Tuesday, March 2, 1999 --- New York (APJP) -- It was another action-packed day in American politics -- two more hats in the ring more or less, more trouble for Ken Starr, and a very angry Republican in Colorado.

DATELINE: Manchester, New Hampshire -- It was no surprise. His pals had dropped so many hints and not-so-hints on Crossfire and The McLaughlin Group. Pat Buchanan announced he was going to make another run at the Presidency.

Buchanan, a harsh, blunt hard-right conservative, frankly scares us. His protectionist, jingoistic rhetoric borders on the fascistic. Today he invoked the specter of some "global elite" that he claims consider American laborers "factors of production."

Right, Pat. As if that's not the way Phil Knight feels about child laborers in his Nike factories in Asia.

Pat has even called his agenda "protectionist"; his platform includes using trade laws to "uphold" American interests, a military build-up and a strategic missile defense system, withdrawal of American troops from the Yugoslav region, and an end to "bailouts" of foreign economies.

Throughout his announcement, he falsely slammed the Clinton Administration for selling American interests to "foreign agents of influence [who] will no longer be sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom," an attempt to stir the "Red China scandal" pot.

Of course, this is complete hypocrisy, considering that many of the companies that sponsor television programs on which Buchanan spouted his nonsense are the ones pushing for more open markets, trade and tech transfers.

Buchanan is just about the last thing that the GOP wants. He uses his bogeymen -- NAFTA, the UN, gay rights, abortion -- to fan the flames of fear and hate. His candidacy will further fracture the GOP.

I thought I'd share part of a Buchanan column from some years back (August 25, 1977, in the Chicago Tribune):

Though Hitler was indeed racist and anti-Semitic to the core, a man who without compunction could commit murder and genocide, he was also an individual of great courage, a soldier's soldier in the Great War, a political organizer of the first rank, a leader steeped in the history of Europe, who possessed oratorical powers that could awe even those who despised him.
But Hitler's success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path.

DATELINE: Austin, Texas -- Texas Governor George Bush Jr. made it official today -- he is forming an "exploratory committee" in advance of a full-blown White House run.

Bush says that he has not made a final decision on a run -- that will wait until June, after the present session of the Texas legislature is adjourned -- but Bush is strongly supported by moderate republicans that the staff of APJ has spoken with.

Bush said, "Those of you who cover me every day know I don't make this decision lightly. I've carefully considered its ramifications." There has been much speculation that there may be a large number of embarrassing skeletons in his closet pertaining to personal behavior that may derail a Bush bid for the GOP nod as presidential candidate.

My colleagues at APJ and I agree that these should be the least of Bush's worries -- the real scandals that could derail his campaign will have to do with family business matters, and may well have collateral ramifications for his brother Jeb, governor of Florida, and his father.

DATELINE: Washington, DC -- There's more bad news for Kenneth W. Starr.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson suggested today that he may require the independent counsel to supply attorneys for Webster Hubbell with investigative memos and grand jury testimony that, according to an AP wire story, "spell out the inner workings of the Whitewater investigation" and show how Starr determined that he would indict Hubbell for allegedly concealing work he and Hillary Rodham Clinton did on an Arkansas land development known as Castle Grande, which was owned by Jim McDougal and Hubbell's father-in-law, Seth Ward.

This follows less than a week after revelations that a jailmate of McDougal's, Thomas J. Lowe, told The Washington Weekly that McDougal planned to release information which would have exonerated Clinton on the central charge in the Whitewater mess, that that Clinton did not personally urge David Hale to lend Susan McDougal money to finance the venture.

Hubbell and his attorney, John Nields argue that Starr's entire case is tainted by business records and testimony which Hubbell gave the Starr in 1996 under a limited grant of immunity -- and that Hubbell is entitled assurance that evidence from the "hush money'' probe was "not imported to the grand jury'' that indicted him in the Castle Grande matter.

Robertson announced that he will consider the request of Hubbell and Nields which would require that prosecutors provide internal memoranda from the Office of Independent Counsel and grand jury transcripts which detailing the arguments and history of indictments in the Castle Grande matter. Robertson will review this material before determining whether to turn it over to Hubbell.

This puts Starr in similar hot water to that he found himself in with Judge Norma Holloway Johnson, who ordered Starr to show cause why his office did not violate rule 6(e) in the matter of leaks to the press -- if Robinson rules in Hubbell's favor, Starr would be forced to demonstrate in pretrial court hearings that no aspect of the case was derived from the material -- and if he were not able to, the Castle Grande case would collapse.

If Robinson rules in Hubbell's favor, it is possible that Starr's pattern and practice of using underhanded and arguably illegal tactics to expand the purview of his investigations may be demonstrated sooner in Hubbell's case (so-called "hush money" to Castle Grande) than in the matter of the Clinton dry-well expansions (Whitewater to FBI files, the firing of White House travel office appointees, the suicide of Vince Foster, and Babe-Magnetgate).

DATELINE: Colorado -- Vikki Buckley is angry.

Buckley, who is the nation's highest-ranking black female Republican as Colorado Secretary of State, has fired a broadside at her own party, barring them from using her photo in promotional Republican literature aimed at bringing more minority voters into the GOP.

The Denver Post reported today that Buckley feels it hypocritical for The Republican National Committee to tout her success when it refused to aid her 1998 campaign.

In a forcefully worded letter to RNC chairman Jim Nicholson, Buckley said, "it is a shallow gesture to be featured in such an ad when I was not afforded even the courtesy of a return phone call from you when I was in the midst of a heated campaign.... Until there is a substantive RNC reality check which will encompass more than a slick media campaign, I will not allow my image to be used in promotions which do not reflect Republican Party realities."

She added, "[The Republican] preoccupation with impeaching President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair is an example of how it has lost touch with a majority of Americans."

You go, girl!

'Nuff said...

-- Dave "Doctor" Gonzo