--============_-1170062286==_ma============
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 8, 2003
W. and Karl, Going to a Garden Party
By MAUREEN DOWD
ASHINGTON
The Democrats are pathetic. With Tom Daschle out, they don't even
have seven dwarfs. They have six coifs, and that's not counting
Hillary.
Once more showing the sure touch that could make Republicans the
dominant party until the cows come home, the Democratic bagman Terry
McAuliffe turned his back on New York City, the damsel in tristesse
that has always come through for Democratic presidential candidates.
Even aside from the humane instinct to help a city caked in red ink
and black memories, Democrats should consider New York lucky; when
they've nominated winners, it was in Madison Square Garden - Jimmy
Carter and Bill Clinton.
In November over dinner in Manhattan, Mr. McAuliffe tried to bully
Mike Bloomberg, warning the mayor that he would not even consider New
York as a convention site unless Mr. Bloomberg agreed to stop trying
to lure Republicans to the Garden. The suggestion was brusquely
rejected by the brusque mayor, not out of party loyalty - he became a
Republican only a New York minute ago - but municipal loyalty.
Obviously Mr. McAuliffe has not read any of the new books coming out
about Karl Rove, or he would know that the grandmaster of political
chess - who spent his baby-faced youth shouting "Nixon's the One!"
and honing his skill at being "Oppo Dude" with coded messages, dirty
tricks, smear tactics, say-anything-and-clean-up-the-mess-later
campaigns and clever blueprints to decimate Democratic strongholds -
would love the New York backdrop.
In the B.K. era (before Karl), Republicans avoided New York for
conventions, acting as though the gangs of New York were still
wilding in Boss Tweed's streets.
Even centrist Democrats were leery of a Batman-less and, even
scarier, Giuliani-less Gotham. In 1991 Bill Clinton raised the easily
raised dander of Mario Cuomo when he said Democrats might be taking
"a risk" by holding their convention in a place seen by many as the
symbol of what was wrong with the party, a city plagued by
homelessness, crime, poverty, Ruth Messinger and other urban
calamities.
New York might have been dicey for Democrats trying to wage class
warfare the usual way. But Mr. Rove and his president have a new
style of class warfare - the affluent afflicting the afflicted; the
ruling class enacting policies to help itself, weaving a pashmina
safety net so the well-off can buy more expensive stuff they don't
need.
Bloomberg News calculated that under the president's proposal, Mr.
Bush would have been spared $17,000 in taxes on the $43,805 in
dividends he reaped in 2001, and gotten another $27,500, based on his
$711,453 in taxable income, if his proposed accelerated income tax
cuts had been in effect. That's nothing compared with the hundreds of
thousands of dollars Halliburton Dick would have saved.
But at their convention in New York, they can produce a hip-hop show
that camouflages their hip-G.O.P. policies. Just as they did in
Philadelphia in 2000, when they put on a minstrel show for the
Babbity white guys in the stands.
A black woman sang "The Star-Spangled Banner," a Latino activist
yelled "Puerto Rico, I love you!" Hispanics wore sombreros and a
woman spoke who had won the Miss America pageant with an insulin pump
under her evening gown.
This urban pageant was meant to signal suburbanites that W. was not
scary, even if he had made that pilgrimage to Bob Jones U. - where
the minorities on stage wouldn't even be allowed to hold hands with
the white delegates.
The Bushies are giving tax breaks to the wrong Americans,
hyperventilating over the wrong country and the wrong villains, and
labeling the wrong Pakistanis terrorists.
But in New York the president can reprise his rendezvous with a
bullhorn at ground zero.
No matter if, in the summer of 2004, Wall Street is still suffering
through a bear market, or Osama is still on the loose, or the tax
cuts for the wealthy lead to more homeless people on the streets.
The TV cameras will catch only the trompe l'oeil tableau of
Republican regular folk: Rudy Giuliani and a stage full of Rockettes
and firemen; Bill Frist resuscitating a homeless man outside the
Garden, and the Harlem Boys Choir singing to the ever fatter G.O.P.
cats.
The gangs of New York have nothing on the gang in the White House.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | Permissions | Privacy Policy
--============_-1170062286==_ma============
Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"
<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { padding-top: 0 ; padding-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>Maureen's back</title></head><body>
<div><font size="+2"><br>
---------------------------------------------------------------------<span
></span>---<br>
<br>
</font><font size="+1"><b>January 8, 2003</b></font><font
size="+2"><br>
<br>
</font><font size="+4"><b>W. and Karl, Going to a Garden
Party</b></font><font size="+2"><br>
</font><font size="+1"><b>By MAUREEN DOWD</b></font><font
size="+2"><br>
<br>
ASHINGTON<br>
<br>
The Democrats are pathetic. With Tom Daschle out, they don't even have
seven dwarfs. They have six coifs, and that's not counting
Hillary.<br>
<br>
Once more showing the sure touch that could make Republicans the
dominant party until the cows come home, the Democratic bagman Terry
McAuliffe turned his back on New York City, the damsel in tristesse
that has always come through for Democratic presidential
candidates.<br>
<br>
Even aside from the humane instinct to help a city caked in red ink
and black memories, Democrats should consider New York lucky; when
they've nominated winners, it was in Madison Square Garden - Jimmy
Carter and Bill Clinton.<br>
<br>
In November over dinner in Manhattan, Mr. McAuliffe tried to bully
Mike Bloomberg, warning the mayor that he would not even consider New
York as a convention site unless Mr. Bloomberg agreed to stop trying
to lure Republicans to the Garden. The suggestion was brusquely
rejected by the brusque mayor, not out of party loyalty - he became
a Republican only a New York minute ago - but municipal loyalty.<br>
<br>
Obviously Mr. McAuliffe has not read any of the new books coming out
about Karl Rove, or he would know that the grandmaster of political
chess - who spent his baby-faced youth shouting "Nixon's the
One!" and honing his skill at being "Oppo Dude" with
coded messages, dirty tricks, smear tactics,
say-anything-and-clean-up-the-mess-later campaigns and clever
blueprints to decimate Democratic strongholds - would love the New
York backdrop.<br>
<br>
In the B.K. era (before Karl), Republicans avoided New York for
conventions, acting as though the gangs of New York were still wilding
in Boss Tweed's streets.<br>
<br>
Even centrist Democrats were leery of a Batman-less and, even scarier,
Giuliani-less Gotham. In 1991 Bill Clinton raised the easily raised
dander of Mario Cuomo when he said Democrats might be taking "a
risk" by holding their convention in a place seen by many as the
symbol of what was wrong with the party, a city plagued by
homelessness, crime, poverty, Ruth Messinger and other urban
calamities.<br>
<br>
New York might have been dicey for Democrats trying to wage class
warfare the usual way. But Mr. Rove and his president have a new style
of class warfare - the affluent afflicting the afflicted; the ruling
class enacting policies to help itself, weaving a pashmina safety net
so the well-off can buy more expensive stuff they don't need.<br>
<br>
Bloomberg News calculated that under the president's proposal, Mr.
Bush would have been spared $17,000 in taxes on the $43,805 in
dividends he reaped in 2001, and gotten another $27,500, based on his
$711,453 in taxable income, if his proposed accelerated income tax
cuts had been in effect. That's nothing compared with the hundreds of
thousands of dollars Halliburton Dick would have saved.<br>
<br>
But at their convention in New York, they can produce a hip-hop show
that camouflages their hip-G.O.P. policies. Just as they did in
Philadelphia in 2000, when they put on a minstrel show for the Babbity
white guys in the stands.<br>
<br>
A black woman sang "The Star-Spangled Banner," a Latino
activist yelled "Puerto Rico, I love you!" Hispanics wore
sombreros and a woman spoke who had won the Miss America pageant with
an insulin pump under her evening gown.<br>
<br>
This urban pageant was meant to signal suburbanites that W. was not
scary, even if he had made that pilgrimage to Bob Jones U. - where
the minorities on stage wouldn't even be allowed to hold hands with
the white delegates.<br>
<br>
The Bushies are giving tax breaks to the wrong Americans,
hyperventilating over the wrong country and the wrong villains, and
labeling the wrong Pakistanis terrorists.<br>
<br>
But in New York the president can reprise his rendezvous with a
bullhorn at ground zero.<br>
<br>
No matter if, in the summer of 2004, Wall Street is still suffering
through a bear market, or Osama is still on the loose, or the tax cuts
for the wealthy lead to more homeless people on the
streets.</font></div>
<div><font size="+2"><br>
The TV cameras will catch only the trompe l'oeil tableau of Republican
regular folk: Rudy Giuliani and a stage full of Rockettes and firemen;
Bill Frist resuscitating a homeless man outside the Garden, and the
Harlem Boys Choir singing to the ever fatter G.O.P. cats.<br>
<br>
The gangs of New York have nothing on the gang in the White House.<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Arial" size="-1"><u>Copyright 2003 The New York
Times Company</u></font><font face="Arial" size="+1"> |</font><font
face="Arial" size="-1"><u> Permissions</u></font><font face="Arial"
size="+1"> |</font><font face="Arial" size="-1"><u> Privacy
Policy</u></font></div>
</body>
</html>
--============_-1170062286==_ma============--