Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Rancor? This Ain't Rancor. We HAD Rancor.

Wednesday, December 20, 2000

(Go to the Mullings Update page for the
latest political news)

So soon we forget. Two years ago, yesterday, the House voted to impeach the President of the United States.

Immediately following that, the House Democrats trouped to the White House and pledged undying fealty to Bill Clinton and vowed the political demolition of the Republican Party generally and the GOP members of the House Judiciary Committee in particular.

Immediately following THAT, attention turned to the Senate trial which kept everyone in Your Nation's Capital on edge for the two months following.

If you wanted political rancor. If you wanted partisan strife. If you wanted people not talking to each other on the street. If you wanted "this will divide our nation for decades to come" then the Impeachment and the Trial were for you.

The current version of rancor is: The Bush tax plan will never pass. Puh-Leeze.

As it happens the 20th anniversary of John Lennon's murder last week got much more coverage than the second anniversary of Impeachment, even though the President and the President-elect met at the White House yesterday.

This is why people who follow this stuff know that those ballots in Florida can be recounted seven ways from Sunday and the number people who will never accept George W. Bush as the legitimate President will be exactly the same when that process is finished as it was the night Al Gore conceded.

Speaking of Mr. Gore, he is not being treated kindly by his cohorts and colleagues. First of all, there are stories everywhere quoting Democrats saying how bad his campaign was, many pointing out that Gore made most of the decisions;

Then there is the story about Bill Clinton installing his personal mortgage guarantor, Terry McAuliffe, as the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee; thereby ensuring Clinton will never go away;

Then comes the news out of Boston that someone has nominated Al Gore to be President of Harvard.

You don't think that last is a bad thing? Here's what the AP reported yesterday on that subject: "About 500 people have been nominated for the post, including Vice President Al Gore and two dead people."

"Al Gore" and "two dead people" in the same sentence, and it's not a piece about the U.S. Senate. Go figure.

It gets worse. The chairman of the search committee, Robert G. Stone, Jr., is quoted by the Boston Globe thus: "But Stone made it clear that Gore was not the kind of leader his committee is seeking. "I rather doubt he'll get it," [Stone] said. "He doesn't have the academic and intellectual standing."

Now, don't e-mail me and tell me I'm being mean. My intellectual standing has ALWAYS been academic.

George W. Bush is making some more announcements today. Ann Veneman of California, will be Agriculture Secretary; and Mel Martinez will be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Campaign Chairman Don Evans will be announced as Secretary of Commerce.

That will bring the total announcements so far to three women, two Blacks, two Hispanics and one White guy. Now are you beginning see why so many people of color in Texas came around to supporting Bush as the Governor of Texas? And why he got nearly 70 percent of the total vote in his campaign for re-election?

This is the kind of thing I spend way too much time thinking about: Reporters at the two newspapers in Seattle have been on strike for the better part of a month. That is not newsworthy. What IS newsworthy is the mediator has imposed a news blackout.

Here's the confusing part: You have a strike at two newspapers and the newspapers are not allowed to report on it. Reporting on things like strikes at major institutions is one of the things newspapers do. It is the reason they exist at all.

However, if the newspapers WERE allowed to report on the strike, it is not clear who would do the reporting, as the reporters at the newspapers are the ones who are ON strike.

Self-aggrandizement alert: Sometime in the early hours of Tuesday morning the number of people who subscribe to Mullings went past the 20,000 mark. As of this morning, it stands at 20,012. Thank you.
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Copyright © 2000 Richard A. Galen

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