Nebraska’s old Senator, and Nebraska’s Next Senator
I tend to view Chuck Hagel’s retirement as something of a bad thing. It is not so much his departure — with him liable to show up in some foreign policy think tank or as a token Republican in a Democratic administration — before winding up to cashing in as a lobbyist in that permanent government slot. Despite some rhetorical flourishes at Bush’s policy in Iraq and various facets of the “Imperial Presidency”, he maintains a solid voting record with the Bush Administration, up to and including those arenas he criticizes Bush for — it is the “well, with great reluctance” trap of the “Centrist”/”Moderate”/”Mr. Serious”.
He is a maverick to the name of maverick.  He would be infuriating as a Democrat — he would be Joseph Biden. His greatest asset is that he annoys Republican partisans.
I suppose one cannot underestimate that part of the Senator’s power — the Sunday morning blathering fest, which is why Lieberman is more aggrivating than a number of other Senators. The word on the street is that the Democrats are going to siphon us with Bob Kerrey, automatic front-runner for the Senate seat against anybody the Republicans might put up there. I think I know the Democratic Party well enough to know roughly what they will be doing with Bob Kerrey — somewhere within the Good Ol’ Boys’ Network, his stature will be inflated and grown — Nebraska’s Senate race will be a Top Priority, and probably THE TOP PRIORITY in terms of the down-the-ticket ballot. All those liberal blogs (and moveon.org) — the “netroots” — as the election proceeds, will be tapped to donate to Bob Kerrey.
Bob Kerrey, ironically probably as a whole to the left of Nebraska’s current Democratic Senator (The most conservative Democrat in the Senate), but where Ben Nelson tends toward his issues of what Nebraska needs and doesn’t make have a huge public profile, Bob Kerrey will. And on that issue of “War and Peace”. An interesting little dilution. The drive to something of a 60-seat filibuster-proof majority is mooted.
Identical voting record tendency on that area of concern, rhetorically worlds apart, probably the same effect within their parties — though the Democrats can’t quite absorb it as well the Republicans — unless it were a matter of the Democrats maintaining a majority over a minority — which even a tepid party and tepid agenda is an improvement for the short-term, no matter the corrosive forces within the party. (Ie: Barbara Boxer heading the committee covering global warming versus Jame Inhoffe.)  It isn’t though.  So, Nebraskans, vote for the Republican.
September 10th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
interesting enough letter in the Washington Monthly:
Shrum’s sole skill
The review of Bob Shrum’s book, No Excuses: Confessions of a Serial
Campaigner (“Shrum and Dumber,” by Matthew Yglesias, June), covers this
consultant’s particular skill at defeating his own clients but doesn’t
mention his greatest skill: defeating other consultants. In the lead-up
to Gore’s presidential campaign, Shrum cleverly defeated Gore’s original
consultant, Bob Squier. Squier was one of the most successful and
innovative consultants in American political history. Squier was both
cavalier and capricious, but he had a knack for winning. Shrum worked
tirelessly to take the Gore account, and finally did.
Likewise, in 1991, after Shrum’s candidate of choice, Mario Cuomo,
dropped out, Shrum flew into Manchester and wooed Bob Kerrey away from his
long-time consultant and friend, Joe Rothstein. Rothstein had been with
Kerrey since Kerrey’s days as a pharmacist running a drugstore in
Omaha, Nebraska. Rothstein, one of the deans of American political
consulting, had done every campaign Kerrey had been in and never lost one. Yet
Shrum’s talent for bringing along celebrity contributors (who were
wowed by his “Kennedy connection”), and for using his considerable
debate-coaching skills to befuddle his prey, persuaded Kerrey’s camp to dump
his old friend. Kerrey was then remade into something of Shrum’s
creation. One newspaper claimed that Shrum had taken the “warmest man in
politics and put him on ice – literally.” (The reference was to Shrum’s
infamous TV spot that placed Kerrey on a dark and empty ice rink talking
about global trade issues.) Kerrey then slipped out of the primaries
almost overnight as the other two leading contestants fought to explain
their bimbo eruptions or their terminal cancer. This was a difficult
primary to lose, but Shrum found a way.
Savaronola, the Florentine political consultant (of sorts) for the
fallen Medici family, was eventually roasted alive-an option sadly missing
today.
Algernon Jaeger
Bozeman, Mont.