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April 4, 2005The Scream and The Kiss and DecencyA little over two years ago, as our country was marching towards war, my wife and I found ourselves getting involved in politics supporting a candidate that stood up for opinions contrary to the prevailing opinions of the time. He was a man who stood for decency and spoke his mind. Over the following year he went from being an asterisk to being the superstar front-runner. It is an oversimplification to speak of Gov. Dean’s campaign as being an anti-war campaign and it is an oversimplification to speak of The Scream as the one media event that took him down. However, it is important to look closely at The Scream and think about what really happened there. As I noted in my entry, Interactive Deliberation, Edward Wasserman, Knight professor of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University wrote a wonderful op-ed piece about this. He wrote, “In fact the Dean Scream was a fraud, probably the clearest instance of media assassination in recent U.S. political history... the Dean Scream incriminates the entire professional mission of television news, which is built around the primacy of the picture. TV producers don't profess to offer meaning and context; they get you the visuals, unless they're gory or obscene. The notion that great footage would be not shown just because it's profoundly misleading - that's a possibility few TV news executives would entertain.” Today, my wife and I find ourselves pondering a different scene. In the current political climate it is very popular to trash Senator Lieberman. Many people cite ‘The Kiss’ as the perfect symbol or what is wrong with Joe Lieberman. He is too cozy with the right wing extremists that have taken over the Republican Party. Let me propose a radical idea. Perhaps, The Kiss is another fraud, another instance, not quite as clear of media assassination. Like Howard, Joe is a person that speaks his mind and stands up for decency, including some pretty harsh words about the mainstream media. We may not always agree with what he says, or how he says it, but we have to respect him for it. My wife and I are trying to arrange a meeting between Senator Lieberman and our progressive friends. Some have no interest in speaking to Senator Lieberman. Most are interested in the event only as a chance to berate him on recent votes and quotes. Unfortunately it is only a few that are interested in a constructive dialog about how he can help us take our country back. Many of my friends resist the idea of dialog with the administration concerning Iraq. They want our troops home now. They want their elected officials to vote against any more supplementary spending bills. Senator Lieberman is not likely to vote with them on this and trying to convince him may be a lost cause. However, can we convince him to tie supplemental spending to other methods of bringing peace, such as debt relief and development aid? If we can’t convince him of the wisdom of bringing the troops home now, can we work towards saner internationalization, such as building stronger ties to the United Nations and not supporting John Bolton as the next ambassador to the United Nations? Can we get him to provide hope to progressive Democrats instead of talking points for the Republican right wing extremists on national television? For the past few years, I have been looking for a candidate that will stand up for decency. I supported Gov. Dean because of his plainspoken call for decency, and I have been looking for someone to deliver our generations equivalent Joseph Welch’s famous “Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” Could Joe Lieberman effectively deliver this rebuke to the Neo-Joe McCarthyites? It would be great if he would. My wife and I met with Senator Lieberman last week as we worked on arranging a dialog between the Senator and our progressive friends. On Sunday, my wife was at a NARAL fundraiser where she spoke with Senator Lieberman. Her comment to him was something to the effect of, “We will work to elect the most progressive Senator from Connecticut possible. It would be great if you could be that Senator.” Senator Lieberman then kissed my wife on the cheek, similar to the now infamous kiss. Many of my friends may not believe that Senator Lieberman can or should be the most progressive Senator from Connecticut. They will work in the primaries to find a more progressive candidate. I support their effort. As I wrote earlier, primaries are an important part of the political process and we must embrace them. At the same time, I will work to try and remind Senator Lieberman of his progressive roots and bring him back to being a leader fighting for progressive politics. I hope that we can begin a dialog to talk about how we can get Senator Lieberman to fight for progressive causes. What should we say in this dialog? Comments
Dean Scream Aldon, In general I agree with you, but on this one the facts do not support the case, at least with respect to "The Scream". Fact: Dean had NOT been prepared properly with two well rehearsed speeches. 1]a victory thank you; 2] a thoughtful concession. He should have gone on stage with two speeches in his jacket. He did NOT! Fact: Trippi failed Dean in this respect and Dean apparently did not know enough to demand this preparation. Why? What "The Scream" revealed was that Dean was not yet ready for media prime time and was not savvy enough to know that he had to play to audience beyond the cameras. Fact: Lincoln knew this in his debates with Douglas when he adjusted his speech style to reach the readers beyond the telegraph key. Rumor: The top pros in the Dean campaign were aware that they were going to lose Iowa well ahead of time. If this is true, not properly preparing Dean to take full advantage of a room full of cameras to take his case directly to millions of viewers beyond Iowa is almost criminal negligence. Frankly, there was no excuse for the scream. Until Democrats stop blaming the media and understand it was their lack of professionalism that is responsible, they will have a tough time dealing with the hash demands of national campaigns. In general, one of the key factors that sank the Dean campaign was a refusal by top management to bring enough tough and battle hardened campaign master sergeants to run an effective boot camp to turn thousands of wonderful and passionate supporters into front line political operatives who knew how to win. As a result, the orange hats marched off to be slaughtered. And they were. Posted by: Jock Gill at April 4, 2005 8:28 AMJock, it seems as if you completely missed the point. I would encourage you to read Professor Wasserman's op-ed about the journalistic ethics of the coverage of the Dean Scream. Granted, Dean should have been given two speeches and been better prepared for the evening. However, that does nothing to negate the issues of journalistic fraud that Professor Wasserman writes about. Nor does that say anything about the broader issue of how the media maybe damaging Senator Lieberman as well. Just as many people say there is no excuse for the scream, many people say there is no excuse for the kiss. If anything, you perhaps are inadvertently strengthening my argument. Posted by: Aldon Hynes at April 4, 2005 9:45 AMAldon, I agree that the Media had a field day tormenting Dean, especially after his rather aggressive comments about the media in December of 2003. One of the first lessons to be learned in the media business is never pick a fight with anoyone who buys ink by the barrel, much less air time by the decade. It is also the case, in our society where corporations are under tremendous pressure to deliver 15% compounded profit growth every year, that corporate media are under tremendous pressure to SELL ads. Nothing like a good circus to sell ads. Of course this dos not excuse bad behavior on anybody's part, but it is useful to avoid giving the opponents free mud to throw at you. If you are smart about the context you are operating in, you can be more practical. That was my only point. Posted by: Jock Gill at April 4, 2005 10:57 AMAldon, I don't think there is anything that Lieberman can do short of a full mea-culpa on both his support for the war and his support for both Gonzales and Rice. In my opinion, Joe no longer shares progressive values and is too much in the pockets of the Corporations that own our government. Joe seems to care more about his career then he does about the liberal values he once stood for. I sincerely think the best thing Joe could do at this point would be to step down gracefully and let another Progressive that has a fire in their belly take the senate seat. Posted by: terhuxtim at April 4, 2005 5:26 PMAldon, Our effort is no longer a few "outsiders Sniping at Joe" but a widespread dissatifaction within the party with the representation and rhetoric they are getting from Joe Lieberman . Joes reception and proformance at the CT.State Central meeting referred to here ( http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14281143&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=6 ) proves this. Joe,while never admitting to being a NeoCon, certainly comes close to it to admitting the truth here ( http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/index.ssf?050321fa_fact ).When ask if he was becoming a NeoCon Joe answered "No,but some of my best freinds are neocons". I sure wish he would name his "Best Freinds"since in most cases they have significant influence on ones decisions. if Joe is truly interested in advice from the progressive part of the party I think most would agree with the following Advice 1)Stay the hell off TV and particulary The Republican Parties Mouthpeice FOX. 2)Speaking TO instead of AT the people of CT is your responsibility and representing THEIR VIEWS is your job.Most people aren't members of the Chamber of Commerce or corperate boards and aren't going to donate thousands of dollars to your many, many campaigns but still deserve at least 1 OPEN TO THE PUBLIC meeting in their congressional district per yr to PUBLICLY express their views.After all, You gave every person in New Hampshire that opportunity multiple times while the people of CT. WERE PAYING YOU TO REPRESENT THEM in the senate in 2003-2004. 3)Apologize Disarming Iraq. Long before President Bush came into office, Senator Lieberman was making a compelling case for removing the threat posed by Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Senator Lieberman served as lead Democratic cosponsor of the 1991 Gulf War Resolution. In 1998, he teamed up with Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to enact the Iraq Liberation Act, which stated that regime change in Iraq was U.S. policy. And in the fall of 2002, Senator Lieberman was a lead sponsor of a resolution authorizing the President to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam. This Bill was an abomination.Never before in the History Of the US has " regime change " been the stated foreign policy of our government towards a country we were not at war with and I believe it to be Unconstitutional.
1)asking your wife to resign from Hill and Knowlton,the same company that brought us the phoney incubator stories in Gulf War 1. 2)asking your son to immediately join the army (the age was just raised for eligibility to 40) and make him demand he put in the most dangerous job in Iraq.Show us that you so believe in this war that you would demand your own be in harms way.
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