Posted on 09/16/2003 9:29:54 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
Sen. Bob Graham, Florida's nice-guy senator and cellar-dweller in the presidential campaign opinion polls, is finally on the attack in his quest to win the Democratic nomination.
It's not a shock-and-awe assault like Sen. Joseph Lieberman's aggressive questioning in recent days of front-runner Howard Dean's flip-flopping and fitness to serve, but for a get-along guy like Graham, it's about as vicious an attack as he'll ever deliver.
''Frankly, the Congress gave this president a blank check,'' Graham said last weekend.
He was speaking about the resolution authorizing President Bush to use military force in Iraq -- a resolution he voted against. While his remarks sound like a dig at Bush, they are in fact aimed squarely at his fellow Democratic rivals who voted for what is now a highly unpopular war among primary voters: Sens. Lieberman of Connecticut, John Kerry of Massachusetts, John Edwards of North Carolina and Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri.
The senator's new website, www.stoptheblankcheck.com, carries the attack directly to his rivals, quoting the resolution that allowed Bush to ''use the armed forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate,'' and adding: ``Those who voted for this resolution need to be held responsible.''
In Graham's own way, it's also a slap at Dean, the former Vermont governor who has fueled his rise to the top of the Democratic candidate pile with his own opposition to the war -- essentially undermining Graham's whole reason for running.
Graham's new message about Dean: I voted against the war, he's just against it.
In a news conference in Arizona on Monday, Graham honed his aim on the front-runner, quoting Dean claiming he was the only candidate to propose a plan to trim the deficit.
''That's not true,'' Graham said. ``I've had a plan out now for two months to do exactly that.''
Asked whether he has a problem with Dean's apparent penchant to misspeak and shift positions, Graham at first said he would not be ``induced into the type of negativism that is sometimes tempting.''
Apparently the temptation was too great.
Reeling off his own résumé as Florida's two-term governor and the former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Graham said: ``If Gov. Dean had had the kind of background as governor of a large and complex state and service that would put him in direct contact with international issues, then he wouldn't have to backtrack.''
The new attack mode is timely for what has been so far a campaign struggling to be taken seriously by the pundits and donors who anoint front-runners and losers.
Nothing else has worked so far for Graham, who maintains he is a serious candidate in a crowded field despite hovering near 1 percent in key primary states and struggling to raise money.
He has sponsored a NASCAR truck, taken his family on ''vacation'' through Iowa, performed his campaign song across the nation, even signed autographs with baseball great Fergie Jenkins -- but through it all Dean has emerged carrying the anti-war mantle while Graham is viewed as an oddity.
And double-HILARIOUS!!! I got a big laugh when Graham at the last debate froze completely when the first of the LaRouche hecklers started screaming. It was like his mind was short-circuited leaving the Graham body to stare straight ahead like a robot. Only Sharpton knew how to react to the hecklers.
Also a dinasaur. Nobody born and raised in Dade County for at least the past 40 years sounds at all like Graham. Long gone are the days when you would sound like a Southern Cracker due to being raised in the Miami area.
Now in the old days, he had the DOT re-draw the interstate so that they would have to BUY LAND from his family. Major conflict of interest but that was then, now he's just plain Bionic-Bob.
Let me say this to my fellow news mediums: When we decide to pick a new front-runner, we should take a hard look at Florida Sen. Bob ''Bob'' Graham. Really. I've known Sen. Graham for more than 20 years, during which I've interviewed him on a number of issues, and I've always found his answers to be thought-provoking. The specific thought they provoke is: ''Huh?''
Here's a true example. Ten years ago, I found out that the last remaining accordion-repair training program in the United States, located in Winona, Minn., was closing, leaving our nation's vital accordion resources dangerously dependent on foreigners. I called Sen. Graham's office, and he got on the phone personally. In rapid succession, he made the following statements, which I swear I am not making up:
• ''Just last night I ate at an Italian restaurant which, like thousands of other Italian restaurants across America, is now without music, because their accordion is in disrepair and has been returned from Winona, Minn., with postage due.''
• ''We are preparing an anti-dumping order against Liechtenstein, which has become the center of accordion repair on a global basis and has developed some ferociously anti-competitive practices.''
• ''I don't know whether the actual use of nuclear weapons is called for, but I do think we need a credible military threat.''
Back when Graham was governor of Florida, I asked him what he planned to do about the issue of harmonica safety. Without hesitation, he gave a two-minute speech, with statistics, proving that all of Florida's harmonica-related deaths were actually the fault of the previous governor. Really. And now he's running for president! If we in the news media don't do all we can to promote this man's campaign, we are even stupider than I thought.
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