In his current column, Alexander Cockburn writes:
"From Clinton, [new Cali governor]Davis has learned the basic lesson--offend and betray all core Democratic groupings but one: "And to those who would deny a woman her right to choose, let me offer this suggestion: Don't waste the legislature's time.... Now I will complete the sentence: Don't waste the legislature's time trying to pass bills restricting women's constitutional rights. It simply will not happen on my watch."
Democrats are now so terrified of being accused by the press of "catering to special interests"--women excluded because Democrats have read the polls and tasted the victories--that they make a point of kicking labor and blacks in the teeth to manifest Olympian detachment from notions of party and constituency. The Los Angeles Times cited flacks for Davis emphasizing the governor's fidelity to this new style: "Davis' advisors hope the resounding election victory will give him the authority to scale back his party's wish lists and persuade those traditional elements [i.e., the working people who gave him most of his twenty point margin] to accept his 'new Democrat'style platform of limited government and support for business, as well as his campaign call for tax cuts."
You never hear Republicans pledging to persuade business backers that victory means they must be "governor of all the people" and expand healthcare, workers' rights, environmental protections, assistance to the poor and the disfranchised."
I think Nation columnists Hitchens and Pollitt would mostly agree. Probably Corn and Williams would also. Cockburn's wrong in that I bet Clinton has offended the woman's movement with his view that it's not sex when there's nothing in it for the chick. And then telling that chick that of course he never put Kathleen Willey's widowed hand on his package, because who has time for a woman with such small tits?
I went to The Progressive magazine's 90th anniversary party last night and was impressed by Washington editor Ruth Conniff. She echoed Cockburn's sentiment on Clinton.
Peter