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Times Watch for
November 5, 2004
A Specter Looming Over Bush's Sunny Week
After two days of processing raw election data (and making plenty of snipes at conservatives), Friday's Times takes a step back with broader-based, mostly respectful stories on how Bush's coalition of religious and values voters put him over the top. But the paper doesn’t miss a chance to stir controversy, fronting a story based on comments by Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, who's in line to become chairman of the influential Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg's front-page story, "Despite G.O.P. Gain, Fight Over Judges Remains," begins: "When Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, faced the toughest primary race of his political career, President Bush went to his rescue, campaigning with Mr. Specter at every turn. But when both men were re-elected this week, Mr. Specter promptly made remarks that seemed to warn the president against nominating Supreme Court justices who would overturn the 1973 ruling legalizing abortion. The Senate, Mr. Specter said, would be unlikely to approve 'judges who would change the right of a woman to choose.' On Thursday, as outraged conservatives demanded that the Senate block Mr. Specter's rise to the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the senator issued a statement clarifying those remarks."
A moderate-liberal, Specter is Stolberg's favorite sort of Republican, and she notes his "independent streak": "As the second-most-senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Specter is in line to replace the current chairman, Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, who must step down under Senate rules that limit the terms of chairmen to eight years. The position will give Mr. Specter, a centrist known for an independent streak, great influence over the judicial confirmation process. The issue of judicial nominations percolated throughout the elections, including Mr. Specter's own. This spring, he faced a difficult primary challenge from Representative Patrick J. Toomey, a conservative Republican, who labeled Mr. Specter a Ted Kennedy liberal who would block conservative judges if he ascended to the chairmanship."
She contrasts "beleaguered" abortion-rights advocates with angry abortion opponents: "Abortion rights advocates, feeling beleaguered after Senator John Kerry's loss to Mr. Bush, said they were encouraged by Mr. Specter's remarks. 'Welcome back, Senator Specter,' said Elizabeth Cavendish, interim president of Naral Pro-Choice America, in a reference to what she views as the senator's recent efforts to distance himself from abortion rights. She called his remarks 'an important statement to the president that he should not interpret the election results as a mandate to take away fundamental freedoms.' But abortion opponents were beside themselves. Aides to Senate Republicans who oppose abortion said their phones rang with complaints about Mr. Specter. One group, the Concerned Women of America, declared that Mr. Specter had 'Borked himself' -- a reference to Judge Robert H. Bork, whose appointment to the Supreme Court was doomed after sharp questioning from Mr. Specter, who crossed party lines to vote against him."
For the rest of Stolberg on Specter, click here.
• Abortion | George W. Bush | Campaign 2004 | Sen. Arlen Specter | Sheryl Gay Stolberg | Supreme Court
Will Bush Now Tone Down the Rhetoric?
David Sanger's "White House Memo" from Bush's first post-election news conference pictures a president in a hurry in "Relaxed, Certainly, but Keeping One Eye on the Clock."
Sanger writes: "It has been a long time since anyone around the White House has seen the George W. Bush who showed up at a news conference on Thursday morning. He was relaxed, almost jovial, as he needled the press corps and then reminded his viewers more than once that in his mind 'results really do matter' and that he views the 51 percent majority he won Tuesday as a license to legislate. It was a side of Mr. Bush rarely seen since Sept. 11, 2001, and almost never since the quick military victory in Iraq gave way to urban chaos and rising casualties. But then again, most Americans outside of Texas had never before seen George Bush in the reflected light of a major political triumph, which may explain why he sounded so different."
Sanger, no fan of Bush's policies, seems unusually generous today: "So the president's game plan seems drawn from the playbook he brought to the White House in January 2001. At that time, he ignored the razor-thin nature of his victory, and acted like a man with a mandate for change. It worked: his biggest legislative victories, tax cuts and the No Child Left Behind law that he cited Thursday as a model of bipartisan cooperation, were trophies of that period. But Mr. Bush no longer has to pretend that he possesses a clear electoral mandate. Because for the first time in his presidency, he can argue that he has the real thing."
Later Sanger reverts to form: "One of the biggest questions hanging over his second term is whether he will tone down the rhetoric and actions that play so badly abroad."
For the rest of Sanger on Bush's post-election presser, click here.
• George W. Bush | Campaign 2004 | David Sanger
Bush Wins Big, But Faces Pressure from Christians
Richard Stevenson's lead story on Bush's post-victory press conference, "Focus on Social Security and Tax Code," notes Bush's "decisive win" but wonders if he can withstand "pressure" from the evangelical Christians who helped him win reelection: "But he left unclear how much, if at all, he would compromise especially after an election that gave him a majority of the popular vote, strengthened conservative Republicans in Congress and left Democrats weaker….When the questioning turned to perhaps the most ideologically charged issues facing Mr. Bush in a new term -- the likelihood of his making one or more nominations to the Supreme Court -- Mr. Bush gave no indication of how he would balance pressure from the evangelical Christians who played an important role in winning his re-election and his stated desire to reduce the nation's partisan tensions….Asked whether the support he received from conservative evangelical Christians raised concerns about the nation's becoming split politically between people for whom religion is very important and those for whom it is less so, Mr. Bush said, 'I will be your president regardless of your faith, and I don't expect you to agree with me necessarily on religion.'"
For the full Stevenson on Bush's press conference, click here.
• George W. Bush | Campaign 2004 | Religion | Richard Stevenson
Tom Delay "Pushes the Limits"
After a successful election for Congressional Republicans, Carl Hulse profiles the influence of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and it's not very flattering: "In the weeks leading up to the voting, Mr. DeLay was hit with back-to-back scoldings from the House ethics committee, reinforcing his reputation as a lawmaker who pushes the limits, while providing Democrats an opportunity to try to make him into an issue against Republicans in competitive districts. But House Republicans ultimately gained seats, increases due in no small part to a Texas redistricting plan engineered by Mr. DeLay, earning him even more gratitude and good will from fellow Republicans already angry over the ethics actions…Now, with President Bush and other top Congressional Republicans talking about trying to reduce the partisanship that has gripped Capitol Hill, some are wondering whether the combative majority leader will move in that direction as well."
Hulse passes on Democratic complaints about "divisive social issues": "Democrats say they are open to a rapprochement with House Republicans but will take a wait-and-see attitude. They are skeptical that a Republican majority that padded its numbers after a session marked by bitter partisanship and votes on divisive social issues will now take a new tack."
As if it's somehow contemptible to push popular legislation?
For more of Hulse's report on DeLay's agenda, click here.
• Campaign 2004 | Congress | Rep. Tom Delay | Carl Hulse
Krugman Celebrates Voters -- Before the Election, Anyway
Columnist Paul Krugman, who
two weeks ago suggested John Kerry would win with over 300 electoral votes, sounds bereft after Bush's fairly comfortable win.
Previously, Krugman was ready to blame any hypothetical Bush victory on voter intimidation: "If the election were held today and the votes were counted fairly, Senator John Kerry would probably win. But the votes won't be counted fairly, and the disenfranchisement of minority voters may determine the outcome."
Perhaps the huge popular vote margin dissuaded him from making that case again. Instead, Krugman uses the fear factor: "President Bush isn't a conservative. He's a radical -- the leader of a coalition that deeply dislikes America as it is. Part of that coalition wants to tear down the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt, eviscerating Social Security and, eventually, Medicare. Another part wants to break down the barriers between church and state. And thanks to a heavy turnout by evangelical Christians, Mr. Bush has four more years to advance that radical agenda."
Suggesting he's out of explanations, Krugman refers twice to the idea of the "aura" of 9/11 to explain Bush's victory: "Mr. Bush did not win in a landslide. Without the fading but still potent aura of 9/11, when the nation was ready to rally around any leader, he wouldn't have won at all….Democrats -- who are doing pretty well at getting the votes of moderates and independents -- need to become equally effective at mobilizing their own base. In fact, they have made good strides, showing much more unity and intensity than anyone thought possible a year ago. But for the lingering aura of 9/11, they would have won."
And Don Luskin notices an abrupt change of tune from Krugman regarding the nobility of heavy turnout: "Here's what America's most dangerous liberal pundit had to say in his New York Times column Tuesday morning, when he expected John Kerry to win the presidency: 'I always get a little choked up when I go to the local school to cast my vote. The humbleness of the surroundings only emphasizes the majesty of the process: this is democracy, America's great gift to the world, in action. But over the last few days I've been seeing pictures from Florida that are even more majestic. They show long lines of voters, snaking through buildings and on down the sidewalk: citizens patiently waiting to do their civic duty. Those people still believe in American democracy; and because they do, so do I.' How easy it was for him to get all misty-eyed and magnanimous, and wish for nothing more than a clean election, when he thought that it was his candidate who would benefit from a large voter turnout."
For the rest of Krugman, click here.
• George W. Bush | Campaign 2004 | Columnists | Paul Krugman
The Patriot Act Threatens Civil Liberties, Again
Book critic Michiko Kakutani reviews a law professor's new book on civil liberties in wartime and finds ominous modern-day parallels: "It's hard to think of a scholarly study more timely than Geoffrey R. Stone's new book, 'Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime From the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism.' At a time when the Patriot Act threatens to curtail civil liberties, at a time when Attorney General John Ashcroft has effectively dismantled guidelines restricting the F.B.I.'s authority to investigate political and religious activities, at a time when the Justice Department invokes 'national security' concerns to try to seize reporters' telephone records, Mr. Stone's book arrives to give the reader a sagacious brief on the vital importance of the First Amendment and an illuminating history of the ongoing tension in American history between liberty and security."
For the full Kakutani, click here.
• Books | Civil Liberties | Michiko Kakutani | Terrorism
E-mail TimesWatch Director, Clay Waters, with TimesWatch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org