[CTRL] Fwd: Konformist: Beast of the Month - December 1998
Please send as far and wide as possible. Thanks, Robert Sterling Editor, The Konformist http://www.konformist.com A Konformist Special Beast of the Month - December 1998 Congressman Henry Hyde, Two-Faced GOP Leader "I yam an anti-Christ..." John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) of The Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the UK" "If this becomes the occasion to conduct civil war by other means, we will have a weakened Presidency and do no credit to ourselves. We will also weaken the confidence of other people and other nations that our democracy can really work. Our Founding Fathers fashioned this country so that there would be tensions between the executive and legislative branches. But there are creative tensions and there are destructive tensions." Congressman Henry Hyde, during the Iran-Contra hearings Until this last election, no party holding the White House has gained seats in a midterm election since 1934, with an average loss of 27 seats. That stat doesn't explain just how unlikely the event is, as 1934 came on the heels of the extremely popular New Deal program of FDR. Further, not since 1822 (176 years for those counting) has the party in the White House picked up seats in the middle of the second term of a President. With that kind of precedent alone, a Republican smash should have been expected, but compound that with the fact that the Democrats are lead by an already mistrusted character who, rather than offering a New Deal, had admitted less than three months before the election that he received a blowjob in the Oval Office with a college age intern and then lied about it under oath (well, actually he didn't owe up to lying, which makes it even worse) and it is clear that the GOP should have crushed the Democrats badly. And yet, they didn't. Granted, there has been some hype over the results of this election: despite the minor losses of seats in the House of Representatives and the wash in the Senate, the GOP still controls both houses of Congress, as well as over 60 percent of all state governorships. But aside from the perhaps disturbing victory of two of George Bush's sons in Texas and Florida for the respective governor's race, 1998 was an embarrassing year for the Republicans. Among the more notable results: * In Washington State, Incumbent Patty Murray beat U.S. Rep. Linda Smith, a Christian right conservative, and her group of devoted supporters known as "Linda's Army". * In California, limousine-liberal Barbara Boxer staged a come-from-behind win against challenger Matt Fong. * Also in California, Loretta Sanchez whipped Robert "B-1 Bob" Dornan in Orange County (who still insists he's a victim of a "conspiracy" of liberals and Hispanics to get him out of office through vote fraud) in their rematch, a loss that will hopefully end his loud-mouthed, buffoonish political career. * In New York, in what may have been the ultimate "Stalin vs. Hitler" choice of the year, the ethically dubious Senator Pothole Al D'Amato lost decisively to Charles Schumer, who is most noted for his vicious attack on the victims of the Waco massacre. * In North Carolina, Lauch Faircloth (whose chum, David Sentelle, appointed Kenneth Starr and helped create the whole Peckergate scandal) was upended by challenger John Edwards. * Finally, again in California and perhaps most important of all, Gray Davis (a "New Democrat" of the Klinton mode sans the charisma) whipped the oily and frighteningly reactionary California Attorney General Dan Lungren by 20 points, in what was labeled by George Will as "the big prize." giving California a Democrat governor for the first time in sixteen years, back when a man named Jerry Brown was dating Linda Rondstadt. Needless to say, the results were devastating. About the only thing that could've made things worse would be if the GOP had been foolish enough to run Dr. Death's lawyer in a race (whoops, that actually was the Democrats, in one of their few more notable defeats.) But it was bad enough that Newt Gingrich felt compelled to resign, proving that the only sin punishable in politics isn't lying or adultery, but failure. All of this brings up a good question: what the hell happened? The answer to this can certainly be debated, but one answer that seems likely comes from none other than Michael Moore, the award-winning documentary film director of "Roger Me", "The Big One", and the t.v. show "TV Nation". On October 8, in what amounts to the second most famous email of the year (after Matt Drudge's scoop on the Lewinsky affair), Michael Moore urged people to vote a straight Democratic ticket in November, in part to take over the party, and in part as a repudiation of what he felt were blatantly sleazy tactics by the GOP. His strategy can be questioned, but it is clear that his message resonated with many: whatever faults Slick Willie may have (and they are many), he still was elected to the White House by the American public, and the Republican's gleeful attempt
[CTRL] Fwd: Konformist: Beast of the Month - December 1998
Please send as far and wide as possible. Thanks, Robert Sterling Editor, The Konformist http://www.konformist.com http://www.konformist.com/botm/volume02/botm1298.htm A Konformist Special Beast of the Month - December 1998 Congressman Henry Hyde, Two-Faced GOP Leader "I yam an anti-Christ..." John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) of The Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the UK" "If this becomes the occasion to conduct civil war by other means, we will have a weakened Presidency and do no credit to ourselves. We will also weaken the confidence of other people and other nations that our democracy can really work. Our Founding Fathers fashioned this country so that there would be tensions between the executive and legislative branches. But there are creative tensions and there are destructive tensions." Congressman Henry Hyde, during the Iran-Contra hearings Until this last election, no party holding the White House has gained seats in a midterm election since 1934, with an average loss of 27 seats. That stat doesn't explain just how unlikely the event is, as 1934 came on the heels of the extremely popular New Deal program of FDR. Further, not since 1822 (176 years for those counting) has the party in the White House picked up seats in the middle of the second term of a President. With that kind of precedent alone, a Republican smash should have been expected, but compound that with the fact that the Democrats are lead by an already mistrusted character who, rather than offering a New Deal, had admitted less than three months before the election that he received a blowjob in the Oval Office with a college age intern and then lied about it under oath (well, actually he didn't owe up to lying, which makes it even worse) and it is clear that the GOP should have crushed the Democrats badly. And yet, they didn't. Granted, there has been some hype over the results of this election: despite the minor losses of seats in the House of Representatives and the wash in the Senate, the GOP still controls both houses of Congress, as well as over 60 percent of all state governorships. But aside from the perhaps disturbing victory of two of George Bush's sons in Texas and Florida for the respective governor's race, 1998 was an embarrassing year for the Republicans. Among the more notable results: * In Washington State, Incumbent Patty Murray beat U.S. Rep. Linda Smith, a Christian right conservative, and her group of devoted supporters known as "Linda's Army". * In California, limousine-liberal Barbara Boxer staged a come-from-behind win against challenger Matt Fong. * Also in California, Loretta Sanchez whipped Robert "B-1 Bob" Dornan in Orange County (who still insists he's a victim of a "conspiracy" of liberals and Hispanics to get him out of office through vote fraud) in their rematch, a loss that will hopefully end his loud-mouthed, buffoonish political career. * In New York, in what may have been the ultimate "Stalin vs. Hitler" choice of the year, the ethically dubious Senator Pothole Al D'Amato lost decisively to Charles Schumer, who is most noted for his vicious attack on the victims of the Waco massacre. * In North Carolina, Lauch Faircloth (whose chum, David Sentelle, appointed Kenneth Starr and helped create the whole Peckergate scandal) was upended by challenger John Edwards. * Finally, again in California and perhaps most important of all, Gray Davis (a "New Democrat" of the Klinton mode sans the charisma) whipped the oily and frighteningly reactionary California Attorney General Dan Lungren by 20 points, in what was labeled by George Will as "the big prize." giving California a Democrat governor for the first time in sixteen years, back when a man named Jerry Brown was dating Linda Rondstadt. Needless to say, the results were devastating. About the only thing that could've made things worse would be if the GOP had been foolish enough to run Dr. Death's lawyer in a race (whoops, that actually was the Democrats, in one of their few more notable defeats.) But it was bad enough that Newt Gingrich felt compelled to resign, proving that the only sin punishable in politics isn't lying or adultery, but failure. All of this brings up a good question: what the hell happened? The answer to this can certainly be debated, but one answer that seems likely comes from none other than Michael Moore, the award-winning documentary film director of "Roger Me", "The Big One", and the t.v. show "TV Nation". On October 8, in what amounts to the second most famous email of the year (after Matt Drudge's scoop on the Lewinsky affair), Michael Moore urged people to vote a straight Democratic ticket in November, in part to take over the party, and in part as a repudiation of what he felt were blatantly sleazy tactics by the GOP. His strategy can be questioned, but it is clear that his message resonated with many: whatever faults Slick Willie may have (and they are many), he still was elected to the White House by the
