Salon.com > Niall Stanage

Why I’m glad Keith Olbermann is gone

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 06:23:00 +0000

If there was some strange parallel universe in which Keith Olbermann and I were members of Congress, I suspect we would vote together about 99 percent of the time. But when the "Countdown" host announced his abrupt departure from MSNBC on Friday night, I felt only relief.

First reactions to Olbermann’s exit have broken along lines as partisan as they were predictable. That the New York Post would respond to the news with glee and The Huffington Post with a gnashing of teeth was hardly a shock.

But back in the real world, I cannot imagine I am the only viewer who is basically simpatico with Olbermann's worldview, but who had come to find him and his show utterly insufferable. The glibness, the pomposity, the narcissism -- all these foibles had, of late, reached gut-wrenching proportions.

It was not always thus. It is easy to forget just what the media landscape looked like in the early years of Olbermann’s tenure at the helm of "Countdown." (He had, of course, had an earlier, unsuccessful stint at MSNBC, which culminated in one of the many enmity-filled partings that have dotted his career.)

Ron Reagan talks about his father’s Alzheimer’s

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:01:00 +0000

Seven years after his death, the name of Ronald Reagan is still capable of provoking serious arguments -- including within his own family.

The former president’s son, Ron Reagan, has just released "My Father at 100," a book about his father’s life. (The younger Reagan resists calling it a memoir.) The book’s revelation that Ron now believes his father had Alzheimer’s disease while in office has already elicited a furious response from Michael Reagan, the son adopted by Ronald Reagan and his first wife, Jane Wyman.

Michael Reagan has not only denied the Alzheimer’s-while-in-office suggestion; he has accused his brother of wanting to "sell out his father to sell books" and suggested, via Twitter, that people need to "pray" for Ron. But in an interview with Salon on Tuesday, Ron Reagan showed no signs of backing down from the fight.

Who will be the Ron Paul of 2012?

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:01:00 +0000

"People ask me if I think about it, and I do," Ron Paul says, talking about the possibility of making another presidential run in 2012. "I haven’t decided. It is going to be several months before I need to, or expect to, make a decision like that."

As he mulls his options, the 75-year-old Texas congressman finds himself -- not for the first time -- in a peculiar situation. Last time out, in 2008, his campaign was roundly mocked by media commentators and Beltway insiders, but in the end he bested several supposedly more serious candidates, notably erstwhile New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson.

Admittedly, Paul was never within reach of capturing the GOP nomination -- but he also proved himself to be much more than a punchline to the pundits' jokes. He racked up ten second-place finishes (it helped that he refused to drop out even after every other aspirant had conceded to John McCain) and seventeen third-places in primary contests, and his campaign raised more than $30 million, powered by fierce grassroots enthusiasm.

Steny Hoyer: Dems will hold House, Pelosi will stay

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 11:01:00 +0000

The man who is odds-on to be the leader of House Democrats before the week is out is trying to walk a fine line.

Within Washington, it is widely expected that 71-year-old Steny Hoyer, currently the second-ranking House Democrat, will succeed Nancy Pelosi as the party’s leader if Democrats lose control of the chamber on Tuesday (although there is talk that he may face a challenge, perhaps from Connecticut’s John Larson). But during an interview with Salon on Sunday, Hoyer was adamant that Democrats would hold on to the House, and he affably refused to answer questions on his possible ascension.

"I don’t wish to get into the hypothetical," Hoyer, now the majority leader, said. "I think the Democratic leadership will continue as it is."

Even so, a certain degree of positioning on the Maryland congressman’s part could be detected between the lines.

In the event of a Pelosi abdication, one of the challenges that will confront Hoyer will be how to win the approval of a Democratic caucus that will almost certainly have been shorn of many centrist members who would otherwise be his natural supporters. Hoyer is clearly not running from his moderate image.

A Republican who wants DADT repealed now

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:16:00 +0000

Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, whom I profiled for Salon back in May, is apparently continuing his quest to claim the libertarian Republican mantle from Ron Paul.

Late Thursday, Johnson -- who has hinted at a run for the 2012 GOP nomination -- released a statement on this week's ruling by a federal judge that the military should stop enforcing Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT). The statement placed him somewhat to the left of Barack Obama.

Enjoining the president -- apparently with limited success -- to "let that ruling stand and move on," Johnson added: "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" has always been wrong and it is still wrong."

Johnson insisted that there was no need to wait for Congress to repeal DADT. "Stop the smoke screen," Johnson argued. "This policy is just not fair and it does not work -- we need to get rid of it now."

Although those sentiments might not sound unusual springing from the lips of, say, Rachel Maddow, they continue to place Johnson a long way from the mainstream of today’s GOP. A Republican filibuster in the Senate sank the most recent attempt to repeal DADT and, even though some Republicans insisted they acted primarily in protest Harry Reid's procedural maneuvering, GOP leaders haven't exactly been lining up to champion the cause of repeal.

Sorry, Dems: Last-minute Vitter challenge doesn’t add up to much

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:15:00 +0000

The last minute decision by a former Louisiana Supreme Court justice, Chet Traylor, to challenge incumbent senator David Vitter for the Republican nomination has caused ripples of excitement this weekend, especially in Democratic circles.

That’s no surprise, since Vitter is a liberal bête noire with obvious vulnerabilities: specifically, his involvement in a 2007 prostitution scandal and, more recently, his less-than-persuasive explanations regarding Brent Furer, an aide who remained on staff for two years despite being involved in a serious domestic dispute.

But in talking up the challenge from Traylor, those who dislike Vitter may be engaging in some wishful thinking. Here’s why:

First, Traylor cannot credibly claim that the rejection of Vitter is essential for the GOP to hold the seat. As I recently wrote, Vitter remains in a very strong position against his Democratic challenger, Rep. Charlie Melancon, despite his travails.

How David Vitter got away with it

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:01:00 +0000

Sometimes the strangest stories in politics are hiding in plain sight. So it is with Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana.

Vitter, a first-term senator, rose to infamy three years ago, when his phone number appeared in the records of the escort agency run by the so-called D.C. Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey. In the wake of the disclosure, Vitter made a de facto admission of having paid for sex, confessing to "a very serious sin in my past."

The careers of other Republicans have been vaporized by infractions that could well be viewed as less serious. Last month, Indiana Rep. Mark Souder resigned after admitting to an extramarital affair. A hitherto-obscure California state assemblyman, Mike Duvall, departed last fall after being picked up on an open mic boasting about his amorous activities with women other than his wife.

The taboo that continues to cling to prostitution -- along with the salient fact that soliciting a prostitute is illegal -- would have been enough, one might have thought, to put an end to Vitter’s career. This is especially true given the contrast between his actions and his ardent social conservatism. (The year before he was ensnared in the scandal, Vitter declared himself "a conservative who opposes radically redefining marriage, the most important social institution in human history.")

What does Jim DeMint want?

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:01:00 +0000

In the past year, Jim DeMint, South Carolina's junior senator, has transformed himself from right-wing outlier to the Senate’s leading tribune of Tea Party sentiment. His influence has expanded despite -- or perhaps because of -- his willingness to thumb his nose at Republican Party elders, a trait that only adds to the intrigue about his ultimate intentions.

Does he hope to displace Mitch McConnell, the GOP leader in the Senate? Might he harbor even loftier -- that is to say, presidential -- ambitions? Or is he content to position himself as the most conservative senator in an increasingly conservative party, and to reap whatever harvest might result?

One thing is for sure: DeMint is one of the people with the most to celebrate as the strange saga of Alvin Greene, the unemployed Army veteran who is (for now) the Democratic Party’s Senate candidate in South Carolina, drags on. Why? Because despite South Carolina’s reputation as a Republican redoubt -- and despite the growing national buzz around DeMint -- the senator’s home-state standing had begun to look surprisingly shaky.

The most interesting Republican you’ve never heard of

Wed, 05 May 2010 11:01:00 +0000

Gary Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico and a likely candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, is talking about hookers.

"It's never been a consideration that I would enlist the services of a prostitute, myself personally," he says. "But if I were to do that, where would I want to enlist that service? Well, it would probably be in Nevada, where it's legal, because it would be safe."

When's the last time Mitt Romney engaged in a hypothetical like that? But Johnson doesn't even blink. It's not like this is the only topic on which he risks offending the GOP's base. He also favors legalizing pot, supports abortion rights, and opposes the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Oh, and he doesn't go to church. "I don't think you'll ever hear me invoking God in anything I do," he tells me.

It is an incongruous foundation from which to seek the mantle of a party whose last president, George W. Bush, famously claimed that his favorite philosopher is Jesus Christ.

Johnson faces other obstacles, too. Aside from his low name-recognition, he has no discernible power base. After eight years on the job in Santa Fe, he was term-limited out of the governorship at the end of 2002 and stepped back from public life thereafter. Fundraising will be arduous. And his ambitions are the object of outright scorn from the Washington establishment.

The search for an intellectual GOP presidential candidate

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:59:00 +0000

With so much attention being lavished on Sarah Palin, the tea party movement, and media blowhards like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, Republican intellectuals can seem like an endangered species.

In fact, an intellectual wing of the GOP does still exist, but it faces a major quandary. As the field for the 2012 presidential nomination begins to take shape, it is increasingly obvious that none of the five most talked-about contenders -- Palin, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty -- possesses genuine cerebral appeal.

Romney's flip-flops on social issues like abortion and gay rights raise concerns about what, if anything, he really believes. Huckabee doesn't believe in evolution. Gingrich used to be a history professor but now panders to the base by labeling President Obama a socialist. Pawlenty can't seem to decide whether he's a centrist or a tea party clone. And Palin is, well, Palin.

"There is a void right now, and no one has really captivated the intellectuals," said Richard Brookhiser, the author and National Review senior editor who was a close associate of the late William F. Buckley.

The real reasons for Charlie Crist’s collapse

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:59:00 +0000

For Charlie Crist, it's all crumbled apart so quickly.

In 2008, Florida's governor was rumored to be a top contender to run with John McCain. A year ago, his poll numbers were in the stratosphere. And when he announced last May that he would give up the governor's mansion after one term to run for the U.S. Senate, he held a 35-point advantage over his opponent for the Republican nomination, Marco Rubio.

That was then. Sometime over the winter, Rubio, a former state House speaker, drew even with Crist, and now he's practically leaving him in the dust. The most recent poll has Crist lagging 18 points behind, with no apparent end in sight to the governor's spiral.

Rumors abound in Florida political circles that Crist is having serious trouble raising money; one Republican operative describes a recent conversation with a Crist fundraiser in which the latter described her job as akin to pulling teeth. And there are even reports that Crist may give up on trying to win the GOP's nod and run as an independent instead.

(His campaign's communications director, Andrea Saul, says that this speculation is "patently false," and adds that Crist "has always been a Republican and is proud to be one.")