For us wonks at the MTP Opinion, the anticipation for the program is only growing at the moment with all the talk during the week of the rating challenges, which Meet The Press has dominated forever... Now, it's a toss up so we were anxious to see how David Gregory would respond. Today's first two guests, the respective chairmen of our two major political parties, Tim Kaine (D) and Michael Steele (R) discussed the positions from the party perspective and how they were at odds with individuals in each party.
It's amazing how this country can't seem to get past things without being able to maintain a perspective on history. What that means is that we collectively keep going back to the same old debates that, frankly, cripple progress in this country, and today's first topic has wrongly come to be one of the defining pillars in each of the party's platforms - abortion, referring to Mr. Obama speaking at the Catholic university Notre Dame today.
Here's why we have to move on from this. First, the President actually has lead on this debate in discussing ways of preventing unwanted pregnancy. That should be the real focus instead of weather it should be illegal or not, and it shouldn't be. Most people would say that they would hope that the circumstances don't drive a woman to an abortion - the sympathy. However, it is a woman's individual right... signed into law. It should be taken out of the political debate. Take the two chairmen. Tim Kaine, the Democrat, is pro-life. And Michael Steele, though he says he's pro-life as well, he has made some statements that contradicted that position. Given this division, when the subject of abortion is brought up, the first thing that should be talked about is the prevention of unwanted pregnancy and what can be done to reduce it. It's the harder road to go down and that's why the debate remains 'legal or illegal.' It's the easier road and you crash either way.
And speaking of crash, this column, on many occasions, has cited Nancy Pelosi as the major train wreck of the Democratic Party leadership. Part of being a good politician is knowing what questions are going to be coming at you and having an answer prepared before you're hit with it. Ms. Pelosi needs to work on this. 'Dazed and confused is not good way for the speaker of the house to look,' Peggy Noonan (Wall Street Journal) aptly stated on today's panel. Ron Brownstein from the National Jounal postulated that arguments made of the past are used to shape the future.' If this is the case for Ms. Pelosi then it is an argument that is lost because she unnecessarily escalated the argument as Mr. Brownstein also observed.
If she was not told about waterboarding, just say so without making accusations. As soon as she did that, Republicans pounced and effectively changed to focus of the debate. Michael Steele's answer on today's program with regard to the subject is a clear illustration of the conservatives' cavalier attitude to one of the platforms of this nation's moral fiber, which is that we, The United States, does not torture. First, his focus, he admits, is not weather we should torture or not, but what did Speaker Pelosi know and when she knew it. 'She stepped in in big time,' he said. Great for 'gotcha' politics and nothing else.
But Mr. Steele also said that we used techniques that we're appropriate at the time. What does that mean exactly? This is where Mr. Gregory as moderator needs to address that, but this column gets the feeling that unfortunately, where Mr. Russert listened, Mr. Gregory simply waits to talk. So 'appropriate at the time,' but according to whom? A lawyer instructed by the Bush Administration to craft a memo? And when Mr. Gregory asked Mr. Steele what his personal view is to torture, he didn't answer and said his personal opinion did not matter. Rarely does this column use such verbiage but Michael Steele is a bullshitter; he rarely gives a straight answer and given he takes that tack too much he instills no confidence or trustworthiness. That's the case for any political animal that does that. Hypothetically, if he 'personally' disagrees with torture, but tows the party line that it is all right in some circumstances, doesn't that speak negatively of his integrity?
And one last thing on this for today. Mr. Steele, when asked about a truth commission, said that we should put it on the table. This would be another dog and pony show that would result in nothing. Instead of a commission, there should be an investigation and until the latter word gets swapped out for the former, we'll never know what happened.
OK, one more thing... speaking of not knowing what happened, an extension of the whole torture issue is the debate on whether or not the additional pictures of military misconduct from the Abu Ghraib prison. One today's program (part of the panel), Richard Haass, Council on Foreign Relations and author of War of Necessity, War of Choice felt that President Obama made the correct decision in not releasing the photos. Mr. Obama's primary reason was that it would further endanger the American military personnel. This angered the left and those whose goals is to use such things to press for Bush Administration indictments. However, in this instance we do know what happened and we have already seen many pictures and unless they show something further that we don't know, then it's just sensationalism, and this column commends the decision not to release them because even the whiff of sensationalism is not anything this administration needs.
Switching topics, the ever popular 'State/Fate of the Republican Party' came up again, but we'll be a bit forgiving here because this is certainly a topic that has to be addressed when you have the chairman of the party on the program. We'll start with a flurry of quotes and phrases from today's program...
'I want both Colin Powell and Rush Limbaugh,' Michael Steele.
'I didn't know Colin Powell was still in the party,' Former VP Dick Cheney via videotape from Face The Nation.
'Great Parties Evolve, and this one is still rocking from the hits it took,' Peggy Noonan.
'Cycle of contraction,' Ron Brownstein.
'Closer to a purer base,' Jon Meacham, Newsweek.
'What about Charlie Crist, Republican Governor of Floriday, campaigning with Mr. Obama on the stimulus?' David Gregory.
'Scary,' Mr. Steele's comment with regard to Democratic Party consolidation of power.
It is true that the Republican party is becoming purer to its base, hence they are contracting. With the population demography changing in the country, how could it not when a purer base means solidifying identification with big business and the Christian right? It seems as though the Republican Party will look the other way for Mr. Crist because of his popularity in a state that is a perpetual election battleground, but not with Arlen Spector, a 'traitor,' according to all Republicans. However, Mr. Brownstein did point out that Mr. Spector did vote with Republicans two-thirds of the time. Yes, Senator Spector's move was for self preservation, that is to be expected - he's a politician. But why this feeling on his part that his survival was in jeopardy? A less inclusive party perhaps could be the reason.
Michael Steele wants both - conservative and those a bit more moderate - but other forces in the party are dictating that you have to choose. This speaks to a philosophical problem in the Republican party, alluded to above in this column. The Republican party wants all its individual members to be on the same point on every page. Whether it be torture or abortion or taxes, it must be lock-step, but the world doesn't work like that and nuance is required in the face of complexity. This philosophy is unrealistic.
And what's really scary is that Mr. Steele's goal, as chair, is for Republican Party dominance and opines a sense of loathing at the possibility of Democratic Party dominance, but expresses this with seemingly no regard or recollection of recent history, namely the past eight years of Republican control and the disastrous outcomes due to their policies.
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