CNN's new political show "Spin Room," with Bill Press on the left and Tucker Carlson on the right, could be thought of as the political version of "People" magazine but not as cerebral. Last night they took on the Bush AWOL story, based on the "Boston Globe's" report yesterday of Sen. Bob Kerrey's response to charges of a year-long disappearance by Bush while in the military. Using historian Richard Shenkman as second bananna, this is what passed for CNN's serious discussion of the charges:
PRESS: Abe [Lincoln] probably couldn't win today because he didn't have enough education. Before we get into government experience, I want to go back to Richard Shenkman for just a minute.
Mr. Shenkman, on military experience, there's a story in "The Boston Globe" yesterday...that George W. Bush's Web site shows that he served in the Texas National Guard from 1968 to 1973.
"The Boston Globe" says baloney. He only flew that plane for 22 months. He never showed up for duty in Alabama. He never showed for duty when he went back to Houston and never took his physical. Bob Kerrey, in fact, says it looks [like] he was AWOL. What effect could that have if true -- we don't know whether it is or not. "Boston Globe" reports it, if somebody is stretching his military resume.
SHENKMAN: Well, it sure doesn't look good. The problem is it's in "The Boston Globe"; it's not on the front page of "The New York Times." When it gets on the front page of "The New York Times," then it'll be an issue and then Bush is going to have to respond.
I note that Bush hasn't even agreed to do an interview on this with "The Boston Globe" reporters, who have been working on this story for about seven or eight months.
PRESS: It probably won't make "The New York Times."
That's it. End of conversation. And you wonder why non-partisan studies like the Pew Foundation's have concluded that the mainstream media has an obvious bias toward George W. Bush during this campaign? Shenkman was right about one thing, though, "It sure doesn't look good." As a point of comparison, "Kerrey, a Nebraska Democrat who won the Medal of Honor for his service in Vietnam, expressed disgust yesterday at evidence that George W. Bush sidestepped National Guard duty for months in 1972 and 1973, a lapse that Kerrey said amounts to Bush being AWOL - absent without leave. [Kerry,] who won the nation's highest award for heroism as a Navy SEAL in a 1969 action that cost him part of his right leg, said he is amazed that Bush's military service has escaped any real scrutiny....Referring to Bush's attacks on Gore's character, Kerrey said the Texas governor has a moral obligation of his own to search his conscience and answer questions about where he was when he was supposed to be attending National Guard training. ''For someone who wants to be commander in chief, this stinks,'' Kerrey declared. 'I can understand if he forgot a weekend. But 18 months?'...'It upsets me,' Kerrey said in an interview reported by the Boston Globe , 'when someone says, `Vote for me, I was in the military,' when in fact he got into the military in order to avoid serving in the military, to avoid service that might have taken him into the war. And then he didn't even show up for duty.''' --Politex, 11/2/00
"Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt called in this morning to talk about a story he's had about George W. Bush for quite a while now. Larry claims that he has some people who are backing up a story that Bush got a girl an abortion back in 1970. Larry said that they have 5 women who were friends with the woman who apparently had the abortion and they're backing up the story. The one thing they don't have is the woman who had the abortion. Howard said that this should be a huge bombshell of a story but none of the major networks or news agencies are picking up on it. Howard said that after Larry appeared on ''Crossfire'' and spoke about it they deleted all of the references to the abortion thing from their transcripts. Larry said he doesn't expect the news agencies to take Bush down over the issue but they should, at least, ask the question. Howard said that he would call Bush's campaign headquarters later in the morning and ask them himself. Everyone in the studio agrees that this should be a big story because Bush claims to be against abortion. Larry had also pointed out that the abortion took place before the Roe vs Wade decision was made. So technically the abortion would have been illegal. Later in the show, around 9:30, Howard said he tried calling all of the Republican headquarters and none of them were answering their phones.... A short time later Howard tried again to get someone from the Republican headquarters in New York to comment on the situation. Gary ended up talking to them but they told him he had to call the Austin offices. Gary tried them and they said they were busy and would have to call them back later. At 10:10am Gary came in and said that the Bush people told him that they wouldn't be able to get a spokesperson before the end of the show but they'd have someone for tomorrow's show. Howard said that's bull and had Gary call them back again but nothing happened." --Mark Mercer, 11/2/00
Notice how Bush has been strutting around like a peacock since the weekend, all but claiming victory? Notice how his chief spinner, Karen Hughes, talks very loudly about victory over the phone so that reporters can hear? Notice how the entire Bush team, in Austin and elsewhere talks in hushed tones about not celebrating too soon. It's all phony. That's why Bush's political guru Karl Rove, he of the Lee Atwater school of dirty tricks, gets paid the big bucks. All of the fakery, which is typical of any Rove campaign, is geared to give the manistream national Bush media an excuse to report that the celebration has begun. Bush is even getting downtown Austin into the act, planning to rope off five blocks of space downtown for a victory celebration scheduled to begin at 5 central time, hours before the polls close in California, Oregon, and Washington.
Rather than reporting that whatever caused Bush to sniff his way through the last debate and the weeks after has weakened him, he supposedly took off on Sunday because he was so far ahead he didn't need to campaign. Uh-huh. Rather than saying that Bush was trying to drown the Dem attack on Nader by going to the west coast Nader strongholds, keeping Gore away from spending more days in Florida, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, Bush would have us believe that he thinks he's so far ahead that he can spend time in Gore states. Uh-huh. What we're seeing is typical Rove political mind games. This is the part he loves so well. The fact is, Bush is running scared, and we know this in at least two ways. First, yesterday Bush unleashed a blitz of personal attack ads, trying to bring Gore down by questioning his credibility again. This comes after days of campaigning in which Bush stressed that he was a unifier, not a divider, that he would do something about the negative tone in Washington. He didn't mean that he would add to it with negative attack ads. Secondly, the word on the street as reported by Daily News' Michael Kramer is that the Bush team is worried in a very specific way.
"Quietly, some of George W. Bush's advisers are preparing for the ultimate 'what if' scenario: What happens if Bush wins the popular vote for President, but loses the White House because Al Gore's won the majority of electoral votes? 'Then we win,' says a Gore aide. 'You play by the rules in force at the time. If the nation were really outraged by the possibility, then the system would have been changed long ago. The history is clear.'...'The one thing we don't do is roll over,' says a Bush aide. 'We fight.' How? The core of the emerging Bush strategy assumes a popular uprising, stoked by the Bushies themselves, of course. In league with the campaign — which is preparing talking points about the Electoral College's essential unfairness — a massive talk-radio operation would be encouraged. 'We'd have ads, too,' says a Bush aide, 'and I think you can count on the media to fuel the thing big-time. Even papers that supported Gore might turn against him because the will of the people will have been thwarted.' Local business leaders will be urged to lobby their customers, the clergy will be asked to speak up for the popular will." With desperate, unconstitutional ideas like that, the Bush team doesn't sound very confident of victory at this point, despite what the Bush spinners are saying and the Bush media is reporting. --Politex, 11/1/00
"Vice President Al Gore, who recently visited a Salvation Army cafeteria in Atlanta, also has proposed helping faith-based organizations provide welfare services, but says he doesn't want recipients to be required to attend religious services in order to receive help. 'We have a little bit of a difference there,' Bush said. 'Basically what he's saying is, `Sure, you can receive federal aid, and you can go to a program, but don't listen to the message.' I believe we ought to fund the individual or the program, and if it's a Christian message or a Jewish message, we ought to understand the power of the message.'" --Forth Worth Star-Telegram, 8/29/99
Yesterday in Portland, Oregon, "Mr. Bush spoke of his own decision to give up alcohol. 'I quit drinking in 1986. I have not had a drop since then,' he said. 'It wasn't because of a government program in my case; I heard a higher calling.' Mr. Bush said government should give religious organizations funding to provide social services without insisting that they give up their religious orientation. He pointed to a picture of Jesus on the wall of the ministry during his tour and said, 'The danger is that government causes a program like this to lose its mission. A lot of programs say, I don't want to touch government money because the bureaucracy will come in and force us to take the picture off the wall. What I'm saying is we're not going to let that happen.'" ---NYT, 1/11/00
One. Asked how he would feel on Nov. 8 if [George W. Bush] was elected, he smiled, and even seemed to suggest he would prefer that outcome. "A bumbling Texas governor would galvanize the environmental community as never before," he said. "The Sierra Club doubled its membership under James Watt." --NYT, 11/1/00
Two. In response to the Bush Watch report that Nader has investments in the very corporations he castigates. "The key is whether you fight the company you have money in," he said. "There comes a point when everything is connected to everything else in investments." --NYT, 11/1/00
Yes, and there comes a point when every politician is connected to every other politician in lies and deceit, and that sure includes Mr. Nader. Bush criticizes Gore for lies, when it's Bush who lies about his budget figures and Gore who lies about the name of his dog's pills. Nader criticizes Gore for his ownership of Occidental stock, when it's Nader who has investment in Occidental stock and Gore who does not. Of the three, Bush, Nader, and Gore, two own stock in corrupt corporations and two are millionaires. Bush and Nader. And as for Nader wanting to beat us until our morale improves, he's got to be kidding. No matter who wins the election, Nader and the Greens will be remembered as folks who were willing to sell out their own principles and policies to get a few more bucks and a few more votes by trying to elect a man who is the very antithesis of all they hold dear. In their arrogance and deception, who do they think they are? George Bush? --Politex, 11/1/00
Reuters, Monday 10/30/00 "Former President George Bush sought to solidify support for his son in Republican-leaning Louisiana on Monday by promising that a vote for George W. Bush (news - web sites) was a vote for dignity in the White House.... The former president spoke to about a thousand supporters in this affluent and largely white New Orleans suburb."
AP, Monday 10/30/00 Appearing on the Jay Leno show this evening, George W. Bush told Leno that voters don't want to be reminded of Clinton's past problems in the White House and that surrogates are irrelevant. "Bush said, 'I think we ought to just move on,' suggesting people were getting tired of hearing about it. He said he didn't think Clinton would necessary help Gore by campaigning because he said people will make up their own minds."
#1. Global Warming. Global warming? Gore knows it's happening, Bush[-Nader] isn't sure. Gore wanted a tax on fossil-fuel energy -- a tax that was blocked by Republicans and always will be -- while Bush[-Nader] governs over the worst air in the country and justifies it on the grounds of industrial growth. Gore knows the arguments against oil drilling; Bush[-Nader] looks at Alaska and sees barrels. Gore's an environmentalist who makes political deals; Bush[-Nader] is half of an all-oil-company team. No difference? --Tod Gitlin, 10/29/00
NADER SAYS HE WANTS BUSH TO WIN
In June of this year reporter Jay Heinrichs asked Nader "if someone put a gun to his head and told him to vote for either Gore or Bush, which he would choose." Here's what was answered "without hesitation"...
RALPH NADER: "BUSH." Outside Magazine, August 2000
Did you know that Ralph Nader has a financial interest in Dick Cheney's success and has financial ties to Enron, one of George W. Bush's major campaign contributors? While Nader attacks corporations such as Halliburton, Raytheon, Boeing, Ford, Phillip-Morris, Pfizer, MacDonalds, and Occidental as being harmful to mankind, he makes investment profits off of all of these and more. What's the point, you ask? If corporate contributions corrupt candidates, can't corporate investments corrupt candidates? And if Mr. Nader questions Mr. Gore's populist rhetoric and his mother's oil holdings, shouldn't he also question his own?
GEORGE W. BUSHNADER, SPACE CADET...at a campaign rally in LaCrosse, Wis. last week..."Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." --NYT, 10/26/00
GEORGE W. BUSHNADER, SPACE CADET...speaking to an audience of school kids about the Clinton-Monica affair..."That was the last chapter of the Twentieth...err...Twenty-first Century." --NPR, 10/24/00
THERE'S NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PAT BUCHANAN AND RALPH NADER
Sunday evening a surprised Bush watcher reported that Larry Flynt's Friday evening Crossfire allegation that George W. Bush was "involved in" an early 1970's abortion and that he had proof of it was removed from the transcript posted on the CNN web site at http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0010/20/cf.00.html. Here's how the relevant portions of the two transcripts read:
BUSH'S "HELL-RAISING" YEARS IN HOUSTON
Bush's Secret Summer in Alaska
"I'm from Fairbanks and worked on the pipeline during that period. The place was awash with oil money, prostitutes and drugs. Cocaine was relatively new to the scene but was easy to obtain and commonly used. Frankly, I can't think of another reason that Bush would never have mentioned this summer job [in '74, since he has refused to comment on his possible drug use up to '74]. (See AP, 8/19/99..."Bush spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said the Republican presidential front-runner was saying that he has not used illegal drugs at any time since 1974, when the 53-year-old Bush was 28.") He has talked about delivering mail at a law firm and selling sporting goods but never mentioned that he worked on the Alaska Pipeline? It doesn't make sense." --e-mail from a Bush Watcher
e-mail...TO ANDREW SULLIVAN, SENIOR EDITOR, THE NEW REPUBLIC
Bush Had Advance Warning...excerpt from TV reporter Del Walters' L.A. interview with Larry Flynt for ABC Ch.7 in Washington, D.C which aired on Thursday, 10/19/00, one day previous to the Crossfire interview (see below).
Bush Watch broke an in-house record for Saturday readership yesterday, effortlessly chalking up substantial readership numbers. For what? Because Larry Flynt indicated he had proof of an early '70's Bush involvement in an abortion and because the NYT reported that Bush has kept a summer of '74 episode in Alaska secret, possibly having relevance to his earlier comments on drug use. As Bush might say, "Guess what?" If there is anything to them, like young cheese, these stories would take longer to ripen and stink than there is time left in the campaign. We see the stories as just another form of political entertainment.
In her Boston Globe story this morning, Ellen Goodman writes about the evolution of politics into just another form of entertainment. (See "news") From most accounts in the media, that's what it's gotten down to. Based on tracking polls over the last few days, those independents who are supposedly left to decide the election appear to be making up their minds on the basis of entertainment values as emphasized on Oprah, Regis, Letterman, and Saturday Nite Live, not issue values as emphasized on PBS and C-Span. Guess what? We're more interested in someone who can count than someone who can schmooze well. Keep in mind that when Bush wants to have a beer, he won't be having it with you. We've already had the disaster of a movie actor being elected because he can play the role of president. Now we have bad actors trying out for the role on giddy talk shows. Goodman suggests that West Wing's President Bartlett could outpoll both of them, although we understand he's campaigning for Gore.
To get back to our initial point, we've gotten more e-mail than ever before from folks asking us to vigorously pursue the new charges against Bush, because the mainstream media seems disinterested. We don't think that's particularly productive at this point. For those of you who wrote in and are wanting Gore to win, as we wrote in a recent editorial (below) and as Johnson and Abraham suggest in another story in today's Boston Globe (See "news"), the key to a Gore election is turnout, particularly African-American turnout. You want Gore to win? Take people to the polls. You're in a safe state? Go to one that isn't, and if you can't do that, write and call your friends who are at ground zero. (Although we haven't been called upon to give campaign advice to Bush backers lately, we stand by, ready to serve.) And, finally, for that reader who asked, "Who are 'we'? Do you have a mouse in your pocket?" No, I don't, but there is one next to my keyboard. --Politex, 10/22/00
As the days dwindle down and the excitement grows, we're getting an equal flood of e-mail from Bush and Gore backers. Many Bush backers lace their messages with obscenities, threats of physical harm, and prayers for our eternal souls, and a like number of Gore backers give dire warnings about what America would look like if Bush were to be elected. In our usual spirit of bi-partisanship, we have suggestions for both sides. To the Bush backers, we suggest they tone down their language for more effective communication. To the Gore backers, we suggest they activiely involve themselves in get out the vote campaigns in the poorer neighborhoods of their towns. Interestingly enough, according to Morton Kondracke at "Roll Call," if the third debate created another dead heat, he believes the election will be decided on the basis of Republican ads (words) vs. Democrat get-out-the-vote campaigns. --Politex, 10/19/00
Editorial Follow-Up. Here's a look at battleground states and why the Democratic Party hopes to reach black voters: * Michigan: 958,000 black people of voting age, or 13 percent of the state's voting-age population. In 1996, 82 percent of them voted for President Bill Clinton. The state has 18 electoral votes. * Florida: 1.53 million, or 13 percent of state's voting-age population; black voters made up 10 percent of the state's 1996 turnout, 86 percent of them voting for Clinton. It has 25 electoral votes. * Louisiana: 932,000, or 30 percent of voting-age population; 29 percent of them voted in 1996, 94 percent for Clinton. It has 9 electoral votes. * Ohio: 879,000, or 10 percent of voting-age population; 9 percent of of them voted in 1996, 81 percent for Clinton. It has 21 electoral votes. * Pennsylvania: 804,000, or 9 percent of voting-age population; 9 percent of 1996 vote, 90 percent of them for Clinton. It has 23 electoral votes. * Missouri: 410,000, or 10 percent of voting-age population; 4 percent of 1996 vote, Clinton share not available. It has 11 electoral votes. * Arkansas: 270,000, or 15 percent of voting-age population; 9 percent of them voted in 1996, 90 percent for Clinton. It has 6 electoral votes.
TIME Reports Bush Lies More Than Gore, 57-23.
Reporter Turns Up Alternate Debate Transcript
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On His Tax Plan (NYT) On His Voucher Plan (LAT) His Judicial Selection(SB) CNN First Debate Transcript "This man (Gore) has outspent me." p.56 (B-$93M, G-$46M)..... "I want to get a better return...than the paltry 2% that the current Social Security trust gets." p.50 (It's 4%.)..... "I don't think a president can...try to overturn the FDA's approval [of an abortion pill]." p.18 (He talked about trying in a speech.)..... "We've got too much polling and focus groups going on in Washington today." p. 30 "A recent poll was taken amongst 1,000 enlisted personnel..." p.28 Sidebar: Tough Message? Kill the Messenger. Six: Dyslexia Diognosticians Comment on Bush's Language Five: Bush "Belittles" Dyslexics on Larry King Show Four: Politics Before People: Why Bush Stiffs Dyslexics. Three: Bush Provides Dyslexic Denial of Dyslexia. Sidebar: Mo Paul on His Dyslexia and G.W. Bush Part Two: The Bush Team Stonewalls the Dyslexia Question In Severe Denial. Bush's Language Problem
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today's polls Presidential Race. zogbyDaily Tracking Poll. gallup Rolling Average. unweighted 4-Way Composite. electoral college All-State Projections headlines Days, Weeks, Months, Years of Previous Bush Headlines. cunningham Daily Doings tom tomorrow Tomorrow Sways the Nation Each Monday what do you think? About the "Cheney Resigning" Rumor? doris dirt Bush Isn't Dyslexic, He's Possessed. the english patient Here's the Latest Bushism. (October 1) poppy and junior Have Their Heart-to-Heart. gore-tex Stiff Jokes Meet Dumb Jokes. what do you think? About the What do You Think? Archives? old 'toons Laugh for Days, Weeks, Months.
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"Usually reporters favor whomever they are covering, but I think the people on this race believe that Gore's going to win," says a witness to the straw poll [that took place on Friday 10/6 while the Bush entourage was flying from Marion, Ill. to Tampa, Florida]. According to a reporter who was on the plane, a straw poll...question was not who should win, but who would win -- and 26 reporters suggested Gore will be the last man standing on Nov. 7, while just 5 voted for a Bush victory. (Another reporter confirmed that the poll had occurred, but declined to go into specifics.)...
According to the reporter, writers from such publications as the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune and three Texas papers -- the Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle and the Austin American Statesman -- all voted. The source did not know whether the reporters from the Washington Post or the New York Times participated. The reporter, who described the events only after being promised anonymity, thought the vote was extraordinary. "You just don't see that kind of stuff happening, (but) even then, it's surprising that Gore won by so much. Usually reporters favor whomever they are covering, but I think the people on this race believe that Gore's going to win. He's a fighter and just will not give up." --Inside, 10/7/00
APPLETON, Wis., Oct. 5 — Mr. Bush was asked by a woman what she could tell a Democratic friend who did not like Vice President Al Gore but feared upsetting the economy through a change in administrations. The governor tried several times for an answer. "Tell her to keep an open mind," he said first. "No. Tell her governments don't create wealth," he said to some applause from an audience at the McKinley Elementary School here. "You know, as I said, the economy's done more for this administration than the administration's done for the economy. I really believe that." He took another tack, saying, "Here's what I'd tell her — fellow's got a pretty good record and he's done in office what he said he would." He started to argue that the administration must be changed in order to bail out Social Security and Medicare, then said, "I'm groping for the right answer, you can tell." --Alison Mitchell, NYT, 10/6/00
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