Hello, Anita?
OK, so here’s a follow-up question to reports Virginia Thomas, wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, left a voice message on the office phone of Anita Hill, urging Hill to apologize for accusing the justice of sexual harassment during his 1991 Senate confirmation hearing: Did Mrs. Thomas staff that one by Justice Thomas?
The story almost certainly will generate a buzz for at least a few days, mostly because it’s just so bizarre — the kind of publicity the quite-private justice could do without. He’s been on the court nearly 20 years and probably wishes the Anita Hill controversy had stayed in the rear-view mirror. So, what possessed his wife to call Hill, now a professor at Brandeis University in Boston, and assert that Hill should “consider an apology” and a “full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband”? Mrs. Thomas’ message (which she confirms leaving) said Hill should prayerfully consider apologizing and concluded with a sunny, “OK, have a nice day.”
Hill, born in Oklahoma and a former University of Oklahoma law professor, thought the message was a prank at first and then turned the recording over to campus police. She said she has nothing to apologize for and said that while Mrs. Thomas claims she meant no offense, she considers the call offensive and accusatory. Lots of people probably figured they’d heard the last of the Hill-Thomas controversy. Obviously not.
Asleep no more
Remember the little band of Russian “sleeper” agents arrested on the East Coast and deported to the motherland in July? The New York Times reports they received top government honors from Soviet — er — Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on Monday. The story of the deep-cover spies, their use of fake names and invisible ink, recalled the Cold War era while evoking images of Maxwell Smart’s running battle with KAOS. One, Anna Chapman, was fond of Bond girl cocktail dresses and posted saucy photos on Facebook when she wasn’t passing encrypted messages to Russian officials from a Manhattan bookstore. Back home, Chapman and the others were regaled as heroes at a Kremlin ceremony. From the ashes of defeat …
And your mama wears galoshes!
Kudos to Rand Paul, the Republican running for U.S. Senate in Kentucky. When his debate with Democrat Jack Conway ended Sunday night, Paul exited stage left without shaking Conway’s hand. That, after a bitter debate low-lighted by an exchange over a Conway campaign ad claiming Paul, as a student at Baylor University, belonged to a secret society that mocked Christianity and that one time Paul and another student bound and blindfolded a woman and tried to make her bow down to their god, “Aqua Buddha.”
Paul lit into Conway. “You know how we tell when you’re lying?” Paul asked, referring to Conway. “When your lips are moving. You’re accusing me of crimes. … You’re going to stand there and accuse me of a crime from 30 years ago from some anonymous source? How ridiculous are you? You embarrass this race,” he said. “Run a race like a man … instead of calling me names.”
Well now. The point isn’t Conway’s claim, Paul’s alleged collegiate exuberance or the relevance to Kentucky. It’s Paul’s refusal have a bunch of gunk dumped all over him and then pretend to like the smell. Politicians do it all the time: call each other every imaginable name, dig up muck (or stuff that’s muck-like) and spew it all around — and then shake hands. Really? Say this for Rand Paul: He was angry, but it was real.
Fire the communications staff!
You see it all the time in politics: Whenever things aren’t going well for a president or a party, they blame poor communications. “Voters didn’t understand our message,” is the familiar refrain. President Obama is playing that tune right now. In a New York Times Magazine piece due out Sunday, Obama reportedly says White House inattention to message and the public’s perceptions is the reason his administration has struggled in recent months. No surprise. Obama has to point to the message, PR and the voters themselves. Otherwise, the president would have to blame his policies. And politicians don’t do that.
But guess what: It is the policy. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released this week showed 55 percent of those surveyed don’t agree with Obama on the issues, compared to 42 percent who agree. Perhaps to underscore the point, the same poll showed 59 percent say Obama has the personality and leadership skills a president needs. People like Obama; it’s his policies they can’t stomach. That’s not a problem with message or with the communications staff. It’s a policy problem.
USS Cole, 10 years later
Ten years ago today crew members aboard the USS Cole were getting ready for lunch in the destroyer’s galley when a small boat packed with high explosives rammed the ship as it refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen sailors died, 39 more were injured and the stricken Cole, with a 40-by-40-foot hole in her port side, was saved only through the heroism of surviving crew members. Military blogger Susan Katz Keating has a tribute video by the Navy on her site, as well as a link to reflections by the Cole’s commander at the time, Commander Kirk Lippold. The suicide attack on the Cole wasn’t al-Qaida’s first on a still-slumbering United States, but it was one of the boldest — a harbinger of an even bolder, more deadly assault less than a year later. Lest we forget.
Going to pot
Democrats running for governor and U.S. Senate in California might get a boost from a ballot initiative that would make possessing and growing marijuana legal. Politico reports experts believe Proposition 19 will drive younger-voter turnout, which should help Barbara Boxer, running for Senate re-election, and Jerry Brown, running for governor. The state’s Democratic Party is neutral on the “Just Say Now” measure, and Brown, Boxer and fellow U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein oppose it. Still, analysts believe it will help Brown and Boxer because recent polling shows the under-40 demographic supports pot legalization 59 percent to 33 percent. Of course, that assumes pot enthusiasts actually get to the polls to vote.
What he meant was …
From the “My Collar Feels a Couple of Sizes Too Small Dept.”: Illinois Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias, on Sunday’s “Meet The Press,” trying to explain loans from his family’s bank to underworld figures. Three times NBC’s David Gregory asked Giannoulias whether he knew crime figures were getting loans from his bank, and three times Giannoulias offered dissembling answers. Twice the candidate said he and other bank officials didn’t know the extent of the loan recipients’ “activities.” Gulp! That sounds like Giannoulias knew these folks were crooks but didn’t know how crooked, and thus extended them loans. Stay tuned.
Prized possession
Talk about a study in contrasts. On Friday jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for trying to bring greater personal freedom and human rights to his homeland — efforts that currently have him serving an 11-year sentence in a Chinese jail. Liu has been in and out of prison over the years for his activities. He’s just the third Nobel winner to receive the award while imprisoned, and Chinese officials welcomed the news by implementing a blackout on his selection inside the country. Now the contrast — the one between Liu, recognized for a life of self-sacrificial (and dangerous) work for individual liberty, and last year’s winner, President Obama, recognized for … well, the potential to do great things.
Not a witch
Republican Christine O’Donnell has her work cut out in her run for Delaware’s open U.S. Senate seat. Democrats make up about 47 percent of the state’s registered voters, Republicans just 29 percent. Barack Obama captured about 62 percent of Delaware’s votes in 2008. So what is the message in O’Donnell’s first major ad buy of the campaign? That she’s not a witch.
Now, there’s a reason for that. Since winning her party’s nomination last month, O’Donnell has been bedeviled by video of herself from years ago, including a 1999 spot where she’s talking with cable host Bill Maher about “dabbling” in witchcraft when she was a high schooler. So, in a spot produced by Fred Davis, whose uncle is U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, O’Donnell tries to put the witch thing behind her. “I’m not a witch,” O’Donnell says, looking straight into the camera. She says she’s “nothing you’ve heard,” alluding to opposition spin that she’s extreme, nutty or extremely nutty. “I’m you.” The 30-second ad tries to focus voters on what she would do as a senator — fight waste, runaway spending and conventional politics. The ad’s best line will resonate with voters sick of Washington — in other words, the likeliest of voters this fall: “I’ll go to Washington and do what you’d do.” Hard to say if it will it be enough to get O’Donnell back into the race with Democrat Chris Coons. But it is effective.
By the numbers
The cake isn’t baked yet on the 2010 congressional elections, but it’s getting there. Gallup reports President Obama’s approval rating for September was 45 percent, one tick better than August’s 44 percent. Historically, when a president is below 50 percent approval it’s a storm warning for his party in Congress. In the House, a switch of 39 seats would give Republicans the majority. In the Senate the number is 10. Democrats from Vice President Joe Biden on down have been guaranteeing they’ll hold both their majorities in less than a month. You’ve gotta question Biden’s handicapping, at least in the House. People who get paid to produce forecasts think the GOP will get the 39 and might not look back until they’ve hit 45, 55 or even more. Dick Morris says 100 seats are in play. Crazy.
One case in point. In Northern Virginia, freshman Democrat Gerry Connolly is in a rematch with his 2008 opponent, Republican Keith Fimian. The only recent public poll shows Fimian ahead by about five points. Here’s the concern: Connolly’s district is flush with federal workers, who for some reason tend to vote for the party of big government (Democrats). If Connolly is lagging at this point it suggests bad things for Democrats on Nov. 2. Connolly has tried to distance himself from polarizing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying all of the Bush-era tax cuts should be extended for now. But he voted for Obamacare and surely would vote to keep Pelosi as speaker. So watch the Connolly-Fimian tilt. If the Republican wins, it could signal a GOP wave that’s going to wash away a lot of Democrats.
