http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2005/02/20050209_b_main.asp
See my previous post on this, as well, but listening to this interview, it occurred to me that the challenge the Republican Right threw at Arlen Specter in the primaries for his senate seat last year must have been really close to home for her in more ways than one, what with New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Specter's state, being joined at the hip.
A few thoughts as I listen:
- She keeps getting rapped for not criticising the President at all. "I'd like to hear her say one thing negative about the President," one caller challenged. Her reply: "I disagree with him on things..." Though personally, I think that is a red herring; on the topic she's discussing, W isn't the issue anymore. It's who and what next.
- And speaking on what's next, she says she can say all this because she's not in office nor running for Office. (As I said before, Bill Weld, another 2008 presidential pretender, sorry, contender-in-waiting, is on the board for her PAC.) But she didn't contradict the host when he, almost sotto voce, said something to the effect of "and maybe she is now redy to continue her political career".
- Is she the Republican Dean?
- For people keeping score, I haven't discussed Newt Gingrich and his "book tour"? Gotta fix that. Is he the Republican Dean?
- Over all, it really is refreshing to see a major figure actually disagree in substantial ways with the leadership and/or mainstream of her party in a sober and graceful way without, for the most part, getting defensive or throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It has become so rare anywhere nowadays, whether it is within political parties or withing the progressive vs. conservative vs. traditionalist discussion in religious communities. Lady's a class act, as they would say in New Jersey.
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