Presidential hopeful John Kerry contends George W. Bush doesn't have a record to run on, but one to run from: The worst job record since Depression-era Pres. Hoover, a troubled Iraq occupation, and missing Weapons of Mass Destruction damage Bush's credibility. His supposed strong point - 9/11 and national security - has been undermined by the 9/11 Commission and ex-counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke.
Independent presidential aspirant Ralph Nader claims even Bush's base is upset. Fiscal conservatives fret over record budget and trade deficits, unfunded federal mandates such as "no child left behind," and the Medicare bill's costs (far higher than Bush originally claimed). While Bush Senior played the race card vis-a-vis black criminal Willie Horton when Poppy ran in 1988 against Massachusetts liberal Michael Dukakis, Bush Junior and political adviser Karl Rove face difficulties following suit. G.W.'s proposed temporary worker plan targeting Hispanics makes conservative nativists restless.
The religious right has been a mainstay of Bush's base since 1986, when Billy Graham inspired the heavy drinker to become Born Again. In 1987, Bush became the liaison between his father's presidential campaign and Christian conservatives. Junior's courted fundamentalists ever since - they rescued his rocky 2000 campaign, supporting him against Sen. John McCain in South Carolina's primary, after Bush's appearance at ultra-conservative Bob Jones University.
Nevertheless, according to the Los Angeles Times' Feb. 14, 2004 article "U.S. Plans to Escalate Porn Fight," "The Christian right believes Attorney Gen. Ashcroft, a longtime friend and ally, has fallen down on the job when it comes to fighting smut." Attorney Jeffrey Douglas, Chairman of the Free Speech Coalition's Board of Directors, added, "So far, the administration has done virtually nothing, in terms of criminal prosecutions, with the notable exception of the prosecution of Extreme Associates in Pennsylvania."
If Bush can't run on the economy, Iraq, or homeland security, what's an incumbent to do? Wage cultural jihad.
The appearance of Janet Jackson's nipple during Feb. 1's televised Super Bowl unleashed the dogs of cultural war. Their breast beating is as vociferous as Janet's breast baring was brief, with chilling calls for crackdowns on not only broadcast TV and radio (wherein public-owned airwaves are regulated), but on cable TV and even online.
In their zeal to nip alleged vulgarity in the bud, wannabe Torquemadas pressure networks and the Federal Communications Commission - chaired by Secretary of State Colin Powell's son Michael - to come down hard on perceived offenders. In addition to Janet and co-wardrobe malfunctioneer Justin Timberlake, entertainers who've felt the censor's lash include U2's Bono, deejay Bubba the Love Sponge, and Howard Stern, plus TV's NYPD Blue, ER, The O.C., America's Next Top Model, and Game Over.
The Empire Strikes Back?
The Christian Taliban was disappointed by Bush's laxity on lewdness, but the administration was preoccupied with 9/11. However, the same week Janet's nipple was exposed, the empire struck back, appointing the Darth Vader of anti-porn crusades, Bruce Taylor, as senior counsel in the Department of Justice's criminal division.
Before returning to government, 53-year-old Taylor led a pro-Internet regulation group. Now, he's back - the ex-Cleveland city attorney/DOJ veteran of 600 obscenity cases, including Larry Flynt's. Taylor will report over the head of Justice's current obscenity chief to a more senior official, and Bush's FY2005 budget sought increased anti-obscenity spending. "It's all part of our overall effort to kick-start obscenity prosecutions after a long absence," DOJ spokesman Bryan Sierra told the L.A. Times.
"The attraction for this administration of prosecuting the industry is primarily to galvanize their rightwing base," FSC's Douglas asserted. "It's a matter of political psychology that you do these kinds of things when it has the maximum impact."
Douglas added that contrary to the Miller ruling, Bush is trying to change the definition of what's obscene online.
"That's a certainty. We can see that from the Extreme Associates indictment. 'Taken as a whole' is a very difficult proposition anytime you're prosecuting a Website, because one would initially think the site is itself a whole, like a magazine, book, or video. But instead, they're going to argue each individual photograph or film clip is a separate unit that can be prosecuted separately. So they can cherry pick, and in a site with 200 movies, 10,000 photographs, 5,000 pages of text, they'll take one photograph or film clip and say 'This is obscene.' And that is a huge part of where the battleground will be," Douglas warned.
By hyping culture war - as the president has by advocating an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment - Bush's campaign can pander to its fundamentalist base. And if Janet's nipple rendered them hysterical, imagine how enraged Jenna makes puritans. Bush and Rove may very well reason they have little to lose with an anti-porn holy war.
The Contender
Of the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, Rolling Stone pointed out that Sen. John Kerry's background "doesn't seem all that different from Bush's." Both are from privileged families, attended private schools, and Yale. There, like G.W., Kerry belonged to the elite secret society Skull & Bones. Kerry was Yale Political Union's president, while Bush was a fraternity president. Unlike Bush, Kerry became a decorated Vietnam War hero and then an antiwar leader.
Kerry unsuccessfully ran for congressional seats in 1971 and 1972, and after graduating from Boston College Law School, was a Middlesex County, Massachusetts senior prosecutor, 1976-1979. Kerry was Gov. Dukakis' Lt. Gov. 1982-1984, when Kerry was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Republicans portray Kerry as a tax-and-spend liberal and politically expedient flip-flopper, who voted for the PATRIOT Act and authorized the Iraq invasion, then criticized both. According to the Christian Science Monitor, Kerry's "6,310 Senate votes, mainly liberal, have enough twists and turns to invite charges of inconsistency." The Washington-based nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization the Center for Public Integrity asserted, "Kerry hasn't authored any signature legislation." CSM added, "Few bills bear his name. But his signature investigations were models of dogged, even relentless focus, and may tell more about his persona and likely attributes as a president than anything else he has done in his 19 years in the Senate."
In 1995, Kerry wed ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz, worth $500-760 million. She has $18-46 million invested in telecommunications, and $4-8 million in media.
Opinion is split on Kerry's tech record. In the March 27, 2004 L.A. Times article, "In Senate, Kerry Maintained a Low Profile on High-Tech," FCC ex-Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth said Kerry "was perhaps the only Committee member I never met. Of all the members of Commerce, he was one of the least engaged in telecom issues." Telecommunications Policy Review editor Kenneth Robinson added, "I can't think of anything the guy has ever done." The Times noted that in 2000, Business Week dubbed Kerry one of 12 "tech savvy" Congressmen, but also called him "A newcomer to e-issues."
The Center for Public Integrity's The Buying of the President 2004, Who's Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers, details Kerry's votes and donors - and insists they're related. From 1984 to 2003, four of Kerry's top 25 donors hailed from the telecommunications industry. His top contributor, with $223,046 donated, is Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC, Boston (71st among U.S. law firms in 2002, with $229 million in gross). Mintz Levin represents AT&T Wireless Services and the Cellular Telecom and Internet Association, the industry's lobbying arm. Kerry's brother Cameron works in Mintz Levin's litigation section and represents clients before the FCC. David Leiter, Sen. Kerry's ex-chief of staff, is a VP of a Washington Mintz Levin affiliate that consults and lobbies.
AOL Time Warner contributed $172,387 to Kerry's coffers. America's largest law firm, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, New York - a lobbyist for NewsCorp. and AOL Time Warner - gave $105,150. Another law firm with telecom clients, Hale and Dorr LLP, Boston, donated $123,258. Comcast and AT&T gave Kerry $54,000 and $21,300. From 1984 to 2003, the telecommunications sector contributed more than $1 million. Other Kerry media corporate media donors include Disney (ABC's owner), Viacom (CBS' owner), and NewsCorp. (Fox's owner); jointly, they contributed more than $300,000 to Kerry. The senator sits on influential committees - Commerce, Finance, and is ranking member on the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee - with oversight over the business interests of the above contributors, as well as his wife's.
Kerry's High-Tech Legislative Record
Kerry says he's not for sale, doesn't automatically act in favor of donors, refused to accept PAC money during four senate races, and backed the McCain/Feingold campaign finance reform. What does Kerry's legislative record reveal?
CPI disagrees with the L.A. Times' contention that high-tech was a low Kerry priority. "Kerry has, in recent years, pushed the legislative priorities of the wireless telecommunications industry on several occasions. He sponsored/cosponsored bills favorable to the industry and wrote letters to government agencies on its behalf," CPI observed. Kerry's been active on high-tech:
Kerry belongs to the bipartisan, 170-member Congressional Internet Caucus (www.netcaucus.org), established in 1996 to promote Internet advancement.
Kerry voted for the Telecom-munications Act of 1996 that required FCC ownership rules changes.
In 1998, Kerry voted for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
In 1998, Kerry voted to ban Internet gambling.
In 1998, Kerry voted against Internet sales taxes. (Note: Kerry's senate site, kerry.senate.gov, says: "Kerry believes there needs to be a level playing field between Internet retailers and bricks-and-mortar establishments, and that the Internet should not be a tax-free haven.")
Kerry and McCain co-sponsored a 1999 bill making it illegal for Web marketers to collect personal information without prior consent.
Kerry's senate site states in 2000: "Kerry helped negotiate a final bill that gives electronic signatures the same legal recognition as handwritten signatures."
In 2000, Kerry co-introduced legislation that sought to stop firms that are more than 25 percent foreign government-owned from purchasing American telecom companies.
In 2001, six senators, including Kerry, advanced a top CTIA concern by signing a letter to the Bush administration urging expeditious allotment of spectrum used by the federal government for a "third generation" wireless system, to enable users to send high-speed data and voice.
In 2002 Kerry and Nevada's Republican Sen. Ensign wrote FCC's Chairman and introduced a bill requesting a delay in auctioning spectrum licenses vis-�-vis transmission of voice, data, and video. They were postponed indefinitely. CTIA president/CEO Thomas Wheeler effusively thanked the senators.
In 2002, following NextWave's bankruptcy, Kerry introduced a bill co-sponsored by 58 senators to return money to companies that had bought spectrum licenses from the mobile wireless data network operator. This forced FCC to comply.
In 2003, Kerry - who's missed many roll calls during his presidential race - didn't vote on the Controlling the Assault of Non- Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act of 2003.
A current Kerry campaign theme is eliminating government incentives for U.S. companies to outsource (particularly phone and Internet-related) jobs abroad and tax loopholes enabling offshore banking to avoid U.S. taxes.
Kerry's Censorship Record
National Journal claimed Kerry had the Senate's most liberal voting record. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Kerry voted 47 percent of the time with ACLU. Douglas said, "He's got a pretty good First Amendment rating; not the greatest in the world. There's no political reason for him to attack the adult industry directly."
The Massachusetts senator voted for 1996's Communications Decency Act. As for the Child Online Protection Act, the June 23, 1999 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline (www.ala.org) observed, "Kerry was the most outspoken in raising concerns at the markup, describing the bill as an unfunded mandate to purchase filtering and blocking software. He noted the strong concerns of the American Library Association and the National Education Association and cited the importance of local control." However, ALA - which opposed COPA - noted that during the Senate Commerce Committee's voice vote, there were no "nays" - not even from Kerry.
By voting for 1996's Telecom-munications Act, Kerry voted to require televisions to include V-chips to block sexual and violent content.
In 1999, Kerry voted to amend 1934's Communications Act to require that the broadcast of violent programming be limited to hours when children aren't likely to form a substantial part of the audience.
Kerry-nomics
Kerry's campaign site calls for disclosure so consumers will know if telephone and Internet transactions have been outsourced overseas. JohnKerry.com promises "Kerry will close every single loophole that gives companies incentives to move jobs abroad, including stopping American companies from setting up virtual headquarters in foreign countries just to avoid paying U.S. taxes and stop tax breaks for companies that move jobs abroad."
Kerry seems bullish on the Web. "Kerry believes we need to make Internet access available to all families. The Rural Electric Administration brought isolated areas out of the darkness. Similarly a visionary Federal government will build a bridge across the digital divide and bring the promise of broadband technology to rural and urban America. Kerry supports providing a tax credit to telecommunications companies that deploy broadband in rural and underserved parts of America," proclaims JohnKerry.com.
V.P. Chip
What of Kerry's running mate, John Edwards? FSC's Douglas said, "He wouldn't be hostile, like a Republican would." According to www.vote-smart.gov, in 1999 the North Carolina senator voted against an amendment banning Internet sites that advertise to sell more than 10 guns, except by licensed gun dealers. Project Vote Smart reports that in 1999, the ex-trial lawyer voted to allow Y2K bug-related lawsuits against computer companies.
In 2000, Edwards voted to increase H-1B visas by 115,000, to 195,000 annually. (Many of these foreigners are high-tech employees.) In 2001, Edwards voted for $100 million for 1,000 computerized community-based technology centers. In late 2003, Edwards - busy stumping - didn't vote on the anti-telemarketer "do not call" registry or CAN-SPAM Acts, or a joint resolution regarding media ownership.
Alex Kollantai is a frequent contributor to AVN Online.
