Ed Garvey: Political gurus are calling the shots

Ed Garvey  —  9/09/2008 6:18 am

Can't say we were not warned as early as 1962 by Theodore White's great Pulitzer award-wining book, "The Making of the President." Or by the Center for Public Integrity's coverage of the purchase of presidential candidates. No, we can't claim ignorance unless we call it "studied ignorance" or "ignorance by design."

Phil Stern told us the truth about money in politics in "The Best Congress Money Can Buy" and Brooks Jackson gets a round of applause for best title, "Honest Graft."

Doris "Granny D" Haddock walked across America at age 90 to promote clean elections. Jim Hightower has gone to almost every state in support of the cause. Joe McGinnis told us to "look out" in "The Selling of the President," and we know that over $2 billion will be spent by Barack Obama and John McCain selling, obfuscating, hiding, lying, extolling.

We are no closer to public financing of campaigns, the only solution, than we were in the '60s and '70s despite the knowledge that a seat in the U.S. Senate will cost you anywhere from $10 million to $50 million. (Instead of recognizing our real problem, we blame Ralph Nader for the election of 2000 and an obscure secretary of state in Ohio for 2004.) Who can raise that much money? In most cases only those who chose parents very, very carefully can hope to grow up and run for high office with a realistic chance of winning.

We are quietly, ever so quietly, appalled and even feign surprise when Mike McCabe and the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign report that millions were spent on Supreme Court races by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, for heaven's sake.

John Grisham told us how the special business interests plan to purchase our courts, but we sat back and arrogantly told ourselves: "We are better than that -- smarter than that. No Willie Horton ads will affect us!" Result? An unqualified, ethically challenged judge now sits on our state Supreme Court.

OK, what is my point? I watched both conventions and could hear Teddy White warning that the same Madison Avenue guys who sell us soap and deodorant will someday sell us a president. Had he thought about it a moment or lived a few decades longer, he would have added "or a vice president."

Let's face it. The consultants are in control. There was a Hollywood set for Barack's stroll down the aisle and a Father Coughlin moment as "American Firsters" stomped for a hockey-mom-moose-dressing vice presidential candidate, what's her name. It is not, as Martin Luther King Jr. implored, the content of their character, it is the brilliance of the ad men, pollsters and TV producers. (I suspect there is research being conducted on how to tie McCain and his moose-dresser to the Purple Pill, Ambien or aspirin.)

Presidential politics is a game where the combatants are told, "Let the best liar win." That being the game, Karl Rove and his Charlie McCarthy will win.

After 10 minutes of the hockey mom's speech, I found myself thinking, "Hey, she isn't so bad. Why not elect her mayor of Burlington or Spooner?" But then reality hit me upside the head. She could well become the next president of the United States! Who in the hell is she and who put her on my TV? Dress a moose, sure, but does she have a clue about health care, Iran, Pakistan? Yikes!

Ah, the truth is out. It was the cynic of the century, Karl Rove, who put her in our living rooms. Rove views elections as a game and that is it. He is tired of stealing presidential victories as he did in 2000 and 2004. Karl wants a real challenge. Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court didn't pan out so on to making the governor of Alaska vice president. Now there is a game worth winning. He will bury James Carville once and for all. Historians will say he was dirtier than Lee Atwater or Roger Ailes. He is the champ.

Why worry? Because of a few simple things like war or peace, health care or despair, great schools or a permanent underclass, prisons and bridges to nowhere or a living wage, nuclear annihilation.

Shame on us. We knew in our hearts the day would come. American Idol for president and free yellow pills to make you forget he never could field-dress a moose.

Ed Garvey is a Madison lawyer, political activist and the editor of the fightingbob.com Web site.

Ed Garvey  —  9/09/2008 6:18 am