If you want to see a good example of why Zell Miller will be speaking in New York instead of Boston this year, go to the Bush Campaign Site and take a look at their frontpage web ad. It's a compilation of the worst of the unhinged Democrats, who have become all too common this election cycle. The ad make the point that while Kerry has condemned this compilation, he hasn't condemned the original comments.

The ad includes a MoveOn.org ad contest winner that famously compared Bush to Hitler. We see a few more clips, and then it finishes up with John Kerry, the candidate these maniacs support, in about as angry a moment as you're likely to see, even after the botox has worn off.

For this, the DNC sends out the following email:

Titled "The Faces of John Kerry's Democratic Party," the ad features Adolf Hitler alongside Democrats, including John Kerry. President Bush's campaign has relied on negative attacks against Kerry, but this is a new low.

We've always said the Bush campaign would do anything to win, but even we are shocked that they've sunk this low. It's bizarre. It's outrageous. And we're not going to stand for it.

If President Bush has any decency at all, he'll remove this hateful ad from his website immediately.

The ad features Adolf Hitler being compared the Bush, not being compared to Kerry. Kerry, of course, was pretty silent at the time, maybe because MoveOn.org was seen as being in the Dean camp rather than his own. But he's had plenty of time to tell his buddies to cut the crap, and he hasn't.

Some things just make fun of themselves.

Popular retiring Georgia Democratic Senator Zell Miller will speak Wednesday night at the Republican convention in support of President Bush. Miller had pretty much already endorsed Bush, but it's another opportunity to discuss the lurch towards insanity that his party has taken, and it may have some effect on Senate and House races, as well.

Cross-party endorsements aren't unprecedented. Maryland Governor William Schaeffer endorsed Bush 41 for re-election, and Sarah Brady spoke in support of President Clinton. But this is the first time I can remember that a sitting elected official of the opposing party has crossed over to speak at the other party's convention in prime time. If memory serves, Wednesday night is nomination night, and while there won't be any drama, it usually when the party puts up its best speakers. Unless it's Atlanta and it's 1988 and you're Michael Dukakis. Miller's a good speaker, too. Maybe he'll bring his dogs.

Here's what's funny, though:

"I think he has sold his soul for a mess of pottage," [Georgia Democratic Representative Al] Lewis said, a reference to a speech Miller gave 40 years ago in which he argued that President Johnson was abandoning his Southern roots by pushing some civil rights issues. Pottage is defined as a thick soup or stew of vegetables.

The original reference is Biblical, of course, to Esau selling his birthright to Jacob for a "mess of pottage," in the vernacular. It's bad enough that Lewis can't get the price right. The AP reporter thinks that what's important is the recipe for the soup. It's clear he has no idea at all what the allusion is. I can see him reading his notes, looking at the quote, and then reaching for his Webster's because he doesn't know what pottage is. "Lord, what's a cubit?"

Ken Salazar finally finished up his 64-county tour of the state this week, after driving, he says, 8000 miles in the last two months. The real star of the story is his 140,000-mile truck, which just adds to the whole "aw, shucks" pose that Salazar tries to strike.

"The truck ran out of gas once and broke down one other time, Salazar said." Now, saying the truck ran out of gas is a little like saying that the truck was caught speeding. I know the cities are spread a little thinner out here than along I-95, but still. It appears that Mr. Salazar isn't any better at budgeting his gasoline than he is at budgeting for his Dairy Queen.

And for what? Here's what the inquisitive, incisive attorney general found that Coloradoans care about:

Jobs and the economy

The high cost of health care

Homeland security and the war in Iraq

Support for education and the environment, especially water

Wow. Who knew?

posted by Joshua |  permalink | 4:41 PM | |

Boy, talk about losing control of the news cycle. First, Bob Schaffer calls a press conference to demand that Ken Salazar resign. Then, the Rocky runs an article essentially suggesting that the whole demand doesn't amount to much. Colorado has no such tradition, unlike Virginia. (Larry Sabato, a smart guy by any measure, has this one dead on.) And Schaffer himself has held full-time office while campaigning for a promotion.

Then, to add insult to injury, the Rocky runs an article about Schaffer's job as a consultant to a startup bank. Now, this is a bank "in organization," as banks are called until you could go to them and borrow money for, say, your Senate campaign. But Schaffer went ahead and described himself as a "bank director," which stretches the point a little.

Now, as resume-padding goes, this is so minor league it's closer to kickball. (Ben is all over this.) Schaffer hasn't trumped this up, hasn't tried to match Coors's business record with it. Nevertheless, on a day when you're calling on the state's attorney general to call it quits, that's not the day you want people distracted by trivia like this.

It also turns out that Schaffer's campaign is down to about $125K left in the bank. Coors, who has taken an unpaid leave of absence from the brewery to run, was in perfect position to second the suggestion. If he's as far ahead in money as all that, it could have added weight to the suggestion, and distracted Salazar during his own primary fight. Instead, he chose to turn it back on Schaffer.

What's this? Jews and Tools? Jews and power tools? Isn't that like alcohol and cars? You want to kill someone? What, bubbele, it's for the insurance, isn't it? So you couldn't start a fire like everyone else?

Drywall in place. Time for the spackel. Sounds like a prime photo-blogging opportunity.

Word is that at a Schaffer press conference this morning, he called on state Attorney General, and probable Democratic Senate nominee, Ken Salazar to resign. Basically for the same reasons that Kerry should resign, and that Bob Dole did resign - he's on the public payroll and he's spending time campaigning. If they want any traction on this, they'll have to release numbers showing just how busy Ken is campaigning instead of prosecuting. Kerry has missed something like 85% of Senate votes this year. Schaffer will need a comparably damning metric of negligence if he's going to get people to care. As it is, I think most people accept that public officials are allowed to seek other office. As of the press conference, they hadn't issued a press release.

Schaffer didn't offer any actual evidence of malfeasance, although they claim to have some documents they don't want to release at this point. Maybe they do have something. But if they want to make it stick, they should probably go ahead and make their case. Unless they've got an actual mole in the Salazar camp, they don't control the investigative process, and they don't control the news cycle. This means they won't be in a position to drip-drip-drip the thing on their own schedule.

Schaffer's trying to put Salazar on the defensive, in part to force Salazar to play on two fronts, and in part to make himself "inevitable," as they said about W during the 2000 campaign. Nothing wrong with that, of course. As long as he wins the game in front of him, first.

A lot's been made of the "differences" that emerged between Schaffer and Coors in their last debate. To me, these differences really look a lot like a schism over whether to use white or red grape juice at kiddush. Or in their case, white or red wine at communion.

The Denver Post spends most of this morning's post mortem on the fact that Pete Coors didn't know Paul Martin's name when it was brought up. Paul Martin is the Prime Minister of Canada, at least until Monday. Interestingly, the Rocky's reports this:

When Schaffer brought it up again near the close of the debate, Coors responded, "Bob, I do know his name. I know he's a liberal and probably won't be in office too long, and I'm looking forward to knowing the name of the new one."

Now, Martin's party is the Liberal Democrats, but they're referred to as "Liberals." The newspaper quotes him using a lower-case "l," but my hearing usually isn't good enough to distinguish between lower- and upper-case letters. If Coors meant to refer to Martin by party, rather than persuasion, then with Canadian elections coming up, and Martin trailing in the polls, he would seem to have a better grasp of Canadian politics than Schaffer wants to acknowledge.

More importantly, nobody cares. While we don't want to elect a Senator who spends more time watching beer ads than producing them, most Coloradoans probably couldn't tell Paul Martin from Billy Martin or "Lefty" Martin. This kind of thing didn't hurt Reagan or Bush, and it won't hurt Coors if he can define a vision that resonates with Coloradoans.

As for the data mining discovery by the Coors camp that Schaffer voted a couple of times to raise user fees and excise taxes by a couple of basis points, sorry. Nobody seriously disputes Schaffer's anti-tax stand. The Club for Growth, a pit-bull of an anti-tax group if there ever was one, likes him, and the notion of some kind of inconsistency just isn't going to fly.

Neither is this kerfuffle over the drinking age. There are lots of good reasons to bring it back down, probably some good ones to leave it where it is, but Coors only talked about it in response to a question from Schaffer. It's not like he's made it the centerpiece of his campaign to run around campus, horns blaring, shouting "drinks for everyone!" He's running for Senate, not fraternity president.

One area where Coors may be vulnerable is the environment, especially water. Oh, not on the facts, of course, and Schaffer was careful not to hand the Democrats an issue in the fall. But the Post brought up the issue:

Pete Coors: "I understand water issues - that's what we do. We turn water into beer." During Wednesday's debate, Coors emphasized the importance of clean water.

But according to a scorecard compiled by Environmental Defense from federal reports, Coors' Golden brewing plant ranks as one of the nation's biggest polluters.

In 2001, the most recent year that records are available, Coors released 54,000 pounds of nitrate compounds and 7,700 pounds of ammonia. Neither discharge is harmful to health if it is diluted, but they could have ecological impact.

Amy Valdez, spokeswoman for Coors Brewing, said the company releases far less than its federal permits allow.

I have no idea who "Environmental Defense" is, although it could be the Environmental Defense Fund. I'm sure that pretty much every company that uses water gets named "one of the nation's biggest polluters" when there's an election or a legislative vote at stake. The Post doesn't bother to describe the "ecological impact," and Coors Brewing makes it clear that it's well within the law here, too.

But you can count on Mike Miles and Ken Salazar to make red meat out of this during the general election. There's no way a Republican is going to get a fair shake on the environment, regardless of his record. He could promise to uproot every last rancher and farmer on the eastern plains of the state and turn whole counties over to the buffalo, and they'd ask if he was using hybrid trucks to move the furniture.

After you get past these "differences," I think the Coloradoan probably had the best take on it: There was little distinction between the candidates on most issues.

UPDATE: See Jared's post on this, too.

After working full time and taking 16 hours, plus an assistantship, just working with one evening course seems like a vacation. So what am I supposed to do to fill up all the free time? Drywall the garage, of course! And put in shevles, peg board, and a workbench for kicks!

Now, I've done drywall before. In my old condo back in Fairfax, the previous owners had put in, or at least tolerated, that awful brown paneling in the dining room, of all places. It was the work of a moment to pull it down, only to realize that not only was it nailed on, it was Black Gooed on, too. So, down came the drywall, and what had looked like a weekend project turned into a months-long remodel, complete with drywall, wallpaper, chair rail, crown molding, and drapes.

I just hadn't remembered how heavy the stuff was. Amazingly, each 4x8 sheet weighs a quarter-ton, and yet one drywall screw will hold it in place indefinitely. Magic!

The Rocky has a report on this morning's debate between Schaffer and Coors. Apparently, the two candidates are taking Clay's advice and trying to differentiate between themselves. And there are even some policy differences between the two.

The way the Rocky reports it, it sounds like Schaffer has staked out some pretty untenable ground on terrorism. It most certainly was not Clinton's attempts to "go it alone" that helped let our current problems develop. It was more his unwillingness to go it at all.

Coors, on the other hand, didn't do himself any good by coming out against TABOR, the only reliable check we have on state government. It's good he's running for senator and not governor.

Both of these are problem areas. But Schaffer has also hedged on the Patriot Act, which, combined with the above comments, suggests some real weaknesses on terrorism issues. If these tentative impressions are unfair, he'd better do something fast to correct them.

Ben raises some interesting questions about the relevance of business experience to politics. In particular, he asks why Pete Coors's business experience is relevant to fiscal politics but not his social politics. Clay asks the same questions. The short answer is that business is about making money, not promoting social goals.

The long answer is related to business in general, and to Coors Brewing in particular.

The first thing to understand is that the Coors family doesn't run Coors anymore. It's a public company, with a Board of Directors and hired management. When Pete Coors came in, one of the things he did was to hire the Pepsi Mafia to come in and run the company. (These were not "consultants," as one of Hugh's callers had it, but business professionals who had served in senior management in a major American corporation.)

This doesn't mean the Coorses are sitting on the sofa, drinking the family beverage, flipping back and forth between Rockies' games and DVDs of the Board meetings. It does mean that when Bill Coors left, management, including Pete, realized that the family business model wasn't going to work anymore. Returns were too low, the stock price had stagnated, and 800-lb. gorilla Anheuser-Busch was offering Ft. Collins brewery tours on the way back from Rocky Mountain National Park.

You can argue that this makes Pete a hands-off manager, but you can also argue that picking the right people is at least half the battle. Two words: Justice Souter. Maybe this means that he has more of an executive mentality than a legislative one, but you'd need more evidence than this.

Coors Beer was also under some pretty heavy social attacks at the time, too. They were under gay, Hispanic, and black boycotts, none of which can be good for business. They decided to be pro-active, get ahead of these groups before being held up by Jesse, and get off the boycott lists. Not a single one of the activist groups that holds voting stock in the Democratic Party has endorsed Pete Coors. If they can figure out it's just business, why can't we?

Businessmen are taught to think of the world they operate in as the environment. Laws, regulations, social constraints, the likelihood of fools lying down in front of bulldozers are all considered part of the environment. They are taught to make use of these rules to achieve competitive advantage. They are emphatically not taught how to spend a lot of time changing that environment, nor are they taught how these rules make whole economies more or less efficient. Our challenge is to change to meet conditions, not to affect these conditions.

(I should add that in the case of DU, at least, this is a somewhat one-sided proposition. When we're taught about labor regulations, the benefits of unions, ADA, and the value of balkanizing our workforce to reflect local populations, these conditions are presented as environment. When we're taught about circumstances where the goverment hasn't yet imposed regulation, those situations are presented as "ethical challenges," or chances to raise the ethical bar. This is a bait-and-switch that lets liberal professors frame the discussion to their liking, and it merits a whole posting on its own.)

The point here is that businessmen are too busy figuring out how to respond to the world to worry too much about how to change it. To the extent that they do affect public policy, it's usually either centered on their own business, or it's concentrated on raising barriers to entry. It's one reason that businesses tend to divide their campaign funds.

None of this is going to be very comforting to social conservatives, and it shouldn't be. If businesses decide to add in a Spanish-language hotline for questions about same-sex partner benefits, it's because they're responding to disturbing social trends that need to be fought at some other level.

As Michael Novak has repeatedly argued, the Founders set up this country as a commercial republic. But knowing what it takes to run a business is fundamentally different from maing judgments about how to organize society. So when Coors says he should be credited with business success, while you should look to the Heritage Foundation for his politics, he's not being inconsistent. It's not whether politics needs to be more like business. It's whether or not policy can be better informed by business.

This site is not Coors central. I'm leaning that way, but at this point, I'm committed only to keeping the seat.

Still, it bears pointing out that the Schaffer for Senate website has been down now for the better part of two days. Part of Schaffer's appeal is exactly that he is a professional politician, with experience in both office and in running campaigns. The woman at the campaign's office said yesterday she couldn't even get to her email, so the problem may be even a little worse.

This doesn't speak well for competence. He's missing critical fundraising days, and I had to make three calls before I could confirm this morning's candidates' debate. Lots of websites go down. Company sites and even commerce sites go down. But most companies aren't operating so close to the line that they have a deadline. All campaigns do.

UPDATE: The site was up briefly around lunchtime, but appears to have gone down again. Laura's a good soldier, and is certainly doing her best (see comments, please). She certainly can't be happy with this situation, and as the first line of public contact,is probably getting hammered left and right. Nothing said here is an attack on either her or Kathy. But to have a candidate's website down for two days, with the campaign in full swing, can't be helping matters, and it's hard to see where a business would allow such a thing to happen. The campaign may not be directly responsible for the site's network (they have almost certainly farmed that out to a hosting company), but they're ultimately responsible for their site being up.

UPDATE: I'm happy to report that the Schaffer web site is working once again. One of these days, I'll have to get together an assessment of the four candidates' sites.

This morning, while crossing Alameda Ave. with the dog, I saw something that is at least worth a threat level Kermit (or whatever green is). An SUV with a rag doll tied to the grill (or, "grille") as they used to call it when cars were just beginning to start reliably.

It's bad enough that you need to have your turn signal disconnected before it'll pass inspection out here. Now we've got guys driving around who think they're the captain of the Hesperus.

Again, the Washington Post has a poll out. Again, it shows movement in the direction of John Kerry. Again, it pays to look at the party distribution. When they tell you, that is.

On the poll's headline question, trust in the "campaign" on terrorism (don't call it a war, of course), independents say they prefer Kerry 50-45. But overall, the Post weighs Democrats 9 points more heavily than Republicans, 38-29. I know each question has a margin of error of 3 points. But this is the lead, the single question they base their headline on, and it's clearly the outlier. It's also peculiar that the President does better on Iraq than on terror in general. Iraq had been widely perceived as a drag on his terrorism popularity.

Two other questions also suggest this issue isn't as clear-cut as the Post headline writers would have it. On the question of who they trust to keep the country safer, Bush wins 54-40. On the question of whether or not Kerry has a clear plan for terror, the answer is "no" by a similar margin, even though this question oversamples Democrats 36-30.

Overall job approval similarly gives Democrats a 5-point edge, 35-30. The other Big Question, who would you actually vote for, gives Kerry an 8-point lead, but they don't break it down by party. And there's been little change in another core fact: most people supporting Kerry are voting anti-Bush (55%), while Bush's support is overwhelmingly pro-Bush, over 80%.

There's no question that the poll shows independents moving away from the President. There's also no question that those figures are several points less reliable than the overall poll numbers, as they include only a third of the 1200 people polled. This makes the independent numbers slightly less reliable that the Rasmussen tracking poll, which polls 500 people.

KNUS is replaying the following quote from Kerry's downtown rally today.

I want an economy where, instead of people working and working and working and working for the economy, the economy works for the people.

Wow. An economy where people don't work. I thought he wanted to create jobs.

As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up. Not only that, as Dave Barry would never admit, I couldn't possibly make this up.

Today marks the first private flight into space. Up until now, all spacecraft had been government-funded and government-built. The fact that a private firm is now able to build, launch, and return to earth a re-usable spacecraft is a significant development for those of us who grew up watching Star Trek, and got goosebumps of nostalgia watching Apollo 13. It is a testament both to advancing technology and a growing economy that a private firm is able to put someone up and bring him back safely.

Today's flight was a craft build by Burt Rutan, who also built Voyager, the first airplane to fly around the world without refueling. Rutan is reclusive but brilliant, and clearly sees today's flight as a step towards routine civilian space travel. NASA has had to ground its shuttles, but private initiative rolls on.

Much will be made of this spacecraft as an entrant for the $10 million. But Paul Allen (left), who looks like a little kid ready to call shotgun on the next flight, has already put $20 million of his own money into the venture. The X-Prize's real value lies in legitiamcy and future funding, potentially on Wall Street, rather that its cash value.

You think there's a market for this? People flew in from all over the country just to watch. No, it's not Zefram Cochrane firing up a roman candle from his backyard in Montana. But it's as close as we're gonna get. The pilot did this in shirtsleeves, by the way.

The X-Prize was well-designed, like all good prizes. The ship has to carry a passenger, has to be reusable, quickly. One they actually claim it, venture capital is going to line up so fast they'll need to set up cordons with a sign saying, "You Must Be This Tall to Ride the Spaceship."

The joy of the pre-Shuttle program was that it went somewhere. We all got excited over the proposed Mars mission because we were going someplace new. Even though this ship is still suborbtial, it still has that feeling of going somewhere. Gotta start saving for that ticket now.