I heard a general once say that amongst military historians the amateurs study tactics while the professionals study logistics. The same division exists in the study of politics. The amateurs argue economics, welfare and abortion. The professionals practice marketing. If you have any doubts about that you should read Bob Dole’s autobiography, “One Soldier’s Story”. In the last month of World War Two, as a 21 year old lieutenant, he was hit by machinegun fire that destroyed his right arm and one kidney and left him without feeling in his other arm. As considered his options, his decision to go into politics was not driven by some great social issue facing the people of Kansas (although I have not doubt he wanted to serve them). And his decision to seek election as a Republican represented no ideological commitment to the principles of the party of Thomas Dewy or even Wendell Willkie, although Dole was always a loyal Republican. The reality was that if Bob Dole had chosen to run as a Democrat in Kansas his new career would have been short, to say the least.
So politics is not that different from any other job. You have to get hired before you can hope to do the job well. What does define politics as a special job is that there are no political factories turning out anything except more politicians. The only tool in politics is image. And if you have any doubts about that you should have a conversation with Jeanine Pirro, recent recipient of the Golden Shiv from the New York State GOP.
I don’t feel sorry for Jeanine. She is serving her third term as Westchester County District Attorney and I don’t trust prosecutors. They tend to see the world as divided between those of us already convicted and those of us who have yet to be caught. Trusting a prosecutor with personal peccadilloes would be like hiring a spitting cobra as a baby sitter. The better they are at what they do, the less you can trust them. But after Ms. Pirro’s last four months in the national spotlight even I am driven to say, “Poor Jeanine.”
Jeanine Pirro is lovely, in a Brooklyn sort of way, an attack dog in lipstick. She also knows how to construct a good argument (as long as her pages are numbered.) She put a lot of bad guys in jail, and won high profile cases. The state G.O.P. courted her as a rising star. They plied her with praise and promises. They sent her flowers and raw meat, and promised to call her in the morning. But there were two problems with this future made in heaven. First, the guy who romanced her, Republican Governor George Pataki, turned into a lame duck schmuck overnight. And what lady hasn’t had that experience? And secondly, initially Jeanine couldn’t make up her own mind what career path she wanted to follow.
Last summer Jeanine was encouraged to run for New York State Attorney General in 2006. Such was her image as a rising superstar within the party that another strong Republican candidate dropped out of the primary before it had even began. And then, suddenly, so did Jeanine. National G.O.P. courtiers convinced Jeanine she should run for Hillary Clinton’s U.S. Senate seat instead, almost guaranteeing a Democratic victory in the 2006 AG race. That left a very bad impression on state G.O.P. leaders.
Her new role was to be Hillary Clinton’s doppelganger, just as smart, just as attractive, but with a Republican vindictiveness that drain Hillary’s campaign of cash and muddy up her image. It was a limited use promise of support that Jeanine probably should not have accepted. The fact that she did does not speak well for her political expertise.
Then, during her candidacy announcement in August Jeanine did her page ten deer in the headlights impersonation. Since then the Pirro campaign has raised less then half a million dollars, while Hillary has raised about $14 million. Latest polling shows Hillary with 63% of the voters support to Jeanine Pirro’s 29%. Jeanine was reduced to attracting press coverage by the dangerous practice of producing juicy quotes. In October Pirro was quoted as saying, “That’s the difference between Democrats and Republicans – we don’t want them next door molesting children and murdering women.” It sounded like an outrageous claim that Democrats favored child molesters, not a wise thing to say in a heavily Democratic state. It may have been a quote taken out of context and it may not have been what she meant, but then why did she say it if she didn’t mean it? It was just another clumsy screw up that made her look like a loser.
There were stories her own husband was quietly urging Pataki to ask her to drop out of the race. But she demanded that the shiv, when it was delivered, was slipped between her shoulder blades in public by the Republican County Chairmen and women who yesterday formally voted to ask Jeanine to withdraw from the Senate race and run for State A. G. instead. It was a stab in the back that came with explicit and implied promises of support. But it was also a public admission that she had looked and sounded like a looser from day one. And that raises the question, would she have been less foolish or just looked less foolish if she had been a candidate for state office instead of national? How the voters answer that question may have already destroyed her chances in the A.G. race.
There is also a new Republican candidate, Chauncey Parker, who entered the A.G. race after Jeanine initially dropped out. Whatever shall the Republicans do with Chauncey? He has impressed a number of state leaders with his campaigning skills. So while Jeanine ponders the promises from party leaders that they will support her for the nomination, she must know they are pondering whether they are sacrificing yet another Republican for what is increasingly looking like a flash in the pan named Jeanine Pirro.
Like everything else in politics promises are far more image than substance. And you’ve got to feel a little sorry for anybody having to learn that lesson in front of the whole damn world.
Ouch.
