Tom Watson

24,000 Words

There are two more photo albums posted - a dozen pictures each from New Orleans and from Gloucester, Massachusetts - two places we love to visit. I post these mainly for myself and to share them with friends. They're digital pics taken with a trusty point-and-shoot FujiFilm camera; some are tweaked very slightly in Photoshop. The TypePad software works very well, and I really enjoy it. You can find the links on the lower right side of the page. This one was taken on Dauphine Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, very early in the morning. Comments welcome.

The Old Ball And Cheney

Vice-President Dick Cheney will be the biggest drag on power in the second Bush Administration. No kidding. Not because of the dark advice he will give to the President (though there is that), or because of the inordinate amount of power he wields in an increasingly weakened cabinet (mega-ditto). No, it's because he will never run for President himself. He's a political dead end street - a walking remainders bin memoir in an oxygen mask (ok, that may be a bit mean, but he is the dark lord, after all).

In Bush II, Cheney is all liability because he takes away one of the best arguments of Congressional maneuver of Bush I - namely that if you don't go along with me, they may beat me next time out and by God we can't have that. Fact is, George W. Bush has no political successor, so the posturing for 2008 goes way, way beyond the White House and uncuts his so-called mandate. He has no leverage; what he has is an ever-emboldened, always-widening corps of Republicans who arise each morning in their silk sheets thinking one Republican thought: "Heck, if W can do it, I certainly can." If there's one thing I learned in a decade of political reporting, it's this - it's always about the next race.

And that regiment of GOPers - virtually anyone you've ever heard of without an implanted defibrillator in his or her chest (ok, I know, not fair) - just grows and grows, especially as Hillary gears up. The short list is long: McCain, Frist, Delay, Rice, Powell, Giuliani, Dole (Elizabeth), Shelby, Grassley, Bloomberg, Pataki, Hagel, Ashcroft, Kemp, Watts, Tom K., Santorum, and Fitz (gratuitous, I know).

Todd Purdum's piece in today's NYT week in review talks about all the power and pitfalls of owning the White House and both houses of Congress. Even Newt Gingrich weighs in on the risks (a bit gleefully it seems, but then he knows a fair bit about failed mandates). But this President hasn't been sworn in for his second term and cracks are showing in the Republican hegemony - over security, over the budget, over aid to states. Turns out "red" includes all the hues from pink to deep scarlet. And they're already beginning to toe the line for the big '08 sweepstakes, with serious fundraising set to begin in about 20 months. And there's no Big Dick at the starting line....

UPDATE: Have never typed these words (must....continue....to type....Kryptonite....weakening.....hands....) but Robert Novak agrees with me. Here's his take, via Munir Umrani:

"It is indeed a different world on Capitol Hill since November 2. Loyal Bushites are newly candid -- though not for public attribution -- in criticizing the president's performance on intel reform. They say a word from the White House is no longer sufficient because [President George W] Bush's political fate no longer is paramount for them. He never again must be tested by the voters, even as House members undergo that ordeal biennially. The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution has rendered Bush a lame duck.

The Sexiest Republican

Bree Van De Kamp is one tall, cool drink of water. Resplendent in silky red hair, classic Jackie Kennedy dresses and pumps, with a martini in hand in her picture-perfect Colonial, Bree is the glamour girl of Republican America - a security mom living in suburbia, concerned with safety and family values. Tax breaks and a war without homefront sacrifice: those are her policy choices. Maybe. But something darker lurks. Brilliantly portrayed by 43-year-old actor Marcia Cross, Bree is the moral center of life in Desperate Housewives, ABC's brilliant adult comic soap operate on Sunday nights. She aims for perfection as her own personal life crumbles in a crossfire of secrets, and sexual dysfunction, and tragedy. She is at the middle of a terrific ensemble cast that includes Teri Hatcher and Felicity Huffman, two wonderful actors also portraying real women who lives are eminently more believable than a second of those lived by the babes in Sex and the City. More likeable as well (well ok, I did like Miranda). More red state as well, or at least the producers (no red staters they) would have us believe. What these Americans want is career advancement, romance, sex, cars, cell phones, and nice gardens. No wonder that ratings of this hit series are even better in, for example, Salt Lake and Kansas City than they are in L.A. and New York City. Does the sex and suburban treachery make these values-voting Americans blush? Nope - it makes them watch. It makes them wonder, and it makes them nod their heads in recognition of the commonality in these lives. Sure, it's parody and a comic success of the highest order (I haven't missed an episode). But I do wonder about the apparent hypocrisy of this view...if it's hypocrisy at all. For those of us in the "liberal elite," some of the research we need on the cultural wars in America is tuning in Sunday nights at 9 pm. I think blue staters tend to think our red state brethren rather simple in their tastes, all Jesus and Budweiser and Chevy and Remington. In truth, Desperate Housewives represents a more complicated view of the real moral situation out there. And the truth is this: Bree Van De Kamp is the major domo Republican of the network TV media, the sexy counterpart to the West Wing's CJ Craig. Complicated. Unattainable. And watchable. Very watchable.

UPDATE: I've argued with him over other stuff, but Jeff Jarvis nails one prominent Republican ass (that of the eminent phony Brent Bozell, not the luscious Bree Van de Kamp) to the wall over programs like Desperate Housewives in this must-read post, appropriately labelled King Prig.

Zevon vs. Jarvis & Rather

Ah, man you have to love these blogs. Just when you get cynical about the claims about citizen's media, about the running out of town of Dan Rather on a digital rail by the self-appointed blogging posse, by the whole blind side toward big media by small media, it all comes together in a small, wonderful moment. As Jarvis and I and about a dozen guests argued about liberalism, CBS, the networks, the digital sans coulottes, the conversation itself swam through the digital underworld. Wolcott picked up on it. Dash and Umrani and Wilson weighed in. Some of my regulars stopped by, and many of Jeff's did. (And it's a good conversation, so please weight in on either site). Then the unexpected. The folks who run WarrenZevon.com - his friends and family and colleagues - popped a link to my site into their own discussion of Rather. And it came full circle. When I started this little blog almost a year ago, I was listening to Zevon's mortal farewell, The Wind, almost constantly. When it came time to type in a tagline for the site, "My Dirty Life & Times" seemed to flow naturally - a tribute to the brilliant and the dead, a remembrance of the wildness of younger days (as was that Zevon song), as well as a humorous attempt at perspective, knowing all the while that true perspective is illusory. I've never been more thrilled by a little old hyperlink. So Jarvis old buddy, I have you to thank - and you're right about one thing: it is about the conversation.

Free Martha Stewart

We are about to sit down to roasted turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, gravy, fresh corn, brussel sprouts, roasted zucchini, corn bread, tapioca pudding, ginger cookies, pumpkin pie, fresh cream, and ginger cookies. The place settings are simple but handsome. Tasteful. We started with a light pinot noir and are now well into the syrah and the cabernet. And one thought unites us, one cause, one woman's plight, one American verity. Free Martha Stewart! Yes, she's rich. Yes, she's successful. Yes, she's a woman. Yes, she can be annoying. Yes, she lied. Yes, she's the ultimate symbol of individual capitalist success in America. She is also a political prisoner in my book. She is a victim of the particular subsection of prosecutorial zeal that proclaims: let this woman be the example for polite society, let her wear the scarlett letter, let her be a foundation for my pathetic government/political career. (Note: let the record show that Karen Patton Seymour, the lead prosecutor, is cashing in on her Martha case with a big deal at Sullivan & Cromwell. Do not use this law firm.) Set Martha free today. Happy Thanksgiving.

Rather vs. Jarvis

The resonant chuckles of gloating satisfaction settled over New York, scattering on the digital winds in the perverse pornography of pleasure at someone else's misfortune. Dan Rather got his. The right was right. The Bushes were vindicated. And bloggers were ascendant. What garbage. I'm especially disappointed in the self-appointed head executioner, uber-blogger Jeff Jarvis, whose anti-big media rant at the head of the fictional army of blogging sans coulottes reeks of wanna-be royalty leading his betters to the guillotine.

I like Jeff. His Weblog is generally a must-read - quite possibly the best of this genre - and lately, his campaign against the follies of this corrupt FCC administration has been heroic. But enough of the us-versus-them media class warfare. Jeff my man - you're not fighting them, you are them. Every other Jarvis post these days starts out with a variety of "I'm about to go on [fill in the old media/big media programming note here]" or "Posting this quickly from the green room..." You're a big media guy: former TV critic for TV Guide and People, creator of Entertainment Weekly, Sunday Editor of the New York Daily News, columnist on the San Francisco Examiner, and president and creative director of Advance.net, which "oversees the Internet vision and strategy for Advance Publications, Inc., includes CondéNet and Advance Internet." That's a heck of an upper bourgeois resume for a prolie revolutionary capitan on the barricades.

Which brings me to Rather. Jeff's post yesterday had that whiff of satisfaction: "Dan Rather is stepping down from his pedestal in March. Yes, bloggers deserve some credit...." For what? For getting Rather to retire from the anchor desk? Credit? Sure, bloggers had a role in working with Republican operatives to nail CBS for its pathetically shoddy reporting on the National Guard "documents" - a story that quickly overtook the actual truth, that with or without those documents, the basic story of George Bush's Vietnam-era service hasn't changed much since the last time it came up four years ago. The disgraceful CBS document-based story was merely additive, not revelatory in the slightest; it never advanced the ball. Not only were some of the documents used in the story fakes, but the news judgment of the news division in running the piece was disastrous.

CBS made a horrible mistake - just as other TV news outlets have made before, and will make again. It apologized, but the masses demand a reality-show level of "sincerity" - as if a multinational media company like Viacom is capable of emoting. It's all a pathetic little melodrama. And now for bloggers to treat Rather's retirement as the moral equivalent of the toppling of the Saddam statue in Baghdad is ludicrous. The monster has fallen.

Rather is no monster. He's a tough journalist who turned into an overpaid talking head who still wanted to keep his (very talented) reporter's hand in the game. Jarvis said last night:

Michael Wolff just said on MSNBC that Dan Rather will be remembered as a "seminal figure" in the history of network news and not for this story that he blew. He's alone in that. Everywhere I've turned on the dial tonight, the accepted view is that Rather is going because he blew it.

No Jeff, he's not alone in that. Wolff is entirely correct. Sure, Rather made enemies - but you know something, that's a good thing for a journalist, all in all. Hacks don't have enemies. They get along. Rather is no hack. He covered the largest stories of his generation personally, and single-handedly invented the widely-accepted conceipt of the big-time anchor on the scene for wars and disasters and funerals. I agree with JD's post:

Dan Rather is stepping down. This will bring glee in certain quarters of the blogosphere, but Rather was a newsman's newsman, and his fearlessness will be missed.

Rather's work will still be imitated for decades. The bloggers? Some, perhaps. But take no satisfaction: in my judgment, the house you seek to burn down is your own.

Playing Ball with Bush

I'll admit that this Yankee-loathing Mets fan was stirred by Curt Schilling's leadership and guts in leading the Red Sox past New York and the Cardinals for Boston's first world championship since 1918. You know the story, and the images - the bloody sock, the temporary tendon surgery, and the greatest comeback in sports history. And then Schilling, fresh from the victory parade, went to New Hampshire to campaign for Bush-Cheney ticket. Pop went that bubble.

There should have been no surprise. Pro athletes tend to be a fairly Republican bunch, and for all the traditional reasons: they're rich and desire to pay less in taxes. But in this year of the great culture war - of the battle between hard-core blue state people and red state people over so-called values - why did Bush yield such a bumper crop of ballplayers? And why don't they count as part of the entertainment elite? How come no one's writing a companion book to shrill conservative Laura Ingraham's Shut Up and Sing called Shut Up and Play?

If you're both a Democrat and a Yankee fan, you need to suspend any belief that the political actions of athletes make a difference, that your on-field heroes should align with your party affiliation. After all, Alex Rodriguez and Joe Torre each gave President Bush $2,000 toward reelection. Derek Jeter and Don Mattingly make several lists of prominent Republican athletes. GM Brian Cashman famously told Mike Lupica this season, "I'm a Republican." And George Steinbrenner - renowned (ok, convicted, as Billy Martin pointed out) for his support of Richard Nixon - gave $5,000 this cycle to the Florida Republican Committee. Buy hey, Steinbrenner also gave to the campaigns of Democrats Chuck Schumer and Charlie Rangel, and back-up first-baseman Tony Clark is an active Democrat.

Being a Mets fan and political southpaw is no easier. Al Leiter is planning a political career in the GOP, Tom Glavine supported Bush (even though his parents are Kennedy Democrats from Massachusetts), and Mike Piazza publicly cheered when the Republican convention came to town. Fred Wilpon gave a couple grand to Bush-Cheney (but as with the Boss, also gave to Schumer).

Carlos Beltran, Nolan Ryan, Craig Biggio, Jack Nicklaus, Karl Malone, Roger Staubach, Ernie Banks. Just a few of the famous athletes who endorsed Bush this year, although not many give their riches to politicians. John Kerry? A couple of gymnasts no one's ever heard of. NFL player and Bush supporter Jason Sehorn (the former Giant) explained it this way:

"In most of the locker rooms you'll find a little more Republican (support) than Democrat, at least thinking and leaning towards that way. I think because we understand that, you know, we're very capable and adept at taking care of ourselves, and we don't need somebody to place a lot of regulations. I mean, put things in place so I can take care of myself and protect me."

Ethnicity seems to have nothing to do with it; indeed, nowhere has the Republican Party made such strong inroads with black and Hispanic than with pro athletes. Tiger Woods is reportedly leaning Republican, and is the topic of speculation about his relationship with President Bush and a future political career on the GOP side of the ledger. Why? Well, take the example of slugger Frank Thomas, who told the Chicago Tribune in 1996 that he came from a family of Democrats but started voting straight Republican. "I'm a rich man now," Thomas told the paper. "It's bad to say that, but it's the truth. Taxes are out of hand for people making a certain amount of money."

Or Tiger's friend Charles Barkley, who has hinted that he's interested in running for governor of Alabama as a Republican. When Barkley's mother complained to him that only the rich were Republicans, he said, "Mama, I am the rich."

It's not all grim and doom on the Democrats' side. Michael Jordan backed Barak Obama's bid for the Senate early on, in the primary. Lance Armstrong came out against Bush and the Iraq war. Larry Bird campaigned for Democratic candidates in Indiana. And the owners of the Red Sox gave early and gave often to the campaign of native son John Kerry. Greats like Hank Aaron, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi and Franco Harris are all active Democrats. We're not shut out completely.

I like the sports for the action and in the case of baseball, for the poetry. I'm not going to root on the basis of politics. And while I admit I'm long past the age of identifying with athletes on a personal level, I'd prefer the locker rooms of my favorite teams to be a bit more politically balanced, like the electorate itself.

But there is something to this GOP jockocracy thing and it's not going away. Does it go beyond the protect-my-fortune instinct? I'm not sure - let me know what you think - but as I ponder this I can't help but recall my all-time favorite Republican and my all-time favorite baseball player are the same person. Yes, Jackie Robinson voted GOP.

In Praise of Chuck

There's a silver lining in many political losses, and for me, the glint of silver in this year's disastrous Democratic defeat is the ascendency of the Democrats in my home state, New York. And at the top of that pyramid of middle-progressive politicians is the Brooklyn Grinder, Senator Charles Schumer. The Republicans in New York are in wonderful disarray, from Albany on down. And while Hillary Clinton gets the gossip column boldface type and the '08 speculation, Chuck Schumer gets the on-the-ground respect. Evidence: the national party leaned on him this week, got him to give up his potential race for the Governship, and convinced him to hunker down in the Senate, raise money, and fight to take back the upper chamber. I say this without a degree of wishful thinking: now that Chuck's in the job, it's better than even money, and I'm taking mid-term gains in '06 to the bank. Schumer gets credit for a few assets in my book. For one, he always shows up - always. Two, he asks for money and gets it. Three, he works across the aisle. I've met Schumer a few times, in my earlier reporting career, at Fred Wilson's house, at NYSIA events, most recently, at the Al Smith dinner. As I said, he always shows up. Got a dollar? Want to double it? Bet on Chuck.

UPDATE: Fred Wilson references this item and adds some more thoughts on Schumer, all of which I agree with, here.

Strat-o-matic Smash

If the Red Sox can win the World Series, I can win the blasted online version of Strat-o-matic, just once. Or so I thought as I faced Game 7 versus the feared New Caladonia Pirates, they of the 107-win season, led by Joe Dimaggio and a pitching staff with Roger Clemens, Pete Alexander, and Eddie Ciccotte.

The background for the unitiated: SportingNews.com runs the online Strat-o-matic franchise, an entrancing baseball simulation game of dice and player cards that geeks like me have played for decades. Back in my Columbia days, we'd pass many a late night and early morning in Livingston playing Strato-o. Rance Mulliniks and Damaso Garcia versus Gorman Thomas and Ken Singleton. Chinese food. Bob Newhart marathons. A stack of 10 Rolling Stones LP's played through, turned over as one, and played through again. The sun rising over Carman. You get the ugly picture.

You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you find - some cold, moldering takeout from La Bella China in the fridge.

These days, the action is online and it costs $25 a season to play. And so I have, with some of my old Strato buddies from back in the day. I used to be quite good, a canny "on-field" manager who got the most from the unique 20-sided die and midlin' players like Tim Foli. But the online game has absolutely flummoxed me, to the tune of a few hundred dollars spent - and zero championships. Nada. A sub-.500 record of less-than-mediocrity.

See, the online game is played in 3-game series, governed by Hal, the software simulation engine, with results posted the next morning. You draft your team, make some trades, adjust player settings and sit back and hope. Didn't work for me; indeed, I was horrible.

Until the mighty Mount Vernon Telecasters (well, their seventh iteration anway). This was an old-timers team, chosen from among the greats. And man, did it hit its way to 94 wins and a division title. Willie Mays ('62 Giants) led the way with 69 homers and 183 RBI. Rickey Henderson ('90 A's) smacked 52 HRs, drove in 122, stole 47 bases, and scored 166 runs from the lead-off spot. George Brett ('80 Royals) gave me 53 HR, 148 RBI while hitting .355. Mel Ott, Roy Campanella, Eddie Collins, and Pee Wee Reese had terrific years. But the pitching? Let's just say this year's pre-Pedro Yankees had better starters. Enough said.

So I slugged my way to Game 7 - by far the closest to a championship in two dozen "seasons." Game went into the seventh inning tied and then off the bench came Jim Dwyer. And my friends, it wouldn't be Mays or Brett or Ott playing the hero. No, it was Jim Dwyer, going yard, the shot heard 'round the Long Ball League. And my long Strat-o-matic nightmare was at an end.

Mourning Margaret Hassan

The horrible, breaking news just flashed across my e-mail. Margaret Hassan, the kidnapped human rights worker from CARE, has been killed in Iraq, according to British authorities. Hassan, who was born in Ireland and had lived in Iraq for 30 years and held duel citizenship in the U.K., was kidnapped on October 19 by a group that did not identify itself.

Who was Margaret Hassan, aside from a name in the headlines, a grainy video clip of an accomplished woman in her 50s begging for her life, another small chapter in the Iraqi civil war horror? Here are some clues, presented in memoriam...

From BBC:

Her friend Felicity Arbuthnot, a film-maker who has travelled to Iraq to document Mrs. Hassan's work, described her as "an extraordinary woman."

"She is one of those slender people with a spine of steel," she said.

"She stayed there through the 1991 war, the bombings last year, all the horrors of the embargo.

"She has tremendous presence. If there is anybody who can build a rapport with whoever these people are, she will."

From CARE:

"It is important to note that she has been providing humanitarian relief to the most needy Iraqis in a professional career spanning more than 25 years. She has been on the ground helping the poor in Iraq for over 25 years."

From the Times of London:

“She did not shy away from saying what help the Iraqi people needed. But she always knew which way the wind was blowing and managed to avoid the political and security pitfalls swirling around,” said Will Day, chief executive of CARE International UK until earlier this year, who worked closely with Mrs Hassan for years.

She had built her own “bunker” in her house, but was mindful of the Iraqi families who didn’t have such protection.

Even at the height of the air raids on Baghdad, she would travel around government departments in the city offering assistance to local officials who had helped her in the past and lobbying them to ensure that fresh water was available in the main hospitals.

This was true charity, a real commitment to changing the world in a non-violent manner. We are poorer this afternoon.