Satire and stupidity

By Jennifer J. Foster

You might have heard about this dust-up going on within the Republican National Committee about a CD sent to RNC members by a chairman candidate.

Ordinarily, chairman candidates run very boring, very predictable campaigns that are interesting and noteworthy only to those who: 1) Will vote for chairman; 2) Do business with the party; 3) Raise big money for the party; or 4) Spend big money raised by the party.

In other words, they are intra-party skirmishes that are driven by issues that would put outsiders to sleep.

But this year’s RNC chairmanship battle is different.

It was already drawing more attention than usual because of the party’s simply pathetic performance in the 2008 election cycle. Anytime pundits Monday-morning-quarterback your results with phrases like “party without a soul,“ it hasn’t been a good run. This year’s race for chairman is, the trite phrase notwithstanding, quite literally a fight for the soul of the party—not only in the sense of what it is, but whether it even has one anymore.

So that was the backdrop for this week’s version of Stupidity Run Amok.

Enter Chip Saltsman, a former state chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party and former campaign manager for Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign. Saltsman apparently thought it would be funny to send RNC members their own copies of “We Hate the USA,“ a collection of musical satires targeting Democratic politicians and other liberal figures.

One of the songs on the CD was “Barack the Magic Negro,“ set to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon.“

Saltsman offered the following in his defense: “I think most people recognize political satire when they see it. I think RNC members understand that.“

OK, I agree. Political satire is political satire. I haven’t heard “Barack the Magic Negro” or any of the other songs on “We Hate the USA.“ But I’m sure it’s nothing any more off-putting than other political satire.

And let’s remember the lesson we learned from our 11th-grade English teacher when she walked us through the vivid imagery of “A Modest Proposal:“ The more brutal/memorable/impactful the satire, the more effective it can be.

So I don’t take any offense at “Barack the Magic Negro.“ I don’t think Barack Obama would, either.

But in sending the CD as a gift to RNC members, Saltsman erred grievously.

He’s running to lead the national Republican Party. He wants to be charged with resource allocation, candidate recruitment, grassroots development, get-out-the-vote campaigns and a whole host of other party duties.

This is the judgment he displays?

One would think—one would hope, anyway—that someone who hoped to be charged with coming up with a plan to raise his party from the ashes would have better ideas than this.

Then you have current RNC chairman Mike Duncan, whose leadership is being challenged by Saltsman and the others.

Careening head-first into the scrum, Duncan released a self-important, stuffy statement shunning Saltsman’s stroke.

(Like that alliteration?)

“The 2008 election was a wake-up call for Republicans to reach out and bring more people into our party,“ RNC Chairman Mike Duncan said in a statement reported Saturday afternoon by Politico.

“I am shocked and appalled that anyone would think this is appropriate, as it clearly does not move us in the right direction.“

Blah, blah, blah.

Take a chill pill, Mike Duncan. Who appointed you chairman of the PC committee? You should just keep your mouth shut; let your opponents dig their own graves.

This is just another example of how seriously the Republican Party is hurting for leadership. At a time when the party needs to remind the American people—and itself—of its purpose, two of the men hoping to lead it are mired in a scandal over a song that sounds like “Puff the Magic Dragon.“

Somewhere this week, leaders of the Democratic National Committee are smiling.

I’m back!

By Jennifer J. Foster

Bet you thought I wasn’t coming back, didn’t you?

You’re not that lucky!

In addition to all the Christmas activities, we’ve been traveling a lot over the past 10 days. I’ve had literally no time to blog.

But don’t feel bad. You haven’t been far from my thoughts.

I may not have been able to write about them right away, but plenty of interesting things have happened since last we blogged. I’ll begin catching up with a few pieces tonight.

First off, since I didn’t have time to post it here last week, I figured I’d provide you with a link to my print column that appeared in the Opelika-Auburn News last Saturday:

Want a merry Christmas? Choose to have one

Yes, Christmas has passed. But the premise of the column still holds, no matter what day it is.

Today’s column is not yet available on the web, but I’ll post it when it comes up (probably Monday). It’s a New Year’s column, so that will suit you chronological sticklers better, anyway.

Stay tuned!

To EC, or not to EC?

By Jennifer J. Foster

By the way, Barack Obama is now officially President-elect Barack Obama: Delegates to the Electoral College met in state capitals around the country this week to seal the deal. But Obama’s victory won’t be super-official until Jan. 6, when Congress will tally the Electoral College results in a joint session. Pomp and circumstance, don’t ya know.

Every four years, we have a national whisper campaign about doing away with the Electoral College. Of course, in 2000, that whisper campaign became ... well, you know—a conflagration, a riotous uprising, a court calamity, etc. It’s SO boring when the Electoral College results match the popular vote!

Drama-less history notwithstanding, if you’d like to take this opportunity to gather your thoughts on whether we should deep-six the Electoral College, click here for a collection of editorials, op-eds and letters to the editor from folks around the country.

If you are 25 or younger, click here to find out what the Electoral College is all about ... because you probably weren’t paying attention when it was explained to the rest of us eight years ago.

That pesky, annoying media

By Jennifer J. Foster

CNN’s Campbell Brown has some words for President-elect Barack Obama about the way he’s treating reporters as the Blagojevich scandal unfolds.

Watch Brown’s commentary, which includes a clip of Obama displaying the behavior Brown discusses.

Brown says that as Obama has summarily dismissed reporters’ questions, he’s been “testy,“ “annoyed” and “intolerant” of topics he doesn’t like.

Given the way he’s gone to cutting off journos in mid-sentence, I would add one more adjective to the list:

Condescending.

If a reporter wants to “waste” (to use Obama’s word) his question in a news conference, so what? Those reporters are big boys and girls. It’s not Obama’s job to save them from themselves. If a reporter asks about Blago and Obama chooses not to answer, so what? The reporter asks the question, Obama says he can’t answer it, the reporter is passed over and they move on.

But it seems to bother Obama that the questions are even being asked. And that’s what Brown’s getting at here: He doesn’t get to pick the questions. He can choose, of course, whether to answer them. But determining who asks what is—shall we say, above his pay grade.

New poll

By Jennifer J. Foster

Hey folks, we have a new poll question this morning. Whom do you think New York Gov. David Paterson should appoint to succeed Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate? Scroll down and weigh in.

Need some background info on the “candidates” first? I’ve got you covered:

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo

Actress/activist Fran Drescher

U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)

Philanthropist Caroline Kennedy

U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)

New York City teachers’ union president Randi Weingarten

If you have other names of folks you think Paterson should consider, toss them in in comments, and I’ll add a bio link for them.