January 4, 2008

     The Washington Post, which has been trying to tell us what Inauguration Day will be like, notes today that projections are that between 1.5 and 3 million people will be visiting Washington that day.  That's probably more than the city can hold.
 
     I can remember some of the big anti-Vietnam War demonstrations on the Mall in the 60s and 70s.  Organizers would claim there were a quarter of a million people on the Mall, maybe half a million.  I don't know how they knew;   nobody could really count a crowd like that.  But the Mall was crowded.  I remember that.  If  that was a quarter of a million, where are six or ten times that many going to go?
 
     I'm not even worrying about where they'll sleep, or eat or go to the bathroom;  I'm sure the hotels have all tripled their rates and are full.  Anybody with relatives here will probably try to sleep on the living room couch, something like that.  I'm just worried that they won't all fit on the Mall for the ceremony, which means they won't have much of a view and will probably have trouble hearing the speech.
 
     These huge crowd estimates are of course a tribute to the excitement the prospect of Obama as president generates.  It's a compliment to him and I expect it makes a lot of us feel better about being Americans, feel that our country is getting closer to fulfilling some of it promise and hope. That's fine, but will they fit?  This a fairly small city;  you could lose a couple of million in, say, New York, but not here.
 
     My own plan is simple.  I won't leave the apartment.  I'll hide under the bed with a small TV, have an excellent view and hear the speech.  After it's over, I may stand up and pour myself a celebratory glass of wine.  I wish those traveling millions well, of course. I just don't want to join them on the Mall.
 
 
 
    

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January 2, 2008

     Illinois is my home state.  It's always had interesting politics, maybe never more so than now.
 
     There's Blagojevich, the governor, under fire for being recorded wondering how much he could get for appointing someone to Barack Obama's Senate seat.  Well, says the governor, I'll show 'em.  He offers the seat--no money involved now, to a black Congressman from Chicago, Danny Davis, who said no thanks, anybody the governor appointed would be unable to serve.  So the gov then appoints Roland Burris, who's held middle level offices--state attorney general, but had run repeatedly for governor and senator without success.
 
     Burris says he's legit, because the gov has the authority to appoint him.  But it's not that simple, of course.  The U.S. Senate might refuse to seat him.  Obama says Blagojevich should step down and let the successor appoint a senator.  The Illinois legislature is fixing to impeach the gov.  He's trying to fight that in court.
 
     I don't know how Illinois works, but here in Washington the courts don't play any role in impeachment.  An impeachable offense is whatever the House puts into its articles of impeachment.  If the Senate votes to convict, the impeached person--president or anybody else--is gone.  Richard Nixon resigned his presidency because the votes for impeachment were there;  Bill Clinton didn't resign because he knew the votes weren't there.
 
     I don't presume to advise the Illinois legislature;  I don't know them and I haven't lived there for years.  But a quick impeachment might be the easiest course--blow the smoke off the battlefield, clear out the governor, and let his successor, presumably the Lt. Gov., get to work.
 
     Just a thought, guys.  But ain't you got fun?  
 
   
 
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January 1, 2008

 
     It's a new year.  It's winter but spring lies ahead.  It's a time, perhaps, for hope, for the belief that things can and will get better.  That's especially true for us Americans because we have a sort of second New Year coming.   In less than three weeks, Barack Obama will replace George W. Bush as president.  What a relief!
 
     I don't know how well or how badly Mr. Obama will do as our leader, but I'll be stunned if he doesn't improve on Mr. Bush's record.  First, I hope he'll return to the days when we honored the Constitution, talked about a government of laws and not of men.  Mr. Bush seemed to feel that in wartime, the Constitution didn't apply, that he, the Decider, was all-powerful.  Spy on Americans without a court order?  Tap their phones?  Read their mail?  Sure, why not?  Hold prisoners in secret jails?  Sure.  Hold them without ever putting them on trial, without telling them what they were accused of, what evidence there was against them?  Sure.  I hope very much that Mr. Obama ends all that and returns to the Constitution that helped make this country great.
 
    Then, I hope he talks to people, all sorts of people, those who wish us well--fewer of them now than eight years ago-- and those who don't.  I hope he avoids labels--no Axes of Evil scattered around the world and instead tries to find out whether we and, say, Iran, can't coexist without having to have a war.  The planet is more crowded than it used to be, but there may still be enough room for us all as long as we don't insist that everyone else behave like us.  I think the Saudis' restrictions on women are silly, of course.  But that's their business, not mine.   
 
     I don't know how much of this stuff Obama will do, or even want to do.  But I'm hopeful, for the first time in well, what--eight years. 

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     I was going, gentle readers, to write something about that stupid Barack Obama song being peddled by some GOP stalwart named Chip Saltsnan who wants to be the party's new chairman.  I was going to, but I can't.  It's just too tacky to quote. The rhymes aren't very good--"Farrakhan" and "won" rhyme about as well as "on" and "won."  Too tacky. Too vulgar.  Can't do it.

 

     Fortunately, there are lots of smart Republicans who will never elect a twit like this as party chairman.  Period.  Full stop.

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December 28, 2008

 
     At the end of a year this columnist likes to remember some of those we lost during that year. There is never enough room for all the valuable dead, but here are some:
 
     We lost Mark Felt an FBI agent who, as Deep Throat, was the source who helped end Richard Nixon's presidency.  We lost actress and singer Eartha Kitt and playwright Harold Pinter.  Just imagine her in one of his. Oh my.
 
     We lost Jesse Helms, an unapologetically racist senator whose time, thankfully, had passed.  We lost Studs Terkel, a writer and philosopher whom I grew up hearing on the radio.
 
     We lost Alexander Solzhenitsyn, another writer and philosopher who helped bring down the Soviet Empire. That was real empire;  we also lost Charlton Heston, who played the rulers of lots of fictional ones.  Also from Hollywood, we mourned Cyd Charisse, a dancer and actress of great grace.  And Van Johnson, a star from back when stars were really stars.  And Paul Newman died, perhaps the finest actor of his generation and certainly the one with the bluest eyes.
 
     Music lost Odetta Holmes, who shared the blues with us.  And Bo Diddley, an icon of rock and roll.
 
     Conservatism lost Bill Buckley, one of its most literate voices.  Bobby Fischer died.  As a youngster he'd been the world champion of chess, and if he never seemed quite sure of what to do next, wasn't that something all by itself?
 
     Journalism lost Tim Russert who never ran out of well-researched, pointed questions for his guests on "Meet the Press."  Fashion lost Yves St. Laurent.  And the idea of bravery in response to challenge--that lost Sir Edmund Hillary, who conquered Mt. Everest and set an example for us all.
 
       

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December 17, 2008

     Well, no, New York Governor David Paterson doesn't have to appoint Caroline Kennedy to the Senate seat that Hillary Clinton will vacate when she becomes Secretary of State, but I kind of hope he does.
 
     There are all kinds of other interesting New Yorkers.  The New Yorker magazine lists, among others, such disparate figures as basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, novelist Toni Morrison, and the theatre's Arthur Laurents.  They might all be wonderful, but I do like Caroline.
 
     Critics say she lacks experience.  They're wrong.  She has experienced tragedy--murdered father, murdered uncle and the death of her brother.  She has experienced joy--brought her kids up out of the spotlight so that they could lead relatively normal lives.  She has an uncle who's been in the Senate for about a hundred years.  He can advise her on how the place works or, sometimes, doesn't.  And it's worth remembering that Ted, her uncle, was first elected as a kid with no experience at much of anything. 
 
     Experience isn't what you need anyway.  A good staff can explain the technicalities of drafting a bill or offering an amendment.  What you need is a sense of what will be good for the country.  I suspect that Caroline Kennedy has as clear an idea as most of us of where she thinks we should go.
 
     She led an out-of-the-limelight life until a year or so ago, but then she campaigned vigorously for Obama and was one of his advisors on choosing a running-mate.  She has had a chance to see how campaigns and politicians work.  And she's smart;  I think she's shown that.
 
     So if she wants it, now that the kids are grown, I hope she gets it.  If she's terrible at it, the voters can pick someone else in just two years. 
 
 
      

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