Showing posts with label Jerry Seib. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jerry Seib. Show all posts

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Debbie Wasserman Schultz puts politics above public safety? Yes.

I've watched with curious fascination the last week or so,
as South Florida's print and electronic media have actually
had to report some negative news about someone they're
usually so starstruck of and quick to praise, whether it's
deserved or not, whom I personally find loathsome in the
extreme.
No, not Rep. Kendrick Meek, though he's on that list,
but Pembroke Pines-based U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman
Schultz, a.k.a. DWS.

You know, the strident know-it-all who actually represents
the nice parts of Hallandale Beach east of U.S.-1,
the expensive condo towers on A1A -so many of which
are empty- and the water-side homes with boats,
while poor ol' Liberty City-based Kendrick Meek gets
the rest of the city, the part that falls into the Hallandale
Beach CRA district.
The part that the city officially considers the blighted part,
which includes HB City Hall, which is more ironic than you
know.

You could almost hear the disbelief dripping from the
TV anchors words lips as they actually say that
well-respected national medical experts actually think
her latest attempt to make the personal political,
is a foolish and poorly-thought out exercise, which also
has the bad luck to be a huge waste of money that will
only encourage fear among those with less to fear than
fear itself.

Not that DWS really cares, since the South Florida
media is so easily cowed and manipulated, and fearful
of her office putting them on their Do Not Call list.

Lee Francis of the BPB New Times' The Juice
blog wrote a good piece on Wednesday about this,
for a moment at least, upside-down world, where
she doesn't get the last word.

And yes, I felt the need to add my well-informed
two cents, as you can see for yourself, though this
latest fandango of hers is but the tip-of-the-iceberg
on my list reasons for viscerally disliking and
objecting to DWS and what she represents.
More below.

Wasserman Schultz Pummeled in Press


In his story, he links to the following:
Weston lawmaker's cancer legislation faces criticism
by Lesley Clark

Those wanting some much-needed critical perspective on South Florida media darling DWS, please see Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power: Making Washington Work Again by John Harwood, chief Washington correspondent for CNBC; reporter, The New York Times, and Jerry Seib, Washington bureau chief, The Wall Street Journal.

See Chapter 6 titled The Fundraising-Phenom Debbie Wasserman-Schultz
You can also do a Look Inside at www.amazon.com/ and find lots of interesting items, too.

It's telling that in the year 2009, a real nobody from a non-competitive CD, someone with little positive impact on important national public policy issues, can be so important in Congress -a Cardinal- and SO popular on cable TV, esp. MSNBC, which is in love with her.

And yet this power comes almost entirely from her ability to generate campaign funds from well-heeled Jewish donors in South Florida, and around the country, where she's flown around as part of 'dog and pony' fundraisers to get Jewish donors in those CDs to give to their local Dem incumbent or nominee.

After I moved down here from the Washington area, friends of mine, many of whom had been Capitol Hill staffers or media folks who also moved across the country, often sent me emails about or with copies of the very sorts of fundraiser invites I just described, which they or their freinds had received or heard about.

Since they are largely moderate, fair-minded DLC-types, which is to say, more interested in actual solutions to problems instead of exploiting an issue largely for campaign purposes -along the lines of the DWS, Rahm Emauel and Robert Wexler School of Political Management- most of them share my p.o.v. towards DWS, though to be fair, I dislike her more than any of them because she's so embarrassingly transparent.

No Democrat comforts the affluent check-writers like DWS.

Trust me, nobody in Congress bases their own decision on how to vote on an issue based on what someone like DWS thinks, the same way they once might've done with Lee Hamilton, my former Congressman in Bloomington, and the former Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee after Miami's own Dante Facell, whose CD I lived in when I'd come home for the summer from IU.

I was present and accounted for during what seemed like hundreds of full committe andEurope Subcommittee hearings they chaired over the years I was there, which is why I knew all the committee staffers and became friends with some them, as well as LAs who worked for Comm. members.

Lee Hamilton earned that broad respect because of his intelligence, collegiality and work-ethic, best exemplified by the fact that he stayed in broiling D.C., working even during the 1992 Democratic National Convention, when lots of smart and savvy people were encouraging Bill Clinton to select Hamilton as VP, not Sen. Al Gore.

(I know that because I talked to him in the Rayburn bldg. hallway that very week, surprised to run into him, given what was happening.)

This book has an entire chapter on DWS and her ethics, overwhelming personal ambition and fundraising prowess, is a book that garnered good to very good reviews, had a national media tour, and was written by two very well-respected veteran reporters from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

It was even on the front page of The New York Times Book Review!

Despite all that, though, the book itself and the stories it tells about DWS have NEVER been mentioned in The Miami Herald or the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Or mentioned in a TV newscast or on a TV public affairs program.

Not in print, not online, not even a blog post entry! (Besides my own.)

What are the odds of that?

To me, given how the local media has always bent over backwards to be pals with her even before her recent cancer revelation, this lack of context is even more troubling, and quite telling about the true low state of journalism in South Florida.

Not a single South Florida reporter, editor, columnist, producer or anchor has EVER mentioned it.

And I've checked!

I've even asked well-placed people I know at the newspapers and the local TV shows. Nope!

I particularly call your attention to page 80, re a proposed pool-safety bill she co-authored.

Well, despite having bipartisan support and President Bush's interest in signing it to make it federal law, in order to politically attack Sen. George Allen, one of the Senate co-sponsors and a Republican running for re-election, she let the bill die, rather than let something become a law that EVERYONE supported.

That's DWS -always willing to put politics above public safety!

And all these months later, South Florida media ignores the book and the troubling picture it paints of DWS.

Harwood and Seib discussed the book and called attention to her (creepy) efforts on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR from May 15, 2008, which generated some calls disgusted with the ethical antics of DWS. http://wamu.org/programs/dr/

It's available in both Real Audio and Windows Media at: http://wamu.org/programs/dr/08/05/15.php

After you listen to it, you'll really wonder how DWS generated so much disgust from well-informed national listeners, while South Florida media completely ignored what she did, or made excuses for her.

Sadly, most South Florida reporters don't really want to be adversarial or thorns to elected officials or govt. employees, they want to be their pals, which explains why they are usually so easily co-opted. (And might be their future employer!)

And it also explains why so much of what's printed and broadcast locally is such an insult to reasonable, well-informed citizens, who merely want all sides of an issue to be fairly-but-fully presented.

----------------------------------------------

Kudos to WFOR-TV's Jim DeFede for having brought up the subject of a previous version of the bill, but it's hard not to notice that Anonymous -a DWS defender?- bringing up a December 2006 video of DeFede's, hardly trumps my central point, proven by her own words, below, in a 2008 book that was the featured book in the New York Times Book Review last year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/books/review/Widmer-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Pennsylvania%20Avenue&st=cse

As the direct quotes from the book demonstrate, yes, she does put politics about public safety. And makes no apologies. That's who DWS is, so South Florida media, please stop pretending that she's anything but a partisan hack.

I guess that's why DWS is no Profile in Courage in my book, even using the dumbed-down standards of today that saw Caroline Kennedy include former New Jersey governor Jim Florio in an updated version of her father's original book of that title called Profiles in Courage for Our Time.

In case you forgot, he had the courage to raise taxes. For which Christine Whitman was eternally grateful, showing her thanks by defeating him when he ran for re-election on that record.

Quick: Try doing an archival search for the Harwood & Seib book on the Miami Herald or South Florida Sun-Sentinel's website, using whatever parameters you want: title, authors name, etc.

Knock yourself out!


It won't have ANY results because it's NEVER been mentioned, even by their D.C. bureau.

(In fact, the handful of times their names even appear in archives the past ten years, individually, it's always with someone else quoting something they wrote, never them speaking directly.)

Q.E.D.

-----------------

from Page 80 of Harwood & Seib:

But her role as a "team player" in Democratic election strategy can also impede her legislative work. Among the principal initiatives of her first term was a pool-safety bill designed to set more stringent
rules for barriers around pools, and the kinds of drains manuafacturers are permitted to install. Battling uphill in a Republican Congress, she obtained support from the swimming-pool industry and a prominent
Republican co-sponsor -Senator George Allen of Virginia.

In the run-up to the 2006 election, Senate democrats wanted to hold up progress on the bill for a singularly partisan reason. Allen was in a dead-heat race against challenger Jim Webb; with partisan control of the chamber potentially hanging in the balance, Democrats didn't want to provide ammunition favorable to Allen, which he could use with Virginia voters against Webb.

Senate Democratic leaders "didn't want to give Allen a victory before the election," Wasserman Schultz says matter-of-factly. And she was in no position to object. "I was co-chair of the 'red-to-blue' campaign. It was hard for me to say, Give one of your most targeted members a big victory." The result: a bill that had majority support in both chambers of Congress didn't become law.
Wasserman Schultz insisted she'd win passage of the bill later in any case.

Yeah, I guess that's about what you'd have to say given your choice of tactics, having already once played up your "desperately searching for Members in the hallways for votes" card.

I lived in Northern Virginia for almost 15 years and voted against George Allen when he ran against Chuck Robb in 1998, but it hardly seems likely that George Allen could claim "credit" in his race against Jim Webb for a bill passing that everyone in the Congress is in favor of and that President Bush wanted to sign.

I guess it's just a good thing that nobody stood in her way when she expended so much effort to get a bill passed for yet another dopey "Month" bill.

Like if I didn't have the link here, http://www.jewishheritage.gov/about.html you'd already know that Jewish American Heritage Month, the great political success of DWS, is in May and not June, right? Yes, that's quite a political legacy!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Meanwhile, back in Orlando, transit also stammers and stu-t-t-ers...

Meanwhile, back in Orlando, just as is the case in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, transit also stammers and stu-t-t-ers...

Received some very interesting info earlier yesterday afternoon in my daily email from the Central Florida Political Pulse blog, the Politics blog of the Orlando Sentinel, one of my daily must-reads, in the form of a post by the Sentinel's David Damron titled Orange Mayor Crotty Reveals Lynx Funding Plan.

But after reading it and absorbing the central points, I surprised myself and got to thinking about something else, or rather, some one else -Alex Sink.


Though it's been little commented on so far, don't think that people around the state, esp. those of us with an interest in transportation policy, aren't paying attention to CFO Alex Sink's role in the continuing transit mess in Central Florida -esp. commuter rail- even as she tries to morph her official role into that of a numbers-crunching, truth-telling combination of Agent Dana Scully and Agent Clarice Starling, saving the day right before it's too late.


Since I returned to South Florida from D.C. a few years ago, to the extent that I thought of Alex Sink at all -which I didn't- due largely to some positive words from friends back in D.C. and in Florida who were longtime Lawton Chiles supporters, I gave Sink the benefit of the doubt, even as I wondered why in the world she got so much attention.


(For instance, Florida Trend's May 2008 story, Sink Sees a Silver Lining in Florida's Slowdown
by Amy Keller
http://www.floridatrend.com/article.asp?aID=48843 )



But given that other than Gov. Charlie Crist, Sink has been the subject of more laudatory media coverage than anyone else in the state, where has she made a real difference in the lives of Florida citizens yet?


I've yet to hear Sink say anything either counter-intuitive or politically brave that would really cost her politically in the future, much less, take a principled stand that goes against the personal interests of her usual political/financial supporters. Where's the bold thinking?



Who knows, maybe something will happen in the not-too-distant future that'll give her the opportunity to show her true stripes and abilities, but thus far, given all the ink that's been used on her, color me unimpressed.


Can I really be the only person in South Florida who thinks this?


By the way, you may or may not be aware of the fact that in stark contrast to the popular approach that Gov. Sarah Palin took in Alaska with regard to getting rid of state aircraft, FL pols are much more averse to saying sayonara to their beloved "Wings of Man.'



Just over a year ago in a great Aug. 28th, 2007 post at the aforementioned CFPP, http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2007/08/just-plane-comm.html#more labeled, Just plane common sense, Aaron Deslatte wrote about the efforts to pare just one of the planes from the state's control.


Among the more interesting facts to emerge from that post was this one: Since June 1, state officials have racked up $258,962.50 in air fare on Florida's fleet, according to manifests for the three planes. Records show Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink flew the most in that period, with over $31,000 in air travel used through the summer.Crist came in second, with almost $24,000 in airfare around the state.


(Speaking of that, how funny would it be if somebody in a position to know, floated a rumor that the state airplanes had contained listening devices!? The sheer amount of lies and B.S. told on those planes would stupefy the electorate! And make great columns and newscasts!)

Based on what I've read and heard from across the state, and in myriad conversations/emails with folks much closer to the scene than me, including elected officials, for my money, Sink is THE most over-rated pol in the state, edging out Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, long a bête noire of mine, in case you've forgotten some past blog posts of mine where I've zeroed-in on her.

I really loathe DWS.


I've already written a pretty informative blog post about DWS that'll be coming out within the next week regarding her inclusion in the John Harwood and Jerry Seib book, Pennsylvania Avenue, which I think paints a very unflattering portrait of her personal scruples.

That's not my opinion alone, but rather one that's also shared by many folks around the country who've read the book, and commented to the authors.
In fact I even wrote someone recently and said that I wouldn't bring her up again in future emails because she's too much of a downer!


(The book was the NY Times Book Review's featured review three months ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/books/review/Widmer-t.html?partner=rssnyt )


By the way, per some of my earlier blog posts at HBB, and the August 1st post by Gabriel Lopez-Bernal at Transit Miami, http://www.transitmiami.com/2008/08/01/mary-peters-in-miami-today/
my formal request for info and docs about FDOT Sec. Kopelousos and her co-called "public" appearances in South Florida will be sent within the next few days, hopefully by next Monday.

I can hardly wait to read the predictable lame excuses, alibis and PR-spit-shined obfuscation that awaits me.

I will, of course, share it with you once it's in my hands.
______________________________
Orlando Sentinel
Central Florida Political Pulse
Orange Mayor Crotty Reveals Lynx Funding Plan
posted by David Damron on Sep 9, 2008


Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty released a Lynx funding plan Tuesday that would create a long-sought dedicated funding source for the bus system, but would likely do little to head off an immediate budget crunch that could gut some routes and trim service.


Crotty's plan calls for the leaders of Osceola, Orange and Seminole counties to each pledge a certain level of property taxes to fund the system, and lock it into place by establishing a regional transit system between the three governments.
The effort would require voter approval.


It would also put more of the future funding burden on Oseola and Seminole counties, who now contribute roughly $5 million.
Under Crotty's plan, that number would rise significantly to almost double that amount.


"If this is truly a regional asset, like a university or an airport," Crotty said, "then we need to think regionally and pay for it regionally."


To see the rest of the post:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/09/orange-mayor-cr.html