George Will Jumps The Shark
Well, not really, but it makes a a good headline. And that’s entirely the point, because I can’t believe such an astute observer as Will believes what he says. He profiles Russ Feingold, and mostly gets it right, including the happiness Republicans can take away from the antics of the progressives:
…[Feingold] has a problem to his left. The antiwar movement is apt to exert a perhaps ruinous gravitational pull on the 2008 intraparty competition.Cindy Sheehan, surely a Republican mole toiling to make the antiwar position repulsive, starred at a Washington rally that featured exactly two speakers from Congress — including Cynthia McKinney, the Georgia Democrat who darkly hints that President Bush may have known that the Sept. 11 attacks were coming and welcomed them as a boost for defense industry stocks owned by “persons close to” his administration.
Shark-jumping time coming up, though…right about…NOW!:
In 2008 the many Democratic activists who vibrate like tuning forks to such stimuli will find their Howard Dean, some firebrand who will force, or tempt, other candidates to move in his direction. If that person is not Feingold, the country could conceivably have this contest: McCain vs. Feingold.
And therein lies the great headline divorced from reality, for how can anyone run to the left of the Senate’s most certified liberal? Feingold IS 2008′s Howard Dean, and as such, he’ll suck out a lot of oxygen, and do his damnedest to wreck the Democrat’s hopes by pulling them left, but in the contest of Hillary vs. Not-Hillary, it’s Mark Warner who’s the favorite to play the part of the latter…
It was a cute idea, though, George…
After reading the whole Will article, I’m afraid I have to disagree with you, Mark. At least to me, Will seemed to be saying that if (and that’s a big “if”) Feingold does not sell out to the Antiwar movement, he might become the Democratic nominee. I think that’s right, because if he does become Dean ’08, then the party bigwigs will sink him the same way they sank Dean. On the other hand, if he does not become the antiwar poster boy, then he just might be seen as the “credible, responsible antiwar alternative” to whoever the antiwar hatemonger is at that time.
I think you’re right about Warner, but I’m just saying that to me the Will scenario is plausable
Pundit Roundtable
Hi folks, and welcome back to PUNDIT ROUNDTABLE. I am your host, Ken McCracken, and this week we present an ‘early election’ edition of the Roundtable,looking forward to the elections of ’06. The questions for our pundits this week…
Colin, I guess I just have a hard time seeing how Feingold, the most vocally anti-war candidate in the ‘serious’ field, can avoid becoming the darling of the anti-war crowd…unless some total kook pops up, and I guess that’s possible…
Bingo! Some wacko antiwar kook takes up Dean’s mantle, and that leaves Feingold in place like Kerry was. Not saying that this is what I think will happen, just saying I can see Will’s logic. Personally, I think if Feingold has a chance, it will be as the Dean (outsider, super-leftist) than as the Kerry of this race. That leaves Clinton to take up where Kerry left off (that’s when we see Healthcare Hillary put a stake through the heart of Hillary the Moderate).
Finding an even more voiciferous anti-war candidate wouldn’t be hard (two words: Barbra Boxer). Outmaneuvering around that candidate, like Kerry did in 2004, will prove impossible for Feingold.
Rusty’s problem is that he’s just too darn principled to engage in the naked opportunism that characterized Kerry’s entire candidacy. Feingold voted for John Roberts AND John “Satan” Ashcroft. Well, he voted to confirm the President’s choice, which was a perfectly defensible decision, but that’s not what the 30 second attack ad will say. And don’t forget his dissenting vote on the motion to dismiss the impeachment of President Clinton (the only Democrat to cross party lines). AND he lacks Al Gore or Howard “Yyyeaaahhhhh!!!!!!” Dean’s willingness to act like an escaped inmate at Arkham in order to show how ANGRY he is — an absolute must if one wants to capture the attention of today’s modern leftist.