Joe Scott 3: The Body Politic

Year of Reform?

18 October 2005 |permalink | email article

Thereís much talk about the Year of Reform in Nov. 8ís special election. Lost in the rhetoric by the self-styled reformer, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is a problem now faced by Californiaís Fair Political Practices Commission.

Because of a nagging backlog and budget crunch, the stateís watchdog agency has closed 225 cases of campaign misdeeds since last May without finishing investigations because of a lack of resources, The Los Angeles Times reported today.

ìWe canít handle the caseload,î FPPC chairwoman Liane Randolph told the panel at its monthly meeting in Sacramento.

Randolph told the Times that the commission will ask the governor and the Legislature for more resources to its job. ìItís a job the voters asked to be done, but our funding level just canít keep pace with our responsibilities.î

Of the current backlog, 676 cases from the previous years remained unresolved; fines from another 61 remained uncollected.

The commission wants the governor to restore $600,000 in funding cut from the agency in recent years, and a additional $1.2 million to get back to 1980s budget levels. Before good government groups raised a big stink, Governor Reform proposed a $1-million cut for this fiscal year that began July 1.

This is a moment of political truth for Schwarzenegger, suddenly paddling far more to the center in an attempt to shake the perception heís a tool of business special interests and right-wing evangelicals. Will he commit to restoring the funding before Nov. 8? 

Bush Spin Machine

16 October 2005 |permalink | email article

Karl Rove, whose potential legal troubles may be resolved this week or next, is off his vaunted control game. The communications spin machine devised by W.ís architect in chief, that reached its apex in falsely marketing the invasion war in Iraq, appears to have gone missing.

Proof of a growing meltdown was first apparent in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when the president strode across a floodlit lawn in a televised national address against an eerie backdrop of Saint Louis Cathedral flanked by a statue of Andrew Jackson.

Designed to show compassion for victims after a slow response, the prop lacked the passion and slick ìMission Accomplishedî choreography which Rove successfully affixed to W. long before the 2004 election ñ another deceptive stunt in retrospect.

Last Thursday, the White House PR operation sank to a new level of ineptness in trying to ape itís choir-like strategy of holding scripted events featuring the president talking to loyal supporters at carefully staged town halls events, while aides worked the audience on what to say.

Cable viewers saw a staged teleconference in which a halting president, groping for the right words and fumbling with his earpiece, spoke with 10 handpicked American soldiers and one Iraqi in trying to rally support behind security preparations for the draft Iraq constitution vote over the weekend.

Not surprisingly, the eager soldiers were coached by event planners about topics the president would ask them, and watched them briefly rehearse their glowing presentations before going live ñ something inadvertently also seen on TV.

A day later, the Pentagon put out a statement apologizing for any misperception that the soldiers were told what to say at the event. As Maureen Dowd wrote, that troops might be politicized and used as ìmilitary wallpaper,” is deeply troubling.

ìCommand presence,î a phrase made famous by the late slash-and-burn GOP operative Lee Atwater, for whom Rove once worked, no longer seems operative as an unscripted W.43 blinks when asked questions about his deputy White House chief of staff.

Second-term American presidents often begin to self-destruct in their fifth year. Bushís unwavering reliance on a tiny inner circle of loyalists has put him in harmís way. Harriet Miers is one potential front-page example; Karl Rove may be another.

Campaign Hollywood

14 October 2005 |permalink | email article

NYT, in todayís edition, does a front pager on the celebrity-tinged aspect of the unpopular special election that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for Nov. 8.

ìArnold Says Yes, Warren Says Noî adds Rob Reiner to the nay side and is a good update on several recent posts by me over the past two months on the injection of Hollywood into the roiled California electoral scene.

Steven J. Ross, a USC professor of history who is writing a book about Hollywood and politics, says while such celebrity clashes have been a part of the landscape since the 1930ís, ìthe box office has often been seen as more powerful than the ballot box.î

Dean Murphyís piece contains the trivia that while the Terminator and Meathead have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Bulworth (I call him the Goad because of his tenacious assault) does not. How come?

Terminator and Goad
Goliath Becomes David
Paging Warren Beatty
Ask Arnold
Arnold in Harmís Way
Incredible Shrinking Man