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June 30

Me and The Nation

Rush Limbaugh has found fault with my opinions more than once, which I expect and enjoy. But I’ve long felt neglected by the ninnies on the left who haven’t had an original thought in three decades. They also have this tic of characterizing views they do not like as “typical.” Typical of what, they never specify.

Anyhow, I welcome the recent attack on my column asserting that a President McCain probably wouldn’t want to get involved in overturning Roe v. Wade, and that Democrats would stop him if he did. My attacker is Katha Pollitt, resident feminist at The Nation. I won’t go through her arguments here. See what she said and also what I said.

I do want to comment on one of her lines, though. She writes: “A vote for McCain would be the ultimate face-spitting nose-cutoff.”

This is awesome coming from a Nation fixture, who in 2000 was terribly, terribly torn between supporting Ralph Nader — and possibly throwing the election to George Bush — and voting for that monster Al Gore.

Granted, Pollitt didn’t extend the full-throated support to Nader’s spoiler candidacy that her Nation colleague Barbara Ehrenreich did. As Ehrenreich wrote back then, “What I fear most about a Gore victory — yes, I said victory — is its almost certainly debilitating effect on progressives and their organizations.” I’m sure many cared deeply about progressives and their organizations.

I don’t have the Nation piece in which Pollitt offered her official position — and wasn’t about to pay for it — but the Internet did disgorge her e-mail response to a reader in July 2000. In it, she discusses her qualms about voting for Nader but ends with “of course gore is horrible.”

* * *

I am pro-choice, and that on that issue, Obama is undeniably better than McCain. But it’s not the only issue, and as I write… well, read it. On some important issues (energy and electoral reform, for instance), McCain is more progressive. And he is good on the environment.

Making comparisons more difficult is the fact that Obama has made 180-degree turns on nuclear energy, trade, campaign finance reform, gun control and other positions he campaigned on two months ago.

I haven’t decided who I will support, but let me say this: Al Gore would have made a wonderful president. I happily voted for him.

1:23 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

June 17

Some unity
By now you've seen the Obama rally at which Mr. Big's supporters booed Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm when she attempted to say nice things about Hillary Clinton.

It made me feel sorry for Obama. It really did.

6:49 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

June 13

Sexism
The New York Times piece about sexism and the Clinton campaign represents several sides of the argument. But like most such efforts, it only talks to media vice presidents, journalism deans, executive directors of organizations and a smattering of news celebrities.

Missing is a conversation with the ordinary women who grew appalled by the open season for misogyny that characterized the recent campaign. One didn't have to be a Clinton fanatic or even female to identify the liberties taken --- from dismissive and patronizing comments by Obama himself to crude slurs hurled at women, particularly older ones, wearing Hillary stickers. Many of the Clinton campaigners I interviewed for a recent column didn't want me to include their names or home towns for fear of harassing phone calls from the unbuttoned male ids of the Obama camp. (They didn't make it into the column because I almost never use anonymous quotes.)

The crazy part is that these women were loyal Democrats, overwhelmingly ready to move over to Obama should Clinton lose, and no Democratic leader stood up to criticize the nastiness. It was just assumed that the ladies would fall in line and lick the envelopes for whoever became the candidate.

I'll have a lot more to say on this.

6:25 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

June 12

Furthermore

I find it curious that Kevin Drum took issue with my column, and quoted The Carpetbagger Report's Steve Benen who took issue, and offered a link to Benen's complete thoughts on the matter, but didn't include a link to the column itself-- or even quote from it -- so that others could form their own opinions.

As I ask on the Political Animal site, "Do you boys only talk to each other?"

Let me add in defense of Benen that he did link to the original column.

1:20 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

I didn't say that.
I've been getting lots of guff for a recent column proposing the idea that Roe v. Wade would probably survive a McCain presidency. Some of the displeasure reflects sincere disagreement, but much of the heated response indicates a misreading, often willful, of what I actually wrote -- or no reading at all.

Kevin Drum writes in Washington Monthly's Political Animal:

           "One of the inexplicable side effects of John McCain's maverick reputation is the number of people who believe — or, perhaps, desperately want to believe — that he's basically pretty moderate on abortion rights. Columnist Froma Harrop is one of them, but Steven Benen sets the record straight..."

I said no such thing. My thesis is that however McCain feels about abortion, as president he probably wouldn't look for Supreme Court nominees itching to overturn Roe, and that if he did, Senate Democrats would stop him. Furthermore, his past statements point to more flexibility on the issue than is widely recognized. Sorry fellas, but nuance is time-consuming.

Well, read the column. The only thing I'll add is that large segments of the religious right continue to revile McCain, suggesting that many in this group don't feel they have him in their pocket.

BTW, Steve, I don't "plan to support John McCain." Where did you get that? I've said on this blog that I might support McCain. There's a difference, you know.

4:47 AM GMT  |  Read comments(2)

Friday, May 23 5:15 p.m.

Friends in Seattle: I'll be on the David Boze Show on KTTH after 4 p.m. PST.

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Froma Harrop

So I have heard and do in part believe it. -- Hamlet's friend