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| Lyndon Baines Johnson |
To govern well, does one have to be sleazy? You look at Jimmy Carter and he was good and honest but ineffective. I look at our local politics and who got a lot done? Manny Diaz. Who else? I can't think of anyone. Why does politics have this dark side? I have no answers. Oil slick, remember? Do you have answers? If you saw it, how did the movie change your perception of Lincoln? In the movie Lincoln appeared to use these unsavory lobbyist type guys to go out and twist arms. The dynamics were all to familiar to me. The slovenly guy in the movie always eating and peddling deals reminded me of fast talking Ron Book. The movie made me rethink future presidential material. If arm twisting is necessary to be a good President, shouldn't we be electing Senators instead of Governors? I know, Senators have voting records that comes back to bite them, but Governors don't know the underbelly of Washington politics, the power of the sleazy deal.
(I took this photo of a statue of Johnson outside his Presidential Library in Texas.)
10 comments:
Talk about brow beating, former Commissioner Natacha Seijas twisted arms till they were hanging from the sockets.
Regalado has done zero. And I believe he has even moved the city backwards. If ever there was a pothole Mayor, Tomas Regalado is it.
Oil Slick Ha? Well if arm twisting is what your looking fir in our next president I Nominates Hulk Hogan and the Rock as VP just in case he needs to tag someone into the Oval Office.
On not so slick a surface as oil, in democracies leaders tend to mirror a majority of the voters at the given moment. Jimmy Carter came right after Tricky Dicky and Watergate. Clinton and his phallic Presidency was crunched between TWO Bush's. OOOPS there goes that oil agin.
To move the country, a President MUST twist arms, legs, and bodies. Clinton was a master at it. He directly worked over members of the House and Senate until he got the votes he needed. In Washinton, everything revolves around one"s ability to count the votes. The President has many things at his disposal to get what he wants. Everyone who makes it to Congress has a dog attitude because they have beat all the other dogs in their city or state. When they get to Washington, they play the big dog game. They have no comprehension of a "nice guy" President. A President must be a ring master with a whip. They don't understand any other language. I haven't seen the movie yet, but somethings transcend time.
Clinton was a master at twisting arms? Huh? What legislation did Clinton ever champion? He sat back and accomplished nothing while Newt Gingrich and the Republicans in Congress ran the show.
Disgraced former Mayor Manny Diaz paved parks and covered every inch he could control with concrete. And he left a $120 MILLION deficit and several ongoing SEC investigations. Too bad he had no legitimate business experience. Shame on him. That Cuban is no hero.
Diaz got MORE DONE. I didn't say it was all good. Who is an effective local politician. A reader mentioned Seijas. She did ram things through, again not all good by a long shot.
Seijas was a bully, Diaz had more finesse.
Chauncey, go back and take a look. One huge example of Clinton's steal willpower was the govt. shutdown. The republicans threatened that if they didn't get their way they would shutdown the govt. Clinton said shut it down, and they did. Afterwards they ate crow and came running back for compromise. No, you got it wrong, Clinton was much stronger than you can imagine.
So last anon, how was that an example of Clinton arm twisting? It was an example of how the Republican leadership miscalculated on public opinion. Clinton had nothing to do with it.
Haven't you figured it out? Public opinion is one of a vast number of tools in the Presidential toolbox.
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