Couldn’t Help But Notice (082107)

That timeless oldie but goodie, “If they don’t name the party, it must be a Democrat,” gets played again.

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Louisiana’s David Vitter has approval ratings in the high 60s (HT Hot Air’s headlines). See what those six magic words, “I was wrong, I am sorry” can do?

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Failing Femtalk network to fired help: Severance, Schmeverance.

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History shows that the Fairness Doctrine was abused in the early 1960s to intimidate those who opposed the nuclear test-ban treaty and the continuation of Democratic control of the White House (HT NewsBusters):

In 1962 President Kennedy’s policies were under sustained attack from conservative broadcasters across the country. Of particular concern to the president were vocal right-wing opponents of the nuclear test ban treaty being considered by the Senate at the time. The administration and the DNC seized upon the Fairness Doctrine as a way to “counter the radical right” in their battle to pass the treaty. The Citizens Committee for a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which was established and funded by the Democrats, orchestrated a very effective protest campaign against hostile radio editorials, demanding free reply time under the Fairness Doctrine whenever a conservative broadcaster denounced the treaty. Ultimately, the Senate ratified the treaty by far more than the necessary two-thirds majority.

Flush with success, the DNC and the Kennedy-Johnson administration decided to extend use of the doctrine to other high-priority legislation and the impending 1964 elections. Democratic Party funding sources were used to establish a professional listening post to monitor right-wing radio. The DNC also prepared a kit explaining “how to demand time under the Fairness Doctrine,” which was handed out at conferences. As Bill Ruder, an assistant secretary of commerce under President Kennedy, noted, “Our massive strategy was to use the Fairness Doctrine to challenge and harass right-wing broadcasters in the hope that the challenges would be so costly to them that they would be inhibited and decide it was too expensive to continue.”

By November 1964, when Johnson beat Goldwater in a landslide, the Democrats’ “fairness” campaign was considered a stunning success.

Those who think the Supreme Court wouldn’t stand for a reinstatement of the bogusly-named Fairness Doctrine need to read the three paragraphs preceding the above excerpt.

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Here’s a passage on Leona Helmsley, who died yesterday, from a column written by Ellis Henican, of all people, that is guaranteed not to get a lot of circulation:

I caught up with (former front-desk staffer at the Park Lane Hotel on Central Park South Victor) Colicchio yesterday in Pennsylvania, where he lives now. He’d already heard the news when I got to him.

But to my surprise, he wasn’t doing cartwheels at his evil boss’ demise. He wasn’t humming, “Ding dong! The witch is dead!” He sounded more like a man who had one last chance to set a record straight.

“She was a millionaire long before she married Harry,” Colicchio said. “She would not have gotten as far as she did in real estate with the kind of personality that was painted as being her. She was intelligent, dedicated. She could be charming if she wanted. And her hotels were union hotels. She didn’t have the authority to just fire people left and right. The union would have held a hearing. Those people would have been hired back with back pay. It wouldn’t make business sense.”

The famous Helmsley tantrums, her former shrimp-plopper said, were almost always aimed at conniving hotel managers – not the maids, bellmen and other union workers who staffed the hotels.

“Back in the 1980s, a lot of those managers didn’t believe a woman belonged out of the kitchen – much less as the boss of a big hotel. They said awful things behind her back.”

Give Henican credit for writing a story that didn’t fit his expectations template.