Author Archives: Michael Drury

The Calm before the Storm

You can almost see the tumbleweeds tripping across the set and hear the silence interrupted only by the lonesome wail of a parched desert wind as saloon doors swing listlessly. Soon the jingle of spurs will herald the gathering of political desperadoes, lawmen and cowboys come to settle the question of who runs Washington: the rebels or the establishment…

In a back room at the saloon, Karl Rove plays with his chips, tries to sneak a peek at his opponents cards and fingers the ace he has hidden up his sleeve, a new, Supreme Court-sanctioned, unaccountable, moneyed interest political vehicle: “American Crossroads.”

While frightened townsfolk hurry their children away from the center of town and the crossfire and stray bullets of the midterm primaries, Carl rove is focused on his poker game. He knows that real battle is happening away from the dusty main street where political careers are gunned down in broad daylight, it is right there at the gaming table where the money is won or lost. The money to pay the hired guns and then buy them a round of whiskey’s to salute the fallen. Michael Steele, good riddance, he will say to himself.

In a room upstairs Anthony Weiner, cocky, battle-tested gunslinger, leans back in his bed, and admires the beauty of his favorite saloon gal, Huma Abedin. Dang it! He’s gonna make an honest woman out of that gal this summer, he just can’t say when.

He looks at his six guns sitting on the bedside table and considers going down to the street to shoot ‘em up some, but thinks better of it, he’ll take a few pot shots from his room’s window, defending the supreme court nominee in a desultory fashion on the Don Imus show, no real fire works. What happens in this town doesn’t matter that much any more, he’s already made his decision to take his famous fast draw and sharp aim to another lawless town: New York City, where a man like him can rise to top of the heap.

Meanwhile down stairs Carl Rove raises his whisky (actually iced tea in a whiskey glass) to his fellow players and then orders another round for the table. The game is going well and he’ll have plenty o’ money for the sharp shooters he has placed on rooftops and inside garbage cans with a strategic view of the street. When they collect their pay, for sniper work against the tea party rebels who have been hassling his establishment friends, they’ll know which side their bread is buttered on. And they’ll remember that when the big battle shapes up in the general election.

From his window above the saloon Anthony Weiner, can see a sharp shooter on the roof across the way getting ready to pick off targets in the street below.  He looks at his woman and sighs… he’s gonna miss this town.

The Coming Battle

Anthony Weiner is not quite movie star handsome, but he’s close… and his chiseled jaw line and sharp tongue have become familiar to politically oriented TV viewers across the nation.

The focus of his ambition seems, however, to remain local (if New York City can really be thought of as a ”locality”). He’s hinted he wants to Mayor and the pundits and reporters who cover him believe him.

He also has a certain amount of momentum. He gained name recognition during the 2009 campaign season in part because he seemed to be the only guy the Bloomberg machine really feared. (A Bloomberg operative told me that the campaign actually altered the timing of the Brooklyn canvassing schedule to saturate the neighborhood where Weiner’s mother lives to send a message to Weiner early in the spring).

Because of the anomaly of Bloomberg’s term-limits fake out, the election authorities allowed Weiner to keep the five million he raised for that 2009 race, which is the maximum; so now Anthony, or Tony Hot Dog-as a certain former staffer likes to call him-can sit back and weigh his options.

But, the fact remains you don’t become the top guy in New York City without a fight, and 2013 is setting up to be a no-holds-barred scrum. Three years out and likely contenders Christine Quinn, Bill DeBlasio, and Scott Stringer are already mixing it up, in a kerfuffle about the mysterious finances of the City Council.

It’s early days yet, but a Marist poll taken on April 13th shows that no one is really ahead of the pack, although Weiner enjoys a very slight lead in the Democratic primary against others known to be considering a run.

Here’s the current break down of registered Democrats:

Congressman Anthony Weiner -18%

Former Comptroller/losing candidate Bill Thompson-15%

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn -12%

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio -10%

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. -10%

Comptroller John Liu-9%

And there are others who may be biding their time until the actual campaign season begins. Former Bronx Borough president Adolfo Carrión has just been tapped by Obama to lead the New York and New Jersey Office of Housing and Urban Development and he apparently has a war chest of $3 million and is said to be considering a bid for either Comptroller or Mayor.

Also there is the formidable presence of Mayor Bloomberg. He trashed term limits to try to solidify his legacy as Mayor and will be sure to want to influence the outcome of the next election, especially to preserve the changes he has made to the school system. He may try to put forward one of his friends in the business community to carry on with the Mayor’s program.

He’s said to be thinking of Dick Parsons former head of Time Warner, who is currently trying to rescue Citi Group from the repercussions of it’s recent excesses with collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps.  He is probably the most powerful African-American Business leader in the country.

Harold Ford, who seems to be interested in setting up shop in New York any-way-he-can might, despite his recent embarrassing performance, try for a big apple play.

So when Anthony Weiner does what everyone expects him to do and follows his dream of becoming Mayor, he will be jumping from a relatively comfortable seat into a mosh-pit full of sharp elbows.

Anthony's Bare Knuckle Style Prevails

Since the first salvoes of the health care debate, Anthony Weiner seemed to believe that Congressional Republicans were negotiating in bad faith. He focused much of his public commentary on pointing out what he contested was as the lack of a coherent policy rational in the Republican opposition to health care reform.

For Weiner it was black and white…obviously the Republicans had one goal and one goal only: employ the old stereotypes to undermine a popular new president and turn the tide of political battle. Throughout the spring he gently ridiculed his colleagues and the administration for being gullible in the face of old-fashioned know-nothing fear mongering politics.

Doing this gently, must have been somewhat of a trial for a Congressman who doesn’t like to wait. He has a reputation for impatience. One former staffer speaking on back round described his tendency to “sigh exaggeratedly” and “rapid-fire snap his fingers” as stressed out interns scramble to locate spontaneously requested phone numbers or policy briefs. Referring to an impatient Weiner the staffer said “he’s wound really tight, if you put a piece of coal in his hand while he’s in one of his moods you’d probably get a tiny diamond.”

Weiner never seemed to doubt that the motivations of the Republican leadership were purely political.

In the battle over financial regulation, the White House and congressional leadership now seem to be operating under the same assumptions.

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer recently said that one of the lessons of the health care battle was: “not to assume that the opposition is willing to be constructive.”

The AP quoted Harry Reid as Saying “I’m not going to waste any more time of the American people.”

It must be somewhat cathartic for Weiner to see his Democratic colleagues finally taking the gloves off. The same AP article quoted him as saying: “You can see immediately the difference in tone, and you can’t help thinking they (the administration and Congressional leaders) learned that message pretty quickly…There was no waiting for their 60th vote, or waiting for a bipartisan group to finish.”

For the time being most Democrats seem to have decided that playing nice with the Republicans is pointless. Weiner has seen this all along.

The Cracker Point of View

I’m not Jewish, but my Scots-Irish tribe has some things in common with the Israelites: they experienced a calculated oppression that forced a great number of them to flee the land of their ancestors, settle in a hostile country and eventually overpower the locals… igniting an ethnic hatred that has poisoned a disputed country for centuries.

I’m a Cracker, as in “you mother f*ucking white cracker.”

Crackers: the over-eating, truck driving, racist, meth-using, tea bagger, predominant ethnicity of the south-eastern portion of the United States, are what is left of the Celtic people offered land by their English masters in a place that was already occupied: Northern Ireland.

The Crackers have a distinguished history. After the English, put down their dreams of independence (with the first set of laws in European history to make a language and way of life illegal)* they participated in violently taking their ethnic and linguistic brethren’s spiritual homeland: Ulster, historic seat of Irish Kings… moving in and taking over.

After a few decades of oppressing people that might have been their cousins, and looking for more land; they emigrated to America where they became the tools of the English slave-owning gentry in the colonies.

Any one who watched Alex Haley’s ROOTS in the 70’s might have noticed the Scottish accent of the foreman whipping the rebellious slave Kunta Kinte until he accepted that his “real” name was Toby.

Some of them found religion-in fact they all did: Crackers are most of the doctor-killing anti-abortion fanatics of the far right.

Religion didn’t used to be a bad thing for Crackers. One of my Scots-Irish ancestors, William Henry Drury -a very religious Cracker- preached against slavery on the basis of the Bible and then backed up his words by volunteering for the Pennsylvania artillery battalion that fought off Confederate guerilla attacks against Washington DC.- he lost his foot.

However, lately the Crackers seem to have forgotten the love part of Jesus, preferring anger and paranoia as more exciting motivators… Oppressing Mexicans in need of a job… hey we’re down with that.

So what does this have to do with Anthony Weiner? Not much, except that I think that partly because of my criticizing of Crackerness, I’ve finally found a reason to disagree with him.

He and Chuck Schumer have decided that the President Obama is being to too hard on Benyamin Netanyahu on the issue of settlements.

Weiner said this about the way Obama has been treating the Prime Minister of Israel:

“The appropriate response was a shake of the head – not a temper tantrum…Israel is a sovereign nation and an ally, not a punching bag. Enough already.”

But lets acknowledge the fact that Netanyahu humiliated Joe Biden a few weeks ago with a poorly timed, jingoistic announcement of more East Jerusalem settlements. The White House would have to have been absolutely spineless not to take exception to that exchange.

Also, It’s kind of clear that new settlements are not the first steps on the road to peace. You have to try really, really hard to convince your self of the opposite point of view.

So I feel that Weiner and Schumer should mention the need to support Israel unconditionally, without publicly criticizing Obama for sticking up for his VP. Casting aspersions on the President’s loyalty to Israel because of the back and forth with Bibi, is wrong, and joining Crackers like Glenn Beck and Pat Buchanan in taking shots at the President… is just embarrassing.

*In 1746 to subdue the Scottish highlands, the English Parliament passed the Act of Proscription. It banned the wearing of traditional Scottish attire (i.e. kilts etc.) forbade speaking in Gaelic, outlawed Scottish music, dancing, or playing of bag pipes, which the Act said “emitted an aggressive and warlike sound.”

Finally it banned all Scots from “bearing arms.” Glenn Beck (Beck is a common Scottish surname) and his ilk use the resonance of this particular, aspect of the collective Scots-Irish ancestral memory to inflame Cracker passions about the right to use assault rifles to hunt deer.

The Most Common Phrase in Politics

Anyone that watches politics in this country (and probably all other countries for that matter) can’t help but notice that certain catch phrases are used a lot.

This morning while watching the Sunday political talk shows, I began to wonder which of the political clichés I was hearing on Chris Matthews and Meet the Press, was actually the most used.

I started googling  things like “appealing to their base” (-6,010 hits), “facing a challenge from the right” (-4,080), “pass a litmus test” (-8,160)…

Disappointed at how low these numbers were, I decided to try more general political phrases, the only rule being that they had to have at least four words.

I began to hit pay dirt with things like “has abused his office” (-120,000), and “for illegal campaign contributions” (-201,000), but the real pay off in terms of search results came when I began to try platitudes: “No more politics as usual” had  360,000 hits and “if  elected I will…” got 20,000 more than that.

I thought I’d done more or less as well as I could when I got an idea based this weeks blog on Anthony Weiner to try “I have introduced legislation.” Sure enough- the mother loadthe exact phrase got 1.2 million results.

Picture 1

“I have  introduced legislation” is the among the most common phrases in politics because that’s what legislators do to reach out to helpful constituencies in their district: they introduce legislation that will never have a chance of becoming law, but will allow them to claim they are making an effort on behalf of the important constituencies.

Anthony Weiner has introduced 177 bills during 6 terms in the House, bills with names like… “H.R. 2978: To prohibit United States assistance for the Palestinian Authority and for programs, projects, and activities in the West Bank and Gaza, unless certain conditions are met Act of 2007.”

Of the bills he has introduced, exactly one has been signed into law: “The Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (PACT) of 2009.”

The truth is that sponsoring even one bill that actually becomes law places Weiner in an elite club.

Of the 290 bills sponsored by New York City’s Congressional delegation during the  current Congress, 14 have become Law. Of those 14 laws, ten were passed by Charles Rangel, who as former Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee was among the most powerful members of the House. Even so eight of those ten bills were federal operational spending bills with few associated bragging rights.

The three other NYC house members who got bills passed are as follows:

Nydia Velasquez sponsored nine bills and got one passed that “Extends through July 31, 2009 the Small Business Act or the Small Business Investment Act of 1958”

Joseph Crowley, sponsored 19 bills and got one arcane corporate tax bill through  that “increases the estimated tax payments of certain corporations in the third quarter of 2014 by .25%, and reduces the fourth quarter installment to reflect such increase and renews the President’s authority to ban the import of Burmese products.”

Jose Serrano, who sposored 23 bills, managed to pass one that “Makes available up to $40 million of funds appropriated for the business loan program of the Small Business Administration”

That’s why the phrase “I have passed legislation…” is a comparatively rare political saying.

Anthony Weiner quietly scores

There seem to be two Anthony Weiners: one is the master of one-liners that could have made him a marquee Vegas act and who is almost always to be found at the center of  any major political scrum.

The other is a kind of stolid legislative handyman who tirelessly tinkers with some bit of technical, unromantic lawmaking, wheeling and dealing to get something done that will never make big headlines, but is truly useful in the the ultimate reckoning. On the day after April fools, President Obama signed a quiet little bill called “The Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (PACT) of 2009”

The bill was sponsored by Weiner, and has the purpose of cracking down on tobacco smuggling and the selling of cigarettes via the internet, in part to make sure New York City and State receive their proper share of tobacco taxes.

The only real attention Weiner received for actually getting a bill through the most bitterly divided Congress in recent memory was a fair amount of hate from Native American’s who have been plying the tax-free cigarette trade for many decades.

He did get a shout-out of dubious political value from Mayor Bloomberg, delivered by Bloomberg’s corporation counsel Michael A. Cardozo.

But the bill that makes the selling of tobacco in violation of  state tax law a felony and outlaws the shipping of tobacco through the US Postal Service is useful.

The New York State Department of Tax and Finance has estimated that the state loses up to $500 million from untaxed Internet tobacco sales and that the city may lose as much as $150 million.  Also interestingly, the Government Office of Accountability reports that Hezbollah somehow earned $1.5 million from the sale of illegal tobacco between 1996-2000.

Weiner says his law “will give states and localities a major revenue boost by cracking down on the illegal sale of tobacco and close a major source of finances for international terrorists and criminals. Every day we delay is another day that New York loses significant amounts of tax revenue and kids have easy access to tobacco products sold over the internet.”

Despite its usefulness the legislation did not gain Weiner entree  to any talk shows to discuss it’s virtues, but thats why he practices his stand up routines.

Weiner gets White Powder (not the fun kind)

Nine people had to be  evacuated from Anthony Weiner’s office in  Kew Gardens today, because of a letter with “white powder” and a note that told him to “drop dead”. The Powder will be checked thoroughly, but initial tests deemed it to be neither fun nor dangerous. The FBI called the note potentially threating .
Aside from the fear that this might cause the representative, it’s probably a good thing for his political standing and for the Democrats in general.
As the anger of the right takes concrete form in hateful letters and telephone calls to supporters of health care, it serves to highlight a distinction between the two parties in terms of identity: The Democrat’s relatively principled handling of recent political conflict, versus the seeming incitement to lawlessness by the Republicans.

Since the coming mid-term electoral battle is for voters from the political center, Weiner and the Democrats stand to gain from lawlessness in two ways.
First, despite their general anti-inside-the-beltway sympathies, Independents probably will not be swayed by the insistence of Republican leaders that they have in not played a part in stoking these ugly displays. Democrats being attacked for voting their principles are likely to be seen in a sympathetic light.
Secondly, If one accepts that part of the purpose of the recent Republican obstructionism was to make the Democrats seem incapable of governing, the association of the Republican Party with lawless behavior by people inspired by their rhetoric will not help them earn the mantle of authority and stability.
The mid-term elections seem to be breaking badly for the Democrats, but if they do seem to benefit at the polls from ongoing outrageous displays from the right. Weiner, being one of the lighting rods for these developments will perhaps enhance his stature within the Democratic hierarchy, which is an important consideration for a politician who is widely seen as having ambitions beyond the confines of his current role.
The 9th District is fairly reliably Democratic, and many of the more conservative elements are likely to be Orthodox Jews, who will not be pleased at the sight of a fellow Jew being threatened, so it probably also benefits him locally.

Weiner smacks down Peggy Noonan and it feels so good.

The problem with complicated things is that they aren’t easily explained. After public opinion scuttled the dreams of generals and their pals during the Vietnam War, certain interests in this country got together and funded Institutes to examine how to explain certain things to the American people.

That’s how the complex issue of the taxing inheritances over $3.5 million became the far more easily understood notion of “the death tax” and  how the regulation of multi-national corporation’s campaign contributions came to be understood in terms of “attacking the fundamental rights of all Americans to express themselves.”

Peggy Noonan likes to explain things like this, she did it for Ronald Reagan. When he was shifting the national agenda to wards the star wars program and she did it this week in the Wall Street Journal when she explained that Obama had wasted a year of the nation’s precious time dealing with the “tangential” issue of healthcare, when he should be doing more important things like visiting our friends in Australia.

Peggy is of the opinion that thinking about the economy and health care at the same time is too complicated to fit into a single understandable explanation. Anthony Weiner begged to differ. He explained the situation to her on Morning Joe. Please watch (it comes at the end).

Weiner on the Eric Massa Affair: "They are always coming down on the guys that are having tickle fights with their staffers. It just seems so unfair to stereotype…”

Anthony Weiner has a gift for saying memorable things.

Last month he was asked to withdraw his remarks -twice- for referring to the Republican Party as a “wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry” he attempted to correct the perceived insult by saying “Ok ok, I withdraw, let me rephrase… I have never met a single Republican in my entire life that was not a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry.”

On March 10 he spoke to Don Imus about the implosion of fellow New York Democratic house member Eric Massa on Glenn Beck.

“It’s very clear from these interviews that this guy is one taco short of a happy meal. They are always coming down on the guys that are having tickle fights with their staffers. It just seems so unfair to stereotype…” he then went on to empathize with Massa’s story about getting yelled at in the showers at the House gym by a naked Rahm Emanuel. “I have very few hard and fast rules. One of them is not to have sword fights in the morning with Rahm Emanuel.”

On March 12 his remarks cast aspersions on the Senate. Those remarks place him at the center of the attempt to pass health care through reconciliation.

In dueling Sunday morning talk show appearances. David Axelrod, the president’s top political strategist and John Boehner the house minority leader took turns assuring the American public their side was going to win the historic legislative battle.

While Axelrod conceded that the forces arrayed against reform were fully mobilized saying “The lobbyists for the insurance industry have landed on Capitol Hill like locusts, and they are going to be doing everything they can in the next week to try and muscle people” He claimed to welcome Republican opposition: “I say… Make my day. I’m ready.”

He also pushed back against Republican claims that using reconciliation was some how an unfair tactic saying: “Enough game-playing; enough maneuvering… Let’s have an up or down vote.”

Despite Axelrod’s bravura, on NBC, the House Democratic Whip James Clyburn, was forced to admit that “as of this morning” the democratic leadership did yet have enough support to pass the necessary bills.

A fact that Republicans were pleased to point out.

Speaking on CNN Boehner said “Guess what? They don’t have the votes.”

While the White House seems to have decided that it is time for an all out effort, the house minority leader is counting on help from unusual quarters: left leaning democrats.

This is because the Senate Parliamentarian, Alan Frumin ruled on March 11 that the original Senate bill must be signed into law before reconciliation can be used to pass an acceptable amended bill. House Democrats and many observers found the original Senate bill to be a boondoggle and potentially a huge giveaway to the insurance industry because of its requirements that all adults seek health coverage or face tax penalties.

Commenting on the ruling on March 12 Weiner said “At the end of the day, members of the House are being asked to trust an untrustworthy body.”

He is understandably nervous because in the last year the house has passed 290 bills upon which the Senate has failed to act.

With out his support and that of other “public option” house members there is little hope the Senate measure will make it to the president’s desk.

But Weiner is ultimately a pragmatist and a team player so it is likely that if they manage to convince the “Stupak 6” (who object that there is not enough assurance in the language of the Senate bill that abortion will not be federally funded), the Democratic leadership will probably overcome this particular obstacle.

Why does Midwood support Weiner?

Midwood shopping

Walking around Avenue J in Midwood it’s sometimes hard to understand the connection between Anthony Weiner and his voters.

The 9th congressional district is a very difficult constituency to pigeonhole.  Half of it is Brooklyn by the ocean; the other half is land-locked Queens.  It has been held by Democrats since 1923, but in 2008 John McCain took 44% of the Vote. It’s 71% white, but, it’s difficult to discover whether there are more Italians, Jews, Irish or Anglos among them.

But if there is a core of Wiener’s constituency it is probably the orthodox Jews of Midwood Brooklyn. It is a stable, politically active community. Weiner is himself Jewish, his mother taught math at Midwood High School.

Somehow the Jewish men in long dark coats and impressive hats pensively waiting in line at the Chaimowitz Food Store or leaning on the counters at Hechts Hebrew Books and Religious Supplies up the street don’t seem like natural supporters of Anthony.

Yesterday, for example Weiner took a stand with the Food and Drug Administration by sending an open letter demanding that men who have sex with men be allowed to donate blood again.

The letter stated that an FDA ban, which was instituted in 1983 to protect the blood supply at the height of the AIDS crisis, had become “medically and scientifically” obsolete, and was impairing the ability to replenish blood supplies.

The co-signers of the letter make a roll call of the most liberal membership of the Senate: Daniel Akaka, Mark Begich, Michael Bennet, Sherrod Brown, Rolland Burris, Maria Cantwell, Bob Casey, Dick Durbin, Russ Feingold, Al Franken, Tom Harkin, Carl Levin, Bernie Sanders, Mark Udall and Sheldon Whitehouse.

An additional aggravating circumstance is that Weiner is the only person to sign the letter who is not a member of the Senate. He has clearly gone out of his way to be a part of the effort.

Why is the elected representative of men and women for whom homosexuality is “to’eva” (usually translated as “abomination”) arguing along side the most liberal members of the Senate about a matter of homosexuality that hardly rises to the level of fundamental civil rights?

The answer may lie in the diversity of the district. When there is no real ethnic or socio-economic coherence voters know they can’t get too picky and compromise to get some of what they want. Weiner is after all explicitly pro Israel.

But then again the answer may also lie in the values of the orthodox community itself.

After several attempts to solicit opinions in the neighborhood, I found a man who was willing to tell me what he thought of Weiner’s letter to the FDA.

“Just politics” he said.  That was unfortunately the extent of the conversations I was able to have about Weiner before it was time to head home.

On line I discovered a vigorous debate was occurring within the orthodox community about the role of homosexuals in Orthodox Judaism.

One article was by an orthodox Rabbi from Riverdale New York, who was preparing to chair a forum on the future of orthodoxy of in America at Yeshiva University this month. His article was plea that orthodox communities not allow themselves to be split asunder by their differences… one of those differences being the acceptance or rejection of homosexuality. I have to admit it surprised me that he finished his article with a poem by William Butler Yeats:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.