Dick Cheney, Chris Wallace, and why I left my last newspaper gig.

Don't get me wrong, I will always love journalism. The feeling of being in a newsroom on deadline day is a drug that requires an extra special kind of rehab.

But after awhile, I got to the point where my patience with newsroom journalism had reached its end. I kept running into folks that seemed to have forgotten everything (and I do mean everything) that they learned in J-School and were content to allow themselves to be twisted like a pretzel to keep advertising revenues and subscriptions flowing.

And don't get me started on the fact that I always seemed to get the one editor, usually a female, who lacked self-confidence, and seemed to have a problem with me because I didn't do the same.

One of those editors, who shall remain nameless, was the person I thought of when I was watching Fox News' Chris Wallace interview former Vice President Dick Cheney this past Sunday. I specifically remembered a conversation that I had with her that became strangely relevant to this particular interview.

When I came to my last newspaper job from the one I had left, I was a much different person. Having to take a different route home, check under the hood of your car for Klan-planted bombs, and watching as police came by your house every night to make sure you made it into the house tends to do that to you. My bullshit tolerance no longer existed and I didn't really care who knew it.

Anyway, I had this editor who was, to put it frankly, a little too "Desperate Housewives" for me. She and I used to go knuckles on a pretty regular basis. (She also used to have this nasty habit of yelling at me which almost got her dragged around the newspaper's parking lot face down by her hair, but I won't get into that.)

One day, we got into a discussion about one of the municipalities I covered. Apparently, one of the township councilmen didn't appreciate the fact that I was covering some of the more ignorant shit that was going on. Mind you, this was a guy that would occasionally say the most ignorant things possible in front of a live microphone, but that didn't stop folks from calling this particular editor and telling her that I was unfair.

I make it my business to get both sides of every story I do whether I believe both sides make sense or not. But what this clown wanted was deference. I don't do deference when it comes to journalism. Facts are neither Republican or Democrat. They're simply plain, old, garden variety, facts.

When I explained this to this particular editor, she told me that I needed to learn how to "kiss a little ass".

Now if you are easily offended, please skip this next section. I don't want to offend anyone, but sometimes when someone has pissed me off to the level that this woman did, things come out. Having delivered this warning, please feel free to continue reading.

Because I'd been a journalist for a lot of years by this point, I understood that in order to get information, you need to kiss a little ass, I told her.

However, I continued, the problem with you is that you don't seem to know the difference between kissing ass and giving head. Giving head is a much more intimate act that I really have to like you a lot in order to perform. Since it is obvious to me that this is what you want me to do for these people, and I don't like them that way, we're kind of at an impasse.

That I didn't get fired that day still amazes me. But while I didn't get kicked to the curb then, it did show me that it was time for me to start looking for another way to do what I love that wouldn't lead to my having to get rid of all of the mirrors in my house.

As much as I hate to admit it, the main thing that I got from watching the Cheney/Wallace interview is the conclusion that quite a few folks in the journalism business seem to be laboring under the same confusion as my former boss.

I can understand that in order to get the chance to talk to Cheney after he's heard the news that Attorney General Eric Holder has appointed a special investigator to take a much harder look at the Bush Administration's torture policy, you had to kiss a within reason amount of ass. This was a pretty big "get" for Chris Wallace. Everyone who used the footage had to give Fox props for getting it.

But Wallace took the wrong turn at Cheney's hip bone and ended up somewhere he shouldn't have. I understand that you had to be really, really, nice to get that interview, but do you have to pretend he's your boyfriend in order to keep him talking? Geez!

What makes this even sadder is that it was a Wallace doing it. Chris Wallace is the son of Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes", a man so terrifying that everything from "Saturday Night Live" to "The Far Side" has parodied his ability to find the truth, no matter how deeply you try to hide it.

What's up with your kid, Mike?

While I can understand that you have to follow the rules of your workplace, you have to draw a line. Even if you work for Fox News.

It might be time for Chris Wallace to realize this.

Or if he chooses not to, it might be time for him to make it less obvious.

The Lion in Repose

There is no "good" time to get really bad news about people you admire.

But when you're a news geek like I am, you sometimes find yourself getting really, really bad news at 5:45 a.m., like I did this morning.

Last May, we all got the word that Sen. Edward Moore Kennedy (or Ted to his friends and even some of his foes) had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer that would probably take his life within a year or two.

This morning, at 5:45 a.m., the folks at the BBC informed me and the rest of the world that Sen. Kennedy had lost his fight with brain cancer. He was 77 and died surrounded by those who loved him most, his wife Vicky and their children.

He went out peacefully. I was happy to hear that. I'm sure that the more self-righteous among us who would rather be stuck in Chappaquiddick weren't too happy, but I was.

While on it's face focusing on that incident and that incident alone appears disrespectful, you can't really talk about the legacy of Ted Kennedy without stipulating that some of the drama in his life was self-inflicted, starting with Chappaquiddick. Had he called the police when the car he and Mary Jo Kopechne were driving in went into the river, or if he had at least gotten Donte Stallworth's vehicular homicide sentence and did a little time in jail, Sen. Kennedy probably would have been President Kennedy the Sequel.

(Or maybe not. What I'm learning about the more self-righteous among us is that with them you get no second chances. Just ask Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick. If only these folks cared as much about people as they do about dogs...)

But I digress.

But while he was Bill Clinton before Bill Clinton was old enough to be Bill Clinton, Kennedy did more than a few things in his time in the Senate to offset at least some of the mistakes and bad choices that he made as a younger man.

He was one of the forces behind the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and also allowed himself to get hit by tomatoes in Boston because he supported busing as a means to desegregate the city's schools.

He championed HIV/AIDS research and put together the Ryan White Care Act, which gave local HIV/AIDS organizations the money they needed to provide care and get the word out about prevention.

He pushed for an increase in the minimum wage, an expansion of the AmeriCorps volunteer program, and the Children's Health Insurance Program, all things that provide help to the poor and disadvantaged, people he cared for because he wanted to, not because he had to.

He fought to make all immigrants welcome in this country, not just those from the European continent.

And, and this is a big one, he had to bury his two older brothers, John and Robert, after they were felled by assassin's bullets. He then took care of their families, held the entire family together, and then buried a beloved nephew, John Jr., when he died in a plane crash.

I'd say that merits a peaceful passage all by itself.

When I wrote about Sen. Kennedy's diagnosis last year, it was shortly after he endorsed Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. It was a decision that gave the president some serious street cred among progressive Democrats who were looking for someone to vote for.

All that the Senator wanted in return for his endorsement was a commitment by the Obama Administration to get legislation guaranteeing health care for all Americans passed. He had a shot of getting such legislation passed during the Nixon Administration, but because it fell short of universal, Kennedy said it wasn't good enough.

Sen. Kennedy was honored for his time in politics and for what he had given the nation during the Democratic National Convention. I was sitting in one of the press tents drinking a diet Coke with some of the other reporters and I think that this was when it hit most of us that this was going to be one of the last times that we saw the Lion of the Senate among us.

Although I probably shouldn't have felt this way being a reporter and all, I was hoping that Sen. Kennedy would be able to stay with us just long enough to see the nation swear-in its first African American president. (Having helped his brother John, the first Roman Catholic president, obtain the presidency, this would be a banner moment for him.) When I saw him standing out in the freezing weather with the rest of us, I was happy for him. I thought he was crazy. But I was happy for him.

Sen. Kennedy's funeral will be held on Saturday in Boston and he will join his brothers at Arlington National Cemetery.

But he left one piece of work unfinished, and I'm hoping that Sen. Kennedy's death will get it moving in the right direction.

As I said earlier in this post, Sen. Kennedy had only one request of President Obama when he gave him his endorsement: pass legislation that would provide health care for all Americans.

In case you haven't noticed, that effort has been stuck in the mud of late.

Between Republicans who want to talk about "death panels" and the gun-toting "birthers" they unleash at town hall meetings, Blue Dog Democrats who want to want to see co-ops instead of a public health care option, and President Obama's desire to negotiate with people that seem to be more interested in retaking power than they are with doing the people's business, health care for all seems to be getting further and further away every minute.

Everyone in Congress is going to be sharing their memories of Sen. Kennedy with you on television, on the radio, in the newspapers, everywhere.

If you as an American are really serious about there being health care for all, it's time to shame the Legislative and Executive branches into it. If you're reading this post and have the phone number, email address, or snail mail address to your senator or congressman, send them the message that it's time for them to grow a set, stop playing around, and get health care reform legislation passed NOW!

Otherwise, they're just spouting platitudes.

I think that we can all agree that Senator Kennedy deserves better than that.

I leave you with the speech that Sen. Kennedy gave at the Democratic National Convention one year ago today.

Rest in peace, Senator.

I wonder if Sarah Palin has the same idea

I thought that Philadelphia's Mayor Michael Nutter was going to have a hard time getting reelected because of some of the decisions he's made, such as trying to shut down a bunch of city libraries and closing some city firehouses.

But Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, might be the only elected official with a more uphill climb to his reelection if he makes a decision he's threatened to make regarding the recently passed $789 billion federal stimulus package.

According to WWL-TV, the CBS affiliate in New Orleans, Jindal may not take the $4 billion that Louisiana has been alloted through the stimulus package. His reasons: there may be too many strings attached. I wonder if he'll announce his intentions as part of the response he's supposed to give to President Barack Obama's address tp Congress next Tuesday.

(I also wonder if Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the current frontrunner for the Republican Party's presidential nomination is saying "Geez, what a dumb ass! I'm taking the money. I at least want to have a shot in 2012.)

Now I'm guessing that Jindal will say he's not playing partisan politics here. I'm guessing he'll say that he's just doing what he thinks is right for his state because he doesn't want to begin a program with the stimulus that might not be sustainable for the state otherwise. I'm guessing that he's not thinking of refusing this money so that he can say that the 50,000 jobs that the White House says will be created in Louisiana thanks to the stimulus don't materialize, thus smoothing his path, ever so slightly, to the presidency in 2012.

But no matter what his reasoning is, Jindal is being totally irresponsible in my humble opinion.

Why? Because he's the governor of Louisiana.

You remember what happened there a few years back don't you? Hurricane Katrina? Lots of rain? Broken levees? New Orleans turned into a wholly owned subsidiary of the Gulf of Mexico? Lots and lots of drowned and starving folks due to a combination of governmental stupidity and plain old indifference? Anderson Cooper of CNN showing us that he's more than just a great mound of hair and bright blue eyes?

Well, even if Jindal doesn't remember Katrina, I'm pretty sure folks in New Orleans do, mostly because in some places, most notably the Lower Ninth Ward, it never completely went away. That's why Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, has already said that any money Jindal refuses, he'll take.

But even if Katrina had never happened, Louisiana doesn't have enough of a margin for error for Jindal to refuse $4 million. It's one of the poorest states in the union and folks are pretty hard up there.

I get politics. Politics is supposed to be the art of the possible. Most people get into politics because they want to help out their fellow man and find a way to do more for their community.

If someone can tell me where refusing money for your state because you want to make a blatantly partisan point represents the art of the possible, I'd sure like to know.

Somehow, I see a recall election in this man's future.

Or, at least I should.

Wow! That was fast!

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I knew that Michael Steele was going to catch a little hell from the folks that he now presides over as chair of the Republican National Committee. I even knew that much of that hell would come from within.

I just didn't think that it would take a grand total of two days for the White Supremacist element to rear it's ugly head. And I do mean ugly here. Whomever gave David Duke that plastic surgery should be taken to jail for fraud!

Michael, Michael, Michael

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First of all, I love the Rachel Maddow Show. She's as snarky as Keith Olbermann without also being a blowhard (which, although I'm also an Olbermann fan, he is a blowhard.)

Secondly, check out this video. It talks about the election of Michael Steele, the former Lieutenant Gov. of Maryland, as the new chair of the Republican National Committee.

(I'm guessing that the RNC is a lot like America these days: so fucked up that they figured it wouldn't hurt to let a black guy run it for awhile.)

As part of this video, Melissa Harris-Lacewell, a political science professor from Princeton, talks about why Steele got the nod from the GOP. Apparently, this isn't an attempt to bring blacks into the party....it's an attempt to take steal some of President Barack Obama's coalition building activity. She likened it to going to Krypton to get the Kryptonite needed to defeat Superman.

Apparently, according to Harris-Lacewell, the selection of Steele was more about getting the "lily white" tag taken off of the party and giving it a sheen of inclusiveness.

Yeah, okay. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

But I know that Steele is going to have his work cut out for him.....and most of the issues are going to come from those whom he's been chosen to lead.

There are no people of color in the Senate or the House from the Republican Party. The the only people of color this party seems to attract are people who either don't know what they're doing (former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez) or are easily ignorable (former Secy. of State Colin Powell, although I don't see how you ignore a Four Star General).

Steele almost lost the race to a guy who sent the CD "Barack the Magic Negro" to friends as a Christmas present. And, a new survey of Republicans says they would rather have Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as their leader.

Can someone say "window dressing"? Sure you can.

Once upon a time, I knew a lady whose job it was to bring more people of color into the Republican Party. This was during the time that Strom Thurmond roamed the earth and Trent Lott said that his segregationist theories were the way the country should have gone.

I asked her if she ever felt like telling the members of her party that did this kind of thing "Will you shut the fuck up!? You're making my job impossible!"

She admitted she did. I predict that Steele will utter that particular sentence at some member of the RNC before his tenure ends.

Now the "N" word race really begins: Who will hear it first? Steele or Obama?

A "Ward" of Contradictions

Have you ever seen a conundrum in person?

If you haven't, please look to the right of my column here and avail yourself of the visage of one Wardell Anthony Connerly.

If you're wondering why I consider Mr. Connerly a conundrum, it's because one minute he can be totally right about something, and on the other hand be totally and completely wrong about something else.

For example, Connerly's group, the American Civil Rights Institute, believes that thinking that discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people is wrong. But the group also believes, as I alluded to on Monday, that the 1965 Voting Rights Act should be repealed because Barack Obama is now the president and because of this, people of color have no more problems utilizing their franchise.

Folks who think that the Civil Rights acts of the 1960s were just the beginning of the struggle for equality for people of color have spent countless hours damn near scratching holes in their heads in an attempt to understand Ward Connerly.

This gentleman has spent most the last 20 years trying his best to pretend that racism and discrimination still doesn't exist in this country. From California's Proposition 200 to Michigan's Proposal 2, this dude's been busy in the name of something else that has made me damn near scratch a hole into my head at times....the notion that white folks have been hurt by people of color asserting themselves into society.

And his next target is the Voting Rights Act. People of color don't need it anymore, you know. One of us is president. (Although in Connerly's world, Obama is only black for the purposes of saying that racism is dead.) There's no more impediment to voting.

That Connerly believes that tells me that he doesn't get out much. Because if he did, he might have seen black students finding a hard way to go when they tried to vote in Florida in 2000. Or he might have seen some of the irregularities that have taken place since when it comes to voting.

You know, if Connerly actually left the Church of the Poisoned Mind that he lives in, he'd probably notice that the folks demanding enforcement of the Voting Rights Act the loudest are white.

Yeah, dude. White. White folks are complaining about being denied the right to vote. Check that out!

There are so many blogs, websites, and other things in cyberspace complaining about the voting system in this country that it's ridiculous. And almost all of them are run by white folks. White folks that saw a guy that they didn't want in the White House go in and stay for 8 years took to the Internets and started logging all of the voting irregularities they saw.

So, Mr. Conundrum, might I suggest before you start assuming that this particular group right needs to go the way of the DoDo, you check out who you'll be tangling with this time around.

Here's an open discussion...

Ward Connerley, a dude that has made it his life's work to forget that racism still exists and that we may need laws to combat it, has decided that his next mission is to get the voting rights act repealed.

Discuss.