Karenna Gore to Run for Congress?

In 1997, my secret crush on Karenna Gore ended.  She got married. We’ve never met and she has no idea who I am, but in my own delusional, imaginary world, I was certain I had a shot.

During the 2000 election, as she worked on her father’s campaign, I wondered why the father could not be more like the daughter.  When interviewed or speaking on the campaign trail, Karenna was bright, knowledgeable, well-spoken, idealistic, genuine, affable and photogenic.  Her father, on the hand, was overly coached, calculated, pedantic, arrogant, and horribly disingenuous, most notably in the primary against Bill Bradley.

According to TPM, Karenna Gore Schiff is considering running for the House of Representatives.  Bravo!

P.S. Since 1997, I found an exceedingly bright, articulate, charming, generous and photogenic wife!

- SF

On Tolerance

Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic thinks about tolerance.

The conservative movement has never gotten “tolerance.” They think tolerance is something you do as a favor for someone else, that it’s a slogan, that it involves appointing a showman who employs ancient slang. They don’t understand. Tolerance is about warfare–it makes your army bigger than the other guy’s army. It gives you access to weaponry that your enemies have seemingly never heard of (like, the internet).

Liberal Tolerance is the long war, it’s the long game. It’s Barack Obama, at his core. Liberal tolerance–not Jesse Helms–argued for interracial unions. Liberal tolerance is what allowed Obama to neutralize Rev. Wright, and make his race speech. Liberal tolerance is what allowed him to go to Notre Dame and talk with empathy about abortion. Liberal tolerance bets on the future. It presages that world (the world of today) that the GOP has spent very little time preparing for.

I think Coates has hit on something here. We often see political correctness run amok, and I sense that most advocates of affirmative action concede that in practice, affirmative action has a way of undercutting the racial or socioeconomic harmony that it intends to foster. In any event, the issue deserves a more nuanced treatment than it gets on cable news or talk radio. But the fact that the Left has embraced the concept of tolerance – even if it has embraced it clumsily or taken it too far at times – is having an impact on today’s politics.

The reaction to Sonia Sotomayor (e.g., hyperventilating over the “unnatural pronunciation” of her name, critiques of her diet, and her comments about the role of her life experiences in administering justice, etc.) highlights this. The GOP is dusting of a 1990s argument that Ms. Sotomayor is some kind of quota, unqualified for the job. But they’ve lept without looking. Sotomayor has a resume that parallels Samuel Alito’s and has more bench experience than any of the sitting justices had when they were nominated. And more fundamentally, the country seems to be beyond this argument. While the shrinking Right defaults to the affirmative action argument, the broader population is not as quick to assume that a minority candidate is underqualified. (You know guys, we just elected a black president.)

- MN

Enough About Earmarks

An accessible article from CNNMoney about earmarks

Earmarks are a source of abuse. Their importance is overblown. The real problem is that earmarks crowd out serious discussions about the budget.  Long term budget trends, specifically future Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security obligations, require serious debate, difficult choices and cuts.

Left unchanged, federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid alone, which now accounts for roughly 5% of GDP, is projected to grow to more than 6% in 2019 and to 12% by 2050, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And that doesn’t include the growing cost of Social Security and other government spending.

On Wednesday, President Obama announced earmark reforms that promote greater transparency. It’s a good first step.  It will be more effective if reinforced by a threatened or actual presidential veto.

It’s too late to combat the populist mistrust of earmarks.  Better to reduce the practice to only those instances where absolutely necessary. The sooner this happens, the sooner we can move on to something that matters — the long term budget crisis.

- SF

Fiscally Irresponsible Democractic Congressional Leadership

An overwhelming majority of economists supported the public stimulus plan. An even larger majority of economists, budget experts, investors and citizens are concerned about the sustainability of a federal budget deficit that will exceed 12.0% of U.S. GDP.

The Obama Administration separates the short term obligation to stimulate the economy from the longer term imperative to restore fiscal balance to the federal budget. Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Reid have been slow to embrace long term fiscal restraint.

President Obama intended to announce a bi-partisan task force to address entitlement reform. Speaker Pelosi and other Democratic leaders oppose benefit reductions. The future of the task force is uncertain.

Congress is working on a $410 Billion Omnibus Bill to fund the federal government to the end of its fiscal year in September 2009. The bill includes $8 Billion of earmarks for 8,500 pet projects. Senator Reid defends the earmarks as a legitimate method of directing funding.

While true that earmarking places greater control on funding disbursement, it has become synonymous with abuse and waste. Why do it? Ordinary citizens don’t care that Republicans used earmarking to deliver pork to their districts for 6 years when in control of the House, Senate and White House. Earmarks are easy targets for populist anger. Eventually, one party must resist its worst instincts and reform itself. Doing so would demonstrate that Congress is serious about spending restraint and deficit reduction.

Congressional Democrats have an opportunity to define entitlement reform. It’s not a question of whether it happens, but a question of when and how. Speaker Pelosi would be wise to lead rather than obstruct the process.

A moral society does not borrow from future generations to pay for current consumption. Americans are desperate for competent, principled leaders willing to make difficult and unpopular decisions. Unless Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid and other Congressional Democrats embrace deficit reduction, they are headed for a short tenure in the majority.

- SF