16 October 2019 — 1751 mdt

Wednesday political roundup

Last night, I endured three hours of the glorified press conference masquerading as the Democratic debate. Below, a few observations on that affair, plus notes on MT SecST Corey Stapleton and PSC Commissioner Brad Johnson, and a comment on the Flathead’s Love Lives Here’s invitation to its annual party.

Circular firing squads and Trump's Twitter account

FiringsSquad. In a primary campaign, candidates best serve their party when they explain their own positions and avoid attacks on their rivals that will be turned into advertisements by the opposing party. At least three Democrats, Joe Biden, Amy Kolbuchar, and Pete Buttigieg, rejected that wisdom, prefering to blast away at Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for their support of single-payer health care. They seized every opportunity to excoriate her for not providing a binary answer — aye or nay — to the question “will Medicare for All require tax increases for the middle class?”

Warren correctly answered that Medicare for All would lower costs for almost everyone. She’s wisely not cooperating in the efforts of some to frame the health care question as whether federal taxes will increase, instead framing the issue as a matter of total coverage and costs. Bernie Sanders says that yes, taxes will increase, but that the tax increase will be more than offset by the elimination of premiums for private insurance, thus producing a net decrease in costs for the overwhelming majority of Americans. I doubt Warren disagrees with that, but she knows that if she allows the issue to be framed as a federal tax increase, she’ll be hammered by “she’ll raise taxes on the middle class” attacks. Pete, Amy, and Joe, know that, too, which is why they should knock off their criticisms, which will do real damage to to Warren’s chances of defeating Trump should she win the nomination.

Twitter account. Kamala Harris, who believes debates are won by dry-gulching her adversaries, attacked Warren for not joining Harris’ campaign to pressure Twitter into deleting Trump’s Twitter account. It was another attempt by Harris to take down a top-polling candidate with a premeditated gotcha maneuver, a cheap shot. Warren deflected the attack, but would have been justified in rebuking Harris for advocating censorship, for abusing the First Amendment, and for advocating a remedy based on the premise that Trump must be silenced because his critics are unable to muster arguments that refute his lies and arguments.

Bernie’s health. Sanders was in fine form, vigorous, articulate, good humored, not stumbling over his words like Biden. Biden’s always been a stream of consciousness speaker, prone to gaffes and malapropisms, so his verbal lapses are not necessarily a sign of mental decline associated with aging, but my personal impression is that he’s lost a couple of feet on his fastball. Biden seemed older than Bernie.

Brad and Corey

MT SecST Corey Stapleton’s use of a state owned truck for personal travel probably was not consistent with Montana law, according to the Associated Press. He won’t be prosecuted for his misdeed, but there’s a good case that he should repay the state for the cost of using the vehicle for unauthorized purposes.

Stapleton doesn’t know when to stop pushing the envelope. He seems to seek out and seize every opportunity for an edge or a perk, and to get away with what he thinks he can get away with. I find myself wondering whether at some point his life was so hard that he had to scuffle and connive just to stay alive, and learned lessons that served him well in the short term but hurt him in the long term. It’s a sad situation that does damage to his personal reputation, to the office that he holds (and evidently loathes), and by extension, to the people of Montana. He’s not running for re-election, and he won’t win the GOP nomination for the U.S. House, both good things for Montana.

Brad Johnson, reports the Billings Gazette’s Tom Lutey, sent to the federal government a letter drafted by a group representing an industry he’s supposed to be regulating:

Did Johnson commit plagiarism by signing the letter? Don Pogreba at the Montana Post, a writer with whom I often agree, thinks he did. I don’t. Officials often put their name to documents written or supplied by staff. Johnson’s sin was not plagiarism: it was hauling water for the industry he’s supposed to be regulating. Johnson was not elected to be an advocate for coal. He was elected to be a watchdog who keeps coal barons walking the straight and narrow. If he can’t restrain himself from pushing a wheelbarrow of coal, he should make himself an honest man by resigning from the PSC and joining the propaganda department of a coal company.

Love Lives Here’s too high opinion of itself

Love Lives Here in the Flathead is a human rights organization that does a lot of good. It’s also pretty damn cocky and proud of itself. Too proud, in my estimation. In announcing it’s annual party, Love Lives Here asserted:

This is both hubris and fundraising hyperbole. Love Lives Here can make a case that it’s the leading organization in its field, or possibly that it’s the only organization in the Flathead whose highest priority is opposing white supremacy and extremism — but asserting that it’s the only organization that knows how to prevent white supremacy and extremism is a pile of oats that have passed through the horse.

Minor corrections to the text uploaded at 0230 MDT, 17 October 2019, and at 2016, 18 October 2019.