"Hell if I know."
Posted on 04/11/2004 12:21:27 PM PDT by weegee
The country may be going broke, but in just nine months President Bush has amassed more than $175 million to spend on his re-election, the most any candidate has collected in a presidential election.
The reason Bush has been so successful is that he has a good gimmick. He has assembled 151 individuals he calls "Rangers," who have raised more than $200,000 each, and 241 he calls "Pioneers," who have raised at least $100,000 each. Now, he's added a third group of fund-raisers -- individuals under 40 who have raised at least $50,000. There are 52 people in that category, which he calls "Mavericks."
I have no quarrel with Bush naming big-hitters after his former baseball team, the Texas Rangers. It's fine as well that he designates his medium-size hitters "Pioneers," even though a pioneer, by definition, is someone who settles new territory. He has been raising campaign money since he ran for Congress in 1978.
I must draw the line at Bush's use of the word "Maverick" to describe his rookies. This is a linguistic crime, the equivalent of John Kerry raising money under the banner of Dick Nixon.
I can't stop picturing my old friend and mentor Maury Maverick Jr. -- a crusading liberal who fought every single day of his 83 years on behalf of civil liberties and world peace -- rolling angrily in his grave. Maury died in January 2003. Over the 29 years that he wrote a newspaper column, Maverick would occasionally conduct channeled interviews from the grave.
I never much liked it when Maury would conjure up conversations with people like Eleanor Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson. It seemed like such an old-fogey thing to do. Now I understand why he did it. Extreme times require extreme measures, so I conjured up Maury's spirit and this is part of the exchange we had:
"Maury, how's it going up there?"
"Well, kiddo, there are more liberals in heaven these days than on Earth, that's for sure. Just the other day, I had breakfast with Franklin Roosevelt, tea with Eleanor and dinner with my old man, the last of the New Deal Democrats. By the way, my father's as tempestuous as ever. He can't open the ice box up here without getting into a fight with a milk bottle."
"Maury, I need to ask you a serious question. What do you think of these young Republicans using `Mavericks' to raise money for Bush?"
"We Democrats must have Bush on the run if he's so desperate that he's using my name to raise money. You will recall, I made about $13,000 a year when I was a civil rights lawyer.
"But seriously, don't they know that the name `Maverick' stands for free-thinkers and iconoclasts? I'm sorry I'm not there for this election. What fun, what joy it would be to wade into this fight with you, kiddo. Hit 'em in the kisser for me."
"I'll try, Maury. Can you tell us how the word `maverick' came to be part of the English language?"
"I'd much rather talk about purple martin houses, but sure I'll tell you the story. In the 1840s, my great-grandfather, Samuel Augustus Maverick, arrived in Texas when it was still under Mexican rule. He had a ranch, but paid so little attention to it that he didn't brand his cattle. He let 'em run wild. In time, the word `maverick' became synonymous with unbranded Longhorns, who are stubborn, independent animals that follow their own heads. This became the definition of a maverick.
"People use the word for all sorts of things, but I hate to think it's being used by a bunch of swells to raise money for that boy Bush. For the most part, we Mavericks have been progressives. My father was run out of politics because he refused to deny free speech to a small group of communists.
"The most satisfying work I did as a lawyer was representing conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War. We were wrong in Vietnam, and we're wrong in Iraq. I was a Marine myself, but when I see all those Marines getting blown up, it tears me up.
"Semper fidelis, Jan ... I've got to go now."
"Semper fidelis to you, too, Maury. I'll tell the Republicans they need to find a new name for the rookies. Maybe they should be called `Ambassadors.' After all, Bush named 24 of the top fund-raisers in 2000 as U.S. ambassadors."
Russell is a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News.
When someone's name becomes a part of the language, I don't think that descendent's are given the option of bitching about it. Do the McCarthy's get to deride every communist that impugns the family name?
She doesn't even carry the name "Maverick" these days.
If this had remained in San Antonio I might have let it slide but Houston's only daily paper saw fit to print such trash (as well as other examples I posted today). Since I know that "letters to the editor" will wind up filed in File 13 (the round file that sits on the floor), I take my response elsewhere.
Great. Now someone in Hollywood will sue the Bush Campaign for copyright violation.
I understand where you were comming from.
Ditto-Bump. But dont'cha know, these people think everything revolves around THEM and their narcisstic ideas?
FMCDH
And just what do they think is going to happen to this money? Do they think that Bush is going to pocket it?
This money goes back to the media in the form of ad buys on radio, television, and newspapers.
In my opinion, that is why we will never see real campaign finance reform -- because the campaigns are financing "Big Media" every two years for hot Senate seats, and every four years for presidential elections.
-PJ
President Bush does not have a gimmick. He is plainly successful. When you are tthat good, it must be hard to be humble.
And he's going to need every penny of it and more. He's up against the most ruthless, relentless, intense propaganda campaign since the Third Reich, conducted nonstop not only by the Democrat Party but also by the Mainstream Newsmedia, which serves as a Democrat Propaganeda Machine.
The recent "investigation" by the 9/11 Commission and the disgusting attacks on Dr. Rice by partisan Democrats are an example.
More is to come. Expect the worst, the most dishonest, the most dishonorable, and the most audacious.
What is more audacious than accusing President Bush of being soft on terrorism?
What is more audacious than accusing Dr. Rice of lying?
Nothing.
These people will stop at nothing in their attempt to seize power.
It is no accident that they are following the lead of Karl Marx.
The whole thing is playing out just as they planned in Memogate 1's leaked memos.
I guess "that slut Jan" forgot to mention the billion or so in free media slams on Bush that Kerry's getting from his pals in TV, newspapers and Hollywood.
"Hell if I know."
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