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Posts published in “Day: October 16, 2007”

Re-viewing Craig

October 16, 2007
Larry Craig

Larry Craig

This, the Larry and Suzanne Craig interview on NBC by Matt Lauer, came a month after Craig hired heavy crisis control guns, and so it had a carefully defined purpose. It was the same purpose as the famous early 1992 interview on 60 Minutes with Bill and Hillary Clinton: Rehabilitation on a personal level.

It may have worked to a point. To a point.

That point is that the hour-long program gave exposure to not a punchline, not a caricature, but an actual human being. He strikes as humble; his typically strident speaking style is muted, he seems calmer and more reflective, and he comes off as more likable for it.

Did Craig's claims of innocence convince? Probably not. Most minds long since have been made up about that - too many weeks have passed - and the string of what Craig argues are fluke coincidences surrounding the Minneapolis incident are just too many.

But it may soften some attitudes, especially among people who would like to feel better about Craig. It could make some difference in D.C.; it may help Craig a bit when he travels around Idaho. Somewhat the way the Clintons interview did them. (That interview didn't, after all, convince many people that Clinton hadn't philandered.) And Craig did pretty well in the interview; he is naturally articulate, and doubtless extremely thoroughly prepped on top of that.

One other thing, can't help it. Matt Lauer and Steve Carrell: Separated at birth, right?

VIEWS Probably the program didn't change many views of people who had strongly-held views beforehand. The Idaho Statesman followed up with an editorial reiterating its call for Craig's resignation. At New West/Boise, Jill Kuraitis wrote, "The stunning miscalculation that more exposure for Craig would 'set the record straight' defies common sense. It’s that when-you’re-in-a-hole-stop-digging thing. The predictable over-rehearsed impression made by the skillful politician put Craig’s unctuous speaking style on display for a whole hour. It was two hours for those of us in Boise who first watched an hour of KTVB’s anchor Mark Johnson interview Craig with mostly softball questions, which also didn’t help Craig. Obvious is obvious."

That sounds about right, in part at least, but consider also the response from Talking Point Memo's Josh Marshall: "I watched a portion of Larry Craig's chat with Matt Lauer. And his denial was so thorough and complete that I had moments where I was almost lulled into the thought that the whole thing was just a misunderstanding."

Walden’s SCHIP spot

October 16, 2007

The Northwest's congressional delegation has run strongly in favor of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. On the crucial House side, just three of the region's 16 House members seem to be against it: Bill Sali and Greg Walden.

Sali is easy to figure, is an opponent generally of social services spending: "This bill is very harmful. It takes money from hardworking Americans while opening the door to provide health insurance to undocumented foreign nationals, including gang members, drug cartel operatives and terrorists. Further, it taxes Idahoans to provide health insurance to people already covered by private insurance or can afford to get it.” (The other Idaho representative, Mike Simpson, who had been a dentist in private life, went the other way on SCHIP.) Washington's Doc Hastings has similarly anti-spending views.

But Oregon's Greg Walden is a more complex case. A post on Blue Oregon had this useful background:

In 1993, after Oregon received federal approval to implement the Oregon Health Plan, then-House Majority Leader Greg Walden negotiated the political deal to jumpstart the plan with a 10-cent tax on a pack of cigarettes. Through these negotiations, Walden demonstrated that he was not an ideologue. To the contrary, Walden was a skillful pragmatist. The deal served his interests since, as commentators at the time noted, Walden had his eye on a future Governor’s race.

Fast forward to 2007 and the present debate between Congress and the Bush Administration about extending and funding the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Walden began the year lending his name to a letter to the House budget committee arguing for more money for CHIP in the budget. But something happened to Walden by the time the reauthorization and appropriations bill came up for a vote in the House – he backed the President and opposed the CHIP measure. When the compromise conference committee version came back to the House floor, he voted against kids’ health insurance, again.

The next key House vote on SCHIP, veto override vote, comes on Thursday.