By Staff
At our table at the 16th annual Cass County Intergovernmental Forum March 29, talk turned to the dreaded million-mile march to the wide-open White House.
I sat with the Bob Wagels, chairman of the Board of Commissioners, the Dan Harveys from Porter Township, state Sen. Ron Jelinek's boots on the ground Chris Siebenmark (the former Three Oaks council member likes former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani because people are starved for real leadership) and fellow scribe Norma Lerner.
There was much gnashing of teeth about how front-end-loaded the money men have made the presidential process, so that when the anti-climactic conventions finally arrive, dealing will already be done.
We were so busy marveling at predictions that the '08 campaign could cost $2 billion – twice the 2004 tab – I didn't even get to Bob Shrum.
I wouldn't be in journalism if someone had clued me in during college that you could get a job as a political operative and consistently bank millions without even winning elections.
It's like a baseball player you never heard of who hit .220 demanding a fat raise, absent any sweating in hot sun at spring training.
Bob Shrum isn't exactly a household word, but what does he care?
He got rich playing the political game with nothing fresher than the sleep-inducing Democratic messages about "fighting for working families" that vanished before he did.
You may not know the Shrum name, but you knew his game, although it is rather remarkable that he could last long enough to mastermind six losing presidential bids.
In 2000, Shrum brilliantly advised Al Gore to downplay his signature issue, the environment, because it didn't resonate with focus groups.
Now Gore's himself again, with an Oscar for the global warming warning, "An Inconvenient Truth."
Shrum landed on his feet.
You might also remember his next adventure heading up John Kerry's team.
Shrum counseled Kerry to not respond to the Swift Boat attack ads, putting a decorated war hero on the defensive.
Another strategy was to dwell on prescription drug benefits rather than national security.
Give the Republicans credit.
They're micro-organized and targeting specific voters through the new tools of cable television and the Internet while Shrum continued to rely on network TV.
One Clinton and Gore strategist credits Kerry's ads with helping opponent George W. Bush more than the Massachusetts senator.
Bill Clinton won two terms because he brought his own team with him.
Yet Shrum and his Democratic consulting brethren kept getting hired and overpaid.
It's an odd business where you get more jobs on the basis that others have hired you, even if you consulted them off a cliff.
Quips, quotes and qulunkers: "Bush has modeled himself on Reagan in many ways. One of the worst traits they share is their reluctance to dismiss people for cause. It took more than three years of the mismanaged Iraq War for Bush to get rid of Don Rumsfeld."
– Washington Post political columnist David Broder on the "striking parallels" between Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Cass County's former congressman David Stockman, who should have been fired as budget director for his "egregious breach of loyalty" in secret interviews with Bill Greider which revealed in the Atlantic that tax cuts Reagan championed were designed to benefit the wealthy and would saddle the nation with debt for years – "a stunning indictment of the very administration in which Stockman was serving."
"(Thomas) Lennon and (Ben) Garant have become two of Hollywood's most sought-after screenwriters. The pair co-wrote last year's 'Night at the Museum,' which raked in more than $500 million worldwide."
– Andy Greene in the April 5 Rolling Stone. And I just knew them as Lt. Jim Dangle and Deputy Travis Junior on one of my favorite shows, the "Cops" parody "Reno 911." My admiration for the hilarious Comedy Central show only grew when I found out it's improvised. I regret now not checking out their '90s MTV sketch show, "The State." The Reno movie, set in Miami, grossed $10 million in February.
"Instant Karma": An album of John Lennon covers features U2, R.E.M., Christina Aguilera and Black Eyed Peas.
All proceeds from the June 12 release go to Amnesty International for Darfur.
"Icky Thump": The White Stripes' sixth album, due in June, "does not sound like any of the other records. It's very heavy," Jack White says. At three weeks, it's the longest he and Meg spent making an album.
Recorded in Nashville, which he left Detroit for in 2006, it's also their first in a "regular, modern studio."
"Twelve": Freshly enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and 30 years after compiling a list of others' songs she'd like to tackle, Patti Smith releases her covers album April 17.
It includes her versions of "Within You, Without You" by the Beatles, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana (with banjos!a), "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones and "Changing of the Guards" by Bob Dylan.