Republican Candidates Debate; First Time Out For Fred
Posted by Stephanie Taylor on October 9, 2007 at 05:00 PM
Republican presidential debate happening now, broadcast live on CNBC. The debate will be broadcast again tonight on MSNBC at 9 pm ET.
Former lobbyist Fred Thompson, with the stakes high in his first debate, isn't receiving much applause so far.
Check out our research center on the Republican presidential field here.
Comments - 12 »
Comments - 12 «
No applause? I guess the audience didn't want to wake him.
Posted by SandyH on October 9, 2007 at 06:51 PM
Who is going help the billionaires the most?
Who can most promise to deliver Bush-Reagan deregulation, and supply-side economics to help the Billionaires the most?
I could hear the theme to the Beverly Hill Billy billionaires in the background. Mister Slick, Mister Prik, and Mister Hick. What a cast, indeed.
Romney played the slick Mr. Drisdale. "I'll just move some of my money into my campaign."
Rudy played the slick competitor banker trying to steal the Clampets from Mr Drisdale.
Thompson was the salesman trying to sell Jefro a used car from the Nixon days. "Look here, boy, it's got new tires and an 8 track player in stereo. That's all you need, Jeffro."
Huckabee acted like he wasn't in the Hill Billy cast cause he didn't want to play forth fiddle. He danced around and tried to hide from his name. He was hoping for an important policy question like how did he lose all that weight, and what's his favorite fruit.
Thompson was the big winner. He had more charisma than an old mule. "Not bad for just getting in" the tv reporters proclaimed. With a little more work, he can have all the charm, character, and charisma as Mr. Ed, the talking horse.
What a field! When people stop donating to them, they can all head over to Branson and put on a new production called "the Beverly Hill Billionaires."
(Banjo music plays as they wave bye on stage.)
Posted by Big_Yellow_Dog on October 10, 2007 at 08:24 AM
Ole Fred has big chance of winning, He has Hollywood money and friends, a good record in the Senate, He just started alittle late out from the rest of the pack. I wouldn't talk bad about his former days as a lobbyist. Heck, does anyone remember the Dubia deal that failed, It was Hillary's Hubby, Ole Slick Willy, that was lobbying heavily for the UAE to get these ports under there control, as I recall he was paid a little over a million dollars for his services. PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN GLASS HOUSES SHOULDN'T THROW STONES.
Posted by OldDemocrat1 on October 12, 2007 at 02:13 PM
ELECTION INFORMATION - Find Out When YOUR Primary Election Will Be Held
STATE PRIMARY & GENERAL ELECTION Voting CONTACT INFORMATION for the 50 States of the United States
Secretaries of States ELECTION Phone Numbers & Web Addresses
Alabama (334)242-7210; 1-(800)274-8683 http://www.sos.alabama.gov/
Alaska (907)465-4611; 1-(888)383-8683 http://www.elections.state.ak.us/
Arizona (602)542-8683;1-(877)843-8683 http://www.az.sos.gov/
Arkansas (501)682-5070;1-(800)482-1127 http://www.sos.arkansas.gov/
California (916)657-2166;1-(800)345-8683 http://www.sos.ca.gov/
Colorado (303)894-2200; http://www.state.co.us
Connecticut (860)509-6100; http://www.sots.ct.gov/
Delaware (302)739-4277; 1-(800)273-9500 http://www.elections.delaware.gov/
Florida (850)245-6200; 1(866)308-6739; 1-(850)245-6290 http://election.dos.state.fl.us
Georgia (404)656-2871; http://www.sos.state.ga.us
Hawaii (808)453-8683; 1-(800)442-8683 http://www.hawaii.gov/elections/
Idaho (208)334-2852; http://www.sos.idaho.gov/
Illinois (217)782-4141 Springfield; (312)814-6440 Chicago; 1-(800)527-8683;1-(800)923-8683 http://www.elections.il.gov/
Indiana (317)232-3939; 1-(800)622-4941 http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/
Iowa (515)281-5781; 1-(888)767-8683 http://www.sos.state.ia.us/
Kansas (785)296-4561; 1-(800)262-8683 http://www.voteks.org/
Kentucky (502)573-7100; 1-(800)246-1399 http://www.sos.ky.gov/
Louisiana (225)922-0900; 1-(800)883-2805 http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/elections/elections-index.htm
Maine (207)624-7736; http://www.maine.gov/sos/
Maryland (410)269-2840; 1(800)222-8683 http://www.elections.state.md.us/
Massachusetts (617)727-2828; 1-(800)462-8683 http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/
Michigan (517)373-2540; http://www.michigan.gov/sos
Minnesota (651)215-1440; 1-(877)600-8683 http://www.sos.state.mn.us
Mississippi (601)359-1350; 1-(800)829-6786 http://www.sos.state.ms.us/
Missouri (573)751-2301; 1-(800)669-8683 http://www.sos.mo.gov/
Montana (406)444-4732; 1-(888)884-8683 http://www.sos.mt.gov/
Nebraska (402)471-2555; http://www.sos.state.ne.us/
Nevada (775)684-5705; http://sos.state.nv.us/elections/
New Hampshire (603)271-3242; http://www.sos.nh.gov/
New Jersey (609)292-3760; 1-(877)658-6837 http://www.state.nj.us/lps/elections/electionshome.html
New Mexico (505)827-3600; 1-(800)477-3632 http://www.sos.state.nm.us/
New York (518)474-6220; 1-(800)367-8683 http://www.elections.state.ny.us/
North Carolina (919)733-7173; http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/
Ohio (614)466-2585; 1-(877)767-6446 http://www.sos.state.oh.us/
Oklahoma (405)521-2391; http://www.elections.state.ok.us/
Oregon (503)986-1518; 1-(866)673-8683 http://www.oregonvotes.org
Pennsylvania (717)787-5280; 1-(800)552-8683 http://www.dos.state.pa.us/bcel/site/default.asp
Rhode Island (401)222-2345; 1-(877)462-8683 http://www.elections.ri.gov/
South Carolina (803)734-9060; http://www.scvotes.org/
South Dakota (605)773-3537; http://www.sdsos.gov
Tennessee (615)741-7956; http://www.state.tn.us/sos/
Texas (512)463-5650; 1-(800)252-8683 http://www.sos.state.tx.us
Utah (801)538-1041; 1-(800)995-8683 http://www.elections.utah.gov/voterinformation.html
Vermont (802)828-2464; 1(800)439-8683 http://vermont-elections.org/soshome.htm
Virginia (804)864-8901; 1-(800)552-9745 http://www.sbe.state.va.us
Washington (360)902-4180; 1-(800)448-4881 http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/
West Virginia (304)558-6000; 1-(866)767-8683 http://www.wvsos.com/
Wisconsin (608)266-8005; 1-(866)868-3947 http://elections.wi.gov
Wyoming (307)777-7186; http://soswy.state.wy.us
Posted by _MarthaA on October 18, 2007 at 12:00 PM
UNITED STATES PRIMARY & GENERAL ELECTION VOTING CONTACT INFORMATION
Find Out When YOUR Primary Election Will Be Held
50 States of the United States
Secretaries of States ELECTION Phone Numbers & Web Addresses
Alabama (334)242-7210; 1-(800)274-8683 http://www.sos.alabama.gov/
Alaska (907)465-4611; 1-(888)383-8683 http://www.elections.state.ak.us/
Arizona (602)542-8683;1-(877)843-8683 http://www.az.sos.gov/
Arkansas (501)682-5070;1-(800)482-1127 http://www.sos.arkansas.gov/
California (916)657-2166;1-(800)345-8683 http://www.sos.ca.gov/
Colorado (303)894-2200; http://www.state.co.us
Connecticut (860)509-6100; http://www.sots.ct.gov/
Delaware (302)739-4277; 1-(800)273-9500 http://www.elections.delaware.gov/
Florida (850)245-6200; 1(866)308-6739; 1-(850)245-6290 http://election.dos.state.fl.us
Georgia (404)656-2871; http://www.sos.state.ga.us
Hawaii (808)453-8683; 1-(800)442-8683 http://www.hawaii.gov/elections/
Idaho (208)334-2852; http://www.sos.idaho.gov/
Illinois (217)782-4141 Springfield; (312)814-6440 Chicago; 1-(800)527-8683;1-(800)923-8683 http://www.elections.il.gov/
Indiana (317)232-3939; 1-(800)622-4941 http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/
Iowa (515)281-5781; 1-(888)767-8683 http://www.sos.state.ia.us/
Kansas (785)296-4561; 1-(800)262-8683 http://www.voteks.org/
Kentucky (502)573-7100; 1-(800)246-1399 http://www.sos.ky.gov/
Louisiana (225)922-0900; 1-(800)883-2805 http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/elections/elections-index.htm
Maine (207)624-7736; http://www.maine.gov/sos/
Maryland (410)269-2840; 1(800)222-8683 http://www.elections.state.md.us/
Massachusetts (617)727-2828; 1-(800)462-8683 http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/
Michigan (517)373-2540; http://www.michigan.gov/sos
Minnesota (651)215-1440; 1-(877)600-8683 http://www.sos.state.mn.us
Mississippi (601)359-1350; 1-(800)829-6786 http://www.sos.state.ms.us/
Missouri (573)751-2301; 1-(800)669-8683 http://www.sos.mo.gov/
Montana (406)444-4732; 1-(888)884-8683 http://www.sos.mt.gov/
Nebraska (402)471-2555; http://www.sos.state.ne.us/
Nevada (775)684-5705; http://sos.state.nv.us/elections/
New Hampshire (603)271-3242; http://www.sos.nh.gov/
New Jersey (609)292-3760; 1-(877)658-6837 http://www.state.nj.us/lps/elections/electionshome.html
New Mexico (505)827-3600; 1-(800)477-3632 http://www.sos.state.nm.us/
New York (518)474-6220; 1-(800)367-8683 http://www.elections.state.ny.us/
North Carolina (919)733-7173; http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/
North Dakota (701)328-7900; 1-(800)352-0867 http://www.nd.gov/sos/
Ohio (614)466-2585; 1-(877)767-6446 http://www.sos.state.oh.us/
Oklahoma (405)521-2391; http://www.elections.state.ok.us/
Oregon (503)986-1518; 1-(866)673-8683 http://www.oregonvotes.org
Pennsylvania (717)787-5280; 1-(800)552-8683 http://www.dos.state.pa.us/bcel/site/default.asp
Rhode Island (401)222-2345; 1-(877)462-8683 http://www.elections.ri.gov/
South Carolina (803)734-9060; http://www.scvotes.org/
South Dakota (605)773-3537; http://www.sdsos.gov
Tennessee (615)741-7956; http://www.state.tn.us/sos/
Texas (512)463-5650; 1-(800)252-8683 http://www.sos.state.tx.us
Utah (801)538-1041; 1-(800)995-8683 http://www.elections.utah.gov/voterinformation.html
Vermont (802)828-2464; 1(800)439-8683 http://vermont-elections.org/soshome.htm
Virginia (804)864-8901; 1-(800)552-9745 http://www.sbe.state.va.us
Washington (360)902-4180; 1-(800)448-4881 http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/
West Virginia (304)558-6000; 1-(866)767-8683 http://www.wvsos.com/
Wisconsin (608)266-8005; 1-(866)868-3947 http://elections.wi.gov
Wyoming (307)777-7186; http://soswy.state.wy.us
As ALL Primary Elections are on different dates, use the above voting contact information to check with YOUR state to find out the dates of YOUR presidential primaries, state primaries, general elections and run offs, etc. in your area.
It is of utmost importance that the DLC be voted out of the Congress of the United States and all state governments at all levels.
Vote out ALL DLC.
Posted by _MarthaA on October 18, 2007 at 12:54 PM
when is the leadership of this party going to grow a pair???????? why do you back down when a congressman finally stands up and tells the truth about the BUSHIES?? THOMAS PAINE would be ashamed of you . HARRY TRUMAN would be ashamed of you. stand for something , AMERICA IS waiting for leadership not backing down every time the going gets rough !!!!! SHOW US YOU CAN LEAD .
Posted by peters on October 19, 2007 at 05:07 PM
when is the leadership of this party going to grow a pair???????? why do you back down when a congressman finally stands up and tells the truth about the BUSHIES?? THOMAS PAINE would be ashamed of you . HARRY TRUMAN would be ashamed of you. stand for something , AMERICA IS waiting for leadership not backing down every time the going gets rough !!!!! SHOW US YOU CAN LEAD .
Posted by peters on October 19, 2007 at 05:08 PM
when is the leadership of this party going to grow a pair???????? why do you back down when a congressman finally stands up and tells the truth about the BUSHIES?? THOMAS PAINE would be ashamed of you . HARRY TRUMAN would be ashamed of you. stand for something , AMERICA IS waiting for leadership not backing down every time the going gets rough !!!!! SHOW US YOU CAN LEAD .
Posted by peters on October 19, 2007 at 05:08 PM
??????? why do you back down when a congressman finally stands up and tells the truth about the BUSHIES?? THOMAS PAINE would be ashamed of you . HARRY TRUMAN would be ashamed of you. stand for something , AMERICA IS waiting for leadership not backing down every time the going gets rough !!!!! SHOW US YOU CAN LEAD .
Posted by peters on October 19, 2007 at 05:09 PM
I came looking for leadership. Unbelievable! The DNC's website focuses more on the republicans than their own party.
With over 15 years of web/net experience in Denver, this is a shame. Just do a search for candidates and see what comes up. Website design and content should be to the point: the party's point vs our opponents. On first glance, national specifically, I'm able to find out all about the republicans vs. dems. M Hayutin.
Posted by forwardwind on October 22, 2007 at 05:07 AM
List of Bush's Republican Democrats, the DLC Members in the Democratic Party
List Supplied on Blog For America: http://blogforamerica.com/view/22541#comment-1127774 and at http://web.archive.org/web/20030327095711/www.ndol.org/new_dem_dir_action.cfm?viewAll=1 combined with NNDB's List http://www.nndb.com/group/269/000093987/
Profile on the Democratic Leadership Council, DLC, which has morphed into NDOL, NDN and NDC:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1463
DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP COUNCIL, DLC:
http://www.dlc.org
DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP COUNCIL ON LINE, NDOL:
http://www.ndol.org
NEW DEMOCRAT COALITION, NDC:
http://www.house.gov/tauscher/ndc/membership.shtml
NEW DEMOCRAT NETWORK, NDN:
http://www.ndn.org
DLC "PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY":
http://www.newamericancentury.org/
All of the above websites are DLC Republican Democrats. DLC Members are trying to hide under different networks or coalitions before the election. Notice who the members are in each of these new groups. The NDN and NDC are the DLC.
UNMASKING THE Democratic "Weaselship" Leadership Council, DLC, NDOL, NDN and NDC:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stan-goff/unmasking-the-dlc_b_39287.html
DLC Republican Democrats do NOT represent the 70% Majority Population that they are ONLY suppose to represent as WE THE PEOPLE. There are definitely more DLC members than are on this list and this list is not fully updated as to positions, but until the DLC proudly gives out a current updated list, this is all we have. I thank Linda*in*SFNM from the DFA Blog For America for the majority of this list.
(An Asterisk to the right of the name) * Denotes Profiled by NNDB: When link displayed click member's name for longer profile of that member at http://www.nndb.com/group/269/000093987/
ALASKA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Ethan Berkowitz, State House Democratic Leader; AK
ALABAMA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Bud Cramer*, U.S. Representative-5th District; AL
Artur Davis*, U.S. Representative-7th District; AL
Ken Guin, State Majority Leader; AL
ARIZONA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Jerry Anderson, City Council, Tuscon, AZ
Roberto Canchola, Superintendent of Schools, Santa Cruz County, AZ
Ken Cheuvront, State Senator; AZ
Ken Clark, State Representative; AZ
Chris Cummiskey, State Senate Assistant Leader; AZ
Gabrielle Giffords, State Senator; AZ
Phil Gordon, City Councilman, Phoenix, AZ
Leah Landrum Taylor, State Assistant Minority Leader; AZ
Janet Napolitano, Governor; AZ
Elaine Richardson, State Senator; AZ
Greg Stanton, City Councilman, Phoenix, AZ
ARKANSAS - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Marion Berry, U.S. Representative-1st District; AR
Jo Ellen Carson, State Representative; AR
Patrick Henry Hays, Mayor, North Little Rock, AR
Steven B. Jones, State Representative; AR
Blanche Lincoln*, U.S. Senator; AR
Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty, III, President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff; AR
Mark Pryor*, U.S. Senator; AR
John Riggs, IV, State Senator; AR
Mike Ross, U.S. Representative-4th District; AR
Vic Snyder, U.S. Representative-2nd District; AR
CALIFORNIA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Jim Aldinger, City Council Member, Manhattan Beach, CA
Dede Alpert, State Senator; CA
Phil Angelides, State Treasurer; CA
Toni Atkins, City Council Member, San Diego, CA
Jose "Joe" Baca, U.S. Representative-43rd District; CA
Marty Block, Community College Trustee, San Diego, CA
Cruz M. Bustamante, Lieutenant Governor; CA
Lois Capps*, U.S. Represenative-23rd District; CA
Dennis Cardoza, U.S. Representative-18th District; CA
Steve Cohn, City Council Member, Sacramento, CA
Kathleen Connell, State Controller; CA
Lou Correa, State Assembly Member; CA
Gray Davis, Former Governor; CA
Nadia Davis, School Board Vice President, Santa Ana, CA
Susan Davis*, U.S. Representative-53rd District; CA
Rocky Delgadillo, City Attorney, Los Angeles, CA
Cal Dooley*, Former U.S. Representative-20th District; CA
Joseph Dunn, State Senator; CA
Anna G. Eshoo, U.S. Representative-14th District; CA
Dianne Feinstein*, U.S. Senator; CA
Dean Florez, State Assembly Member; CA
Ron Gonzales, Mayor, San Hose, CA
Wendy Greuel, City Council Member, Los Angeles, CA
Jane Harman*, U.S. Representative-36th District; CA
Robert M. Hetzberg, State Assembly Speaker; CA
Mike Honda, U.S. Representative-15th District; CA
Nicholas Jellins, Mayor, Menlo Park, CA
Victor King, Trustee, Glendale, CA
Zoe Lofgren*, U.S. Representative-16th District; CA
Bob Matsui, deceased (Doris Matsui) U.S. Representative-5th District; CA
Barbara Matthews, Assembly Member, Tracy, CA
Juanita Millender-McDonald, deceased, U.S. Representative-37th District; CA
George Nakano, State Assembly Member; CA
Grace Napolitano, U.S. Representative-38th District; CA
Gavin Christopher Newsom*, Mayor & Board of Supervisors, San Francisco, CA
Alex Padilla, City Councilman, Los Angeles, CA
Scott Peters, City Councilman, San Diego, CA
Loretta Sanchez*, U.S. Representative-47th District; CA
Linda Sanchez, U.S. Representative-39th District; CA
Adam B. Schiff*, U.S. Representative-29th District; CA
Brad Sherman, U.S. Representative-27th District; CA
Tyrone Smith, Water Basin Municipal Water District Board Member, Carson, CA
Larry Stone, Assessor, Santa Clara County, CA
Christopher Travis Swanson, Kern County School Board Member, Tehachapi, CA
Daryl Sweeney, Mayor, Carson, CA
Ellen Tauscher*, U.S. Representative-10th District; CA
Mike Thompson, U.S. Representative-1st District; CA
Juan Vargas, State Assembly Member; CA
Jack Weiss, City Council, Los Angeles, CA
Steve Westly, State Controller; CA
Caprice Young, President of the Board of LAUSD, Los Angeles, CA
COLORADO - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Alice Borodkin, State Representative-9th District; CO
Betty Boyd, State Representative; CO
Don Brown, Jr., City Councilman, Louisville, CO
Fran Coleman, State Representative; CO
Joan Fitz-Gerald, State Senator; CO
Michael Garcia, State Representative; CO
Ken Gordon, State Senator, CO
Peter C. Groff, State Representative; CO
Daniel Grossman, State Senator; CO
Bob Hagedorn, State Senator; CO
DeAnna Hanna, State Senator; CO
Frana Araujo Mace, State Representative; CO
Alice Madden, State Representative; CO
Rosemary Marshall, State Representative; CO
Carl Miller, State Representative; CO
Doug Milliken, Treasurer, Aurora, CO
Alice Nichol, State Senator; CO
Ed Perlmutter, State Senator; CO
Terry Phillips, State Senator; CO
Tom Plant, State Representative; CO
Peggy Reeves, State Senator; CO
Joe Rice, Mayor, Glendale, CO
Andrew Romanoff, State Representative; CO
Ken Salazar, Attorney General; CO
Abel J. Tapia, State Representative; CO
Lois Tochtrop, State Representative; CO
Jennifer Veiga, State Representative; CO
Val Vigil, State Representative; CO
Suzanne Williams, State Representative; CO
Sue Windels, State Senator; CO
CONNECTICUT - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Christopher Dodd, U.S. Senator; CT
Joseph P. Ganim, Mayor, Bridgeport, CT
Martin J. Heft, First Selectman, Chester, CT
John Larson*, U.S. Representative-1st District; CT
Joseph "Joe" Lieberman*, U.S. Senate; CT
Dannel P. Malloy, Mayor, Stamford, CT
Eddie Perez, Mayor, Hartford, CT
James Shapiro, City Representative, Stamford, CT
Lewis J. Wallace, State Representative; CT
DELAWARE - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Patricia M. Blevins, State Senator; DE
Thomas "Tom" Carper*, U.S. Senator; DE
Chris Castagno, City Council President, New Castle, DE
Christopher Coons, Council President, New Castle County, DE
Michael J. Hare, City Council Member, Wilmington, DE
Jack Markell, State Treasurer; DE
Ruth Ann Minner, Governor; DE
Norman Oliver, City Councilman, Wilmington, DE
Charles Potter, Jr., City Council Member, Wilmington, DE
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Anthony A. Williams*, Mayor, Washington, DC
FLORIDA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
David Aronberg, State Senator; FL
Loranne Ausley, State Representative; FL
James Bennett, City Council Member, St. Petersberg, FL
Bob Buckhorn, City Councilman, Tampa, FL
Jim Davis*, U.S. Representative-7th District; FL
Peter R. Deutsch, U.S. Representative-20th District; FL
Steven A. Geller, State Senator; FL
Bob Graham*, U.S. Senator, FL
Ron L. Greenstein, State Representative-District 95; FL
Robert Henriquez, State Representative; FL
Charles Justice, State Representative; FL
Richard Kriseman, City Councilman, St. Petersburg, FL
Scott C. Maddox, Mayor, Tallahassee, FL
Bill Nelson*, U.S. Senator; FL
Rod Smith, State Senator, FL
Eleanor Sobel, State Representative; FL
Robert I. Wexler, U.S. Representative-19th District; FL
Earnest Williams, City Councilman, St. Petersburg, FL
GEORGIA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Thurbert Baker, State Attorney General; GA
Chuck Burris, Mayor, Stone Mountain, GA
Cathy Cox, Secretary of State; GA
Shirley Franklin, Mayor, Atlanta, GA
Thomas Irvin, Commissioner of Agriculture; GA
Denise Majette, U.S. Representative-4th District; GA
Zell Miller, U.S. Senator; GA
Sam Nunn*, Former U.S. Senator, CEO Nuclear Threat Initiative; GA
David Scott*, U.S. Representative-13th District; GA
Mark Taylor, Lieutenant Governor; GA
Doug Teper, State Representative; GA
Michael L. Thurmond, State Labor Commissioner; GA
Cathy Woolard, City Council President, Atlanta, GA
HAWAII - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Ed Case*, U.S. Representative-2nd District; HI
IDAHO - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Wendy Jaquet, State House Minority Leader, ID
Duane E. Little, Assessor, Shoshone County, ID
J. D. Williams, State Controller, ID
ILLINOIS - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Representative-5th District; IL
John A. Fritchey, State Representative; IL
Daniel Hynes, State Comptroller; IL
Robin Johnson, Alderman, Monmouth, IL
Kevin A. McCarthy, State Representative; IL
Barack Hussein Obama, 2008 Presidential Candidate & U.S. Senator; IL
Debra Powell, Mayor, East St. Louis, IL
Jefferey Schoenberg, State Senator, IL
Carol Spielman, County Board Member, Lake County, IL
Patrick D. Welch, State Senator, IL
INDIANA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Janice Bacon, Morgan County Commissioner; IN
Evan Bayh*, U.S. Senator; IN
Daniel Grimes, City Council, Goshen, IN
Baron Hill, U.S. Representative-9th District; IN
Joseph E. Kernan, Lieutenant Governor; IN
Frank O'Bannon, Governor; IN
Bart Peterson, Mayor, Indianapolis, IN
Graham Richard, Mayor, Fort Wayne, IN
Timothy J. Roemer*, 9/11 Commission, Former U.S. Repesentative-3rd District; IN
George Van Til, Surveyor, Lake County, IN
Jonathan Weinzapfel, State Representative, IN
IOWA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Andra Atteberry, State Representative; IA
Polly Bukta, State Representative; IA
Frank Chiodo, State Representative; IA
Preston Daniels, Mayor, Des Moines, IA
Michael Fitzgerald, State Treasurer; IA
Romanie Foege, State Representative; IA
Geri Huser, State Representative; IA
Patty Judge, Commissioner of Agriculture; IA
Matt McCoy, State Senator; IA
Dolores Mertz, State Representative; IA
Tom Miller, Attorney General; IA
Pat Murphy, State Representative; IA
Dick Myers, State Representative; IA
Sally Pederson, Lieutenant Governor; IA
Janet Peterson, State Representative; IA
Brian Quirk, State Representative; IA
Jacqueline Reeder, State Representative; IA
Gregory R. Stevens, State Representative; IA
Tracy Vance, Vice Chairman, Lee County, IA
Tom Vilsack, Governor; IA
Steven Warnstadt, State Representative; IA
Philip Wise, State Representative; IA
William G. Witt, State Representative; IA
KANSAS - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Jim D. Garner, State Representative; KS
Annie Kuether, State Representative, KS
Dennis Moore*, U.S. Representative-3rd District; KS
Kathlene Gilligan Sebelius, Governor; KS
KENTUCKY - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
John Y. Brown, Secretary of State; KY
A. B. "Ben" Chandler*, Attorney General; KY
Robert Jackson, State Senator; KY
Kenneth Ray "Ken" Lucas, U.S. Representative-4th District; KY
Jonathan Miller, State Treasurer, KY
LOUISIANA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
John Breaux*, U.S. Senator; LA
Karen R. Carter, State Representative; LA
Robert Faucheux, State Representative; LA
Michael Jackson, State Representative; LA
Christopher Charles "Chris" John, U.S. Representative-7th District; LA
Donald Jones, Council Member, Jefferson Parish, LA
Eric La Fleur, State Representative; LA
Mary Landrieu*, U.S. Senator; LA
Eugene M. Sellers, Vermillion Parish Engineer, Lafayette, LA
MAINE - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Tom Allen, U.S. Representative-1st District; ME
Patrick Colwell, State House Majority Leader; ME
Marjorie L. Kilkelly, State Senator; ME
David Lemoine, State Representative; ME
Lisa Tessier Marrache, State Representative; ME
Michael H. Michaud, U.S. Representative-2nd District; ME
John Richardson, State Representative; ME
Paul Tessier, State Representative; ME
MARYLAND - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
J. Joseph Curran, Attorney General; MD
Richard D'Amato, State Delegate; MD
Doug Duncan, County Executive, Montgomery County, MD
Michael Finifter, State Delegate; MD
Douglas F. Gansler, State's Attorney for Montgomery County, MD
Helen Holton, City Council Member, Baltimore, MD
Keiffer Mitchell, Jr., City Councilman, Baltimore, MD
Martin O'Malley, Mayor, Baltimore, MD
Samuel Rosenberg, State Delegate; MD
Casper R. Taylor, Jr., Speaker of the House; MD
MASSACHUSETTS - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Martha Coakley, District Attorney, Middlesex County, MA
Barry R. Finegold, State Representative, MA
John Kerry*, U.S. Senator; MA
Peter Larkin, State Representative; MA
Richard Moore, State Senator; MA
Charles A. Murphy, State Representative; MA
Therese Murray, State Senator; MA
Marc R. Pacheco, State Senator; MA
David Ragucci, Mayor, Everett, MA
MICHIGAN - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Jennifer Granholm, Governor; MI
Thomas Hickner, County Executive, Bay County, MI
Gilda Z. Jacobs, State Senator; MI
Kwame Kilpatrick, Mayor, Detroit, MI
Bill McConico, State Representative; MI
Gregory Pitoniak, Mayor, Taylor, MI
Debbie Stabenow*, U.S. Senator; MI
Bartholomew Thomas "Bart" Stupak, U.S. Representative-1st District; MI
MINNESOTA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Debra Helstrom, State Representative; MN
Steve Kelley, Senate Majority Whip; MN
Randy Kelly, Mayor, St. Paul, MN
Ann H. Rest, State Senator; MN
MISSISSIPPI - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Marshall Bennett, State Treasurer; MS
Mike Moore, Attorney General; MS
Ronnie Musgrove, Governor; MS
MISSOURI - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
John Russell "Russ" Carnahan*, U.S. Representative-3rd District; MO
Sharon Sanders Brooks, State Representative; MO
Richard Andrew "Dick" Gephardt*, Former U.S. Representative-3rd District; MO
Darlene Green, City Comptroller, St. Louis, MO
Jeff Harris, State Representative; MO
Bob Holden, Governor; MO
Karen McCarthy, U.S. Representative-5th District; MO
MONTANA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Max Sieben Baucus*, U.S. Senator; MT
John Morrison, State Auditor; MT
NEBRASKA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Joseph Robert "Bob" Kerrey*, 9/11 Commision, Former Governor & U.S. Senator; NE
Earl Benjamin "Ben" Nelson*, U.S. Senator; NE
NEVADA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Shelley Berkley*, U.S. Representative-1st District; NV
NEW HAMPSHIRE - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Lou D'Allesandro, State Senator; NH
Beverly Hollingworth, State Democratic Leader; NH
Peter Sullivan, State Representative; NH
NEW JERSEY - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Dolores Coulter, Mayor, Barneget Township, NJ
Rush Dew Holt, Jr.*, U.S. Representative-12th District; NJ
Louis Magazzu, Freeholder, Cumberland County, NJ
Jim McGreevy, Governor; NJ
Steven R. "Steve" Rothman, U.S. Representative-9th District; NJ
John Ryan, Council Member, Barnegat Township, NJ
Peter Voros, Mayor, Pittsgrove Township, NJ
NEW MEXICO - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Alfred Park, State Representative; NM
Ray Powell, Commissioner of Public Lands; NM
William Blaine "Bill" Richardson, III, 2008 Presidential Candidate & Governor; NM
Thomas Stewart "Tom" Udall, U.S. Representative-3rd District; NM
NEW YORK - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Barbara Blanchard, County Legislator, Tompkins County, NY
Adolpho Carrion, Borough President, Bronx, NY
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton*, Head of State-42nd U.S. President; NY
Hillary Rodham Clinton*, U.S. Senator; NY
Joseph Crowley*, U.S. Representative-7th District; NY
Peter Derby, Trustee, Irvington, NY
Eliot L. Engel*, U.S. Representative-17th District; NY
Allen Jay Gerson, Council Member, New York City, NY
Brian Higgins*, U.S. Representative-27th District; NY
Sam Hoyt, State Assembly Member; NY
Steve Israel*, U.S. Representative-2nd District; NY
Carolyn Bosher Maloney, U.S. Representative-14th District; NY
H. Carl McCall, State Comptroller; NY
Carolyn McCarthy*, U.S. Representative-4th District; NY
Gregory W. Meeks*, U.S. Representative-6th District; NY
Eva Moskowitz, City Council Member, New York City, NY
Malcolm A. Smith, State Senator; NY
Andrew Spano, County Executive, Westchester County, NY
Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General; NY
William C. Thompson, Jr., Comptroller, New York City, NY
NORTH CAROLINA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Roy A. Cooper, III, Attorney General; NC
Michael Easley, Governor; NC
Johnny Reid "John" Edwards*, 2008 Presidential Candidate & Former U.S. Senator; NC
Bobby Ray "Bob" Etheridge*, U.S. Representative-2nd District; NC
Douglas Carmichael "Mike" McIntyre, II*, U.S. Representative-7th District; NC
Ralph Bradley "Brad" Miller, U.S. Representative-13th District; NC
Richard H. Moore, State Treasurer; NC
Beverly Perdue, Lieutenant Governor; NC
David Eugene Price*, U.S. Representative-4th District; NC
Eric Miller Reeves, State Senator; NC
NORTH DAKOTA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Gaylord Kent Conrad*, U.S. Senator; ND
Byron Leslie Dorgan*, U.S. Senator; ND
Harvey D. Tallackson, State Senator; ND
OHIO - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Daniel Brady, State Senator; OH
Jane Campbell, Mayor, Cleveland, OH
Michael Coleman, Mayor, Columbus, OH
Eric Fingerhut, State Senator; OH
Leigh Herington, Senate Democratic Leader; OH
David Pepper, City Council, Cincinnati, OH
Margaret Planton, Mayor, Chillicothe, OH
Timothy J. Ryan, State Senator; OH
Derrick Seaver, State Representative; OH
Charleta B. Tavares, City Council Member, Columbus, OH
OKLAHOMA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
David Braddock, State Representative; OK
Robert Butkin, State Treasurer; OK
Bradley Rogers "Brad" Carson, U.S. Representative-2nd District; OK
William Andrew "Drew" Edmondson, Attorney General; OK
Keith C. Leftwich, State Senator; OK
M. Susan Savage, Secretary of State, Former Mayor, Tulsa, OK
OREGON - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Chris Beck, State Representative; OR
Earl Blumenauer, U.S. Representative-3rd District; OR
Ryan Deckert, State Senator; OR
Darlene Hooley*, U.S. Representative-5th District; OR
Vera Katz, Mayor, Portland, OR
David Wu*, U.S. Representative-1st District; OR
PENNSYLVANIA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Lisa Boscola, State Senator; PA
Don Cunningham, Mayor, Bethlehem, PA
Ruth Damsker, County Commissioner, Montgomery County, PA
Michael Diven, State Representative; PA
Jamie Fleet, City Councilman, Gettysburg, PA
Dan Frankel, State Representative; PA
James S. Gregory, City Councilman, Bethlehem, PA
Joseph M. "Joe" Hoeffel, U.S. Representative-13th District; PA
Matthew Mangino, District Attorney, Lawrence County, PA
Jennifer Mann, State Representative; PA
Jules Mermelstein, Township Commissioner, Upper Dublin, PA
Michael Nutter, City Councilman, Philadelphia, PA
Michael A. O'Pake, State Senator; PA
William Peduto, City Council Member, Pittsburg, PA
Anthony Petrucci, County Commissioner, Dauphin County, PA
Stephen Reed, Mayor, Harrisburg, PA
Ed Rendell, Governor; PA
T. J. Rooney, State Representative; PA
Allyson Y. Schwartz*, U.S. Representative-13th District; PA
Timothy Scott, City Council Member, Carlisle Borough, PA
Constance Williams, State Senator; PA
PUERTO RICO - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Kenneth McClintock, State Senator; PR
RHODE ISLAND - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
James R. "Jim" Langevin, U.S. Representative-2nd District; RI
SOUTH CAROLINA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Doug Echols, Mayor, Rock Hill, SC
Douglas Jennings, Jr., House Democratic Leader; SC
Joe Riley, Mayor, Charleston, SC
John McKee Spratt, Jr., U.S. Representative-5th District; SC
SOUTH DAKOTA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Brenda Barger, Mayor, Watertown, SD
Timothy Peter Johnson*, U.S. Senator; SD
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin*, U.S. Representative-At-Large; SD
TENNESSEE - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Carol Chumney, State Representative; TN
James Hayes Shofner "Jim" Cooper, U.S. Representative-5th District; TN
Harold Eugene Ford, Jr.*, U.S. Representative-9th District; TN
Albert Arnold "Al"Gore, Jr.*, Popular Vote U.S.President, Former U.S. Vice President; TN
Charles Love, School Board Chairman, Hamilton County, TN
John S. Tanner*, U.S. Representative-8th District; TN
TEXAS - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Gonzalo Barrientos, State Senator; TX
Robert Christopher "Chris" Bell, U.S. Representative-25th District; TX
Jaime Capelo, Jr., State Representative; TX
Elizabeth G. Flores, Mayor, Laredo, TX
Charles A. "Charlie" Gonzales, U.S. Representative-20th District; TX
Ruben E. Hinojosa, U.S. Representative-15th District; TX
Nicholas Valentino "Nick" Lampson, U.S. Representative-22nd District; TX
Silvestre Reyes, U.S. Representative-16th District; TX
Carroll G. Robinson, City Councilman, Houston, TX
Max A. Sandlin, Jr., U.S. Representative-1st District; TX
Charles Walter "Charlie" Stenholm, U.S. Representative-17th District; TX
James "Jim" Turner, U.S. Representative-2nd District; TX
Michael Vilarreal, State Representative; TX
UTAH - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Patrice Arent, State Senator; UT
Ralph Becker, State Representative; UT
Karen Hale, State Senator, UT
James David "Jim" Matheson, U.S. Representative-2nd District; UT
VERMONT - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Nancy Chard, State Senator; VT
Val D. Vincent, State Representative; VT
VIRGINIA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Viola Baskerville, State Delegate; VA
Bob Brink, Delegate; VA
Ray Davis, Registrar, Stafford County, VA
Timothy Michael "Tim" Kaine, Governor; VA
Terance Richard "Terry" McAuliffe*, Former DNC Chairman; VA
Sharon McDonald, Commissioner of Revenue, Norfolk, VA
James Patrick "Jim" Moran, Jr.*, U.S. Representative-8th District; VA
Charles Spittal "Chuck" Robb*, Former U.S. Senator; VA
WASHINGTON - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Brian Norton Baird, U.S. Representative-3rd District; WA
Maria E. Cantwell, U.S. Senator; WA
Jeff Gombosky, State Representative; WA
Jay Robert Inslee*, U.S. Representative-1st District; WA
Lynn Kessler, State House Democratic Leader; WA
Patricia Lantz, State Representative; WA
Richard Ray "Rick" Larsen*, U.S. Representative-2nd District; WA
Gary Locke, Governor; WA
Ed Murray, State Representative; WA
Aaron Reardon, State Senator; WA
Laura Ruderman, State Representative; WA
Ron Sims, County Executive, King County, WA
Adam Smith*, U.S. Representative-9th District; WA
WEST VIRGINIA - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
Thomas Campbell, State Delegate; WV
John Unger, II, State Senator; WV
WISCONSIN - Republican Lite DLC Democrats
James Edward "Jim" Doyle, Governor; WI
Ronald James "Ron" Kind*, U.S. Representative-3rd District; WI
Herbert H. "Herb" Kohl*, U.S. Senator; WI
John O. Norquist, Mayor, Milwaukee, WI
Jeffrey Plale, State Representative; WI
Dan Schooff, State Assembly Member; WI
* Denotes Profiled by NNDB - When display click member's name for profile of that member at http://www.nndb.com/group/269/000093987/
Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich are the ONLY democratic presidential candidates, who for certain are NOT in the unconstitutional DLC's Republican led organization against the prosperity of the 70% MAJORITY POPULATION, regardless of what DLC members say to get elected. DLC members follow the DLC's plan, which is not in any way responsible to the American people. Actually DLC representatives think of the 70% MAJORITY POPULATION as COWS to be led, instead of the majority population to which they are responsible, which is the TRUTH.
Posted by _MarthaA on October 22, 2007 at 05:17 PM
A Guide for the Perplexed: Intellectual Fallacies of the War on Terror
By Chalmers Johnson
http://TomDispatch.com
Monday 22 October 2007
This essay is a review of The Matador's Cape, America's Reckless Response to Terror by Stephen Holmes (Cambridge University Press, 367 pp., $30).
There are many books entitled "A Guide for the Perplexed," including Moses Maimonides' 12th century treatise on Jewish law and E. F. Schumacher's 1977 book on how to think about science. Book titles cannot be copyrighted. A Guide for the Perplexed might therefore be a better title for Stephen Holmes' new book than the one he chose, The Matador's Cape: America's Reckless Response to Terror. In his perhaps overly clever conception, the matador is the terrorist leadership of al Qaeda, taunting a maddened United States into an ultimately fatal reaction. But do not let the title stop you from reading the book. Holmes has written a powerful and philosophically erudite survey of what we think we understand about the 9/11 attacks - and how and why the United States has magnified many times over the initial damage caused by the terrorists.
Stephen Homes is a law professor at New York University. In The Matador's Cape, he sets out to forge an understanding - in an intellectual and historical sense, not as a matter of journalism or of partisan politics - of the Iraq war, which he calls "one of the worst (and least comprehensible) blunders in the history of American foreign policy" (p. 230). His modus operandi is to survey in depth approximately a dozen influential books on post-Cold War international politics to see what light they shed on America's missteps. I will touch briefly on the books he chooses for dissection, highlighting his essential thoughts on each of them.
Holmes' choice of books is interesting. Many of the authors he focuses on are American conservatives or neoconservatives, which is reasonable since they are the ones who caused the debacle. He avoids progressive or left wing writers, and none of his choices are from Metropolitan Books' American Empire Project. (Disclosure: This review was written before I read Holmes' review of my own book Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic in the October 29 issue of The Nation.)
He concludes: "Despite a slew of carefully researched and insightful books on the subject, the reason why the United States responded to the al Qaeda attack by invading Iraq remains to some extent an enigma" (p. 3). Nonetheless, his critiques of the books he has chosen are so well done and fair that they constitute one of the best introductions to the subject. They also have the advantage in several cases of making it unnecessary to read the original.
Holmes interrogates his subjects cleverly. His main questions and the key books he dissects for each of them are:
* Did Islamic religious extremism cause 9/11? Here he supplies his own independent analysis and conclusion (to which I turn below).
* Why did American military preeminence breed delusions of omnipotence, as exemplified in Robert Kagan's, Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order (Knopf, 2003)? While not persuaded by Kagan's portrayal of the United States as "Mars" and Europe as "Venus," Holmes takes Kagan's book as illustrative of neoconservative thought on the use of force in international politics: "Far from guaranteeing an unbiased and clear-eyed view of the terrorist threat, as Kagan contends, American military superiority has irredeemably skewed the country's view of the enemy on the horizon, drawing the United States, with appalling consequences, into a gratuitous, cruel, and unwinnable conflict in the Middle East" (p. 72).
* How was the war lost, as analyzed in Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq by Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor (Pantheon, 2006)? Holmes regards this book by Gordon, the military correspondent of the New York Times, and Trainor, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general, as the best treatment of the military aspects of the disaster, down to and including U.S. envoy L. Paul Bremer's disbanding of the Iraqi military. I would argue that Fiasco (Penguin 2006) by the Washington Post's Thomas Ricks is more comprehensive, clearer-eyed, and more critical.
* How did a tiny group of individuals, with eccentric theories and reflexes, recklessly compound the country's post-9/11 security nightmare? Here Holmes considers James Mann's Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet (Viking, 2004). One of Mann's more original insights is that the neocons in the Bush administration were so bewitched by Cold War thinking that they were simply incapable of grasping the new realities of the post-Cold War world. "In Iraq, alas, the lack of a major military rival excited some aging hard-liners into toppling a regime that they did not have the slightest clue how to replace?. We have only begun to witness the long-term consequences of their ghastly misuse of unaccountable power" (p. 106).
* What roles did Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld play in the Bush administration, as captured in Michael Mann's Incoherent Empire (Verso, 2003)? According to Holmes, Mann's work "repays close study, even by readers who will not find its perspective altogether congenial or convincing." He argues that perhaps Mann's most important contribution, even if somewhat mechanically put, is to stress the element of bureaucratic politics in Cheney's and Rumsfeld's manipulation of the neophyte Bush: "The outcome of inter- and intra-agency battles in Washington, D.C., allotted disproportionate influence to the fatally blurred understanding of the terrorist threat shared by a few highly placed and shrewd bureaucratic infighters. Rumsfeld and Cheney controlled the military; and when they were given the opportunity to rank the country's priorities in the war on terror, they assigned paramount importance to those specific threats that could be countered effectively only by the government agency over which they happened to preside" (p. 107).
* Why did the U.S. decide to search for a new enemy after the Cold War, as argued by an old cold warrior, Samuel Huntington, in The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (Simon and Schuster, 1996)? It is not clear why Holmes included Huntington's eleven-year-old treatise on "Allah made them do it" in his collection of books on post-Cold War international politics except as an act of obeisance to establishmentarian - and especially Council-on-Foreign-Relations - thinking. Holmes regards Huntington's work as a "false template" and calls it misleading. Well before 9/11, many critics of Huntington's concept of "civilization" had pointed out that there is insufficient homogeneity in Christianity, Islam, or the other great religions for any of them to replace the position vacated by the Soviet Union. As Holmes remarks, Huntington "finds homogeneity because he is looking for homogeneity" (p. 136).
* What role did left-wing ideology play in legitimating the war on terror, as seen by Samantha Power in "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide (Basic, 2002). As Holmes acknowledges, "The humanitarian interventionists rose to a superficial prominence in the 1990s largely because of a vacuum in U.S. foreign-policy thinking after the end of the Cold War?. Their influence was small, however, and after 9/11, that influence vanished altogether." He nonetheless takes up the anti-genocide activists because he suspects that, by making a rhetorically powerful case for casting aside existing decision-making rules and protocols, they may have emboldened the Bush administration to follow suit and fight the "evil" of terrorism outside the Constitution and the law. The idea that Power was an influence on Cheney and Rumsfeld may seem a stretch - they were, after all, doing what they had always wanted to do - but Holmes' argument that "a savvy prowar party may successfully employ humanitarian talk both to gull the wider public and to silence potential critics on the liberal side" (p. 157) is worth considering.
* How did pro-war liberals help stifle national debate on the wisdom of the Iraq war, as illustrated by Paul Berman in Power and the Idealists (Soft Skull Press, 2005)? Wildly overstating his influence, Holmes writes, Berman, a regular columnist for The New Republic, "first tried to convince us that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, far from being a tribal war over scarce land and water, is part of the wider spiritual war between liberalism and apocalyptic irrationalism, not worth distinguishing too sharply from the conflict between America and al Qaeda. He then attempted to show that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden represented two 'branches' of an essentially homogeneous extremism" (p. 181). Berman, Holmes points out, conflated anti-terrorism with anti-fascism in order to provide a foundation for the neologism "Islamo-fascism." His chief reason for including Berman is that Holmes wants to address the views of religious fundamentalists in their support of the war on terrorism.
* How did democratization at the point of an assault rifle become America's mission in the world, as seen by the apostate neoconservative Francis Fukuyama in America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy (Yale University Press, 2006)? Holmes is interested in Fukuyama, the neoconservatives' perennial sophomore, because he offers an insider's insights into the chimerical neocon "democratization" project for the Middle East.
Fukuyama argues that democracy is the most effective antidote to the kind of Islamic radicalism that hit the United States on September 11, 2001. He contends that the root of Islamic rebellion is to be found in the savage and effective repression of protestors - many of whom have been driven into exile - in places like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. Terrorism is not the enemy, merely a tactic Islamic radicals have found exceptionally effective. Holmes writes of Fukuyama's argument, "[T]o recognize that America's fundamental problem is Islamic radicalism, and that terrorism is only a symptom, is to invite a political solution. Promoting democracy is just such a political solution" (p. 209).
The problem, of course, is that not even the neocons are united on promoting democracy; and, even if they were, they do not know how to go about it. Fukuyama himself pleads for "a dramatic demilitarization of American foreign policy and a re-emphasis on other types of policy instruments." The Pentagon, in addition to its other deficiencies, is poorly positioned and incorrectly staffed to foster democratic transitions.
* Why is the contemporary American antiwar movement so anemic, as seen through the lens of history by Geoffrey Stone in Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism (W. W. Norton, 2004)? Holmes has nothing but praise for Stone's history of expanded executive discretion in wartime. A key question raised by Stone is why the American public has not been more concerned with what happened in Iraq at Abu Ghraib prison and in the wholesale destruction of the Sunni city of Fallujah. As Holmes sees it, the Bush administration, at least in this one area, was adept at subverting public protest. Among the more important lessons George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, and others learned from the Vietnam conflict, he writes, was that if you want to suppress domestic questioning of foreign military adventures, then eliminate the draft, create an all-volunteer force, reduce domestic taxes, and maintain a false prosperity based on foreign borrowing.
* How did the embracing of American unilateralism elevate the Office of the Secretary of Defense over the Department of State, as put into perspective by John Ikenberry in After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order After Major Wars (Princeton University Press, 2001)? This book is Holmes' oddest choice - a dated history from an establishmentarian point of view of the international institutions created by the United States after World War II, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and NATO, all of which Ikenberry, a prominent academic specialist in international relations, applauds. Holmes agrees that, during the Cold War, the United States ruled largely through indirection, using seemingly impartial international institutions, and eliciting the cooperation of other nations. He laments the failure to follow this proven formula in the post-9/11 era, which led to the eclipse of the State Department by the Defense Department, an institution hopelessly ill-suited for diplomatic and nation-building missions.
* Why do we battle lawlessness with lawlessness (for example, by torturing prisoners) and concentrate extra-Constitutional authority in the hands of the president, as expounded by John Yoo in The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs After 9/11 (University of Chicago Press, 2005)? In this final section, Holmes puts on his hat as the law professor he is and takes on George Bush's and Alberto Gonzales' in-house legal counsel, the University of California, Berkeley law professor John Yoo, who authored the "torture memos" for them, denied the legality of the Geneva Conventions, and elaborated a grandiose view of the President's war-making power. Holmes wonders, "Why would an aspiring legal scholar labor for years to develop and defend a historical thesis that is manifestly untrue? What is the point and what is the payoff? That is the principal mystery of Yoo's singular book. Characteristic of The Powers of War and Peace is the anemic relations between the evidence adduced and the inferences drawn" (p. 291).
Holmes then points out that Yoo is a prominent member of the Federalist Society, an association of conservative Republican lawyers who claim to be committed to recovering the original understanding of the Constitution and which includes several Republican appointees to the current Supreme Court. His conclusion on Yoo and his fellow neocons is devastating: "[I]f the misbegotten Iraq war proves anything, it is the foolhardiness of allowing an autistic clique that reads its own newspapers and watches its own cable news channel to decide, without outsider input, where to expend American blood and treasure - that is, to decide which looming threats to stress and which to downplay or ignore" (p. 301).
Is Islam the Culprit or Merely a Distraction?
In addition to these broad themes, Holmes investigates hidden agendas and their distorting effects on rational policy-making. Some of these are: Cheney's desire to expand executive power and weaken Congressional oversight; Rumsfeld's schemes to field-test his theory that in modern warfare speed is more important than mass; the plans by some of Cheney's and Rumsfeld's advisers to improve the security situation of Israel; the administration's desire to create a new set of permanent U.S. military bases in the Middle East to protect the U.S. oil supply in case of a collapse of the Saudi monarchy; and the desire to invade Iraq and thereby avoid putting all the blame for 9/11 on al Qaeda - because to do so would have involved admitting administration negligence and incompetence during the first nine months of 2001 and, even worse, that Clinton was right in warning Bush and his top officials that the main security threat to the United States was a potential al Qaeda attack or attacks.
This is not the place to attempt a comprehensive review of Holmes' detailed critiques. For that, one should buy and read his book. Let me instead dwell on three themes that I think illustrate his insight and originality.
Holmes rejects any direct connection between Islamic religious extremism and the 9/11 attacks, although he recognizes that Islamic vilification of the United States and other Western powers is often expressed in apocalyptically religious language. "Emphasizing religious extremism as the motivation for the [9/11] plot, whatever it reveals," he argues, "?terminates inquiry prematurely, encouraging us to view the attack ahistorically as an expression of 'radical Salafism,' a fundamentalist movement within Islam that allegedly drives its adherents to homicidal violence against infidels" (p. 2). This approach, he points out, is distinctly tautological: "Appeals to social norms or a culture of martyrdom are not very helpful?. They are tantamount to saying that suicidal terrorism is caused by a proclivity to suicidal terrorism" (p. 20).
Instead, he suggests, "The mobilizing ideology behind 9/11 was not Islam, or even Islamic fundamentalism, but rather a specific narrative of blame" (p. 63). He insists on putting the focus on the actual perpetrators, the 19 men who executed the attacks in New York and Washington - 15 Saudi Arabians, two citizens of the United Arab Emirates, one Egyptian, and one Lebanese. None of them was particularly religious. Three were living together in Hamburg, Germany, where they did appear to have become more interested in Islam than they had been in their home countries. Mohamed Atta, the leader of the group, age 33 on 9/11, had Egyptian and German degrees in architecture and city planning and became highly politicized in favor of the Palestinian cause against Zionism only after he went abroad.
Holmes notes, "According to the classic study of resentment, [Friedrich Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals (1887)] ?every sufferer instinctively seeks a cause for his suffering; more specifically, an agent, a "guilty" agent who is susceptible of pain - in short, some living being or other on whom he can vent his feelings directly or in effigy, under some pretext or other.' If suffering is seen as natural or uncaused it will be coded as misfortune instead of injustice, and it will produce resignation rather than rebellion. The most efficient way to incite, therefore, is to indict" (p. 64).
The role of bin Laden was, and remains, to provide such a hyperbolic indictment - one that men like Atta would never have heard back in authoritarian Egypt but that came through loud and clear in their German exile. Bin Laden demonized the United States, accusing it of genocide against Muslims and repeatedly contending that the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia ever since the first Gulf War in 1991 was a far graver offense than the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, even though that had led to the death of one million Afghans and had sent five million more into exile.
The fact that the 9/11 plot involved the attackers' own self-destruction suggests possible irrationality on their part, but Holmes argues that this was actually part of the specific narrative of blame. Americans feel contempt for Muslims and ascribe little or no value to Muslim lives. Therefore, to be captured after a terrorist attack involved a high likelihood that the Americans would torture the perpetrator. Suicide took care of that worry (and provided several other advantages discussed below).
The United States as "Sole Remaining Superpower"
Another subject about which Holmes is strikingly original is the subtle way in which the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the United States' self-promotion as the sole remaining superpower clouded our vision and virtually guaranteed the catastrophe that ensued in Iraq. "Because Americans?. have sunk so much of their national treasure into a military establishment fit to deter and perhaps fight an enemy that has now disappeared," he argues, "they have an almost irresistible inclination to exaggerate the centrality of rogue states, excellent targets for military destruction, [above] the overall terrorist threat. They overestimate war (which never unfolds as expected) and underestimate diplomacy and persuasion as instruments of American power" (pp. 71-72).
Holmes draws several interesting implications from this American overinvestment in Cold-War-type military power. One is that the very nature of the 9/11 attacks undermined crucial axioms of American national security doctrine. In a much more significant way than in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, a non-state actor on the international stage successfully attacked the United States, contrary to a well-established belief in Pentagon circles that only states have the capability of menacing us militarily. Equally alarming, by employing a strategy requiring their own deaths, the terrorists ensured that deterrence no longer held sway. Overwhelming military might cannot deter non-state actors who accept that they will die in their attacks on others. The day after 9/11, American leaders in Washington D.C. suddenly felt unprotected and defenseless against a new threat they only imperfectly understood. They responded in various ways.
One was to recast what had happened in terms of Cold-War thinking. "To repress feelings of defenselessness associated with an unfamiliar threat, the decision makers' gaze slid uncontrollably away from al Qaeda and fixated on a recognizable threat that was unquestionably susceptible to being broken into bits" (p.312). Holmes calls this fusion of bin Laden and Saddam Hussein a "mental alchemy, the ?reconceiving' of an impalpable enemy as a palpable enemy." He endorses James Mann's thesis that Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and others did not change the underlying principles guiding American foreign policy in response to the 9/11 attacks; that, in fact, they did the exact opposite: "[T]he Bush administration has managed foreign affairs so ineptly because it has been reflexively implementing out-of-date formulas in a radically changed security environment" (p. 106).
Unintended consequences also played a role, Holmes argues: "If conservative Congressmen had not blocked [Pennsylvania Governor] Tom Ridge's nomination as Defense Secretary [in 2000] for the ludicrously immaterial reason that he was wobbly on abortion, then the Cheney-Rumsfeld group, including Wolfowitz and [Douglas] Feith, would have been in no position to hijack the administration's reaction to 9/11" (pp. 93-94). Rumsfeld enthusiastically endorsed Bush's description of his "new" policies as a "war" because the Office of the Secretary of Defense then became the lead agency in designing and carrying out America's response.
There was little or no countervailing influence. "By sheer chance," Holmes writes, "Rice and Powell - no doubt orderly managers - have pedestrian minds and perhaps deferential personalities. Neither provided a gripping and persuasive vision of the United States' role in the world that might have counteracted the megalomania of the neoconservatives, and neither was capable of outfoxing the hard-liners in an interagency power struggle" (p. 94).
The costs of equating al Qaeda with Iraq and of concentrating on a military response were high. "It meant that some of the troops sent to Iraq in the first wave believed, disgracefully, that they were avenging the 3,000 dead from September 11?. Cruel and arbitrary behavior by some U.S. forces helped stoke the violent insurgency that followed" (p. 307).
American confusion about the nature of the enemy - rogue state vs. non-state terrorist organization - produced two different counterstrategies, both of which almost certainly made the situation worse. First, by focusing on a rogue state (Iraq), rather than on a non-state actor (al Qaeda), the Pentagon drew attention to what it came to call the "hand-off scenario" in which a nuclear-armed rogue state might hand over weapons of mass destruction to terrorists who would use them against the U.S. To counter this threat, the Pentagon developed a strategy of preventive war against rogue states with the objective of bringing about regime change in them. The only way to prevent nuclear proliferation to terrorist groups - so the argument went - was to forcibly democratize Middle Eastern authoritarian regimes, some of which had long been allied with the United States.
The other strategy was a return to what seemed like a form of deterrence: a "scare the Muslims" campaign. This involved a resort to massive "shock and awe" bombing raids on Baghdad with the intent of demonstrating the futility of defying the United States.
By reacting to the threat of modern terrorism with an attack on a substitute target - without even bothering to calculate the enormous potential costs involved - the Pentagon greatly overestimated what military force could achieve. Both the regime-change and overawe-the-Muslims approaches carried with them potentially devastating unintended consequences - particularly if any of the premises, such as about who possessed WMD, were wrong. Overly abstract ideas were substituted for empirical knowledge of, and logical responses to, an enemy's capabilities. Thus, insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, two devastated, poor countries, have managed to fight one of the most powerful American expeditionary forces in history to a virtual standstill. In short, "America's bellicose response to the 9/11 provocation was not only dishonorable and unethical, given the cruel suffering it has inflicted on thousands of innocents, but also imprudent in the extreme because it was bound to produce as much hatred as fear, as much burning desire for reprisal as quaking paralysis and docility. Some of the sickening effects are unfolding before our eyes. That even more malevolent consequences remain in store is a grim possibility not to be wished away" (p. 10).
Complicity of the Left in American Imperialism
Holmes is also interesting on why the American Left has been so ineffectual in countering the efforts of Washington's pro-war party. Deeply guilt-ridden over the Clinton administration's failure to stop the genocide in Rwanda and frustrated by the constraints of international law and United Nations procedures, some influential progressives in America had already advocated a preemptive and unilateralist turn in American foreign policy that the Bush administration hijacked. Human rights activists had heavily promoted intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo to halt ethnic cleansing - and doing so without any international sanction whatsoever. Some of them became as enthusiastic about using the American armed forces to achieve limited foreign policy goals as many neocons. Even U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Madeleine Albright made herself notorious with her 1993 wisecrack to then Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell: "What's the point of having this superb military that you're always talking about if we can't use it?"
Although Holmes tries not to overstate his case, he suspects that the humanitarian interventionism of the 1990s - at one point he speaks of "human rights as imperial ideology" (p. 190) - may have played at least a small role in the public's acceptance of Bush's intervention in Iraq. If so, it is hard to imagine a better example of the disasters that good intentions can sometimes produce. The result in Iraq, in turn, has more or less silenced calls from the Left for further campaigns of military intervention for humanitarian purposes. The U.S. is conspicuously not participating in the U.N. intervention in the Darfur region of Sudan.
The Rule of Law
As a legal scholar, Holmes is committed to the rule of law. "[L]aw is best understood," he writes, "not as a set of rigid rules but rather as a set of institutional mechanisms and procedures designed to correct the mistakes that even exceptionally talented executive officials are bound to make and to facilitate midstream readjustments and course corrections. If we understand law, constitutionalism, and due process in this way, then it becomes obvious why the war on terrorism is bound to fail when conducted, as it has been so far, against the rule of law and outside the constitutional system of checks and balances" (p. 5).
This short-circuiting of normal constitutional procedures he sees as probably the most consequential post-9/11 blunder of the Bush administration. The President's repeated claims that he needs high levels of secrecy and the ability to arbitrarily cancel established law in order to move decisively against terrorists draw his utter contempt. "By dismantling checks and balances, along the lines idealized and celebrated by [John] Yoo, the administration has certainly gained flexibility in the 'war on terror.' It has gained the flexibility, in particular, to shoot first and aim afterward" (p. 301). Although such an assumption of dictatorial powers has happened before during periods of national emergency in the United States, Holmes is convinced that the humanitarian interventionism of the 1990s helped anesthetize many Americans to the implications of what the government was doing after 9/11.
Even now, with the Iraq War all but lost and public opinion having turned decisively against the President, there is still a flabbiness in mainstream criticism that reveals a major weakness in the conduct of American foreign policy. For example, while many hawks and doves today recognize that Rumsfeld mobilized too few forces to achieve his military objectives in Iraq, they tend to concentrate on his rejection of former Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki's advice that he needed a larger army of occupation. They almost totally ignore the true national policy implications of Rumsfeld's failed leadership. Holmes writes, "If Saddam Hussein had actually possessed the tons of chemical and biological weapons that, in the president's talking points, constituted the casus belli for the invasion, Rumsfeld's slimmed-down force would have abetted the greatest proliferation disaster in world history" (p. 82). He quotes Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor: "Securing the WMD required sealing the country's borders and quickly seizing control of the many suspected sites before they were raided by profiteers, terrorists, and regime officials determined to carry on the fight. The force that Rumsfeld eventually assembled, by contrast, was too small to do any of this" (pp. 84-85). As a matter of fact, looters did ransack the Iraqi nuclear research center at al Tuwaitha. No one pointed out these flaws in the strategy until well after the invasion had revealed that, luckily, Saddam had no WMD.
With this book, Stephen Holmes largely succeeds in elevating criticism of contemporary American imperialism in the Middle East to a new level. In my opinion, however, he underplays the roles of American imperialism and militarism in exploiting the 9/11 crisis to serve vested interests in the military-industrial complex, the petroleum industry, and the military establishment. Holmes leaves the false impression that the political system of the United States is capable of a successful course correction. But, as Andrew Bacevich, author of The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War, puts it: "None of the Democrats vying to replace President Bush is doing so with the promise of reviving the system of checks and balances?. The aim of the party out of power is not to cut the presidency down to size but to seize it, not to reduce the prerogatives of the executive branch but to regain them."
There is, I believe, only one solution to the crisis we face. The American people must make the decision to dismantle both the empire that has been created in their name and the huge, still growing military establishment that undergirds it. It is a task at least comparable to that undertaken by the British government when, after World War II, it liquidated the British Empire. By doing so, Britain avoided the fate of the Roman Republic - becoming a domestic tyranny and losing its democracy, as would have been required if it had continued to try to dominate much of the world by force. To take up these subjects, however, moves the discussion into largely unexplored territory. For now, Holmes has done a wonderful job of clearing the underbrush and preparing the way for the public to address this more or less taboo subject.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102207F.shtml
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Chalmers Johnson is the author of the bestselling Blowback Trilogy - Blowback (2000), The Sorrows of Empire (2004), and Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (2007).
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Posted by _MarthaA on October 22, 2007 at 06:19 PM
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