Tag: Cory Booker

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Democratic Party’s Candidate Cluster

Somehow, “President Hickenlooper” just doesn’t sound right. But then neither does “President Trump.” But the former Colorado governor is one of nearly two dozen candidates running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. And despite his state having the No. 1 economy in the nation, Hickenlooper has no real chance of winning.

So why do they do it? Is it to embellish their profiles or just to raise money? And what happens to that money when they invariably drop out? Money talks and bullshit walks these days, so the most cash talks the most trash. Already, records are being broken for fund-raising, and the campaign hasn’t officially started yet. There are so many aspiring Democrats that you can’t tell the players without a program, so in no particular order, here are the top contenders for the opportunity to crush and humiliate the cruelest president in American history.

Joe Biden: Leave it to the Democrats to kneecap the front-runner before the race begins. Biden’s latest controversy comes from former Nevada state assemblywoman Lucy Flores, who has accused the 76-year-old pol of smelling her hair and giving her a “big slow kiss” on the top of her head. Ever seen Biden swearing in new members of Congress with their families? Joe hugs and kisses everyone. He’s just a hands-on guy. Some find it endearing, but Joe has promised to stop giving neck massages and sniffing hair. Biden comes with enough baggage to fill a cargo plane, already: failed runs for president, plagiarism accusations, the Anita Hill circus, his Iraq war vote. In his favor, Biden said of Trump, “I wish we were in high school. I could take him behind the gym. That’s what I wish.” If that event were put on pay-per-view television, we could clear up the national debt. And to his credit, when Biden was Obama’s Veep, it was a big fucking deal.

Bernie Sanders: I thought I was “feeling the Bern,” but it turned out to be just a urinary tract infection. Bernie’s no longer a novelty, so it will be a lot tougher for him to gain traction this go-round, despite raising $18 million and counting. Ever notice how he throws up a lot of “air quotes” when speaking? I can’t watch him anymore without thinking he’s doing a poor impression of Larry David doing an impression of Bernie. Now that Bernie’s ideas have reached the mainstream, who needs a 77-year-old Jewish Socialist from Vermont? Sit down, Gramps, you’re making me nervous and I’m holding a baseball bat.

Beto O’Rourke: Does he charge for those table dances, or does he do them for free? The former Texas congressman is this year’s golden boy, but just coming close to defeating Ted Cruz, the most loathed Senator in Congress, is not enough for a run at the presidency. He’s loved by millennials for being in a punk rock band called Foss, which is the Icelandic word for “waterfall.” As a teen, O’Rourke was in a computer-hacking group known as the Cult of the Dead Cow, named after an abandoned Lubbock slaughterhouse, where his nom de plume was the “Psychedelic Warlord.” Willie Nelson opened for him at a rally outside of Austin where Beto strapped on a guitar and joined the band in a version of “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.” He’s been compared to Robert Kennedy, but when you’re still skateboarding at 46, you’re no RFK, sir.

Pete Buttigieg: “Mayor Pete” of South Bend, Indiana, has become a phenom because he’s intelligent and informed, qualities that used to work in your favor. Buttigieg, pronounced  “Boot-edge-edge,” is a tough name to put on a bumper sticker, but he could use the slogan, “Go out on a ledge with Buttigieg.” Mayor Pete speaks seven languages other than English and although he is the first openly gay candidate, he would not be the first gay president. That honor goes to James Buchanan, the “lifelong bachelor” who was often considered the worst president in history until the orange putz emerged. At least he won’t be grabbing anyone by the pussy.

Elizabeth Warren: The Massachusetts Senator already has her nickname from the evil one, “Pocahontas,” for bungling her old family yarns about her alleged Cherokee heritage. But since Orangeface speaks with a forked tongue, she can get past it. Warren is the favorite for taking it to Trump, but the galloping palomino of history might have passed her by in 2016. Still a formidable foe who has suggested breaking up “Big Tech,” which is fine by me. We could use a trust-buster like Teddy Roosevelt, someone who Trump thinks is a Democrat.

Kirsten Gillibrand: Appointed by the New York governor to fill Hillary’s Senate seat, Gillibrand has morphed from a “Blue Dog” Democrat with a 100 percent rating from the National Rifle Association into a “Yellow Dog” Democrat who’s tilted mightily to the left. Known as the main cheerleader for drumming Al Franken out of Congress before it became known that it was a Republican hit job, Gillibrand voted to repeal D.C. laws banning semi-automatic weapons. That translates into no shot for the presidency.

Cory Booker: Rhodes Scholar, former jock at Stanford, vegetarian, and former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Booker would be our first bald president since Eisenhower, if you don’t count whatever that mess is on Trump’s head. Passionate even when not needed, Booker lived in a low-income housing project called Brick Towers while serving as mayor, so at least he wouldn’t think the White House was a dump. Booker also saved his next-door neighbor from a burning building, making him the first potential Marvel Superhero candidate.

Kamala Harris: A former California prosecutor who made Brett Kavanaugh squirm, Harris would be the perfect candidate to try Trump for his high crimes and misdemeanors. While 27th District Attorney for San Francisco, Harris famously dated the then married mayor Willie Brown. Savvy and politically astute, Harris supports Medicare for all and legalization of marijuana. What’s not to like?

Julian Castro: The former San Antonio mayor is the first Latino candidate, but President Castro? I don’t think so. Too soon. At least he would have a built-in body double. 

Not enough space to get to Amy Klobuchar (mean to her staff), Tulsi Gabbard (first Hindu member of Congress), Eric Swalwell (appeared with a frosted buzz-cut in his high school yearbook and annoying presence on cable TV), or Andrew Yang (do we need another businessman?). There are just too many also-rans when the only objective is to boot Mr. Nasty out of office. The word “orange” has no rhyme, but that’s the color he’ll be wearing when he’s doing time.

My pick for the Democratic ticket: Warren/Harris. Make America Maternal Again, (MAMA).

Randy Haspel writes the “Recycled Hippies” blog.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

New Message Needed

Republicans won the May special election for Montana’s congressional seat even after their candidate throttled and body-slammed a reporter. The upcoming special election in Georgia remains close even with a weak Republican candidate.

Juan WIlliams

So, what will it take for Democrats to start winning?

First, the Montana fisticuffs showed that Republicans can react volcanically to questions about President Trump’s failed effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Their candidate went ballistic when the reporter, Ben Jacobs of The Guardian, asked about the projected higher premiums and fewer people insured under Trump’s health-care plan.

Second, last week’s poor jobs numbers and Trump’s lack of progress on tax reform offer more evidence that the GOP lacks a strong record for its candidates to run on. And, third, the Democratic base is fired up. With Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate deal, the party is unified in its fury at him.

But with the president retaining strong support among his GOP base, are these hopeful signs just mirages similar to the illusions that led Democrats to think Trump could never be elected president? Is there any concrete reason to think that the nation’s politics have changed enough to give the Democrats the 24 seats they need to take control of the House and set themselves up to defeat Trump in 2020?

In Montana, the Democratic candidate lost by only six points, while Hillary Clinton, the party’s 2016 presidential nominee, lost by 20. That margin narrowed even as the GOP outspent the Democrats. And most people voted long before the Republican, Greg Gianforte, resorted to violence.

Kyle Kondik, managing editor of the Crystal Ball newsletter from the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, says: “Democrats can point to overall special election trends that suggest the opportunity for significant gains next year if they can be replicated on a nationalized scale.”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced last month that it was expanding the targets for GOP-held House seats in 2018 beyond the 23 districts currently represented by a Republican but won by Clinton. They are now aiming at an incredible 79 seats.

Before he withdrew from the climate deal, Trump’s approval rating was underwater by 14 points: Gallup reported last week that the president’s job performance was approved by 40 percent of the country, while 54 percent disapproved.

And as the FBI, special counsel, and congress continue to probe into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, the GOP policy agenda could be derailed before the 2018 races.

A Politico/Morning Consult poll last week found that 43 percent of voters want impeachment proceedings right now. A Quinnipiac University poll last month found the president with the support of just 29 percent of self-described independents — a group with which he had scored plurality support last November.

But all that is noise inside a political bubble unless there is a winning message from Democrats that goes beyond another dose of fury at Trump.

Last week, a group of Democrats formed the People’s House Project to elect left-of-center candidates. The new group’s goal is to give Democratic candidates in the Midwest and rural areas a new look, with a jobs-first focus. It is one front in the battle to shape the Democrats’ future. That includes the search for an energetic, charismatic leader able to withstand Trump’s attacks.

Former Vice President Biden announced last week that he is forming a political action committee to support candidates in the 2018 congressional races. It is also a possible platform for him to run in 2020.

And two senators, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey, also look to be auditioning for the role of leading Democrat. They offer different looks for the anti-Trump brigade.

Warren satisfies Democrats who want to go toe-to-toe with a president they view as illegitimate, corrupt, dangerous, and even treasonous. They want Trump treated by Democrats the way President Obama was treated by Republicans for the last eight years — with contempt and unrelenting opposition.

Meanwhile, Booker wants to offer a contrast to the president by branding himself and Democrats as a force for unifying the nation across political lines. “It’s gotta be about love. It’s gotta be about the connections we have to each other,” he told Vox recently.

The Democrats’ search for answers remains a work in progress.

Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Shelby County Politics Wrap Up

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

At press time on Tuesday, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) was scheduled to make one more effort, via a unanimous-consent request on the floor of the Senate, to get a vote on the confirmation of Ed Stanton III of Memphis as U.S. District Judge. 

Stanton, now serving as U.S. Attorney for Tennessee’s Western District, was nominated by President Obama in May 2015 to succeed Judge Samuel H. “Hardy” Mays.

Sponsored by 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen of Memphis, a Democrat, and heartily endorsed by Tennessee’s two Republican Senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, Stanton was expected to be a shoo-in for Senate confirmation long ago, but the same partisan gridlock that has prevented Senate action on Obama’s Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland has held up action on Stanton and other judicial nominees.

• The two major political parties have both now established local headquarters for the stretch drive of the presidential race. 

The Republicans went first, opening up a combination HQ for 8th District congressional nominee David Kustoff and the coordinated GOP campaign at 1755 Kirby Parkway on August 31st. The Democrats will open theirs, at 2600 Poplar, with an open house this Saturday. 

At the GOP headquarters opening, Kustoff spoke first, then Shelby County Commissioner Terry Roland, as West Tennessee chairman for Donald Trump. Next up was Lee Mills, interim Shelby GOP chair (he replaced Mary Wagner, who had been nominated for a judgeship). He began recognizing Republican gentry in the room.

When Mills got to David Lenoir, the Shelby trustee who’s certain to oppose Roland for county mayor in 2018, he fumbled with Lenoir’s job title, then somewhat apologetically said, “David, I always want to call you tax collector.” Roland then shouted out delightedly, “I do, too!”

• Given the overwhelmingly Republican nature of voting in the 8th District in recent years, Kustoff’s chances of prevailing are better than good, but for the record, Rickey Hopson of Somerville is the Democratic nominee. Hopson is making the rounds, having spoken at last month’s meeting of the Germantown Democratic Club, one of several local Democratic clubs taking up the slack for the Shelby County Democratic Party, decertified by state Democratic chair Mary Mancini several weeks ago.

Another Democratic underdog challenging the odds is Dwayne Thompson, the party’s candidate for the state House District 96 seat (Cordova, Germantown) now held by the GOP’s Steve McManus. A fund-raiser is scheduled for Thompson next Wednesday, September 28th, at Coletta’s Restaurant on Highway 64.

Memphis lawyer John Ryder, who currently serves as RNC general counsel and who supervised both parties’ rules changes and the RNC’s redistricting strategy after the census of 2010, has been named Republican Lawyer of the Year by the Republican National Lawyers Association and will be honored at a Washington banquet of the RNLA at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington on Tuesday, September 27th. “Special guests” will include Senator Corker and RNC chairman Reince Priebus.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Tis the Season for Memphis Politics

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

Jackson Baker

Drawing a crowd of local and statewide Democrats at a party fund-raiser over the weekend was visiting U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ). Booker is the tall, balding fellow behind Mayor AC Wharton.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus — if you happen to be a political junkie. Those whose appetite for the electoral process was not sated by the close of the Memphis run-off races on November 19th have a freshly wrapped gift under the tree — the prospect of fresh voting March 1st, “Super Tuesday,” for which a preliminary deadline of sorts passed during the week. 

Last Thursday, December 10th, was the filing deadline for the 2016 General Sessions Clerk’s race, the party primaries which will take place on Super Tuesday, along with presidential primaries for both parties.

The deadline came off as something of a stealth event — save for those individuals directly involved in the outcomes or a relatively few activists in the two local political parties or the really zealous members of Shelby County’s aforementioned political-junkie class.

But, whether or not many people were paying attention or even thinking about it, at the stroke of noon on Thursday, December 10th, the curtain did indeed fall at the Election Commission on applications for the General Sessions clerkship, which is now held by Ed Stanton Jr., who is not to be confused with his son, Ed Stanton III, who is U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee.

(The younger Stanton is involved in a stealth situation of sorts, too. He was appointed last April by President Obama to be a U.S. District Judge at the urging of 9th District congressman Steve Cohen, a Democrat, has been backed for the appointment by U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, both Republicans, and easily sailed through a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in October. But his final confirmation vote by the full Senate, along with those of many other judicial nominees, has been snarled in a delay that stems from the continuing partisan gridlock in Congress.)

Stanton Jr. is regarded as a heavy favorite to be re-elected as clerk, though at the filing deadline he had drawn two Democratic primary opponents, Del Gill and William Stovall; one Republican challenger, Richard Morton, and one independent opponent, William Chism. 

Stanton is one of two Democratic incumbents who have successfully withstood challenges from Republican candidates in recent years. The other is Shelby County Assessor Cheyenne Johnson. Both were reelected four years ago, in part of an off-year cycle for county officials. 

After that 2012 election, the office of assessor was rescheduled in sync with the general slate of county officials, and she was forced to run again in 2014, winning that race handily and leaving Stanton’s position as the only county office scheduled in a different four-year cycle. He will vie for the Democratic nomination with Gill and Stovall on the aforesaid “Super Tuesday.”

Early voting for both the presidential primary and the General Sessions Democratic primary will run from February 10th to February 25th. The winner of the General Sessions primary will run on August 4th against Chism and Morton, who will have been nominated without opposition by the GOP on March 1st.

August 4th is also the date for party primaries for state legislative races.

Confused? Don’t worry. We’ll keep reminding you as each case comes in its turn.

• It’s a fair bet that most political activists have focused more attention lately on the string of seasonal holiday parties that various Democratic and Republican groups have been holding.

Though they certainly play a role in binding the local organizations together, and several double as party fund-raisers, these gatherings, like holiday parties of all kinds, are more about good cheer and a break from routine, or, as was the case with the party held over the weekend by the Democratic Women of Shelby County, the expression of a special tribute to longtime party activist Myra Stiles, whose household has been the traditional home base for the DWSC’s annual holiday affairs. 

More pointedly political, perhaps, was the party held on Sunday at the riverfront home of Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bailey. This event featured a national political celebrity of sorts, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), was held to raise funds for the Tennessee House Democratic Caucus, and brought in numerous Democratic Party officials and state House of Representatives members. 

The event also enticed a significant turnout from local Democrats — a proverbial who’s who, including Cohen and outgoing Memphis Mayor A C Wharton, a late arrival who got an especially warm welcome. Suggested donation amounts ranged from $2,500 for PACs (Political Action Committees) to $1,000 for party finance council members to $250 for individuals. House Democratic Caucus chair Mike Stewart of Nashville set a goal of $20,000 for the event, and that fairly modest threshold would seem to have been easily met and exceeded.

Booker is one of the Democratic Party’s ascending stars on the national scene. Well aware of the current low ebb of Democratic fortunes in Tennessee, at least numerically, he reminded attendees of the event that he, too, had tasted defeat in his mayoral race in Newark, before finally winning in a second try and beginning his rise.

And he cautioned his audience against fatalism, contending that Democrats continued to prove they had the numbers to win in presidential races and that overcoming low turnout in non-presidential races was the key to an overall political revival.

Presidential politics was a subject much under discussion at Republican holiday events. Typical was the annual Christmas party of the East Shelby Republican Club at the Pickering Community Center in Germantown, Monday night. To judge by the comments volunteered in conversation, celebrity candidate Donald Trump still is riding high, though support was also evident for other candidates, notably Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Florida Senator Marco Rubio.

• Before the week is out, Mayor-elect Jim Strickland may — and no doubt will — get off a few more striking acts in his run-up to the New Year’s oath-taking, but, to those of us in the news business, nothing could have been more startling than his back-to-back selection of Ursula Madden and Kyle Veazey as major assistants  in his administration-to-be.

Talk about cherry-picking!

It was eye-opening enough last week when Strickland announced the appointment of Madden, longtime news anchor for major local television outlet, WMC-TV, Action News 5. To follow that up with this week’s announcement of a Veazey appointment is downright staggering.

Does the new mayor intend to launch a state-of-the-art news operation as an adjunct to city government? In the couple of years he has served as lead of the politics-and-government reporting team for The Commercial Appeal, Veazey not only resurrected that paper’s cachet as a leading source of political news, he elevated the public’s sense of urgency about public news in general.

A former sportswriter, he brought a statistician’s zeal and a fan’s passion to the business of covering politics. And for the rest of us in the field, he made it fun to compete, and that’s a word — “compete” — that he gave new meaning to.

Trying to keep up with Veazey in one sense was a lost cause: He had too much energy, too much commitment, and, to be honest, too much of an advantage in exposure to try to out-do. But he also enlarged the scope of the game itself. It wasn’t a zero-sum matter of win-lose. No knee-capping. No screw your buddy. In a way, it was like being in an orchestra. You still had ample play for your own instrument, and it was impossible not to admire the way he handled his.

Now, just what the hell is he going to do in city government that will top that act?

Categories
News The Fly-By

Mayor to Mayor

As Newark, New Jersey, mayor Cory Booker talked about his support for mayor-led school systems, one attendee at last week’s Leadership Academy luncheon turned to her friend and hissed, “He just fed the beast!”

Booker, Newark’s charismatic mayor of two years, had just said, “I love school boards, but in large cities, you can’t manage institutions by committees.

“This is where I get controversial.”

Indeed. All 900 sets of ears perked up.

From his seat on the stage with interviewer Gayle Rose, Booker spoke directly to Memphis mayor Willie Herenton: “I hope you get control of the schools, because if the mayor here can do it … I hope the mayor of Newark gets a chance, as well.”

While attendees were eating pasta and pecan pie, Herenton was being offered a slice of something different, and it certainly wasn’t humble pie.

With Booker supporting Herenton’s long-awaited hope of taking over the school system — a thing he has tried to do by consensus, state legislature, and resignation — it’s no surprise people were concerned the statement would go to the mayor’s head.

Before running for mayor, Booker was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, a Yale Law School graduate, and was elected to the City Council at the age of 29. His first unsuccessful bid for Newark mayor in 2002 was the subject of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Street Fight.

He is clearly hyper-intelligent and funny. After Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis treasurer Martha Perrine Beard referenced the honor of sitting at a table with three mayors, Booker corrected her with “three sexy mayors.”

More substantially, and a subject that has garnered its share of press, was Booker’s decision to live in Brick Towers, a public housing project, from 1998 to 2006. He obviously likes to be in the thick of things.

Rose asked Booker about the economy — “This is an opportunity for our generation to show who we are, to show our salt, our mettle,” he said — and poverty — “I tell people the biggest problem in America is poverty, but I say it’s poverty of imagination, poverty of action, and poverty of love.”

As mayor, Booker’s goal is to turn Newark into the national standard for urban transformation. So far, murder and shooting rates are down 40 percent in the New Jersey city, so it seems he’s well on his way.

Booker said you have to do “whatever it takes.” And sometimes that means doing it yourself, especially when you consider yourself the city’s chief accountability officer.

In trying to decrease Newark’s high crime rate, Booker started driving the city from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., pulling over and checking up on on-duty police officers (something he joked he enjoyed doing as a black man).

“There’s a belief that urban areas have to tolerate a certain amount of crime — that’s a toxic belief,” he said.

He asked a number of police officers to help him patrol the early morning hours, but he said he lets them chase the criminals.

“I ran once and pulled my hamstring,” he joked. “Now I help them search for drugs. I’m on my belly in someone’s backyard looking for drugs. People are coming out of their houses: ‘Mr. Mayor, is that you?'”

His story garnered laughter and applause from the crowd, and I couldn’t help but remember the 2004 incident when Herenton observed several officers rough-housing during a routine traffic stop.

At the time, there was laughing, but I’m not sure how much of it was with the mayor. And there wasn’t much applause, especially after former police director James Bolden was forced to retire roughly a week later.

So what’s the difference between Booker and Herenton? I think it boils down to “we” versus “I.” Herenton has had a lot of good ideas (and some stinkers, too) over the years, but he seems to stand alone most of the time.

Booker seems to be more about group effort.

“Just find two or three things to focus on as a group,” he told the Leadership Academy. “Even if it’s just for a year.”

But if Booker had one thing to say that I hope everyone heard it was about what he considered Memphis’ best asset.

“You’re big enough to be significant,” he said, “but small enough to show change quickly.”