archived: 22 - 28 Feb, 2004         Back                 Next

FEBRUARY 27, 2004 UPDATE

                        “On DOCTOR Dean”

            Greetings to the friends of The Political Junkies.  TPJ has been kind enough to invite me to become a regular contributor, and I am most honored to accept.  I tend to think and write in the analytical/historical realm, although I do occasionally get into “news-of-the-moment” issues as well.  But even those, I tend to deal with from the analytical/historical perspective. I also like to engage in strategic planning from time to time.  Thus Steve plans to have my stuff appear in the Thursday sub-issue, with which I am starting today.

            Most of the material that you will read under my by-line is mine.  But occasionally I will present some thoughts from a political historian friend of mine, sent privately to me over time, that I think are worthy of note.  It happens that he wants to remain anonymous in The Political Junkies context.  The material, edited by me, is used with his permission. His initials are “A.L.,” and his thoughts, with apologies to Ring Lardner, will appear in this column under the title “You Know Me, Al.” 

This first piece, entitled “On DOCTOR Dean,” is one of his.  It was written in May, 2003, just after that first nine-person debate in South Carolina, I believe it was, that was generally viewed as a not-too-good outing for the Governor.  What eventually happened to his candidacy will likely be the subject of several books and more than one doctoral dissertation over the years.  But given what did happen, I think that my friend’s observations were rather prescient.

                                                         “You Know Me, Al.”

                                                         “On DOCTOR Dean”

Dear Steve  I had a thought about the Governor's personality and why he may be reacting the way he did in the "Big Nine" debate on Saturday.  If I'm right, there is an issue/problem.  But, to use your lingo, it is diagnosable (sic) and treatable.  And doing so would certainly help him to improve his chances of gaining the nomination.

       The Gov. is, first, a doctor.  And like many of those in your profession (so you have told me) he may well suffer from what you have called "doctoritis."  That is, most doctors, and I would certainly include the Governor in this group, are pretty smart.  They have to be; otherwise they wouldn't have gotten into medical school.  The problem is that a) they know it and b) they do not suffer fools, or even other smart people, gladly.  How many doctors do you know who can hold a real conversation with someone?  To do so means you have to think that the other person has something of value to say. And there is nothing in their education or experience that helps them to overcome the malady.  Those who do, and there are some, have to draw on insights and lessons of life from outside of their medical training and experience.

       Doctors are used to diagnosing and prescribing, telling patients what they have and what they need to do about it.  Doctors give orders, literally.  That is what most of them are trained to do.  The Governor was a family practitioner.  Contrary to what might be generally thought, you have to be real smart to be successful in that specialty, because it covers such a wide range of human maladies.  Furthermore, you have got to have all of that knowledge in your head.  You do also have to "keep up."  While doing so is pretty straight forward, it happens that the demands that these docs are meeting are ones that for the most part they place on themselves.  Unlike in the political realm, they are not often placed on them by anyone in the outside world.

       So here is a real smart guy, trained to give orders, and not necessarily trained to listen to others (except in an information gathering mode).  He got to be Governor of a small state by happenstance, and then managed to stay in office for a long time.  But Vermont ain't the US and his opponents in the state were not like those he is facing now.  Nor is the media up there, between Burlington and Brattleboro.

      You know that a lot of folks in the business of politics are not that smart.  Successful politicians have other skills of course.  Just look at one of the dumbest (as well as most ignorant) people ever to inhabit the White House, the current incumbent.  So what may be going on with the Governor, as he starts to go out into the big-time political world, is that a) he doesn't like to waste him time with people who aren't as smart as he is, b) he thinks that he can wing it in venues like Charleston based on how smart he is, what he does know and how he can think on his feet, and c) generally, doctor knows best. 

Like so many doctors I know, he thinks that he knows it all, and for what he doesn’t know he thinks he can wing it.  In other words, doctor knows best (to coin a phrase).  You and I know that this is not going to work in a national campaign for the nomination, much less the Presidency.  How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  No matter how much talent you have, it's practice, practice, practice, and until you get up to top, top level, it’s coaching, coaching, coaching.  And even some of the greatest musicians have coaching for their whole careers.

This man has some great ideas, especially about what’s is going to be needed to energize the Democratic Party and that mass of people who, customarily non-voters, who would come out and vote Democratic, given something truly different from what the Republicans have to offer to vote for.  But to get the nomination, he is going to have to be much better prepared on the issues, history, and their details.  And he is going to have to be open to being coached on moderating that doctor-arrogant tone of his, and be able to accept his coaches’ advice and change in accord with it.  I do hope that he will be able to do this, for he is a good man, and with some work, would, I believe, make a great President.

And so wrote AL, last May.

 

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FEBRUARY 24, 2004 UPDATE

                               TERROR IN A NEEDLE

                 Terror comes in many forms.  Bush portrays himself in leading America in a desperate “war” against international terrorism.

                Bush’s neoconservative foreign policy of preemptive war is fostering terror – not only abroad but in American homes every day.  The emerging terror is heroin which is now cheaper than a six pack of beer!

                NPR is running a series on the shocking rise of heroin use in the United States:

In Massachusetts, for example, more than 4 percent of high school boys report having used heroin.

Today's epidemic is different than the one that infected many urban communities in the 1970s. Heroin is pure enough to snort these days, and younger people are getting into it. In the Boston area, the number of 18 and 19 year olds seeking emergency-room treatment related to heroin use doubled between 2000 and 2002.  . . .  

Last year, the state of Massachusetts saw some 36,000 admissions into heroin treatment programs. In Boston, things have gotten so bad that a group of everyday people decided to take matters into their own hands by forming the South Boston Family Resource Center. – NPR (emphasis added)   

                The NPR series casts a ghastly shadow on Bush’s State of the Union address:

In my budget, I proposed new funding to continue our aggressive, community-based strategy to reduce demand for illegal drugs. Drug testing in our schools has proven to be an effective part of this effort. So tonight I proposed an additional $23 million for schools that want to use drug testing as a tool to save children's lives. The aim here is not to punish children, but to send them this message: We love you, and we don't want to lose you. (Applause.)

To help children make right choices, they need good examples. Athletics play such an important role in our society, but, unfortunately, some in professional sports are not setting much of an example. The use of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football, and other sports is dangerous, and it sends the wrong message -- that there are shortcuts to accomplishment, and that performance is more important than character. So tonight I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough, and to get rid of steroids now. – White House

                Steroids? 

            Lest we forget, we “won” the war in Afghanistan.  Our “win” has resulted in the reemergence of opium production in Afghanistan that is being ignored for political purposes:

Nato is turning a blind eye to the flourishing opium trade in Afghanistan to ensure the support of warlords in the struggle to maintain security in the country, Russia's defense minister has claimed.

Sergei Ivanov said Afghanistan was now producing nine times the quantity of drugs it did under the Taliban.

"It is understandable that by allowing drug peddling in Afghanistan, the [Nato] alliance ensures loyalty of warlords on the ground and of some Afghan leaders," he said.

"Nevertheless, the drug flow from Afghanistan is posing a serious threat to the national security of all of the central Asian CIS [confederation of independent states] and Russia. It results from the absence of a truly international approach toward stabilization in Afghanistan."

Mr. Ivanov was speaking at an international security conference in Munich where Nato countries, including Britain, debated whether to increase their military presence in Afghanistan.

His comments came as at least 20 people were reported killed and 40 wounded in north-eastern Afghanistan in clashes over the payment of taxes on the opium poppy crop.

The Munich meeting coincided with an international conference in Kabul, called to discuss ways to combat the trade. – Guardian Unlimited 

            The UN is issuing warnings as well:

Underscoring the far-reaching consequences of opium cultivation in Afghanistan, the top United Nations official on drugs and crime today warned Presidents of the former Soviet States that the resulting "trilogy of problems" could destabilize the whole region.

Addressing the 12 member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Yalta, Ukraine, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said Drug trafficking from Afghanistan presents a host of problems from drug addiction and HIV/AIDS epidemics to the use of resources generated through opium trafficking by organized crime and even terrorist groups. – Derechos

            While most opium in the United States comes from Columbia, Afghanistan opium reaches Russia and England.  For the afflicted and their families, it is an intimate form of terror.

            Bush is spending billions in Iraq where no weapons of mass destruction will be found.  Bush’s alliance with warlords in Afghanistan is helping pour opiates into Europe and Asia.  Bush features steroid use in athletics in his State of the Union Address while Columbian cartels are producing opium for American consumption that is cheaper than a six pack of beer. 

            Bush’s grandiose portrayal of his administration as leading an international war on terror misses the terror in a needle that his policies are helping to unleash.

            Don’t miss NPR’s series this week.  It is compelling journalism.  If your computer is equipped with sound, you can hear NPR’s first installment by clicking on the hyperlink below:

Last Update: 03/23/2006