September 23, 2011

 

 

     Talk to Washingtonians about most things--how's the President doing, what do you think of Congress--and you get fairly logical answers--a few kooky ones, but mostly not.  Talk about the city's favorite sports team--the NFL's Washington Redskins--and all that  changes.  Wild optimism erupts.

 

    I've seen two headlines in local sports pages this week about the "undefeated" 'Skins.  True, sure, but silly.  They've played just two, count 'em, two games.  Fourteen to go.  "Undefeated?"  Give me a break.  The Skins do sometimes win.  The baseball team, the Nationals, doesn't.  Its predecessor, the Senators, had an unofficial slogan: ''Washington, first in war, first in peace, last in the American League."  Most years, they lived up to it.

 

     The Redskins have won, of course.  The 1988 and 1992 Super Bowls come to mind.  And sports is full of longer losing streaks.  I grew up in Chicago rooting for the Chicago Cubs, who last won the World Series in--are you ready?--1908.

 

     Ponder that.

 

September 19, 2011

The United States Postal Service is tip-toeing into the 21st century.  They announced plans to end overnight mail delivery, among other things.  This is wise and simply reflects reality.         Friends don't write their friends and loved ones first-class letters anymore.  They e-mail them or talk on the telephone.  What I get in the mail, and I'll bet you do too, are bills, notices of medical appointments, a magazine, a catalogue or two.  Delivery, say, three times a week is plenty for stuff like that.  The serious letter to a loved one got there electronically yesterday or the day before.  While they are at it, they can keep all that junk mail - save me the trouble of trashing it and maybe help a tree or two.       So congratulations, USPS.  I've enjoyed attacking you over the years, but this time you got something right.

September 16, 2011

There's a new CBS News/New York Times poll out which confirms something many of us have known or suspected for years:  the voters are lot smarter than we think.        The basic finding is that more Americans than ever are dissatisfied with the way Congress works--just 12% approve.  Actually, that ties a previous low recorded in 2008.        Why?  That's easy.  It's partisan, impotent, useless.  What has it done?... (long, long pause.)        I can remember Congresses, when I started covering them years ago, that actually passed laws.  Some were divisive--the 1964 Civil Rights Act, for instance, or the '65 Voting Rights Act.  Some sparked filibusters.  But they passed.  I remember one of of this Congress's Senate leaders--I think it was Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, saying his party's most important goal was to make Barack Obama a one-term president. Nothing to do with defense, or education, or any issue.  Just partisan politics.        That's the difference.

August 24, 2011

 
     On Monday I wrote a column about how calm and quiet Washington is in August.  Congress is away, the president is vacationing, lobbyists are yawning, etc.  I forgot one of the old rules:  "Never assume, it makes an ass of u and me."   Well, it was calm until we had an earthquake yesterday.
 
     And then, of course, it wasn't calm at all.  The apartment building I live in literally shook, quivered, moved.  We left, of course, we frightened residents. My little group perched outside a nearby cafe and sipped coffee.  After an hour or so, all seemed calm so we went back inside.  No major damage--broken glass from picture frames, one old wooden rocking horse I'm fond of had fallen off the wall and broken a hoof, but my friends think it can be mended.
 
     Usually excitement here is about a bill, a vote, a scandal.  Not this time.  No one was badly hurt, the papers say.  It's been a hundred thirty years since DC had one this big.  If they want to wait that long before the next one, it'll be fine with me.

August 14, 2011

Well, the Iowa straw poll has come and gone.  It wasn't exactly a big turnout event.  More than sixteen thousand Iowans voted, more than four years ago but well short of the record of over 23,000 set in 1999.        It's already thinned the field by one--former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has ended his campaign.  The winner, of course, was Minnesota Representative Michelle Bachman. This column wondered a few days ago whether she was real.  She was.  Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich got just 385 votes;  you have to wonder how long he'll stay in.        Mitt Romney, the alleged front-runner, finished sixth with 587 votes.  He was behind both Texas Governor Rick Perry, a write-in, and former pizza magnate Herman Cain.  Hmmmm…        The race goes on, of course. The real stuff in Iowa and New Hampshire starts early next year.  Was the straw poll a straw in the wind?  Maybe, yes;  maybe; no.  We'll see.

August 12, 2011

 
 
     There's a new Republican presidential candidate this weekend--Texas Governor Rick Perry-and he's different--different from some of his GOP competitors and very different from President Barack Obama.  For one, he likes to jog armed.
 
     He believes in low taxes and limited government.  He's been governor for eleven years. Texas, the Washington Post reports, has no income tax, ranks 46th in the taxes it collects per capita and has accounted for between 30% and half of the new jobs created in the country in the past two years.
 
     A quarter of the state's people lack health care coverage, the highest percent in the country.  Texas ranks 47th in spending on schools and highest in the country for levels of chemicals released into water and carcinogens released into air, the Post says.  So it's different, all right.  Very different.
 
     Is it what most Americans want?  I guess we'll find out. 

August 11, 2011

    Iowa, where they'll have the first real presidential action with those caucuses early next year, is having a straw poll this weekend.  Candidates and reporters are sure to be watching.
 
     The poll may answer some questions about the 2012 race.
 
     Why, for instance, do stories always describe former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as the front-runner?  In front of what?  Nobody's run anywhere real yet.  This column has always thought to paraphrase Gertrude Stein when it comes to Romney:  there's not much there there.   Nice hair but no there. 
 
     Or, is Michelle Bachman a contender or is she too conservative to actually be
elected?   She's pretty far right, but so is much of the GOP these days.  Can a woman win? Hillary Clinton didn't four years ago.  But could Bachman?  Sarah Palin?
 
 .   Is Rick Perry real?  Is he running?  Sure sounds as if he is.
 
     When I was still covering politics, I always liked going to Iowa.  Good, thoughtful people those Iowans seemed to me -- voters who really cared about politics.   I'm sure that's still true.
 
     So come on, Hawkeye State, give us a hint or two.   Please, Iowa, we could sure use a couple.     

July 18, 2011

     I was rooting for the Americans, of course, since I am one.  But now that it's over, I'm kind of glad Japan won the Women's World Cup.  If ever a country needed a reason for feeling pride and joy, it's they.
 
     I mean, what an awful year they've had--the earthquake, the tsunami, radiation leaking here and there from nuclear power plants around the country--surely after a run like that, any country deserves for some big thing to go right.  For Japan, it did.  Congratulations, ladies, I'm for you.