alert...
Posted on 06/18/2003 2:59:05 AM PDT by windchime
Jun 18, 2003
Graham Takes Off The Gloves By KEITH EPSTEIN kepstein@tampatrib.com
WASHINGTON - Like Clark Kent in the phone booth, Bob Graham has undergone a radical transformation in the race for national recognition - so much that lifelong friends don't always recognize him. ``Doesn't sound like him,'' said Robin Gibson, a lawyer close to Graham since the two were freshman fraternity brothers at the University of Florida. ``He's getting pretty strident.''
A cautious centrist by nature who rarely raises his voice in harsh invective, Florida's senior senator has enjoyed a long-standing reputation for reliability, kind words - and blandness.
Yet, lately, the weigh-all- sides, plodding, note-taking senator has grown as shrill and urgent-sounding as an extremist gadfly, engaging almost daily - and, among hopeful Democratic challengers, almost exclusively - in the lively sport of Bush bashing.
From Iowa to New Hampshire, Graham, the same studious and careful moderate with a kindly, cherubic face that Floridians have come to know over five decades, has been leveling a relentless series of attacks on the nation's popular president.
Graham's seemingly invulnerable target appears to be viewed by most Americans as an effective manager of the war on terrorism.
Yet, alone among the candidates, Graham accuses President Bush of a host of serious if not impeachable transgressions: covering up a congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks; taking on Iraq instead of al Qaida; faking the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction as a justification for war; engaging in a ``shameful and dangerous display of secrecy.''
``This has shocked everybody,'' said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. ``The reason is that Bob Graham has never been known as a particularly partisan person. Nor has he been seen as a headline grabber, or a harsh critic of anybody. It's a total transformation of persona.''
`Ongoing Nixonian Efforts'
Graham rails against the president's men for ``their ongoing Nixonian efforts to keep Americans in the dark'' - a reference to President Nixon's coverups in the Watergate era.
``I think it's a function of the depth of his conviction,'' Gibson said.
Specialists in the political scene think otherwise. They see someone trying to leap large obstacles in a single bound, sure enough, but not necessarily with success or anything suggesting a political Superman.
``You almost have to do what he's doing,'' said University of Florida political scientist Stephen Craig. ``His main audience right now are more extreme than rank-and-file Democrats.''
This strategic view stems from the nature of primaries, the first - and often controversial - step in the way parties select their presidential nominee. In caucuses, candidates are chosen by party leaders and activists - people most attracted to someone who is outspoken and can also be elected.
This means that, in theory, Graham - relatively unknown outside Florida - could drum up the attention he needs to make a credible stab at joining the ``top tier'' of candidates. Even if he fails, he may help make a case against Bush in a way that benefits other Democrats without any risk to them from harshly criticizing a popular president.
Already, this week, Graham aides were jubilantly pointing to polls suggesting minor gains in approval among Democratic candidates - from 1 percent or 2 percent to 6 percent, in a survey by Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn.
Never mind that in New Hampshire, the first primary state, The Associated Press reported Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and Dean in a statistical tie - with Graham at a barely registering 1 percent. In Iowa, Dean was at 11 percent and Graham 1 percent, the AP reported.
For Graham, anything that hints at the possibility of breaking toward the major candidates and out of obscurity is good news.
Bush Defector Goes With Kerry
Yet even Rand Beers, who shocked inside-the-Beltway types with a stunning defection - from his role as a top counterterrorism adviser to Bush to working for a Democrat's presidential campaign against Bush - chose not Graham, the former Senate Intelligence Committee chairman whose criticisms he most echoes, but Kerry, who has said precious little on the subject and is more likely to win the nomination.
Kerry and the other candidates not only backed Bush on the war against Iraq, they know the risks of arguing against a popular president who appears to many Americans to have won a war. Among the other candidates, only Dean questioned the war.
Graham confidantes and associates say he decided to step into his new role as the most verbal assailant of Bush not from politics-as-usual but from pure conviction of the need for serious change.
``It's about the truth,'' said Graham campaign spokesman Jamal Simmons. ``What he's saying - he's felt this way for some time, since before the campaign.''
Close friend Gibson agrees.
``He strongly feels the country's on the wrong track. He's not awed by the presidency or the person in it. He was against the Iraq war from [the] beginning. He's just concerned about the direction the country is taking.''
Graham's Credibility
Graham's role in the investigation of Sept. 11 does give him unique credibility among Democrats. Perhaps, too, there's a growing suspicion, encouraged by what he and his aides keep saying, that he knows more than secrecy laws allow him to say.
By comparing the behavior of Bush to the behavior of Nixon during the Watergate coverage - and by claiming that the American public may have been deceived into a war that had too little to do with al-Qaida - Graham attracts attention.
He also invites questions about his ethical responsibility. If he believes his country is at such risk from a president's deception and an inappropriate war, should he tell the American public everything he knows?
On the other hand, by claiming access to secrets that cannot be divulged, he enjoys the political luxury of making seemingly credible statements without having to back them up.
Momentum is building, if not for Graham's candidacy then for congressional investigations of whether evidence for weapons of mass destruction used to justify the war was manufactured, manipulated or real.
Meanwhile, Graham can be found at events in primary states and for campaign donors, hustling up favor and funds by distinguishing himself from other Democrats who act more like ``Bush lite'' than a serious ``electable'' challenger of a president.
``People aren't going to defeat George Bush by electing a Democrat who says, `Bush isn't too bad, but I'll be a lot better,' '' observed UF political analyst Craig. Activist Democrats are in a foul mood left over from 2002, and that's the audience Bob Graham is speaking to.''
Simmons won't go that far. But he does agree ``the only way you run against somebody is you really take them on.''
Reporter Keith Epstein can be reached at (202) 662-7673.
This story can be found at: http://www.tampatrib.com/MGAG2VIS2HD.html
(Excerpt) Read more at tampatrib.com ...
One that would use 'secrets' in this way shouldn't have access to them.
alert...
"I have here a list of 300 Communists employed by the State Dept." Now, this sort of thing can get you into trouble, if you're a Republican. But a Democrat ... it's no big deal.
hits his opponent smack in the face with his Florida tie.
But he seems to have evolved into a talking-point spewing Chatty Kathy- he just doesn't seem to know when to quit running his mouth.
Hey, wait: there's another transforming comic-book character that'd make a MUCH better simile:...
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