Blood on the Political Waters

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

From Capitol Hill Blue


Opinion
Blood on the Political Waters
By BONNIE ERBE
Sep 6, 2004, 18:47




OK, America, get over it. Admit it: We love attack politics. The bigger 
and meaner the lies, the more spellbound we become. We absorb baseless 
charges, are drawn to them and even select our candidates in response 
to them, rather than dismiss them as the gutter trash we know them to 
be. We feign horror, but hypnotically follow just like kittens hooked 
on dancing, hanging strings. If the Republican primary for the open 
U.S. Senate seat in Florida didn't prove this point, then nothing ever 
will.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez pulled 
ahead of former Rep. Bill McCollum after polls showed Martinez trailing 
just days earlier. Martinez won by a surprising 45 percent-to-31 
percent margin. How'd he do it? According to The Washington Post, by 
painting a solid conservative (one viewed by party higher-ups as too 
conservative to win the general election) as "the new darling of the 
extreme homosexuals" (as opposed to, perhaps, moderate homosexuals?) 
and other unmentionable sinners.

McCollum, gay-friendly? Carson Kressley, he's not.

Middle-of-the-road? Please. While in Congress, he voted to ban 
late-term abortions and to bar adults from helping to transport minors 
seeking abortions. He supported the balanced-budget amendment and the 
line-item veto. He voted to ban gay adoptions in D.C., to prohibit 
burning the U.S. flag and to end preferential treatment by race in 
college admissions. No free-spender, gay-rights supporter or civil 
libertarian he.

And yet, Martinez painted him as such because McCollum supported 
protections for gays in a hate-crimes bill that later failed. Would 
Martinez have voted no? (That it's OK to murder or harass gays, but not 
persons of color?)

Florida Republicans were so upset with Martinez over these and other 
attacks on McCollum (for supporting stem-cell research _ a centrist 
position) that former Sen. Connie Mack wrote to 1,500 Florida GOP 
activists, saying Martinez's campaign "sunk to a new low in Florida" 
that would only "doom our party in November" (again, quoting the Post).

Wake up, Sen. Mack. Those doom days are over. Martinez's attacks won't 
"doom the party." They'll help "undecideds" make up their minds and 
raise turnout. Look at what they did for Martinez.

When I spent time in Rome, I marveled at what seemed to be a fairly 
common phenomenon. Whenever there was a loud car or motorcycle crash, 
crowds would gather out of nowhere to marvel at the mess. The Italian 
love of blood and gore seemed such a contrast, coming from the same 
society that gave us Michelangelo, Bellaggio and da Vinci. (Of course, 
the Coliseum was the site where Christians were fed to the lions, too, 
but whatever.)

In our society, there is no such contrast. We just love a good fight. 
Why else would wrestling be one of the top draws on cable television?

I'm not sure there ever was an attack-free era in American politics. 
The two parties certainly had better superficial relations when I 
covered Congress in the 1980s than they do now (party leaders visibly 
revile each other these days). Former House Speaker "Tip" O'Neill, 
D-Mass., and onetime Republican leader Bob Michel of Illinois would 
disagree mightily in floor debates over issues, but go arm-in-arm to 
the golf course when it was all over. Maybe it was an act. But in 
recent times the GOP has perfected the "art of the skewer." Democrats 
(not the 527 groups, but the candidates themselves) seem stubbornly if 
not self-destructively committed to playing Nice Guy or Nice Gal, as 
the case may be.

Sen. John Kerry is finally getting hip. But it may be too late.

He has brought former President Bill Clinton's top attack dogs into his 
campaign, and their influence was obvious in Kerry's late-night attack 
last Thursday at the close of the Republican National Convention.

Al Gore played the nice guy _ and look where it got him. Clinton was 
craftier. He could attack with the best of them and make it seem as if 
he wasn't. In less than two months, we'll know whether Kerry has it in 
him to fight an opponent much more nimble, adroit and well-funded than 
the Viet Cong.


© Copyright 2004 Capitol Hill Blue

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