A time to mourn, a time to mudsling
Campaign staffs for the U.S. Senate race practiced throwing darts at each other last week, possibly as a warm-up to this week’s campaign visit from President Bush.
It started innocuously enough Wednesday when U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt’s office sent out a press release in praise of Ronald Reagan, offering portions of the congressman’s speech on the House floor. No big deal. Everyone, their brother and their brother’s horse were saying great things about the late president.
Later in the day, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray’s campaign criticized Nethercutt for missing an Appropriations subcommittee vote on the spending bill for Homeland Security. The panel was voting on proposals to spend more on border and port security and Nethercutt was “mysteriously absent,” the campaign complained. “Where was George?”
It seems Nethercutt was off trying to save the state’s asparagus crop from cheap Peruvian imports as well as lauding Reagan on the House floor. Nethercutt issued another press release that detailed his letter demanding an International Trade Commission investigation of the asparagus affair.
The Nethercutt campaign accused Murray was disrespecting the memory of the late president by engaging in negative campaigning during a week of mourning.
“Even John Kerry has the decency to put the partisan politics on hold until President Reagan can be buried,” huffed campaign spokesman Alex Conant. “A strong leader would help the nation mourn.”
The votes Nethercutt missed, Conant added, were “symbolic Democratic amendments” that failed even without his vote, and the congressman was using his time better by meeting with state business leaders.
Waddaya mean symbolic? countered Alex Glass of the Murray campaign. They represented billions more for security measures, plus rules on baggage screening and chemical plant safety. Nethercutt was just making “excuses for not doing his job” after recent claims that he was tougher on defense than Murray.
From all of this back and forth, average voters – if they are paying attention – can probably discern the following bits of information:
“ Somewhere in the Book of Reagan, which has the 11th Commandment forbidding a Republican from speaking ill of another Republican, is apparently a 12th Commandment forbidding any candidate speaking ill of any other candidate when a former president is lying in state. Whether that’s a mortal or a venial sin may require a ruling from the Vatican.
“ Even if it is not OK to dis one’s opponent during a week of mourning, it is OK to dis the Peruvian asparagus growers.
“ Democrats think all Republicans on a subcommittee should be confined to meetings and wait around to vote against their amendments, not just the simple majority needed kill those proposals.
Blast from the past
For several days, inquiries about the possibility of President Bush coming to Spokane for a campaign event were met with a stock phrase from the Nethercutt campaign: “We can neither confirm nor deny a visit by the president,” they would say.
Which is funny only to anyone who dealt with the military over the last 50 or so years. “We can neither confirm nor deny” was the phrase the military always used when asked if nuclear weapons were present at a military installation.
And it almost always meant that, yes, we have nukes but we can’t tell you.
And buy our spuds for liberty fries
Nethercutt wants Iraq’s new prime minister to stiff the French and buy some airplanes from Boeing.
In a recent letter to Ayad Allawi, Nethercutt sent best wishes from all of Eastern Washington, and made a pitch for equipping the new national airline with U.S. jetliners.
“You have the full support of the people of Eastern Washington, whom I represent in Congress, and the American people,” Nethercutt said before explaining how important airlines are for an up-and-coming nation like Iraq.
Not that he’s telling the Iraqis something they don’t already know. Their government has set aside some $300 million to buy or lease some new planes, and Nethercutt read that one of Allawi’s ministers was chatting up the French to get them from Airbus.
Seems that Saddam Hussein had a deal before the first Gulf War to buy from Airbus. But Nethercutt says that shouldn’t matter.
“I urge you in the strongest terms not to be bound by a contract between Saddam’s regime and a company owned by a nation that resisted Iraq’s liberation,” he wrote. “The symbolism of a reborn Iraqi airline, launched with American-built aircraft, would not be lost on citizens of the United States.”
Not to mention the symbolism of buying planes from the company that made some of the bombers and fighters that lit up Baghdad in spring 2003 … or is that a bad selling point?