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Once and Future Senate Republican Press Secretary?

by: Dean Barker

Tue May 12, 2009 at 05:44:53 AM EDT
Jennifer Donahue:
Throw Out Atwater, Rove Playbook: GOP Can Only Re-Brand with New Voices

...If Florida Governor Crist becomes Senate-candidate Charlie Frist, that could be a good start for the Republican party. If Sen. Judd Gregg were to run for re-election in 2010 (mind you he didn't say he wouldn't, just that he probably wouldn't). In a recent UNH Granite State poll, Gregg leads Rep. Hodes, the only announced Democratic challenger, 52-36. Gregg's favorability rating is 57%. This is revealed in a different way in recent polls which show President Obama's approval rating in the mid-60s, about twice that of the approval rating of the Democratic-led Congress. That indicates an opportunity for Republican pickups.

If the GOP is intentionally positioning Limbaugh as its titular party head, or if he is simply the only person Republicans can think of, then the GOP's best chance for movement is clearly outside the beltway.

There are so many ways to take a whack at this (such as why she wants Crist to turn into the Cat Killer, Gregg representing a new voice "outside the beltway," no context on the Smith poll or on the standard differences between presidential and congressional approval ratings), I feel like I'm at a pinata party.

So I'll start with "he didn't say he wouldn't, just that he probably wouldn't." May 9th, mind you:

But New Hampshire's senior senator said in an interview that neither his new fame nor anything else has changed his decision to retire from the Senate in 2010.

..."Thirty years is a long time to do something. It's time to move and see what else is out there."

And close with the obvious, cut and pasted whole cloth from the last time Director Donahue cheerled our senior senator:
Jennifer Donahue, former press secretary for Republican US Senator Hank Brown, is currently the Political Director at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, of which Judd Gregg was "instrumental" in establishing. Senator Gregg also leads NHIOP's Public Advisory Board.
Dean Barker :: Once and Future Senate Republican Press Secretary?
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Once and Future Senate Republican Press Secretary? | 5 comments
What a vote of confidence in Little John Sununu (4.00 / 3)
that so many Republicans are publicly pining for Judd Gregg to reconsider.
Just want to note that Paul Hodes is not a "challenger." (0.00 / 0)
He's an announced candidate for the United States Senate after having served with distinction in the House of Representatives.

That said, let me add that I've run across an interesting web site, History Commons where all kinds of historical tidbits are being collected, including an essay by Dick Cheney, published in 1989, in which he writes:

"Broadly speaking, the Congress was intended to be a collective, deliberative body. When working at its best, it would slow down decisions, improve their substantive content, subject them to compromise, and help build a consensus behind general rules before they were to be applied to the citizenry. The presidency, in contrast, was designed as a one-person office to ensure that it would be ready for action. Its major characteristics... were to be 'decision, activity, secrecy and dispatch.'...

In other words, he misconstrued the intent of the Constitution to set up three separate and equal branches of government and posited, instead, that the Congress and the Supreme Court were to be handmaidens to the President.  Cheney was not alone then (Michael J. Malbin helped) and he's not alone now.  Just the other day there was an explication on NPR about how the role of the Supreme Court is to advise the President on pending legislation, "not legislate from the bench " by calling laws un-Constitutional after the fact (which is, btw, how the Florida Supreme Court works in an advisory capacity).

Conservatives aren't just opposed to equality for individuals.  They're opposed to equal branches of government.  When they speak of "checks and balances," they're referring to the opposition of political parties which "check" public officials by throwing them out of office.

Relegating the checking function to competitors for public office really makes ruling easy, especially if the amount of money spent on elections can be made determinative of who wins elections.
Moreover, if the Congress is merely deliberative, then bi-partisanship is a natural condition.  If their role is to be supportive of the executive, there's nothing else for an official to do.

Equality is the central issue of our time.  Detainees and gays are merely exemplars on whom the principle is being tested.

the GOP lives in an alternate universe (4.00 / 3)
how else can they explain the rebranding of Judd the Dudd as a "new" voice?
Could not agree with you more! n/t (4.00 / 1)


Doing my best to elect NH Democrats since 1968 and getting better at it every year!
[ Parent ]
Maybe Gregg's approval rating is because he's leaving. (4.00 / 1)
At this point, without any campaigning, only half the state knows Paul Hodes. With some hard work to raise his visibility and donations I think he'd beat Judd.  
Once and Future Senate Republican Press Secretary? | 5 comments
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