2009.
Gray sent a letter to Fenty demanding the plan by Tuesday, Oct. 14. Incidentally, he also sent out a press release alerting the media to his demand.
“The Council plans to move quickly and constructively in conjunction with the CFO and the Fenty administration to take whatever action is necessary to address the projected $131 million revenue shortfall,” the chairman said.
Since the budget it finalized by the council, the legislature could move on its own, without waiting for the mayor. Already the council’s budget director is examining the approved budget for possible savings and cuts. Ideally, the executive should offer a proposal, but the council need not wait. Considering the seriousness of the situation, it shouldn’t. Gray has scheduled a roundtable for Friday, Oct. 17th in Room 412.
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