It’s fine to have an upswelling of desire for change in the country, but if you’re not prepared to reap the benefits, it does you no good. That’s why I want to give well-deserved praise to Chris Bowers who called this in 2004:
Considering the wide-ranging focus and the absence of swing states, 2005-2006 will actually be a more national election than 2004. In order to make broad gains, the party needs to be built up in every available locality. For the first time since its inception, Democratic Party Meetups are now the most important type of Meet for us to attend. This is also why we need a national chair, someone like Simon Rosenberg or Howard Dean, rather than someone who seems primarily interested in defending the local and parochial, such as Tom Vilsack. This is also why we need to maintain organizations like America Votes more than ever, but they need to be expanded to a national level, rather than just focusing on seventeen key states.It is time for a real fifty-state strategy.
And against the best advice of the pundits, consultants, and reporters, the 50 state strategy went forward with Howard Dean as DNC chair. Campaigns like Jim Web, Ned Lamont, and Brian Tester popped up and were bouyed by bloggers at the local level, amplified by bloggers at the national level, and funded by small donors from everywhere. These candidates had to win primaries against the Democratic establishment. Congrats to all the folks involved in those campaigns–you were inspiring to watch!
And congrats to all the folks in places like Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska, and so many other states where Republican incumbents were supposed to be unbeatable. Good candidates ran good campaigns and were there to ride the wave.
I’m sure the hagiographic profiles of Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer are already being clicked out on laptops all over Washington and New York, but lets not forget the real heros of this election–the normal folks, with small checks, websites, and a great love for this country. This was truly a citizen-driven election, and a great testament to the power that lies in collective democratic action.
So you’ve all heard by now that the US put documents on the web containing engineering advice for how to build nuclear bombs. In short, we had millions of pages of Arabic text from Iraq, and we decided that we should publish it before we really knew what it was. Whoops.
Turns out Bush was psyched to publish the documents in hopes that someone might find something in there that proved there was some reason for going into Iraq in the first place.
And it also turns out that a guy named Stephen Hayes at The Weekly Standard was a big proponent of publishing this stuff without really knowing what it was, or bothering to translate it before it’s published.
“He recounted how the president was intent on releasing the documents, even over Negroponte’s protests. He described a February 16th conference call between the president, the vice-president, Indiana Republican Mike Pence, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, and U.S. Ambassador to IRaq Zalmay Khalilzad (via telephone).
The conference call began with Pence commenting on all the favorable news coverage the release of certain pre-Saddam audio tapes had garnered (”Mr. President, the war had its best night on the network news since the war ended.”) Hayes then described how the president wanted more pre-war information released:
[President Bush] turned to Hadley and asked for an update. Hadley explained that John Negroponte, Bush’s Director of National Intelligence, “owns the documents” and that DNI lawyers were deciding how they might be handled.
Bush extended his arms in exasperation and worried aloud that people who see the documents in 10 years will wonder why they weren’t released sooner. “If I knew then what I know now,” Bush said in the voice of a war skeptic, “I would have been more supportive of the war.”
Bush told Hadley to expedite the release of the Iraq documents. “This stuff ought to be out. Put this stuff out.” The president would reiterate this point before the meeting adjourned. And as the briefing ended, he approached Pence, poked a finger in the congressman’s chest, and thanked him for raising the issue. When Pence began to restate his view that the documents should be released, Bush put his hand up, as if to say, “I hear you. It will be taken care of.”
Guess what? I went to high school with Stephen Hayes. He was a nice guy back then. I liked him and his family, we all went to church camp together. It’s sad to see someone you know fall prey to the lure of power worship. It’s not too late Steve. Tell Bill Kristol you’re going to go get a real job and stop writing fiction about Iraq, Cheney, and terrorists. It’s not too late to do something worthwhile with your life.
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