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A Response, and a Proposition
Anyone up for some research work?
by Tamara Baker
Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2000 -- SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA -- An APJ reader, Fred Lapides, wrote in to respond to my "Al in 2004" with the following comment (presented as he wrote it):
PS: any pro-GOP troll that suggests Gore for the next time around is a suggestion that they believe he will not stand a chance and so they think he should be the candidate.
Mr. Lapides apparently didn't follow the link to the Zogby site, where he would have seen the numbers in their full context. Furthermore, the Zogby numbers are similar to those in other polls I've seen, even though the political agendas of those pollsters differ from Mr. Z.'s. Does Mr. L. think then that ALL the polls are cooked, and by the same people?
And if the GOP really wanted to spread this as disinfo -- as if they really wanted everyone in America to see that nearly 50% of the REPUBLICAN respondents wanted somebody other than Shrub in 2004?!? -- how come they didn't give it a higher profile? How come Mr. Lapides, to judge from his comments, didn't encounter this poll (much less the portions of it that I mentioned) until he read about it in my APJ column?
Meanwhile, as I mentioned in that same column, we have the GOP's finest spin doctors pushing the exact opposite idea from what is implied by the Zogby data: that Shrub, despite losing both the popular and electoral votes, is all-powerful and Gore is politically impotent (but, somehow, simultaneously so politically powerful that he can order Jesse Jackson and fifty million other Democrats around).
No, Mr. Lapides: The very fact that the GOP's for-public-consumption spewings (Dan Schnur, Moonie Times, et al) are so down on Gore indicate that he's the one they fear.
Remember, the GOP always tries to attack the strongest Dem candidate right away (remember how Lee Atwater started in on Clinton a full two years before the 1992 election?) -- or, better yet, trick the Dems themselves into dumping on him.
The classic recent example of the latter tactic is the anonymous e-mail sent this summer from a Hotmail account that was also accessed from a computer and phone line belonging to one Christine Gunhus, Senator Rod Grams's (R-MN) chief campaign staffer and his then-girlfriend, now wife, as he first divorced his previous spouse and then waited what he thought was a 'discreet' interval before wedding Ms. Gunhus. This e-mail was sent to various prominent Democrats, and it accused Michael Ciresi, the Democratic front-runner in the race to unseat Senator Grams, of not being Democratic enough. The bad news: The e-mail worked, and Ciresi lost the DFL endorsement. The good news: Grams still lost his Senate seat anyway, with liberal-as-hell Mark Dayton handing Grams his lunch in the general election!
The Republicans tried picking the weak sister for the Dems already, by dumping millions into Bradley's coffers in the hopes that he would either topple Gore or soften him up nicely for the Shrub, only to watch helplessly as he atrial-fibbed himself out of the running before he could deprive Gore of the nomination. Expect to see them use folks like Arianna Huffington and other GOP wolves in 'progressive' clothing to stealth-push Bradley again in 2004, bad ticker and all, on the idea that 'Well, Cheney's heart's even worse and he's Veep!' (of course, if De Facto Dick-tator Cheney's heart gives out under the strain of fighting Karl and Karen and Condi on one side and DeLay and Falwell and Bauer on the other, the Republicans' chances of screwing over the Dems with Bradley suddenly give out, too).
But enough of that.
I've got a proposition for all you Ampol readers out there, especially the neato Columbus Day Riot folks who I've never been able to get around to contacting.
As you may know, Bill Clinton has signed off on what I consider his Last Great Acts of Defiance -- namely, they are various executive orders that, because of political constraints (such as not wanting to hinder the election hopes of Dems in conservative areas of the country), he could not make until now:
And last, but not least:
THIS last item is what really has got the Bidness Community up in arms. My Goodness, how can they cash in on their buying into the walking IPO known as George W. Bush if Federal law prevents the incoming Bogus POTUS Butt-Head from giving them taxpayer-subsidized welfare payments?
My proposition to you, dear APJ readers, is this:
Let's see how quickly we can whip through the lists of all known donors (soft-money and otherwise) to George W. Bush's campaign, and see how many of them would fail to pass the new Federal regulations handed down by Bill Clinton. I'd like to get this done in time for an article which will, God willing, appear round about MLK day, January 15, 2001. The person or group that turns in the most names will be (if they desire) publicly acknowledged by me in Ampol.... and may even get my very own personal, sweated-in 'Re-Elect Gore in 2004' T-Shirt, if they like.
Let's see if we can do Jimmy-Carville-style Rapid Response here, folks. Hop to it!
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