They Get Letters

Pensacola pooh-bah Fred G. Levin has a letter-to-the-editor in today's PNJ. You'll have to scroll down to find "I See The Light."

Former law partner (for marketing purposes, anyway) Joe Scarborough won't be happy, in the unlikely event he cares at all. Unless, of course, this is just a local lawyers' version of The Battle of the Sexes intended to drum up more business.

Here's the version of Fred's letter that would have been printed if his personal valet-and-editor hadn't been on strike for higher wages:

Joe Scarborough... Mike Papantonio and Bobby Kennedy Jr. have all been my law partners, and I thought we pretty much agreed politically. I was, therefore, shocked when I read Joe Scarborough's column saying that he is now very conservative. * * * I remember Joe as a young congressman who had a bust of Bobby Kennedy Jr.'s dad on his desk.

Both Joe and Mike grew up [in] very meager circumstances[.] I [was raised] with a silver spoon in my mouth. Now, all three of us are doing quite well financially.

I thought... [we] were in agreement that rich people should pay big taxes in order to cover our government's outrageous expenses (including wars). There's no question that Mike [and Bobby] still believe that the rich should pay their fair share and not put obligations on our grandchildren.

Now that Joe has joined the world of the financially secure, he believes in the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

[Sarcasm alert:] After a great deal of reflection, I have now come around to Joe's way of thinking. I don't want to pay my fair share of taxes and I am, therefore, only going to read the columnist on the right side of the editorial page on Wednesday mornings.

Thank you, Joe Scarborough, for enlightening me.

— Fredric G. Levin

Okay. Not the most erudite, graceful, or convincing argument. But what the heck, Fred's heart is in the right place. And, after all, it's just a letter to the editor.

Since the PNJ apparently won't give him his own column, Fred should get a blog.

Java Joe Rejects Republicans

Pensacola's own Joe Scarborough, host of the new NBC show "Morning Joe," quoted by Jacques Steinberg in today's NYT:

“I’m just as conservative as I was in 1994, when everyone was calling me a right-wing nut,” he said. “I think the difference is the Republican Party leaders, a lot of them, have run a bloated government, have been corrupt, and have gone a very, very long way from what we were trying to do in 1994. Also, the Republican Party has just been incompetent.”

Is Scarborough still a right-wing nut? Probably. But he's not so stupid as to overlook rank incompetence or the path to higher ratings, or both.

Scarborough Out of the Closet: 'Vote Democratic'

Is Joe Scarborough finally coming out of the closet? Or, is he just a good weatherman who knows which way the political wind is blowing?

We ask because the former Pensacola congressman this week came awfully close to urging his followers to vote for Democrats this November. From his current essay at MSNBC:

"[T]he 2006 election is not shaping up to be about ideology. Instead, it seems destined to become a referendum on the Republican scandals.

"Jack Abramoff, Bob Ney, Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham and Mark Foley have all been driven from power over the past year because of ethical and legal challenges. Only DeLay's arose from political battles. The others were busted in various sexual, financial and ethical scandals that will haunt all Republicans this fall.
* * *
"... the quagmire in Iraq. * * * Shiite death squads killing Sunni... Sunni insurgents blowing up Shiite children... it is hard to find good guys in that war. It is also difficult to get a read on America's economic outlook. Gas prices are down, interest rates are steady but the deficit and debt are at all time highs.
* * *
"A Republican congressman preyed on young boys. His leaders knew about inappropriate emails. They did next to nothing. And when it hit the fan a month before the election, Republican leaders spent the first days of the scandal pointing fingers at each other. One more scandal.

"One more indictment. One more reason to vote Democratic."

Say what? Joe Scarborough says vote Democratic?

We asked around. Some local folk claim that Joe's always had something of a populist streak buried deep beneath that crusty conservative exterior. They say personal ambition made him keep it out of public sight because of Northwest Florida's notoriously right-wing electoral climate.

Others remain dubious. They think that with Joe Scarborough, ambition always trumps intellectual honesty, even if he does now have a national audience. The only reason he might 'out' himself, they say, is if there's something in it for him; something like more votes or higher TV ratings.

Either way, it's more fun -- and a lot more decorous -- to speculate about what Joe Scarborough's been doing in the closet than what his former congressional colleagues are doing behind their closed doors.

Snowballs in Pensacola

A few days ago someone named Nitpicker over at Daily Kos posted a big cheer for Northwest Florida congressional candidate Joe Roberts (D-Gulf Breeze).

Joe's a "fighter," he says. "A Marine who served in Vietnam and continued to serve in the National Guard until 2005 -- including an active duty stint in Operation Enduring Freedom... ." Having interviewed him and studied up on his issues, says Nitpicker, Joe Roberts embraces "a conservatism we can get behind."

Who's the "we" in that? Well, given the general sentiments of most Daily Kos subscribers, it's a good bet "we" doesn't mean Dick Cheney fans or Chevron stockholders.

It's certainly true that Roberts is no screaming liberal. As another Kos subscriber, by the name of sagra, pointed out the next day in comments to a follow-up article, here in Northwest Florida --

We have Eglin AFB, Pensacola NAS, and a lot of old military families who decided to retire where it's warm.

No real progressive has a snowball's chance in hell here. Electing a conservative who's not afraid to call Bush on his shit would be a dream come true.

What many seem to have forgotten is that it wasn't that long ago that another politician running for Congress was considered to have no better than a snowball's chance in hell. His name was Joe Scarborough. An inexperienced recent law school graduate, when Scarborough first decided to run he thought he would be up against a 16-year incumbent Democratic congressman, Earl Hutto, for a seat that a Republican had never won. Hutto unexpectedly retired, and Scarborough won in a landslide.

In short, lightning can strike. Even for snowballs.

One sure advantage Roberts has is his veteran status as a Marine, a Vietnam vet, and a long-time National Guard member. His opponent, Jeff Miller, never served in the military. He's just another "chickenhawk" who enthusiastically votes for wars so long as someone else fights them.

Nitpicker is urging individual on-line campaign donations to Roberts (with that cute 1 penny add-on to signal where it came from) through Act Blue or Joe Robert's own campaign web site.

But if you prefer the opposition, you can throw some money at these guys, who will surely be funnelling it to Roberts' opponent sooner or later.

Amplification Dept.
Why Now? has more about Joe Roberts.

Scarborough: 'Be Very Afraid'

Pensacola's own conservative commentator and former congressman Joe Scarborough has weighed in on the latest NSA phone/internet dragnet tapping of tens of millions of American phone lines:

"Now, for liberals who‘ve long been going against almost all of these issues to defend privacy, the news has to be disturbing. But no less so the conservatives who have fought national ID cards and gun registration for years out of fear of big government.

"Now, whatever you consider yourself, friends, you should be afraid. You should be very afraid. With over 200 million Americans targeted, this domestic spying program is so widespread, it is so random, it is so far removed from focusing on al Qaeda suspects that the president was talking about today, that it‘s hard to imagine any intelligence program in U.S. history being so susceptible to abuse."

On this subject, Scarborough knows what he's talking about, as the full MSNBC transcript reveals:

"I served on the Judiciary Committee and the Armed Service Committee in Congress for four years, and no program I studied while using security clearances ever came close to the scope of this massive spy program. It is dangerous, it breaks FCC laws, and it endangers all Americans‘ right to privacy.

"But you know what? The villains in this spy program are pretty easy to target, almost as easy as your phone records. First you have the president, who‘s shown that he will break laws if they get in his way of spying. Second, Democratic leaders—they complain now, but where were they? They reviewed the program. Why no protest? Don‘t hold your press conferences now, Nancy Pelosi. Tell us about it when you learn about it!

"And finally, the phone companies, who actually profited from the government reading all of your phone bills. They should be sued and their CEOs fired.

"Hey, memo to the president and congressional leaders who signed up on this lousy program: We don‘t trust you anymore. We don‘t trust you with our phone bills. We don‘t trust you with our bank records. We don‘t trust you with our medical histories. From now on, if you want to look at Americans‘ private records, get a damn search warrant!"

Somehow, Joe seems to have overlooked the Republican congressional majority. No matter. There's plenty of blame to go around.

Rather than looking for someone to blame, the pressing question ought to be, "Who will put a stop to this administration's drift away from constitutional democracy?"

Shorter Joe Scarborough

From Bill Maher's September 9, 2005, HBO program "Real Time":

[Joe Scarborough]: Now, people have been talking about the need to appoint a hurricane czar. I was asked, “What do you think about that?” I said, “Well, we do have a hurricane czar, and it's the director of FEMA. When Bill Clinton was president, we had somebody named James Lee Witt. He was a great FEMA director. I flew around the Gulf Coast with him three or four times when hurricanes hit down here ... and when you have the right people in place, it makes a big difference.

To which there is this reply:

[Bill Maher]: He would have been better at handling this during sex than George Bush was.

September Song

Joe Scarborough says no to running for U.S. Senate. The interesting question is -- to whom did he say it? According to the Associated Press, "The National Republican Senatorial Committee, led by Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, tried to talk Scarborough into challenging Harris."

It's impossible to believe Dole was trying to recruit Scarborough without the explicit encouragement of the White House. After all that she did for George Bush in 2000, Harris has to be furious -- and frightened, too.

There's no reason to suppose the White House or Senator Dole will stop wooing another candidate to oppose her. Indeed, Scarborough himself thinks so. As the Pensacola News Journal reports, "Scarborough anticipates that as the Senate race draws nearer, efforts to field another Republican candidate will intensify." {emphasis added]

May 12, 2006 is the last day for other candidates to qualify to run in the primary. The primary election itself is still over a year away.

That's a very long time in politics.

Oh, it's a long, long while from May now to December.
But the days grow short when you reach September.
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
One hasn't got time for the waiting game

Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days I'll spend with you
These precious days I'll spend with you

.

Here, There, and About

Joe Scarborough admits he's thinking about running for the seat currently held by U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), according to Leslie Conn of the News Journal.

More than that, a national AP dispatch reports that Scarborough "has already talked with Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and plans to meet with Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and White House officials next week about whether to get into the race to unseat Democrat Bill Nelson."

Doesn't it seem unlikely Scarborough would be calling on the three most important power brokers for the 2006 Republican primary election cycle just to discuss his cable TV contract?

* * *
Some blog calling itself Betty the Crow News has the early lead for funniest line about the Florida Senate race:

BTC News has no preference for either Harris or Scarborough, but we would greatly enjoy watching their primary battle and so we will encourage Scarborough to run. Run, Joe, run.

Suggested campaign ad for Harris: "Katherine Harris has proven she’ll do anything to win. Joe Scarborough has proven he’ll quit even if he does win."

* * *
Even before the final totals are known, Hurricane Ivan has settled in as the third most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history, according to the National Flood Insurance Program. Only Hurricane Andrew ($21.1 billion) and the World Series earthquake of 1994 ($15.9) exceed Ivan's costs. For now, however, the exact final total for Ivan remains unknown:

Claire Wilkinson, vice president of global affairs for the Insurance Information Institute in New York, said Ivan's total destruction likely comes with a price tag closer to $12 billion to $14 billion.

"We usually figure that about 50 to 60 percent of damages are insured," she said.

What she might have added, locals are probably saying to themselves, is that of all the insured damages, too many insurance companies routinely offer to pay only half.

* * *
Speaking of storm recovery efforts, wet-dry ballots are being mailed to Santa Rosa County voters today. They should be returned by mail or in person by 5 p.m. September 6.

This is the first time Northwest Florida voters have been offered the chance to vote by mail -- one of the only benefits from Hurricane Ivan. Chuck Pohlmann, who spearheaded the petition to put the issue to a mail-in vote, argued successfully that a mail-in ballot was needed because so many voters have been displaced by Ivan and now use mail boxes.

We'll toast to that -- and hope mail-in voting becomes routine, as it now is in Oregon.

Scarborough Clownery

"[T]his is the problem with punditry, that an uninformed opinion has exactly the same power as evidence."

-- Eric Alterman, U.S. Comedy Arts Festival 2005 ("Industry Seminar: Wag The Debate – What’s the Future of The Pundity?") Feb. 12, 2005 (p. 41)(pdf format).

An Associated Press report rounding the nation is that Republicans are asking former Pensacola congressman and current cable TV pundit Joe Scarborough to run next year against U.S. Senator Bill Nelson. The White House and party poobahs, as the Washington Post has reported, are worried that the only announced G.O.P. candidate for the GOP nomination, Katherine Harris, has negatives that top off all Florida politicians' leaderboards.

Local reporter Lesley Conn ferrets out one small fact in the Pensacola News Journal that no one else seems to have noticed:

"Another issue to resolve: 'Scarborough Country,' the 2½-year-old MSNBC talk show that Scarborough hosts from Pensacola. His contract ends in March ... ."

If he were to run, Scarborough undoubtedly would have the full-throated, rich-fisted backing of the White House and GOP campaign donors. The mere possibility will persuade a lot of Harris' potential campaign contributors to sit on their wallets for awhile.

Meanwhile, Scarborough also can parlay all the political talk into a hefty increase in his renewed MSNBC contract -- if he wants to do so. Struggling against its farther-to-the-right competitor, MSNBC can hardly afford right now to lose a popular show like "Scarborough Country."

Two other elements may be at work. For one thing, Harris greatly embarrassed herself the other night on one of Fox Cable News' screaming heads programs by adopting -- let's be discrete, here -- a grotesquely unnatural and openly flirtatious posture for Sean Hannity and and fake-liberal Alan Colmes. The episode was so bizarre that state Republicans must be wondering what kind of a mental midget they've sent to Washington and why in the world they would want to keep her there.

News Hounds ("We watch Fox so you don't have to") headlined the story 'Katherine Harris Shakes Her Boobies'. You can see the video yourself on Crooks and Liars.

Jon Stewart of The Daily Show drew huge guffaws from the audience just by showing the clip, raising a single eyebrow, and mentioning that Harris and "her two running mates" were interviewed. Even the gossipy Wonkette -- who is no enemy of D.C. Republicans -- had something snarky to say.

For a second thing, there are some faint signs that Scarborough may be feeling a little soiled after working the Cable TV circuit the past few years. Last February, he chaired a panel discussion for American Progress.org. To be sure, the conference was titled "The U.S. Comedy Arts Festival" and the inspiration was the Peabody award-winning Daily Show. But the panel debate was a fairly serious one.

The panel was discussing "What's The Future of the Pundity"? A transcript is available here.

Maybe it was the Aspen air, maybe it was all the Democrats he had to sit with at the table, but reading between the lines it's obvious that Scarborough was weighted with misgivings about the value of what he presently does for a living. Here are just a few suggestive lines that pop out on first reading:

• "When MSNBC first hired me, [my wife] said, “Don’t be a clown, I want you to be Tim Russert.” (p. 9)


• "What a lot of pundits always ask themselves is, is anybody listening, is anybody watching." (p. 11)


• "I don’t think progressives watch cable news as much as – you know, I had somebody from Fox News tell me one time when I started my show – they said, 'We really don’t care what happens east of the Hudson or west of Las Vegas. We’re going for red state America, and that’s how we’re going to build this into the top show.' And I’ll be darned if, four years later, that formula didn’t work. So I think again that’s what the focus has been. And maybe some of the more progressive pundits wouldn’t play as well with the people that turn on cable news as much. I don’t think they’re watching O’Reilly on the Upper West Side, as much as they are in Kansas City." (p. 33)


• "[P]eople watch Fox News, but then when the tsunami hits, CNN’s numbers go through the roof. On the State of the Union, a lot of people turn to Matthews. I mean, people are smart enough to figure out what they’re going to get when they go to Fox News." (pp. 32-33)


• "I think... if I say something stupid – it used to be a couple years ago, if I said something stupid, which is every night, my wife would meet me at the back door and just shake her head and go to bed." (p. 33)


• "[I]s nuance going to move to the cable audience? Because we’re talking about the cable audience. Forgetting about what’s happening on PBS, forgetting about what’s happening in the New York Times. Are you talking about is that sort of nuanced debate going to take over cable news or move to talk radio?(p. 34)

At times, one supposes, everyone must be assailed by doubts about the worth of what he or she is doing. Nearly everyone, too, at least considers a career change from time to time. Joe Scarborough certainly has. He's been a musician, a lawyer, a congressman, and a Cable TV pundit, among other things.

The question of the day now is, do you think he's sick enough about what he has been doing to reenter the political arena? Or, would a fat new contract with MSNBC keep him happy as a clown?