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January
3, 2002
Shahid
Alam
Is
There an Islamic Problem?
January
2, 2002
Ross Regnart
Patriot
Act Redefines the Mob as "Terrorist Associates"
John Chuckman
The
Republicans' Secret Plan X
David
Vest
Turn,
Turn, Turn
January
1, 2002
Kathy
Kelly
Iraq's
New Year
December
31, 2001
John Absood
An
Alternative to War in Iraq
Ramzi
Kysia
Iraq
Goes Radioactive
December
28, 2001
John Chuckman
Observing
George Bush
Suren
Pillay
Civilian
Bodies
Aaron
Lehmer
Inviting
Future Terrorism
December
27, 2001
Patrick
McNamara
Palestinian
Children Bear Brunt of Mideast Violence
Nelson
Valdés
A
Possible Scenario on the Location of bin Laden
Jensen
and Mahajan
Remember
the Afghan Dead
Philip
Farruggio
A
New Year's Resolution
Ramzi
Kysia
The
People of the Valley
December 26, 2001
John Chuckman
In
Praise of the Unspeakable
Sam Bahour
2002:
Year of the Twos
December 25, 2001
Jennifer Loewenstein
Israel's
Human Rights Record
December 24, 2001
Sam Bahour
It
Happened One Morning
Yair Khilou
Why I Resisted
Being Drafted into the Israeli Army
Michael
Chisari
War
as Diversionary Tactic
Cockburn/St. Clair
Enron
and the Green Seal
December 21, 2001
Tom Turnipseed
War
Good for Bush
John Chuckman
The
First Victim in the
War on Terror
December 20, 2001
Lawrence
McGuire
Killing
Other People's Children
Miriam Rozen
Foundation
Without Representation?
Kenneth
Roth
A
Letter to Rumsfeld on
Military Tribunals
William Blum
Casualties:
Theirs and Ours
December 19, 2001
Marjorie
Cohn
Don't
Pre-Judge John Walker
Sam Bahour
Palestine
and You
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
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Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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January
3, 2002
Exit Cheney,
Enter Ridge?
By Walt Brasch
Don't expect anyone in the White House to confirm
it, but Tom Ridge could replace Dick Cheney as George W. Bush's
vice- presidential running-mate in the 2004 election.
Ridge was on Bush's "short list"
in the 2000 election but not selected, primarily because Bush
didn't wish to alienate his conservative right-wing base. Ridge
not only was perceived to be a "moderate" in a party
that had become dominated by the far- right, he was a Catholic,
a decidedly unpopular selection for the right-wing; and an opponent
to governmental interference to tell a woman she had no right
to choose, a decidedly unpopular choice among Catholics.
Like the presidential candidate, Cheney
was a multimillionaire businessman who was embraced by all the
right- wing slices of the Republican party and tolerable to the
moderates. (The liberal Republicans were never a concern.) But,
unlike Bush, who was seen as an affable but bumbling intellectual
lightweight, Cheney had a distinguished history in both elected
and appointed offices at the highest levels of government.
During the first nine months of Bush's
term, with dozens of politically-savvy and intellectually-superior
"Old Guard" (including Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld,
and Condoleeza Rice) in cabinet and advisory positions it appeared
that Bush, still perceived to be a lightweight, was serving as
special assistant to the vice-president and the coalition of
Daddy Elder's advisors. In reality, Bush was getting an intense
course in how to be a president.
Bush graduated on Sept. 11. In order
to assert his leadership to give the nation stability, Bush had
no choice but to exile Cheney to "undisclosed locations"
under the guise of national security. There is no evidence that
Cheney disagreed.
Cheney doesn't need a second term as
vice-president to prepare to be a presidential candidate. By
the 2004 election, Cheney will have survived several more health
crises, and be entitled to again enjoy the rewards of a lifetime
of national service and fortune-building. He will have served
his purpose to Bush and to the Republican party.
Exit Dick Cheney.
Enter Tom Ridge.
Bush may have considered offering Ridge
a cabinet position. If so, Ridge probably declined it in order
to serve the two years remaining of his governorship. As a governor
of a major industrial state, Ridge could command national exposure;
as a cabinet-level secretary--there was no way Bush would have
given him Defense over Rumsfeld or State over Powell--Ridge would
be lost within the catacombs of Washington politics.
Simultaneous with the announcement, Oct.
8, that he was creating the Office of Homeland Security, Bush
nominated Ridge as its first director. At the time, Ridge was
within three months of entering the last year of his second and
final term as Pennsylvania governor. Making Ridge's transition
to Washington easier were two major factors. First, the lieutenant
governor didn't wish to run for a full term, thus not upsetting
the party's support for the attorney general who did wish to
be governor. Second, both Bush and Ridge knew that had Ridge
completed his term as governor, he would be out of office--and
possibly out of the public's interest--for the last two years
of the Bush presidency. There is nothing worse for a politician
than to be seen as irrelevant. The Sept. 11 disaster guaranteed
national exposure--and the perception that Ridge, by giving up
the governorship, was serving his country, not his own political
interests.
As director of homeland security, Ridge
has a broad mandate, but little actual power, a small staff and
minimal budget. The possibility of him being able to coordinate
well-entrenched biases and turf-sensitivities within the FBI,
CIA, and Defense Department are remote. But, for several reasons,
the position assures Ridge of being a prime candidate for the
vice-presidency.
--Ridge was given the title of Assistant
to the President, but with cabinet-level rank.
--In a White House where access
to the President is seen as the measure of one's political life,
Ridge not only reports directly to the President--almost all
senior staff report to the chief of staff or a deputy--but has
an office less than 50 feet from the President's.
--This access also gives Bush and
his political advisors a chance not only to better evaluate Ridge
for the vice-presidency, but to insulate him from political mistakes.
The appointment could very well be a two-year vice-presidential
internship.
--Ridge coyly flirted with running
for the presidency in 2000. Four years of serving as a vice-president
gives him the experience and credibility for an all-out campaign
in 2008 should Bush win a second term.
--For a party that places military
service higher than other forms of national service, Ridge has
impeccable credentials. While Bush spent his military career
in National Guard ready rooms, Ridge, with a Harvard degree,
was drafted into the Army as a "grunt" during the Vietnam
War and came out as a staff sergeant wearing the Bronze Star.
--Ridge has done nothing to alienate
the NRA, which once claimed it would be in the White House with
Bush.
--Pennsylvania's electoral votes,
the nation's fifth largest block in 2000, went to Gore-Lieberman.
Even with redistricting which will lower Pennsylvania's ranking,
the Keystone State is still one of the major electoral blocks.
With Ridge on the 2004 ticket, establishing a geographical balance
that Bush-Cheney didn't have, the electoral votes would probably
go to Bush-Ridge, even though the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh
urban areas will probably go with a more liberal ticket.
--Attorney General John Ashcroft,
probably selected by Bush as one of dozens of ways to reward
the right-wing, is now seen as a political liability. Ridge,
the moderate, now becomes a political asset.
--The selection of candidates also
means selection of candidate spouses. Laura Bush was a librarian
who, with her husband's approval, is pushing an educational agenda
for the Bush presidency. Michele Ridge was executive director
of the Erie County Library System. One of Bush's first presidential
appointments was to name her to the Commission on Presidential
Scholars which selects high-achieving high school students. Equally
important, neither Laura Bush nor Michele Ridge upstage their
husbands, a "problem" conservatives screeched in horror
at the tenure of Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton.
If Bush-Ridge ran this year, bathed in
the glow of artificially-elevated ratings during the war on terrorism,
they'd probably win. But, Bush's popularity is likely to fall
as America redirects its priorities from war to peace, and the
economy continues to falter, signs that had set the stage for
the one- term presidency of his father. If he wants to avoid
a similar fate, Bush the Younger may need the equally youthful
Ridge.
Walt Brasch's
latest book is The
Joy of Sax: America During the Bill Clinton Administration,
a humorous look at the media, politics, and social issues of
the era.
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