I keep meaning to spend some time …
Do you realize how often I start posts that way — wishing I would find the time for this or that? Well, I assure you that I mean it. There’s just not enough time in the day for all I’d like to get to. Never has been. Even when I was unemployed. Which reminds me of Nick Hornby’s brilliant riff on that point in About A Boy, in which a guy who does not work because he lives off the royalties of a novelty song his father wrote wonders to himself how anyone could possibly find the time in the day to work. Which I would link you to if Google books would let me see that page.
Where was I? Oh, yes…
I keep meaning to spend some time keeping track of other blogs in SC, but almost never do. It’s sort of important to keep up, since there’s just one of me, and other bloggers stay plugged into different things, and reading them would at least keep me up on the buzz. But the practice seems to fall somewhere behind reading The Guardian and The Times each day, which I’d really like to do, but don’t get around to either.
However, today when I woke up my PC, I glanced down at the little alerts in the corner from my feedreader, and clicked on this one before it disappeared forever (the Who-inspired headline, “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.” was what grabbed me), and found myself reading Earl Capps:
Here in the Blogland, we’ve often chuckled at the newcomers to politics who see everything in an extreme either-or context, defining everyone as either “establishment” or “reformer”.Anyone who can take such a simplistic view of state politics is either very uninformed or intellectually dishonest, as those who’ve been in the state’s political arena for any amount of time (which the “children” call “insider establishment” types) learned a long time ago that it’s never black-and-white. Such types often end up resorting to gutter childish tactics when they find that it’s not enough to think you’re right and that you have to actually inform and persuade people to come around to your point of view (and typically do a lousy job of doing so)….
That Earl. He’s such an experience-stained cynic, isn’t he? But something in that resonated to the point that I posted a comment:
Hey, Earl…“…the newcomers to politics who see everything in an extreme either-or context, defining everyone as either ‘establishment’ or ‘reformer’…”A set of people to which our new governor belongs. And of course, no matter what SHE does or does not do, she unfailingly sees herself as a “reformer.”Which would be amusing if she weren’t, you know, the governor…
And then I thought, Why am I spending time leaving comments on some other blog? Why don’t I say that on my own blog? So I just did.
Larry Koon, back in the day
Nikki’s naiveté (or perhaps I should say, apparent naiveté — although I suspect that what keeps her going is that she really does see herself as a Ms. Smith Goes to Washington sort), linked with her apparently sincere interest in transparency and other things I would put in the “reform” column (things I’ve advocated since practically before she was born), was so appealing when she ran against ol’ Larry Koon — the very caricature of the do-nothing ol’ boy who’s just there because he likes being a big shot — back in the day. But then, as she reached out for greater power, and continued to act like she was the champion of reform while leaving a trail of questionable practices in her wake, it just ceased to be as endearing as it had at first.
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I am surprised that you give Haley credit for “apparently sincere interest in transparency.” It has been amply demonstrated that her actual behavior is very opaque indeed, for example failing to even inform all five Budget and Control Board members that a vote had been taken on replacing senior staff.
Her behavior seems to reflect a mix of the Dick Cheney school of intentional stonewalling (probably amplified by advice from her political advisors) and self-absorbed carelessness. Whatever the origins, the results are anything but transparent.
Speaking of time. I’ve spent the past week keeping my 10 month old grandson. Talk about something that soaks up time. I forgot how much time it takes just to go the park for an hour. And then there is the feedings. That takes forever. Those little jars of food (they now come in little plastic boxes) reminded me of the movie Solyent Green. Hopefully the peas are not people.
Lynn, I was talking about her apparent sincerity (and “apparent” means “that’s what it looked like”) back when she was a fresh-faced House candidate. And how appealing that was at the time. Back when we could believe in it.
And this is one of those cases where appearance has a big impact. I mean, LOOK at Nikki, and LOOK at Larry Koon. You can see how even a professional observer might see her as the New Broom that will sweep cleanly — because everything she SAID went with that look.
Comparing the public transparency of regular citizen’s to a lawyer’s is akin to comparing hunting quotas for rabbits and vultures.
First, who said anything about lawyers?
Second, someday we need to get Juan to tell us the story of how he came to get so negatively fixated on lawyers. It must be something fairly bloodcurdling.
I think anyone who doesn’t have a negative fixation toward lawyers is someone to be afraid of… or a lawyer.
I mean, it’s not like they went to medical school.
I don’t understand why Juan is hung up on lawyer transparency. Lawyers are like doctors, priests and therapists–required to keep secrets–ethically and legally required NOT to be transparent. They can only breach client confidentiality to *prevent* a serious crime!
Unclear on the concept.
When a lawyer is also a politician, who is the client? What secrets can they keep?
I think the issue with lawyers has less to do with attorney-client confidentiality than it does with tactics and motivation. I’m sure there are some decent used car salesmen but the majority of them act in a way that doesn’t inspire trust.
Sorry Brad, I didn’t read carefully before responding. On the other hand, we disagree about the starting point. I don’t think she ever came across as sincere or trustworthy. I wasn’t aware of her until she started raising a fuss about transparency, but even at the time it looked to me like a look-at-me production rather than a serious and thoughtful position.