2004

OneMan Takes on the Leader

ArchPundit July 7, 2004 1 Comment

Actually he does it quite often, but has some pretty good points on a recent column attacking Obama.

Generally, OneMan makes a good point about how no one actually addresses the issues and I hope he does start with some he disagrees on–it’ll be interesting.

Going back to the columnist, I’ll point out a couple other problems. First, the petty bit about whether Obama is biracial or African-American misses the basic point that most African-Americans are multi-racial. Obama, strangely, probably has some of the more clear cut ethnic lines of most African-Americans. Ethnicity is a social construct and we acknowledge it in race as adding both the social and the physical to some degree in physical characteristics. But in society, it is hard to imagine that most don’t view and that Barack himself views himself as African-American.

Second, Herbert’s piece really doesn’t say vote for him because of race. In fact, the message seems to be that Obama is transcending race by reaching people who aren’t African-American. But details, schmetails. And many people do call on people to vote for white candidates that make substantial efforts to reach African-Americans. Two Republican examples include Jack! and Jim Talent in Missouri (I often mention Talent as an example of how white politicians should reach African-Americans).

Many, many more problems, but OneMan deals with most of those.

Leader Lawsuit Watch Day 13

ArchPundit July 7, 2004 3 Comments

The last we heard the Illinois Leader was still planning to sue for John Kerry’s sealed divorced records even though, the records aren’t sealed.

The Leader has a history of attracting the overly litigious with John Zahm’s rather frequent threats to sue several people on the message boards and, of course, Chris Lauzen has been a contributor, a guy who sued over an argument in the party primary over whether he was indeed a CPA. He then tried to legally change his name to Chris Lauzen, CPA and forever becoming a punchline in state politics.

But Proft is claiming that the impoundment of financial information is the same as unsealing the Ryan custody documents. This might be true, except for the actual details get in the way. The custody battle in the Ryan case was contested. In the Kerry-Thorne divorce the divorce was no-fault and the agreement for custody and child support was seemingly worked out and then kept as a contract. Massachusetts law stipulates this as possible (site chosen because MA Government site was unwieldy):

If the finding is in the affirmative, the court shall approve the agreement and enter a judgment of divorce nisi. The agreement either shall be incorporated and merged into said judgment or by agreement of the parties, it shall be incorporated and not merged, but shall survive and remain as an independent contract.

Thorne then went to court a few years later to increase support payments from Kerry once his financial situation improved. Somehow this is supposed to be juicy.

To make it even better, the Leader published Kevin McCullough’s column this week claiming “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire.”

The evidence?

The files are sealed.

Of course, the files aren’t sealed.

Then McCullough goes on to say quote a Washington Times piece that actually appears to be quoting Thorne’s book on divorce and depression.

If McCullough searched a bit harder he might have noticed this and other quotes from Thorne:

From the Boston Globe series profiling Kerry:

But the marriage was beyond repair. “Politics became my husband’s life,” Julia wrote in “A Change of Heart,” her 1996 book about divorce. “I tried to be happy for him, but after 14 years as a political wife I associated politics with anger, fear, and loneliness.”

In an interview, she declined to elaborate on this period, except to say: “The dissolution of the marriage was my doing, not John’s. I wanted something else.”

That gives it a bit different context doesn’t it?

McCullough is not to be deterred though:

What kind of man leaves his wife, but especially when she is in the midst of suicidal depression?

See above again. No one’s marriage, let alone their divorce is easy and certainly he was partially at fault, but to assume that he left her is a paternalistic bit of bullshit.

In addition, there seemed to be a hotly contested issue when Kerry later wished to marry Teresa Heinz over whether or not he should be granted an annulment.

And this part is true. Kerry sought an annullment in the Catholic Church. Given I’m not Catholic, I find the whole dance around divorce strange and this even weirder, but then again, I’m not Catholic.

He pushed ahead for the annulment even though it technically threw his daughters into the bizarre state of illegitimacy. Having recovered from her depression by that point, some 18 years later Thorne fired back with hotly worded letters that she also copied to the Boston Globe.

The timeline is bizarrely off unless he is talking about the beginning of the marriage.

Ultimately, we know this–Kerry’s files are open to the same extent and probably more than Jack!’s. It’s just that Kerry didn’t have a messy divorce, Jack! did. I’ve long held that if Jack! had just released the files it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but Jack! decided to lie repeatedly about the files. Of course, he isn’t the first politician. Ask Bruce Benson in Colorado or Chuck Douglass and others in New Hampshire.

The law assumes that records are public unless there is good reason to seal them. If Jack! had a lawyer that didn’t tell him the records would probably be released, Jack! had a really crappy lawyer. A simple treatment of the issue is available here.

On Jack!’s rehabilitation tour he has been claiming that this is a first in American history. While finding a particular case involving custody documents might be difficult, the judge’s ruling is with precedent and examples can be found in the news where documents were unsealed over both former spouse’s wishes. The question isn’t why was the ruling surprising, but why it wasn’t expected.

If people want to clamor for public disclosure, may I suggest Teresa Heinz Kerry’s tax records are the place to start–that is a real issue and something particularly important.

Ummmm…Have You Heard Your President Lately? Or Anytime?

ArchPundit July 7, 2004 No Comments

The Leader takes on Judy’s incoherent quote about John Edwards:

He?s not from the Midwest. He?s not one of ours. He?s from the South, I mean, okay, fine, probably a southern gentleman. . .

I think when it came down to the great war of independence or whatever they call it down south, we were on the winning side, you know, for just that reason, and we think northernly, we think union, we are a bunch of Yanks. . .*

As the Leader points out, the President is a Southerner too. Well sort of. I guess if Andover and New Haven are Southern. But more importantly, do you really want to make fun of Judy’s mangled statement and then mention the President in the same story? Because if mangled statements disqualify one from holding office, I think it’s time for the President to concede.