Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

Hillary Clinton is certainly running for President in 2008, what with all the talk recently about The Plan. If that thought doesn't scare you, the only other viable scenario for the Democrats in '08 is even more frightening.

What the Democrats need to do to save themselves from becoming a marginal party for another generation, is look to the past. Not the recent past, ala 1992, but the real past, like 1980.

This is not a satire. I repeat, this is not a satire.

Ted Kennedy had the right idea back then. He saw that the sitting President could not get re-elected, (Jimmy Carter, for those of you who can't remember, and Iran Hostage Crisis), and tried to save the party from sure defeat. His own ambitions notwithstanding.

Had Ted gotten his turn at the wheel, so to speak, things would be a lot different around here. Instead of the Reagan Revolution, we would have had the Kennedy Renaissance. Good or bad, you can argue it either way.

But in the intervening years, all the local Dems that have run for President, have been running as for proxies for Ted anyway. Dukakis, Tsongas, Kerry, gave it a valiant try, but it's time to have the real thing, again. Kennedy '08.

Hillary won't sit down for this. But she really has no choice. Unlike her refusal to accommodate Kerry by joining him on the ticket, she wouldn't dare refuse Ted. Think of it; the Democrat's wet dream. Clinton, Bill, I mean, and Kennedy back in the White House again, but together.

The Plan is the deal Bill and Hillary made to get Bill into office first, and then get Hillary elected President. Let's call this The New Plan, and the Democrats Campaign for 2008, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Staged Not Advanced

Thank you Sam Allis, you said it better than I did, in the Boston Globe this weekend. Romney's events are staged not advanced. There is a difference.

The occassion was his observation that the Governor has staked his political fortunes almost exclusively on the suburban voter. And so obsessed is the Governor with appearences, style more than substance, that every event is staged. That's what we saw on the Cape recently.

First at the Cape Wind hearings, where the Governor floated in and out of the meeting without ever touching a soul, like shaking hands. Then at the Mirant plant press conference. A sanitary performance. In and out. Pose for the cameras.

These events were intended to counterbalance each other. Oppose the wind farm to curry favor with one constituency, then hammer the polluters publically to appease the other. But cut a side deal privately with the polluters, to get them their above-ground ammonia storage tanks. The Governor's appointee to the Cape Cod Commission has something to do with that, but that's a sidebar for another time.

Selling out Sandwich, to buy off Osterville. The locals won't catch on.

We have a Governor who likes to drive around the suburbs, looking to make them safe for Republicans. As my college roomate used to say, it's not how you drive, it how you look while you're driving.

Y.A.W.N.

Yachters Against Windmills Now protest Cape Wind at MIT hearing.

A new organization of patrician yachters protested the Cape Wind project at the December 16th Army Corps of Engineering hearing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“We’ve reached the end of our bow line,” said Preston Cabot Peabody, chairman of the new Osterville-based organization, Yachters Against Windmills Now. “We’ve decided to speak out to defend our unobstructed views. Frankly, we’re not used to NOT getting our way.”

YAWN opposes the new Cape Wind proposal and pledges to spend millions to drag out the regulatory process. “We are big supporters of coal,” said Peabody. “We believe that strip-mining in distant states is a far superior energy source than sustainable wind generation. I’ve seen those flat-top mountains flying over Appalachia in my Gulfstream IV, and it’s not that bad. What about the coal miners jobs? Doesn't anyone care about them?”

YAWN members arrived at MIT shortly after a flotilla of nautical protest. “We had 20 yachtsmen with cabin-cruisers arrive in Boston Harbor for the demonstration,” said Muffy VanAuchencloss, Chief Steward of YAWN. “This is an issue that moves our member’s rudders. The very idea of a limited horizon makes our blue blood boil.”

YAWN prepared a number of protest signs and chants including:
"Get Your Energy from Someone Else’s Backyard!"
"Global Warming: A Longer Yachting Season."
"Cape Wind, not on our soil. Lets get our energy from Middle East oil!"
"Global warming what a bore. Just protect our views from ship and shore!"
"Walter Cronkite, stick to the News. We’ll spend millions to protect our views!"
"Save our Sound, Save our Sound. Save the views from the Kennedy compound."

Looking for the Men's Room

Elections are about a series of opportunities, missed and otherwise.

With the political season heading into hibernation for the winter, what with all the incumbents getting re-elected and going on well-deserved vacations, and the new guys trying to figure out where the men's room is in the Statehouse, Cape Codders recently got a glimpse of a heavyweight battle to come; Romney vs. Reilly, the Governor vs. the Attorney General.

Shorty after the spring thaw, the candidates for the Corner Office will declare, but in the meantime we were treated to a dance of sorts, or a prelude to a fight where the combatants walk around the ring showing off, well, their manhood. What was taking place at the Yarmouth Middle School last week was like a rehersal of Cover Your Ass, an updated version of Lord of the Dance.

The occassion was the public hearing for the Cape Wind project held by the Army Corps of Engineers. The paire de deux ostensibly came to voice their opposition to the wind farm. In attempting to outdo each other, they almost tripped over each other, literally.

Romney, made a smooth entrance and exit to cheers form the crowd. A very well orchestrated appearance. His sponsors, the local Repubicans, were pleased. Reilly, on the other hand, had to arrive early to get a seat and had to speak immediate following the Governor, to less than enthusiastic reviews.

The Governor is a tough act to follow, but the difference was this; the AG had no serious advance for his appearance. Speaking at the behest of the local Democratic establishment, the Congressman and the State Sens. and Reps., Reilly made a rookie mistake; he relied on the locals to handle his performance.

Take it from an old advance man, never trust the locals to handle your appearances. Had Reilly any political instincts, he would have had his aides arrange for a coincidental meeting of the two within shot of a camera. This would immediately have raised the AG's stature in the media, and within the party.

And make no mistake, for these two guys, the confrontation was not about the windmills. It was about the election. And it was about singing for their supper with their supporters.

So this was our preview of the general election two years from now. The Governor, perfect in apprearance and execution. The AG, looking for the men's room.

Location, Location, Location

Cape Cod has been around for 3000 years. As we know it, it has a history of about 300 years. The Nantucket Sound wind farm will occupy a window of a mere 30 years on that timeline. Not very much against the backdrop of all of time. But quite significant if it happens to be the same 30 years that you, who are here now, plan to occupy it. That’s what all the fuss is about.

Yes, it's still about the view. And the most visually impacted real estate locations are not open to the public. In fact they are the gated-communities of Great Island and Oyster Harbors. For that matter, so is the Kennedy Compound. The views from these vantage points are not public. They're private.

The folks who live in those gated communities paid for the right to have their views. They are therefore proprietary. Bought and paid for, like the beach in front of their homes.

We can’t walk out to and stand on Point Gammon to enjoy the view, can we? Therefore all us have-nots are really arguing about is the view from the very limited locations of our public beaches.

What we should be arguing for instead, is to change the only-state-in the-nation law (Maine notwithstanding, the priviledge was granted when we were still one state), that allows for private ownership of public shoreline. Then we would really have the right to complain about the view.

It's OK for the Chases, the Mellons, and the Kennedys to own the sound. But not the Gordons? Where's Billy Bulger when you need him?

Note: State Senator William Bulger (D-South Boston) proposed legislation 20 years ago to change private ownership of tidal lands (the shoreline) from the low tide to the high tide marks, thereby allowing the public access to the tidal flats. The haves objected, of course. You know the rest of the story.

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The score from last night's debate (the Army Corps of Engineers Hearing on the Cape Wnd project held at the Mattacheese Middle School) was 106 speakers testified including the Governor. 53 spoke in favor, 53 spoke in opposition. The Cape Cod Times characterized the outcome as the overwhleming majority spoke in opposition to the Wind Farm.

Room With A View

Bikepaths, Flyovers, but No Windmills. What we want is more time to enjoy the Cape, with less traffic and cleaner air. What our elected officials want to give us is quite another thing. And the most solicitous offender is the holder of the Corner Office.

The Governor wants to give us a better tourist infrastructure; more bikepaths. He wants to fix our traffic problem at the bridge, answer; a flyover. But make no mistake, these aren't really for us.

The bikepaths are for those visitors that want something to do when they get here. We'd prefer to fix the roads we have. The flyover will make it possible for the part-timers and seasonals to get here faster, no waiting. That means more visitor trips and more commuting residents. So much for less traffic on Cape. And let's not talk about what that will do to already outrageous real estate prices.

Energy costs are higher here. And the air is dirtier. Windmills may actually help us do something about it. No matter, electricity prices don't bother them, they're only here in the summer. Clean air? Not necessary, they're only here a few days a year when it's bad.

You want less traffic, too bad. You want cleaner air, so what. Windmills would help, you say? Tough. We like a room with a view.

The thing is the Governor is actually listening to his constituency. It's just that they're not us. They're the voters that live in the rest of Massachusetts.

Can't blame him, I guess. He talks to these swells, who want to drive to the Cape to ride their bikes and sail their boats. And it doesn't bother him a bit that's it's not what we want. The Governor vacations in New Hampshire.

Charlotte's Web

"Never a follower but a L-E-A-D-E-R be!" Seems that for Assembly Delegate from Yarmouth, Charlotte Striebel, some of the slings and arrows of the recent election struck a nerve. She thusly decided to make the next two years in office more notable, by vaulting herself into the Speakership of the Assembly.

At the beginning of each year, along with the swearing-in of new Delegates, the members of the Assembly elect one of their own to lead as Speaker, and also a lesser, for Vice Speaker. As they approach that day in January, it seems that Charlotte wanted to rid herself of the label "follower", so-called by the Cape Cod Times.

Encouraged by a minority group of Assembly Delegates, mostly Democrats, who did not want the current Speaker, Tom Bernardo, to continue, Charlotte, currently the Vice Speaker, made a play for the post, using the endorsements of two of the County Commissioners, Mary LeClair, and Bill Doherty as further entanglements.

But wait a minute, Charlotte's not a Democrat. And even though Doherty is a Republican, he didn't endorse her. Unlike his colleague Leclair, he honors the tradition of non-involvement by members of the one body in the procedural affairs of the other, saying "leave me out of it".

As the coup was unveiled, and her supporters waivered, Charlotte's lust for power was alas, not satisfied. And in the light of day, having failed to snatch the Big Office, she will now have to surrender the Vice Speakership as well.

So as the Speaker consolidates his power, where does that leave the Grande Dame of Yarmouth? As is also the custom in the House of Commons, banished to the back benches with the followers.