Dear David:
What a juicy morning, inside the Beltway anyway. Here you have Congress debating campaign finance reform by day, and feeding at the trough by night. How much did the Republicans raise last night? I understand the Democrats picked up a paltry million or so, while the Republican Congressional Committees were hoping for 10.
Ten million dollars. And why are they giving that money? We all know. Where is the outrage? Where is the leadership? Why doesn’t someone stand up there and say it’s gotta stop? Answer: because all the people who might were feeding at the trough last night.
My favorite story this morning, though, was the follow-up on Starr that quoted the letter Time magazine apparently sent last week in its effort to “open lines of communication” in order to establish an “off the record” relationship. In the letter, Time supposedly bragged that Starr should be nice to them because last week, they had done a story that “went pretty far to cast doubt on the charges of Starr leaks.”
The giant sucking sound you hear is louder than ever. I’m not a cynic. I’m just disgusted.
Speaking of disgusted, I never would have turned on X-rated adult television (translate: cable news) last night when playing cards with the kids except here we are in this dialogue, and I was up next, and my friend Barbara had left a message on my phone machine telling me that Gennifer was on Hardball looking beauteous.
And there she was. My friend Chris Matthews announced at the beginning of the show, we’re going to find out if the President lied about his relationship with Gennifer Flowers. How were we going to find that out? Don’t we already know? I had to turn the TV off in seconds (did the President really have sex with her–my eight year old sophisticate asked; thankfully, I don’t think she knows what sex is…But she does understand lying. Did the President lie? How about another game of Go Fish….)
The President forgot to mention the news when he was talking about television and violence the other day, blaming Hollywood just in time to arrive at Lew Wassserman’s (as in MCA/Universal) to raise a few hundred thousand…. Did anyone mention the little inconsistency of attacking Hollywood and taking Hollywood money on the same day…. I doubt it.
So what about Dick Armey this morning. I’m glad you don’t agree with Trent Lott’s views of homosexuality, but my greater concern is not with what the Bible says–as Dick Armey does chapter and verse–or what people believe in their hearts, but what public officials say and do. Reminds everyone I know why they’re Democrats, even on cynical Wednesday mornings… One more: the lawyers fees on tobacco. Now it was just Monday that the five conservative justices on the Court cast doubt on the ability to provide legal services to millions of people by holding that the accounts of small sums held by lawyers in trust for clients that would otherwise pay no interest, but are now being pooled in most states, with the interest going to fund legal services, constitute “property” within the meaning of the Constitution and can’t be “taken”–even though there would be nothing there without the pooling system–without due process, etc. So how about the property interests of lawyers who made agreements to represent the states on a contingency basis, at a time when the recovery was very much in doubt, in exchange for a share of the settlement. Do they have property interests too? Not according to the Republicans in Congress who are trying to kill tobacco legislation by taking on the lawyers. For myself, I find greed in any form so unattractive that I’d argue that the lawyers should set up their own charitable funds with the proceeds, rather than casting doubt on contingency fees etc., and make clear that they won’t reap the windfalls, but will use them for legal services, etc.
Dare I ask how many tobacco company tables there were at last night’s Republican dinner? Are they still number 1 in contributions, or are they trying harder? Doesn’t anyone have any shame?
Best, Susan
