Bland Ambition

In terms of accomplishments, no one can really find fault with Senator Carter of Illinois. He did two years at Occidental College in metro Los Angeles. He transferred to Columbia University and earned a bachelor's degree in political science with a concentration in international relations. He went on to a job with the Business International Corporation, which provided strategic analysis for American companies seeking to operate overseas (it's now a part of the Economist Intelligence Unit). He went to Harvard Law School, and became the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review (a first in the publication's then 104 year history). He left Harvard with a juris doctorae magna cum laude (a law degree with honors for those who can't read Latin).

He is also as nakedly ambitious and cold-blooded as the depictions of the junior senator from New York.

I did some reading over the past couple of days on Senator Carter's voting records, and something popped out right away. It seems he is what the Army would refer to as a "ticket-puncher". A "ticket-puncher" (in military terms) is a person who does a job simply to have it documented in his or her records for when promotion time comes. The selection board would see that so-and-so did this assignment and that assignment and the conventional wisdom is that the boards look favorably on that. If you go and review his voting records from the Illinois state senate, and you read what those who knew him there say of him, a somewhat alarming picture develops....he's Bill Clinton minus the sex (don't tell Dr. Sullivan I said that--it would break his pretentious little Limey heart).

With 130 votes of "Present" on bills in the state senate, it would seem that Senator Carter has a great deal of trouble with publicly announcing his conviction on a matter. If he had perhaps 15 or less, then I can understand that. As far as I can see, that doesn't really count as straddling---but 130 (sometimes, he was the only member in the chamber voting that way)? He voted "Present" on issues that had wide bipartisan support numbers. He voted "Present" on political hot-button issues---hmmm...possibly some Cover Your Ass to protect future political viability perhaps? I swear I can smell that fragrance in the air.

Oh, I know I shouldn't say that---that's a cynical thought and he's JESUS. I can't for a MOMENT impugn his motives or question his thoughts. I'll be condemned to Hell for that....or Dr. Sullivan could make some calls and have the Upwardly Mobile Gay Male Mafia do me in (seems quite a few of them have declared themselves bitches for the candidate...maybe they'll kill me as they dance to a remix of Britney).

One of his more interesting "Present" episodes was a bill before the Illinois state senate that would authorize the courts to try as adults 15 years olds charged with committing crimes involving a firearm or near school grounds (i.e. Drug Pushers).The stylish empty suit from Hyde Park voted "Present" because he said it would do nothing to end juvenile crime. The "huh?" portion of this comes in because while statistically the majority of these youth offenders were black, the majority of their victims were also black. By voting "Aye" on the bill, Senator Carter would have done something to help aid the black community in Illinois make their communities safer. He didn't want to touch the issue, even though it had massive bipartisan support. It was too hot, and it would seem he had bigger fish worth frying.......

[Cue the official sounding music, because the president of the Illinois state senate just walked onstage]

It appears our empty suit did not like being in the state senate very much--he tried to get out of it and get to Congress in 2000 (that flopped). At that point, Plan B kicked in....and there was no time to waste--this suit had places to go, stands to not take and men's lifestyle magazine covers for which to pose languidly.

Getting back to our guest on stage, Senator Carter had found his mark, and determined it was time to schmooze. One day, the empty suit flounced its way into the state senate president's office and said to the prez that he had a lot of power, and that the prez had the power to make a United States senator. The prez played coy, and then the empty suit suggested itself as that senator. The empty suit knew the senate president was wired into the Cook County-Chicago Democratic political machine, and that machine could get the suit into a lot of store windows. Children, our suit was on its way.

The empty suit got all of its state tickets punched--it made it to Washington {Yay!). It got itself a chairmanship on a subcommittee under the Foreign Affairs committee (Yay!). It didn't matter that the subcommittee never had a hearing for the first year the suit was there. No meetings meant no tough votes and no hot-button issues (Yay!). Well done, suit....you rock in your suaveness. The empty suit had a new big fish to fry--it wanted to go to the other end of the street (Yay!).

The night of the Iowa caucus, I was watching the Charlie Rose Show, and one of Charlie's guests was a man named Shelby Steele--a research fellow at the Hoover Institute, and like Senator Carter, the son of a black father white mother. He said to Charlie that black male candidates can only appeal to white voters as long as they do not make the voters uncomfortable. The minute a white voter squirms, it's pretty much over--the spell is broken. Evidently, uncomfortable is bad, because that means voters were actually listening to and thinking about what a candidate says. It seems the empty knows this...and will bend over backwards to avoid that fate.


Just a thought...