Junto Boys

SINCE 911

I think about how everyone was unified after the attacks on 911, and now we're in the midst of the most partisan shrieking I can ever remember. In some ways it is to be expected. The Republicans went after Clinton and for good reason, but like Connery says in the UNTOUHCABLES "They put one of your guys in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue." Clinton changed how we view our leaders for better or for worse. Clinton supporters are trying to put some in the morgue.

Some argued Clinton was the victim of a well-funded smear campaign or a cast right-wing conspiracy. A conspiracy would imply that the campaign against Clinton was secretive. But he was a polarizing leader from the start. We'd never had a 60s generation liberal in the White House before. He loathed the military, he cheated on his wife, and to buy her off he let her try to nationalize the entire healthcare system. These were unprecedented in American politics. Conventional liberals like Bob Kerry or Paul Tsongas or Michael Dukakis wouldn't have been so polarizing.

Even as important was the fact that 1992 was supposed to be a throwaway election. The top tier candidates were sitting out waiting for 1996. The conventional Wisdom was Bush 41couldn't be beat. Mario Cuomo, Richard Gephardt, Joe Biden and Al Gore had their eye on the next election. Republicans felt that a decent field of Democrats would have weeded out a charlatan like Clinton, but now because of Perot and the surreal aspects of the 1992 election we were stuck with someone that neither Republicans nor Democrats wanted.

The Democrats I knew at the time were uncomfortable with having Clinton win the nomination. Though some eventually voted for him, many considered voting for Perot. Gore was polarizing too. My liberal college friends weren’t happy about Tipper Gore’s Music labeling crusade nor Gore’s flip-flops on abortion. The thing I remember on election night was how many people were truly surprised that Clinton got elected.

His first two years were treacherous starting with gays in the military. It seems like a small issue now, but it reminded people at the time how little regard Clinton had for the military. Hillary’s health care initiative was so misguided that it led to the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994. It was that event that galvanized Clinton as the Democratic standard bearer.

Suddenly I heard the Democrats who were embarrassed about Clinton attack Newt Gingrich in the way we had been attacking Clinton. Now, Speaker Newt was being treated like a President. I remember the day after the election Rush Limbaugh said that Clinton was irrelevant. Clinton actually answered Rush in a speech a few days later and said that he was relevant. By losing Congress in 1994, Clinton was able frame himself against the less affable Newt Gingrich. This was enough to ensure his re-election in 1996.

Even with re-election, the 1990s were a tough time for Democrats. They lost both houses of Congress and their two-term President was impeached. They wanted to think that it was nasty Republicans who were going after a good president, but if a non-controversial Democrat like Tsongas or Gephardt had been elected in 1992, I don’t think the Democrats would have lost Congress. Neither of those guys would have been impeached. Things would be much different today. The thing most certain is that Democrats wouldn’t be attacking Bush at the level they are now doing.

There is a message coming out of the media and the mouths of Democratic aspirants that Iraq was a big mistake and we’re in a quagmire. You wonder if these guys wouldn’t jump for joy at another terrorist attack on our soil. I keep hearing some vague strategy like we should be gathering up Al Qaeda instead, when everyone knows that Al Qaeda is being dismantled simultaneously. Little said is that the World Trade Center was first attacked in 1993, and it wasn’t treated as a national security risk. That was the biggest blunder of the 1990s, beating even public health care. Think about the lives that would have been saved if that first attack was treated seriously. Think about the lives that would have been saved if Clinton had made Iraq live up to the cease-fire agreement signed at the end of the Gulf War. Eight years of backsliding has led to war.

Listen to Joe Lieberman. He knows about the National Security dangers. He attacks Bush for being a cowboy, but that’s just empty rhetoric. Even liberals like John Kerry and Richard Gephardt backed the war in October of 2002 because they saw its necessity and realized its popularity. They didn’t expect Howard Dean to get all of the attention for his anti-war views.

I remember a friend who voted for Gore reacting to 911 saying that he was glad that Bush was President, because Bush would do something. Many democrats felt the same way at the time. Something has been done now. When Americans decide who is going to be the next President they need to ask if someone else would have done it better.

Anybody who has had a fair weather friend that begs and begs for help and then acts ungrateful when they get it can understand what Bush is going through now.

In the movie Room Service, the hungry Groucho Marx offers a bellboy a part in his play if he can delivery him and his friends some Room Service. Once Grouch has eaten he has changed his mind and says so. Another character asks Groucho, “You mean you promised him the role just to get the food?”

Groucho answers, “No, when I was hungry I intended on giving him the part, but now that I have eaten I see things in a different way.”

Not too unlike guys who run for President and people who vote for them.