|
CounterPunch
December
7, 2002
The Robo-Candidate
by RALPH NADER
Walking down a busy street in downtown Washington
recently, I began to hear interesting words coming from an excitable
conversation between two gentlemen briskly walking behind me.
"Do you have any idea what is emerging?," one said
to the other. "We're perfecting the robo-candidate from
Washington, DC and making it seem like it's local."
It turned out the latest robo-candidate
they were talking about was Republican U.S. Senate candidate
Suzanne Haik Terrell who, at this writing, is in a runoff race
with Louisiana Democrat, Senator Mary Landrieu."We now can
select the candidate from any state to beat the  Democrats, frame the issues, convey the
slogans, raise the money, buy the tv ads and even provide the
robo-rebuttals for the debates." Hah, hah, hah, whopee,
said the fast walking fellow who was the younger of the two.
The other fellow was no less exuberant.
He added: "And we bring in Bush and Air Force One for the
finale with total media coverage totally unchallenged. It's working
again and again. The Dems are in a panic, falling all over themselves
to agree with the President. Landrieu even has a television ad
showing how many times she agrees with Bush." As they turned
the corner, they couldn't stop laughing.
The duo was actually understating what
the Republicans are doing to the Democrats who years ago forgot
who they were. All kinds of national Republicans -- Vice President
Cheney, Urban Development Secretary Mel R. Martinez, Senate Minority
leader Trent Lott and others -- have gone into Louisiana to campaign
for Terrell. Landrieu doesn't want any national Democrats to
do the same. Only her fellow Democrat, conservative Senator John
Breaux is doing the honors from campaign event to campaign event.
Robo-politics, Republican style, is also
quite visible. Terrell's campaign headquarters in the state capitol,
Baton Rouge is tiny, reports the Washington Post. She made only
one appearance the weekend before Saturday's election day, while
relying on huge television buys to get her robo-message (smaller
government, less taxes, bigger military and, surprise, she's
against terrorism).
Meanwhile, back in Washington, D.C.,
the Republican National Committee offices are "Terrell Central."
The RNC is running the show right down to the words used in the
debates: "You're 100 percent wrong Mary and you are so negative."
Where have we heard those words before November 7th around the
country? Everywhere!
After losing more seats in the House
and losing control of the Senate, the Democratic strategists
seemed to have learned nothing. Enron is close to Louisiana;
so is WorldCom. Yet, corporate crime, fraud and abuse, looted
pensions, laid off workers and depleted 401ks are not made into
major issues where the corporate-indentured Republicans are at
their weakest. All kinds of corporate crime crackdowns and reforms
of Big Business and health care-denying HMOs, could appeal to
pollution-drenched Louisiana and its past populist traditions.
So could the living wage issue.
Somehow, the Democrats believe that they
can beat the opposing Republican Party by never criticizing its
leader -- George W. Bush -- America's burgeoning Big Brother
whose snooping, liberty-violating and anti-worker ways are getting
a free ride on the backs of our crumbling democracy, while giant
corporations are laughing all the way to the bank on the backs
of the small taxpayers who are forced to subsidize them.
And there is Suzie Terrell sticking to
her RNC-inspired lines: "He will know when Suzie Terrell
doesn't agree. I'm going to stand firm and strong for Louisiana,"
she told a smiling George W. Bush at the rally on December3rd.
In Republican circles, this is called the "independence
streak" line to counter charges that she and other such
choreographed candidates by the RNC and the White House's Karl
Rove are going to be rubber stamps for the President.
The RNC even knows when to let the robo-candidate
twitch back on cue. Will the Democrats ever free themselves of
all that corporate money and wake up?
Yesterday's
Features
Jeffrey St. Clair
Panda
Porn:
The Marriage of WWF & Weyerhaeuser
Saul Landau
Bush the Comedian:
Poindexter, Abrams and Now Henry K.
Romi Mahajan
Malign
Money and Misguided Multiculturalism
Jan Oberg
Time for an Intellectual Intifada!
Margie Burns
Another Lucky Bush Brother
Pierre Tristam
Woodward's Bush
Edward Lazarus
FISA, Conservatives, National Security & States' Rights
Jack McCarthy
Amos King: a Buddhist Warrior on Death Row
Alexander Cockburn
American
Journal:
Kissinger & the Great Beast: 666
CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- CounterPunch Special:
The Persecution of Gershon Legman by Susan Davis: Smut, the Post Office, Commies
and the FBI;
- Reeling Democrats: Is Pelosi the Answer?
- Gandhi v. Hitler: the Secret Race for the Nobel
Prize;
- Sullying Mario Savio's
Memory;
- Lynching Then and Now;
- Earn While You Learn: Chris Whittle and Child Labor;
The Case of the Pompous
Professor;
- The Class Struggle in
Boston: All that
Effort, But What Did They Get?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
December 1,
2002
Alexander
Cockburn
American
Journal
Gabriel Kolko
Another
Century of War?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Rockets,
Napalm, Torpedoes & Lies: The Attack on the Liberty Revisited
Steve Perry
Spank
the Democrats
M. Shahid
Alam
A Predatory
Orientalism
Kurt Nimmo
The Murder
of Iain Hook
Ali Abunimah
Death
& Lies in Palestine
Anthony Gancarski
The
Return of Al Gore?
Joanne Mariner
In Defense
of the Filibuster
Ahmad Faruqui
The Apocalyptic
Vision of the Neo-Con Ideologues
Dave Marsh
Eminem's
Body & Soul
David Vest
On the Lam
from Uncle Sam
Julian Samuel
Bowling
for Columbine
Adam Engel
Piss Off,
NSA!
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Grassroots
Challenge to Iran's Theocracy
Wayne Saunders
This
Mad, Limitless War
Dan Brook
Celebrate
Genocide!
Uri Avnery
"Likud
Has Failed"
Philip Farruggio
Turkeys
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|