Dave Aronberg announces for attorney general

Now we have one Democratic state senator announcing for attorney general and another saying he’ll announce in a few days. So, careful readers, that stuff from a few days ago about avoiding primaries and being all united as a happy family – no longer in effect. That car’s not in gear. That idea is inoperative, to borrow a 35-year-old usage made famous in the doomed administration of Richard Nixon.

We’re gonna be Democrats. Will we have slugfests like that between the 2006 candidates for governor, Jim Davis and Rod Smith? That will be up to Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres (District 27), who announced on Thursday, and Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach (District 35), who said in an email, “I expect to be making my own announcement of my intentions within a few days.”

Let us fervently wish that they don’t spend all their money and venom on each other for the primary to be held in August 2010, and that the winner will be in good shape to defeat a Republican in November next year.

UPDATE: Both would have to resign their Senate seats to run for attorney general, under Florida's so-called "resign to run" law, text at this link. The state law does not apply to the federal office that Gelber sought, the US Senate.

Meanwhile, there’s confirmation that Democratic U.S. Rep Corrine Brown of Jacksonville (FL-3) is considering a run for the U.S. Senate nomination. In that race, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami (FL-17) has a strong start, with North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns saying he likes primaries. Gelber said last weekend he was stepping back from his declared run for the nomination for senator to avoid the chance of a divisive primary.

Alex Sink, now the state chief financial officer, is the mainstream announced candidate for the governorship that Charlie Crist will not run again for, instead running for the U.S. Senate nomination against Marco Rubio, former speaker of the state House of Representatives.

If you think this story is getting cluttered with political names, be glad I’m not talking about those announced Democrats for Kendrick Meek’s seat. They number six already. You may click on this link to the Florida Division of Elections list of who is running for everything. Note that Charlie Crist also has six announced Republican contenders for the U.S. Senate nomination.
This looks like a good two years for political consultants. Something to think about for those whose jobs have gone south.

Here’s the text of Gelber’s email.

“A few days ago I receded from the U.S. Senate race in order to avoid the circular firing squad that has characterized too many past Democratic efforts. My hope was that with the opening up of every cabinet office (for the first time in 140 years) that Democratic hopefuls – like me -- would take a step back to give all of us time to reach a thoughtful judgment on how best to unify our party in a year when real change is finally within reach. In fact, over the last few weeks many of the potential candidates had been in dialogue with each other and with others hoping to avoid the type of divisions that damage our ability to present a winning slate in November. I am grateful to have heard that so many of you share my concern and were also hopeful that our party could break free of its past missteps. This afternoon my friend Dave Aronberg let me know that he was not waiting any longer and announced his candidacy for Attorney General. While I would have preferred a different timeline, I expect to be making my own announcement of my intentions within a few days. While part of me worries that this is déjà vu all over again, I am still optimistic that ultimately we will be able to deliver the change Floridians so desperately need.”

And here’s a link to Aronberg’s campaign site, which was under construction a few days ago but now is well populated with content. He plans to talk a lot about consumer protection in his campaign.

Footnote: Nixon was the first president I covered in my years with Associated Press. Does that make me a big-deal White House correspondent? No, my first AP job was in Philadelphia, and Nixon came there (probably 1971) to give a speech on education; the AP traveling White House staffer was generous and let me write the second-cycle story on the speech.

Food for thought in the Obits

The name was familiar: Harry Dent. The rest of the headline on the obituary turned the screw of why we still despise Richard Nixon: “an architect of Nixon Southern Strategy.” Still hurts, doesn’t it? Our beloved country could have blossomed into a more friendly and fair place after the turmoil of the Civil Rights era, but instead a mean-spirited president fueled racism for political gain. And this guy Harry Dent, who passed away in Columbia, SC, on Friday at age 77, was an architect of it.

Let’s read into it. Strom Thurmond surfaces as a Democrat-turned Republican via Dixiecratism, and Harry Dent was on his staff. Nixon narrowly beat Hubert Humphrey in 1968, partly thanks to Dent’s “having helped articulate the Southern strategy,” in the words of the New York Times obit. Dent was rewarded with the post of special counsel in the White House.

Dent didn’t fare too well after Watergate; he was found guilty of a little illegal fund-raising but only got a month of probation. Good enough to advise Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush and be chair of the South Carolina Republican Party.

A sign of conscience surfaces at the very end of the obit, reporting what he told the Washington Post in a 1981 interview: “When I look back, my biggest regret now is anything I did that stood in the way of the rights of black people,” he said, “Or any people.”

It’s refreshing, every so slightly, that the prospect of the Pearly Gates may make even nasty Republicans regret their sins.

Now turn to the Op-Ed Page

Here the reader doesn’t have to be quite so old to remember the subject: Anita Hill writes an essay in response to the blast of publicity from Clarence Thomas, who became Supreme Court associate justice in 1991 even though Ms. Hill made pretty clear he had behaved very badly to her. In his memoir now on the market, Thomas is doing it again, she writes.

I’ve heard a lot about this in the past few days. On Monday NPR had a long segment on this and other Supreme Court issues, in which commentators on the Diane Rheem show expressed puzzlement at why Thomas is still so mad at Ms. Hill. The next day Rush Limbaugh fawned over Thomas for 90 minutes with nary a tough question. Somewhere in all that I heard – was it Thomas himself who said it? – that fellow Justice Antonin Scalia had said he himself was pretty conservative but he wasn’t “nuts” like Thomas. Ha ha.

Let’s remind ourselves that it’s George H. W. Bush we have to thank for nominating Thomas, and let’s wonder if the counsel of Harry Dent (see above) had anything to do with it.

Final word goes to Ms. Hill, who says people who are treated badly in the workplace have better protections today than when she tried to blow the whistle on Thomas and found her own character ripped apart for no good reason. “But that could change. Our legal system will suffer if a sitting justice’s vitriolic pursuit of personal vindication discourages others from standing up for their rights.”

Bravery will be required for whistle-blowers, as ever in this land of the free and the home of the brave.

The links: to Harry Dent obit, to Anita Hill's op-ed piece.

Fred Thompson was Nixon's mole

Here's why those of us of a certain age (I'm talking over 60 here) always get a little memory nudge when the name Fred Thompson comes up. We saw him a lot in 1973, when we were transfixed by Watergate, those televised hearings. Then he fell out of view for a while, and meanwhile his hair fell out, so now he doesn't look like he did back then. The Boston Globe has worked up the story complete with a photo showing our Fred with hair. Remember?

Now would any voter in right mind really want as president someone who in 1973 revealed the existence of the White House taping system but thought it would exonerate Tricky Dick? Wow, there's some bad judgment. It worked out for the best, of course, but this putative presidential candidate of 2007-8 was Nixon's mole.

I ask again: are there a lot of Republicans out there who really want such a background for their candidate?

If he's the Republican nominee, what a gold mine of memories we will have to bring out. It was so long ago that we've mostly forgotten, but still, there is that little memory nudge. What is it about the man? Not his cologne ...

This flood of memories was unleashed by a browse through the blog of Joy-Ann Reid, one of the morning people on Radio 1080, The People's Station in Miami. A bow of thanks to her.