Third Way Dispatch

In ancient medicine, doctors used leeches to drain “excess” blood and “balance the humors” of the human body. (The leech actually gets its name from the word for doctor in Old English: læce). These doctors had basically one approach to medicine: if the patient was ill, drain blood. If things were really bad, drain MORE blood.

That, in short, is the modern conservative’s approach to the economy.

Yesterday, I posted on the Clemens food fight and wondered what got into the Republicans. Why did they behave like cheerleading baboons, and how could they have possibly read the evidence and concluded Clemens was au natural during his 4 Cy Young run in the “twilight of his career?” I surmised that perhaps that years of defending Alberto Gonzalez, WMDs, yellow cake in Niger, and Abu Ghraib had permanently distorted their ability discern truth from lies – even when the witness repeatedly used phrases like “misheard” and “misremembered” to explain away 60’ 6”-sized holes in his story.

Now we have an explanation and it’s even worse than I thought. Mark Souder, who is now my favorite Republican from Indiana, spilled the beans. In a moment of refreshing candor, he admitted that he and Tom Davis were the only GOPers to have read the sworn depositions. And then (slapping my forehead with my palm) I realized how stupid I was. If they’re not going to read the National Intelligence Estimate or the 9/11 Commission Report – something that could save or cost the lives of, oh, sentient life on planet earth, how could we expect them to do their homework in preparation for this 4 ½ hour, nationally televised clown-a-thon? Especially when there are no pictures. Well, we can’t can we?

Lanny Breuer and Rusty Hardin had it figured out. Just visit the offices. Sign a couple of balls. Drop a few Bush bombs. Wave a few shiny objects to distract them. And – snap! – we’re mired in an unwinnable and unconscionable conflict in the Middle East … Ooops, I mean we let another 9-figure cheat off the hook.

Shame on Brian McNamee’s lawyers for not preparing their witness. “Brian, realize that half of those buffoons have not read boo of the sworn testimony. And that cranky old feller over there – Burton – rumor says the last book he read began ‘I am Sam. Sam I am.’” Although, what good would it have done really? The fix was in.

Well, it’s February 14th and pitchers and catchers are due to report. Hope springs eternal. Can’t say I feel too good about the Congress though.

I have to admit, I was dumfounded – at first – by the Roger Clemens hearing. It wasn’t the nanny issue and the Jose Canseco party. It wasn’t the HGH injection for Madame Clemens for the SI swimsuit edition (note to self: get HGH for 20 year grad school reunion in May.). No, it was the unexpected partisan breakdown. I mean, this looked like the Alito hearings. The Republicans were with the Rocket; Democrats were against him. The Republicans thought Roger was telling the truth; Democrats thought he was lying.

But more than that – Republicans were like groupies trying to get an autographed ball. They were holding up pictures, asking him what insignia he would wear on his Hall of Fame plaque (how about $$$?), hell – they were fawning over him. It didn’t matter that everyone else McNamee fingered in the Mitchell report fessed up. Never mind that Mrs. Rocket admitted to using HGH. Never mind that Andy Pettitte said Clemens spoke to him about juicing. The Republicans circled the wagons around Roger like he was Alberto Gonzalez.

Though hundreds of thousands now say they were there, it was 10,454 fans who really showed up to Boston’s Fenway Park to witness Ted Williams’ last game as a major league baseball player. Yesterday, as I was rattling around the Capitol after a meeting, I had my own Ted Williams moment. I ran into Ed Greelegs in his last hour of his last day as an employee on Capitol Hill.

The end of the Republican revolution came not with a bang, but with a whimper. Actually a couple of whimpers. As Conrad Burns went off to hunt, and George Allen went off to well, watch football or something, the great sorting out of 2006 was complete. Moderates had moved back into the Democratic fold and restored them to power in Congress.

We will have much more to say later about the impact of moderates on the rout of Nov. 7 – this historic election deserves careful analysis and thought. For now, we are content to offer our hearty congratulations to newly elected Members, to the new Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to the extraordinary leaders of the party committees Chuck Schumer and Rahm Emanuel, and to everyone who has labored in the vineyards of progressive politics during the long years of difficulty and frustration.

In particular, we proudly point to all of the candidates that used our materials on national security. We are honored that we had the opportunity to share our work with so many of the victors, including Senators-elect Sherrod Brown, Bob Casey, Amy Klobuchar, Claire McCaskill, Jon Tester, and Sheldon Whitehouse. Congratulations as well to all of those who participated in the Third Way-SecureUS PAC trainings, including Representatives-elect Chris Carney (PA-10), Joe Courtney (CT-2), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY-20), Steve Kagen (WI-8), Tim Mahoney (FL-16), Jay McNerney (CA-11), Patrick Murphy (PA-8), Chris Murphy (CT-5), Joe Sestak (PA-7), and Zack Space (OH-18). And a shout out as well to the many others, like Heath Schuler (NC-11) who used some or all of our middle-class tax cut ideas.

We are excited about the future, for Congress and for America. We salute the victors, offer condolences to the losers, and look forward to our work with the next Congress.

This week brought the sad news of the untimely passing of retired Major General Kathy Frost, who was the Army’s highest-ranking woman when she retired last year and the wife of former Representative Martin Frost. Kathy Frost died after a four-year battle with breast cancer. She was 57.

We at Third Way did not have the privilege of knowing General Frost very well, but we were fortunate enough to have had her participate (along with her husband and 60 other senior military, political, academic, journalism and business leaders) in a weekend-long national security retreat that we co-hosted last fall with The New Republic. Her varied 31-year career in the military provided a unique perspective on the subject that we were grappling with that weekend – restoring progressive credibility on national security – and we all learned much from her insights.

Her contribution to the event truly culminated in its closing hour, when the group was role-playing in scenarios that tested how progressive leaders should handle various aspects of national security. Kathy’s group was dealing with a fictionalized humanitarian crisis in Africa, designed to look much like Rwanda or Darfur. After much dispassionate, analytical discussion among her colleagues about American interests and the use of power, Kathy broke character to give an impassioned speech about the need for American intervention to prevent humanitarian catastrophe: “When I was in the military, I accompanied US officials touring Rwandan refugee camps in Congo and Tanzania” she said. “And we watched as they bulldozed the bodies of children – dozens and dozens of children – into mass graves.” Her eyes welled with tears as she said: “I vowed then that I would do everything I could to make sure this country never again stands by in the face of such savagery.”

This country needs leaders like Kathy Frost – with the courage to rise through the ranks of the military as a path-blazing woman in the Army and with the moral conviction to press America to live up to its potential. We mourn her passing, and we send our heartfelt condolences to Martin and the rest of her family.