WASHINGTON — Okay, Okay! It is only a satire. I am not really
running for mayor of Chicago, but I do have something in common
with someone who is running for mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel.
Neither I nor Rahm qualifies for residency in Chicago, though my
family traces its roots in the city back to the 19th century, and I
was at least born in Chicago. If Rahm bullies his way to residency,
Chicago’s big shoulders are not what they once were. He gave no
thought to running until a few weeks back when Mayor Richard M.
Daley announced his retirement, and now Rahm has no place to
live.
Our second shared attribute is that the idea of
campaigning is repellent to both of us. I could no more stand at a
bus station and shake hands than, well, than Rahm, and he is
proving his disrelish for the glad hand on this “Listening Tour.”
People do not like him. They approach him as though he were an
enemy alien, and he is. He is from Washington, D.C. He wants to
take their money. My guess is that he will lose.
The only thing going for Rahm is that the election is next
year. By then things might have improved. On the other hand they
might get worse. Right now they are getting worse.
Reasonable estimates are that the Republicans will win anywhere
between 48 and 52 seats in the Senate. In the House they will gain
anywhere between 50 and 70 seats. We are sitting on a volcano, and
to think that a little over a year ago all the talk was of
Republican moribundity. There was a book out, The Death of
Conservatism. Perhaps you heard of it. It was by Sam
Tanenhaus. He is the editor of the New York Times Book
Review, so he cannot very well go into hiding. But he can
patrol his publication to be sure that no book hinting at the truth
gets into his pages. Thus readers of the Review all
happily anticipate further ruin to the Republican Party this fall.
What will they do when it does not happen?
The scenario is already being written. They will claim
that the electorate was brain washed by the press. Their
press, mind you, but for some reason it was duped or made a
mistake. Then too they will claim the huge Republican vote was
bought. The groundwork for this whopper is already being laid. In
fact, it is part of what passes for a last gasp strategy to grab a
seat here, a seat there.
The loudest proponent of this desperate gambit is of
course the president. Mr. Obama in Maryland last week warned that
“groups that received foreign money are spending huge sums to
influence American elections.” Soon MoveOn.org was calling for the
IRS to investigate the Chamber of Commerce. Senator Al Franken took
up the charge that “foreign corporations are indirectly spending
significant sums to influence American elections through
third-party groups.” It all fit in with calls for investigations
from Senator Max Baucus, Representative John Conyers, David
Axelrod, and chief White House economist, Austan Goolsbee, who in a
conference call to reporters in August seemed to be aware of
particulars in tax returns of the principals at Koch
Industries.
Now, actually, foreigners and possibly foreign governments
have been known to influence American elections. Yet I cannot
recall them serving as friends of the Republicans. I remember them
as friends of the Clintons, helping him win the election of 1992
and coming out again in 1996. Foremost was Mochtar Riady and his
son, James. I have chronicled their generosity and the generosity
of other shadowy Asians in my 2007 book, The Clinton
Crack-Up. In a chapter aptly title “The Chop Suey Connection,”
I chronicle how the Riadys, a family of ethnic Chinese from
Indonesia, saved Bill Clinton’s candidacy in the 1992 primaries
with a loan of $3.5 million. Later, James, by now a United States
citizen, contributed $450,000 to Clinton-Gore, and his family and
associates gave $600,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Then
he and an associate, John Huang, gave $100,000 each to the
inaugural festivities.
In 1996 these colorful figures were back. Not only that,
but so was Charlie Trie, a man with no visible wealth who passed
along hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Democratic National
Committee and the Presidential Legal Defense Fund. Allegedly, he
got the money from Ng Lapseng, a trafficker in ladies of the night
from Macau. Then there was Johnny Chung who arranged presidential
photo ops for cash, one beneficiary being Colonel Liu Chaoying who
passed along $366,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Colonel
Liu was the daughter of the most senior general in the People’s
Liberation Army, and allegedly a spy.
There were other foreign investors in American politics in
the Clinton years and I cannot see any supporting Republicans
today. Frankly, I think the Democrats as lying to
us.
