Susan Estrich Comes Unglued

I've always tried to have respect for Susan Estrich. She's a fellow Harvard Law School graduate, and a helluva a lot more accomplished in politics than yours truly has ever been. But now, she's lost it.

If Ann Coulter penned something like this on the right, the Democrats would go nuts. But Susan Estrich, respectable liberal that she is (and the person in charge during the Dukakis meltdown in 1988), tells us the gloves are off from the Democrats...

My Democratic friends are mad as hell, and they aren't going to take it any more.

They are worried, having watched as another August smear campaign, full of lies and half-truths, takes its toll in the polls.

They are frustrated, mostly at the Kerry campaign, for naively believing that just because all the newspapers and news organizations that investigated the charges of the Swift Boat assassins found them to be full of lies and half-truths, they wouldn't take their toll.

The word on the street is that Kerry himself was ready to fire back the day the story broke, but that his campaign, believing the charges would blow over if they ignored them, counseled restraint. But most of all, activists Democrats are angry. As one who lived through an August like this, 16 years ago -- replete with rumors that were lies, which the Bush campaign claimed they had nothing to do with and later admitted they had planted -- I'm angry, too. I've been to this movie. I know how it works. Lies move numbers.

...Millions of dollars will be on the table. And there are plenty of choices for what to spend it on.

I'm not promising pretty.

What will it be?

Will it be the three, or is it four or five, drunken driving arrests that Bush and Cheney, the two most powerful men in the world, managed to rack up? (Bush's Texas record has been sealed. Now why would that be? Who seals a perfect driving record?)

After Vietnam, nothing is ancient history, and Cheney is still drinking. What their records suggest is not only a serious problem with alcoholism, which Bush but not Cheney has acknowledged, but also an even more serious problem of judgment. Could Dick Cheney get a license to drive a school bus with his record of drunken driving? (I can see the ad now.) A job at a nuclear power plant? Is any alcoholic ever really cured? So why put him in the most stressful job in the world, with a war going south, a thousand Americans already dead and control of weapons capable of destroying the world at his fingertips.

It has been said that in the worst of times, Kissinger gave orders to the military not to obey Nixon if he ordered a first strike. What if Bush were to fall off the wagon? Then what? Has America really faced the fact that we have an alcoholic as our president?

Or how about Dead Texans for Truth, highlighting those who served in Vietnam instead of the privileged draft-dodging president, and ended up as names on the wall instead of members of the Air National Guard. I'm sure there are some mothers out there who are still mourning their sons, and never made that connection. It wouldn't be so hard to find them.

Or maybe it will be Texas National Guardsmen for Truth, who can explain exactly what George W. Bush was doing while John Kerry was putting his life on the line. So far, all W. can do is come up with dental records to prove that he met his obligations. Perhaps with money on the table, or investigators on their trail, we will learn just what kind of wild and crazy things the president was doing while Kerry was saving a man's life, facing enemy fire and serving his country.

Or could it be George Bush's Former Female Friends for Truth. A forthcoming book by Kitty Kelly raises questions about whether the president has practiced what he preaches on the issue of abortion. As Larry Flynt discovered, a million dollars loosens lips. Are there others to be loosened?

Are you shocked? Not fair? Who said anything about fair? Remember President Dukakis? He was very fair. Now he teaches at Northeastern University. John Kerry has been very fair in dealing with the Swift Boat charges. That's why so many of my Democrat friends have decided to stop talking to the campaign, and start putting money together independently.

The arrogant little Republican boys who have been strutting around New York this week, claiming that they have this one won, would do well to take a step back. It could be a long and ugly road to November.

I could say a hundred things, but I'll stick to ten of them for now.

One, if Susan Estrich is unhinged like this, I fear for the Democrats. That party's going to get sucked in and fall apart in the vortex of its own hate.

Two, "arrogant little Republican boys?" Who writes like this? Does anyone sense some sexual frustration here? I'm probably way off there, but the line makes so little sense that it's the only thing I can think of here.

Three, I guess we can finally confirm that Gore-Lieberman 2000 was responsible for that drunken driving arrest record coming out the weekend before the election four years ago.

Four, Estrich still hasn't gotten over the 1988 loss that basically left her career as a political advisor in tatters. It's pretty clear that that she's still obsessed over the idea that Bush pere only won because he played dirty and Dukakis did not.

Five, I think the Democrats have bought into the victim mentality for far too long. When the GOP loses, most of us get pissed, but we figure it's because we didn't do a good enough job communicating our ideas, or maybe we concede that people didn't like our ideas (it's why moderate Republicans always apologize for the right wingers). In 2000, Bush never whined about the DUI coming to light in the last weekend -- he dealt with it. When Democrats lose, they think the GOP played dirty and stole the election... possibly because they'd be more than willing to do it themselves, but someone else can talk about projection and the Democrats.

Six, are they really this desperate? Based on the Kerry meltdown so far, maybe they are. They can't think of constructive steps to answer the charges by the Swift Boat Veterans, so they attack Bush.

Seven, can someone find Joe Lieberman and help him save this party from itself? Maybe Obama can help, along with the retired Sam Nunn. Maybe they can wake up the left-wing loopjobs to the fact that it's not dirt that's killing them. It's their message and their candidate.

Eight, ten bucks says the left-wing dishrag never reports on this column. Ever.

Nine, the Democrats are outraged by Zell Miller. Yet Zell spent his speech attacking Kerry's statements in public life, not his private life. Estrich has now decided that supposed GOP dirty tricks have given the Democrats carte blanche to attack Bush's personal life, no holds barred. Oh, I know it's those awful Swift Vets who started this. Does anyone on the left ever acknowledge that maybe these guys are angry for a legitimate reason? Say, Kerry's testimony when he returned from the war, which even the saint of bi-partisanship, Senator McCain, says is open to attack? Why can't Kerry take a constructive step on this? Go on with Russert, or even Democratic waterboy Stephanopolous, and answer questions and issue an apology for what he said then and the impact it had. Oh, wait, we can't do that, because these guys are all liars. Good approach -- it's accomplished a whole lot so far.

Finally, we have number ten. You don't want to do this, Susan. In your opinion, the GOP is dirtier than the Democrats. If so, is it remotely intelligent to battle them in a dirty campaign? No, you'd only do it because you're desperate, because you have nothing else left, and because you think you can throw dirt even better than the supposed masters. But remember, two can play at this game, Susan. Have you examined the personal life of John Forbes Kerry? Let me throw out one example: is he the same man who conducted back-room negotiations with the North Vietnamese in Paris, while he was still an officer in the Naval Reserve?

Someone get the bottle away from Estrich. If Kerry takes her advice, he may end up losing like Mondale.