EJ Dionne: "Governors 4, Senators 0" plus his comments on John Kerry

[liberalpragmatist]

The column discusses the oft-mentioned fact that governors have a much easier time becoming nominees and then becoming presidents than senators. Of course, many presidents have been senators, but it seems much more common for them to go through the Vice Presidency first.

Bill Clinton is quoted saying "the only people talk to are elites: elites in the press, elites among the lobbyists, elites that you hire on your staff. You're not regularly talking to ordinary, everyday people." And Joe Trippi says they talk in "Legalese."

Anyway, here's another problem:

"Legislators are sausage makers working in an unruly factory. The very elements that are fundamental to serving in Congress -- the arts of compromise and cajoling, the finality of the yes or no vote -- leave members vulnerable as presidential candidates. As a rule, politicians hate binary choices. They like words such as "but," "both," "and," "maybe" and "in addition to." But many "yes/no" votes require choosing one bad over another, or between two imperfect goods."

And About Kerry:

"'I don't think we should pretend that protecting the security of our nation is defined by turning our back on a century of effort . . . to build an international structure of law,' declared the antiwar candidate to an Iowa gathering on Oct. 5, 2002. Bush's critics had an obligation to dissent and raise doubts, he said to loud applause. 'We need to understand that you have to ask those questions now, because you don't go to war as a matter of first resort; you go to war as a matter of last resort.'

"Such speeches are what made Dean popular -- except the just cited was given by Kerry, not Dean. For weeks before the war resolution vote, Kerry regularly took Bush to task. When Kerry finally did cast his vote in favor of the war resolution, it was as an agonized doubter. It was a close call. It was 'Yes, but.'

"But the 'but' didn't matter. Dean was off to the races, and the more Kerry tried to explain his reasonable but complex position, the more he looked as if he were trying to have it both ways."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50976-2004Jan2.html

[sandnsea]

1. Good article!

I especially like this part:

"Unless, of course, Wesley Clark is the one left standing. Then you can count on learning why former generals are singularly appropriate to the country's current political circumstances.

And the poor legislators will get trashed all over again."

Funny. Probably true.

[mopinko]

2. It was 'Yes, but.'

you don't get but's, you get yes or no. don't vote yes if you don't believe yes. robert byrd warned them in the clearest possible term about what was going to happen. they (including kerry) gave it to him anyway. at least joe lieberman is honorable enough to stand behind his vote.

[blm]

4. We all know the only one allowed a "Yes, but..." is Dean

and nothing else matters...even the FACT that the resolution Dean supported had all the same CRUCIAL elements that Bush needed to go to war that the IWR had.

Dean's deceptive rhetoric that pretended he was antiwar and the others were prowar WORKED on those who were all too willing to be deceived and who even now no longer care that he was not antiwar at all. But boy do they care about Kerry and labeling him prowar when he wasn't.

Agendas are everything.

[IndianaGreen]

5. We were not deceived, blm! We knew IWR was a war resolution

We knew IWR was a war resolution, just as anyone of Kerry's generation knew. We got burn by the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which gave a blank check to President Johnson in Vietnam, and we knew full well that IWR contained similar lies and dangers.

We were not deceived, blm! Stop convincing yourself of that.

Next time you defend Kerry and his IWR vote, stop and ask yourself if the dead and wounded were worth the price that our country continues to pay for this folly.

[blm]

6. That wasn't my point. Dean is just as much PRO-Reolution as Kerry

and HE is the one deceived people by REDUCING the argumaent to antiwar and prowar which is EXACTLY how DEMAGOGUES approach nuanced positions and Dean was misrepresenting his own position and others to do it.

That is the deception and I know in your heart of hearts that YOU know it, too.

[La_Serpiente]

3. He is also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution

http://www.brook.edu/scholars/edionne.htm