Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Democratic Dominoes
"Wave" elections have certain characteristics in common. One is a passion and energy imbalance between the two parties. Right now, Republicans are as fired up as they were in 1994 (and Democrats were in 2006). Another characteristic is when one side starts seeing more retirements -- which create open seat opportunities for the other party.
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The announcements yesterday that Byron Dorgan (North Dakota) and Chris Dodd of Connecticut are packing it in must be chilling for Democrats. Dodd, arguably, may actually be helping the party out (as similarly ethically-challenged Bob Torricelli did a few years back). But still, at least two GOPers -- former Rep. Rob Simmons and WWE co-founder Linda McMahon have huge head starts in campaign organizations -- even against popular Attorney General Dick Blumenthal.
However, the look is pretty bleak in North Dakota -- a red state in which Dorgan and his younger clone Kent Conrad are the only Democrats who are competitive at the state level. This is about as sure of a GOP pick-up as one is likely to find.
As Democrats make politically dubious decisions to hold the health-care conference meetings behind closed doors, the likelihood of Republicans tapping into independent anger to nationalize the elections -- turning anti-incumbent anger into an anti-Democratic tide will just grow.
Labels: Byron Dorgan, Chris Dodd
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Imus Schools Hume
It's not exactly a good moment when a once-good White House reporter-turned-political-pundit has to be schooled on the accuracy of religious analysis. It's even more shocking when the schooloer is Don Imus -- who's put his foot in his mouth on more than one occasion -- and the schoolee is Fox pundit Brit Hume.
Nonetheless, that's what happened yesterday when Imus explained why Hume was off-base in his Sunday urging that Tiger Woods convert from Buddhism to Christianity:
I'm curious what Hume's advice would be to "out" Christian politicians -- like Mark Sanford and John Ensign, for example. They both campaigned as good, God-fearing men. Both cheated on their wives; Sanford's has already left him and filed for divorce. Ensign is still with his, seemingly -- but also got his parents to help pay off his mistress and her cuckolded spouse. The point is that Christians also fail to uphold their vows. Given Hume's background -- and that he's on a panel that analyzes politics more than pop culture or general current events, it would seem more appropriate that, if Hume wanted to make a point on the power of Christianity to redeem sinners, giving advice to those politicians -- instead of a golfer -- might have been more appropriate.
One last thought: For all of Tiger Woods' actual and imagined sins (from adultery to being too profligate a salesman), one thing it's hard to condemn him for is trying to force any personal beliefs -- political or religious -- on the public. He vies away from making partisan statements because, following the Michael Jordan example, "Republicans buy sneakers [or watches or razors or whatever] too." Similarly, Woods wouldn't want to be seen as a proselytizer for being Buddhist -- any more than he would appear in a commercial promoting the Obama agenda.
In short, Woods has deserved a lot of the societal approbation that has come his way over the last six weeks. Having a weekend political pundit urging him to convert to Christianity isn't one of those things deserved.
Labels: Brit Hume, Don Imus, Tiger Woods
