Die-hards and the damage done: Hugh Hewitt likens McClintock recall race, Buchanan bid

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Wednesday, September 17, 2003 | Hugh Hewitt

[JohnHuang2]

A picture hangs on my office wall that reminds of the glory years of the Reagan Revolution. It shows the White House team entry in the D.C. Nike Challenge from 1985. The six participants include Dick Hauser, then Deputy Counsel in the White House; John Roberts – newly confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and then a young White House lawyer; and me, also a young White House lawyer. The captain of the "White House V-toes" was Pat Buchanan, at the time the Gipper's communications director.

Whenever a visitor's eye turns to the picture, I point to Pat and say, there's the man who put Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court. Only the politically inclined get it: Pat Buchanan's primary challenge to President George H.W. Bush in 1992 bled the incumbent and opened the door to Perot. Perot, of course, put Clinton in the White House, and Clinton put those justices on the highest court.

Buchanan fans sputter a lot when they hear this recounting of history, and many splendid arguments follow. They protest too much, the Pat people do, because of the impulse to disguise guilt with vigorous and emphatic denunciations. Facts, to quote Reagan quoting Lenin, however, are stubborn things. Buchanan wrought what he wrought, and honest accounting requires that the two Clinton appointees be put credited to Pat's legacy ledger. So much for the pro-life platform upon which Pat has long stood. There is no doubt that he sincerely believes in the platform – but there is overwhelming evidence that the unborn would have been far better off had Pat never launched a public career.

This history becomes relevant as the California recall vote draws near. Like Pat, Tom McClintock is a smart, talented and principled public man. Like Pat, Tom is supported by a legion of dedicated, energetic activists. Like the Buchanan campaign of 1992, the McClintock campaign of 2003 thinks it has momentum, a mirage created wholly by an elite media eager to wound a Republican front-runner. A decade ago, that front-runner was President Bush; these days it is Arnold.

And like the Buchanan campaign of 1992, the McClintock campaign of 2003 is playing the role of unwitting pawn of the Democrats to a perfection.

It will not be clear for some years what the real costs of the McClintock candidacy will be. The GOP is already damaged in California, but the real disaster will arrive only if Cruz Bustamante replaces Gray Davis, winning the second part of the California recall with a margin less than the total number of votes garnered by McClintock.

The die-hards ought to think about Breyer and Ginsburg as they launch rhetorical salvo after rhetorical salvo at Arnold. These attacks are very similar in tone and detail to those hurled by the Buchananites against the elder Bush in 1992. Whether they will result in the declaration as unconstitutional of such laws as a ban on partial-birth abortion remains to be seen, but Pat Buchanan clearly didn't set out to destroy such protections with his candidacy of 1992.

But he did. What will the McClintock ledger show a decade hence?

[hchutch]

Who died and made you the Mikhail Suslov of the conservative movement?

[RGSpincich]

Oops, semblance.

[RonDog]

Who died and made you the Mikhail Suslov of the conservative movement?

From http://www.bartleby.com/65/e-/E-Suslov-M.html:

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.  2001.

Suslov, Mikhail Andreyevich

(mkhyl´ ndr´yvch sslôf´) (KEY) , 1902–82, Soviet politician and ideologist. A Communist party member since 1921, he rose to prominence in the party hierarchy in the late 1930s and early 1940s. In 1941 he was named to the party’s central committee. He rapidly gained distinction as a leading party theoretician, noted for his condemnation of deviations from Soviet policy, particularly for his anti-Yugoslav propaganda in 1948. In 1955 he became a member of the presidium (later politburo) of the central committee. A shrewd political maneuverer, he supported Nikita Khrushchev’s bid for power in 1957, but in 1964 was influential in both the downfall of Khrushchev and the installation of Brezhnev.

O.K., I give up.

What did you INTEND to communicate with that post?

[thoughtomator]

Yes exactly! Impeachment was a core rallying point for the early FR. Arnold represents the complete opposite of what FR was in 1998.

In these 5 years since, has even FR become a liberal bastion, where someone who can see the obvious, for example, on abortion (that it is clearly murder by any rational standard) is a "freak" and a "right-wing crazy"?

Well, it's high time to circle the wagons and get rid of these SOCIALISTS IN REPUBLICAN CLOTHING!

This is NOT A REPUBLICAN PARTY WEBSITE.

This IS a conservative, Constitutionalist, anti-corruption website!

[PRND21]

the McClintock campaign of 2003 is playing the role of unwitting pawn of the Democrats to a perfection.

Unwitting or uncaring?

[onyx]

Obtusely.

[PRND21]

Arnold represents the complete opposite of what FR was in 1998.

Cruz and Bustamonte rank higher with you?

[gatorbait]

"I still say GHW Bush would have been re-elected had he not run the second worst campaign in the history of popular elections, Buchanan or no Buchanan, Perot or no Perot. GHW Bush lost the election; he didn't get beat. "

No ? Well then, let us return to the days of yesteryear when the Dims hit GHWB with Pat Buchannan's own rhetoric. Oh, don't want to fess up to that? I understand.John, it did not take at all long for the Buch ups to emerge for "their" boy, the Mercedes driver..

[EternalVigilance]

They only know one note, but you have to admit, they know how to play it loud.

[thoughtomator]

False argument. McClintock could easily win with the full support of the GOP, considering that Busty has less than half support from the Dem constitutency and plenty of leftist fringe candidates to dilute his vote.

For a conservative, Gray Davis is preferable to Arnold Schwarzenegger, because Davis won't be able to raise taxes and Arnold will.

The smart way to do the recall is not to capitulate all principle at the starting gate, but rather to back the right man all the way, and if it looks like Busty will win, then vote no on recall.

[skeeter]

In these 5 years since, has even FR become a liberal bastion, where someone who can see the obvious, for example, on abortion (that it is clearly murder by any rational standard) is a "freak" and a "right-wing crazy"?

That it may seem so is a factor of volume rather than numbers, as the FR's own polls would attest.

And also remember the site's owner is a McClintock supporter, at least as far as I know.

[PRND21]

False argument. McClintock could easily win with the full support of the GOP

So could cocker spaniel. Talk about false argument.

Gray Davis is preferable to Arnold Schwarzenegger,

To each his own.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Whenever a visitor's eye turns to the picture, I point to Pat and say, there's the man who put Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court. Only the politically inclined get it: Pat Buchanan's primary challenge to President George H.W. Bush in 1992 bled the incumbent and opened the door to Perot. Perot, of course, put Clinton in the White House, and Clinton put those justices on the highest court.

BALDERDASH!

As the incumbant, the election was George HW Bush's to lose, and lose it he did.

But, true to his Republican roots, Hewitt points fingers at everyone but Bush or the Republican party for the GOP loss in 1992. Naturally, he fails to mention the 1996 elections and the reasons why Republicans lost that one, too.

There's a reason why the GOP is known as the stupid party.

[gatorbait]

blame Clinton who appointed them. Had GWH bush won in 1992, he might very well have appointed Breyer and Ginsberg, himself.

What are you taking to control this hallucination?

[Tamzee]

Thanks for the terrific Hewitt article, John, he nails it beautifully :-)

Folks who mistakenly allow evil to flourish by blindly voting for "principle" are really just rotten stewards of the measure of political power that is a VOTE.

We should invest that vote where it causes the most good to flourish over evil. There are many ways to make political statements, but warping a vote into statement of ideology throws it's value away and and increases the power of the votes for evil and injustice.

[Luis Gonzalez]

California has a greater numbner of registered Democrats than registered Republicans, it's the most liberal State in the Union.

Someday, perhaps, there will a possibility of a conservative of McClintock's ideology making a run at the governor's chair, but not right now.

The pendulum has to swing through the center before it swings to either extreme.

Like in national politics, it is imperative that we get the pendulum to slow down the swing to the left, stop, then begin its swing to the right.

[Tamzee]

What are you taking to control this hallucination?

Must be in the placebo control group ;-)

[thoughtomator]

What's the difference between what can be expected from Gray Davis and what a reasonable person could expect from Arnold?

This is ridiculous! Arnold is a Davis clone with an (R) and you support him! A conservative would be better with Davis than Arnold, since in the former case the Dems and not the GOP would take the blame for the imminent catastrophe.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"And afterwards there'll STILL be those who won't be compelled to vote for candidates who don't give a damn about whats important to THEM".

You may have me there, I tend to pick the candidate that I believe cares the most about what's important TO THE COUNTRY, not to me.

After four years of Clinton, after the Clinton tax raise, fully aware of the type of President Bill Clinton was, the types of crimes he was capable of, the danger he represented to American security...your integrity guided you down the path that you KNEW would lead to his re-election.

Thanks.

[RonDog]

I don't see how any conservative in good conscience can support an extreme liberal over a rock-solid conservative.

If you are honestly unclear, here is the answer:

The "rock solid conservative" does not have the fundamental leadership qualities and/or communication skills and team-building ability necessary to generate sufficient support among the electorate to WIN.

From www.realclearpolitics.com:

Poll	Schwarzenegger	Bustamante	McClintock	Ueberroth	Huffington
RCP Average	31.4%	30.0%	13.4%	7.2%	2.6%
LA Times (9/6-10)	25%	30%	18%	8%	3%
Survey USA (9/6-8)	39%	29%	16%	6%	3%
Field Poll (9/4-7)	25%	30%	13%	5%	3%
Stanford U (8/29-9/8)	40%	28%	8%	7%	1%
Cal C of C (9/1-4)	28%	33%	12%	10%	3%
Survey USA (8/23-25)	45%	29%	11%	6%	3%
LATimes (8/16-21)	22%	35%	12%	7%	3%
GL Res. (8/13-18)*	31%	25%	17%	8%	3%
PPIC (8/8-17)	23%	18%	5%	4%	3%
Field Poll (8/10-13)	22%	25%	9%	5%	4%
Gallup (8/7-10)	42%	22%	13%	7%	7%
Time/CNN (8/8)	25%	15%	9%	4%	4%
*Republican Pollster, Simon votes reallocated to voters' second choice.
RCP Analysis (Updated 9/16): Well, after two weeks of not much action in the California race, something big did change yesterday. We should know in less than a week whether the election will indeed be postponed until next year. Our gut feeling is the election will still be held on October 7, but that is probably not much better than a 50-50 proposition at this point. If the election is indeed put on hold until next March there is no question it benefits Governor Davis. That is not to say Davis would be a lock to survive the recall next year, just that his chances of survival would be significantly higher. If the election still proceeds this October it's hard to predict how this turn of events will affect the outcome. We suspect a lot will depend on how the decision is reversed. Let's see how this shakes out this week. September 15: Little has changed in this race over the last two weeks; we still feel Schwarzenegger is likely to be the next governor of California. Ueberroth bowed out as expected, and if McClintock concedes to Arnold before election day, Schwarzenegger will win easily. However, right now the odds seem to favor McClintock going the distance. McClintock's decision will truly decide whether this becomes a cakewalk coronation for Arnold or a late-night nail-biter, a toss-up between Davis, Bustamante and Schwarzenegger for who will be the Governor. While McClintock's remaining in the race certainly keeps Bustamente's chances alive, what it really does is give Governor Davis a legitimate hope that he might be able to survive the first question on the ballot. Though we don't put a lot of stock in any one poll the trend in the same poll is valuable in monitoring which way the electorate is leaning. While we are skeptical of the raw numbers in the most recent LA Times poll, we feel the trend from their previous poll is an accurate reflection of the voters. Schwarzenegger gaining 3%, Bustamante losing 5%, McClintock gaining 6% and Davis picking up 2% all jives with where we think the race is heading. Bustamente's decline and Davis' small uptick makes complete sense as Democrats and independents are starting to realize Bustamente would be a disaster as Governor and Davis ultimately has a better shot at surviving the recall than Bustamente does of squeaking out a victory. The odds of a Governor Bustamente appear very slim to us, as he needs three things to happen to win. First, McClintock has to stay in until the end, probably a 50-50 proposition. Second, Davis has to lose the recall vote, we'd actually give the edge to Davis surviving if Bustamente is looking strong right before the election. And third, he obviously has to beat Arnold which we feel is 50-50 at best, even with McClintock in the race. So, you put all these together and you see why we don't expect a Governor Bustamente next year. McClintock obviously remains the wild card and the Democrats' fervent hope is he stays strong until the very end, allowing Bustamente the chance to squeak through. Though as we mentioned above, Davis would probably survive in this scenario. However, even if McClintock stays in we still feel the the most likely scenario is effectively a race between Schwarzenegger and Davis, as a general consensus emerges that Bustamente is a loser. And the prevailing disgust with the current economic and political situation in the state places Davis at a distinct disadvantage and is ultimately why it is likely Schwarzenegger will be the next Governor of California.