Monday, October 25, 2004
Lightweight Fight
Madison's alternative weekly, Isthmus, published an article last week analyzing the Russ Feingold-Tim Michels U.S. Senate race. It's unavailable online, so I'll attempt to summarize it here, because it's a case study in just how far we've come from the days when political candidates had to have experience, maturity, gravitas, and knowledge of the issues. Michels' primary qualification for the Republican nomination is that he had money enough to put into it, and most of his talking points come straight from the Repug playbook. If he wasn't a 12-year military veteran running for office in wartime, it's likely no one would have taken him seriously. He's as complete a lightweight as I've ever seen running for office up close, and specific examples of just how lightweight he is are pretty shocking.
There must have been a meeting where the Repugs all agreed to pull numbes out of their asses regarding tax votes, because everybody from Bush on down has been using the gambit. Michels has been bashing Feingold for voting for higher taxes 245 times. Asked where he got the figure, Michels told Isthmus's Bill Lueders, "I don't know. I know it's a fact."
Michels claims he's in favor of stem-cell research, but not embryonic stem-cell research, which he says doesn't work anyhow. "You even have some medical professionals--and I think it's the AMA, the American Medical Association--have said that the research that comes from embryonic stems may be very flawed." The AMA has said no such thing, and in fact hails the promise of such research. "In other words," Lueders writes, "when Michels says, 'I'm for stem-cell research,' what he means is that he's against the kind that's seen as the most promising. . . . And this, mind you, is an issue on which he's trying not to be 'fuzzy.'"
Abortion in cases of rape and incest? He'd feel bad, Lueders writes, then "He would want the woman to have the baby, then give it to 'one of the 25 couples' that's eager to adopt." To save the life of the mother? Michels says, "It's a hypothetical which just doesn't exist." That might fly in wingnut world, but here in the reality-based community, a statement like that is an invitation for a reporter to make Michels look stupid, which Lueders did by finding a Madison woman who faced just such a crisis.
The Patriot Act? It's helped to break up eight Al-Qaeda cells, Michels says. He also claims the ACLU has said there have been no civil liberties violations because of the act, and it's more difficult to obtain library records now than it used to be. The ACLU of Wisconsin is baffled by the Al-Qaeda reference, and calls Michels' library-records statement "ludicrous." And as for knowing how many civil liberties violations there have been thanks to the act--no one knows, because of the act's secrecy provisions.
You want more? Even though Michels has criticized outsourcing on the campaign trail, he has his kids' trust funds tied up in Chinese companies, so his children profit from outsourcing of American jobs. In a recent debate (not mentioned in the Isthmus article), he criticized those who discriminate against gays and lesbians, and then went into an incomprehensible riff on "the gay agenda."
But here's the worst of it. Feingold holds listening sessions in all 72 of Wisconsin's counties each year, connecting with the voters and hearing their concerns. Michels says he won't. Just another political gimmick, he calls them. In other words, fuck you, Wisconsin--I know what's best for you, and it's whatever Bush, Frist, and DeLay want.
The latest poll numbers look good for Feingold, but nobody's relaxing. When, like Michels, you have a lot of money, and when you are willing to say anything regardless of the truth of it, or even the sense of it, you're a dangerous opponent. And with Bush running strong here, Michels can't be written off, even if he deserves to be.
Madison's alternative weekly, Isthmus, published an article last week analyzing the Russ Feingold-Tim Michels U.S. Senate race. It's unavailable online, so I'll attempt to summarize it here, because it's a case study in just how far we've come from the days when political candidates had to have experience, maturity, gravitas, and knowledge of the issues. Michels' primary qualification for the Republican nomination is that he had money enough to put into it, and most of his talking points come straight from the Repug playbook. If he wasn't a 12-year military veteran running for office in wartime, it's likely no one would have taken him seriously. He's as complete a lightweight as I've ever seen running for office up close, and specific examples of just how lightweight he is are pretty shocking.
There must have been a meeting where the Repugs all agreed to pull numbes out of their asses regarding tax votes, because everybody from Bush on down has been using the gambit. Michels has been bashing Feingold for voting for higher taxes 245 times. Asked where he got the figure, Michels told Isthmus's Bill Lueders, "I don't know. I know it's a fact."
Michels claims he's in favor of stem-cell research, but not embryonic stem-cell research, which he says doesn't work anyhow. "You even have some medical professionals--and I think it's the AMA, the American Medical Association--have said that the research that comes from embryonic stems may be very flawed." The AMA has said no such thing, and in fact hails the promise of such research. "In other words," Lueders writes, "when Michels says, 'I'm for stem-cell research,' what he means is that he's against the kind that's seen as the most promising. . . . And this, mind you, is an issue on which he's trying not to be 'fuzzy.'"
Abortion in cases of rape and incest? He'd feel bad, Lueders writes, then "He would want the woman to have the baby, then give it to 'one of the 25 couples' that's eager to adopt." To save the life of the mother? Michels says, "It's a hypothetical which just doesn't exist." That might fly in wingnut world, but here in the reality-based community, a statement like that is an invitation for a reporter to make Michels look stupid, which Lueders did by finding a Madison woman who faced just such a crisis.
The Patriot Act? It's helped to break up eight Al-Qaeda cells, Michels says. He also claims the ACLU has said there have been no civil liberties violations because of the act, and it's more difficult to obtain library records now than it used to be. The ACLU of Wisconsin is baffled by the Al-Qaeda reference, and calls Michels' library-records statement "ludicrous." And as for knowing how many civil liberties violations there have been thanks to the act--no one knows, because of the act's secrecy provisions.
You want more? Even though Michels has criticized outsourcing on the campaign trail, he has his kids' trust funds tied up in Chinese companies, so his children profit from outsourcing of American jobs. In a recent debate (not mentioned in the Isthmus article), he criticized those who discriminate against gays and lesbians, and then went into an incomprehensible riff on "the gay agenda."
But here's the worst of it. Feingold holds listening sessions in all 72 of Wisconsin's counties each year, connecting with the voters and hearing their concerns. Michels says he won't. Just another political gimmick, he calls them. In other words, fuck you, Wisconsin--I know what's best for you, and it's whatever Bush, Frist, and DeLay want.
The latest poll numbers look good for Feingold, but nobody's relaxing. When, like Michels, you have a lot of money, and when you are willing to say anything regardless of the truth of it, or even the sense of it, you're a dangerous opponent. And with Bush running strong here, Michels can't be written off, even if he deserves to be.
