Mini-review: "August: Osage County"

Pam and I went tonight to see the South Bend Civic Theatre's production of Tracy Letts' "August: Osage County." Fine performance of an awesome play. Mary Toll was particularly impressive as Violet, matriarch of the Weston family. Glad I saw this outstanding piece of drama.

A too-perfect metaphor for Washington's mortal combat

There was a fascinating story out of Duluth a few days ago about two bald eagles that fell to earth while fighting.  An expert quoted in the story said each bird apparently had its talons so firmly embedded in the other's flesh that they could not disengage in time to avoid crashing into the ground.

The story struck me as an all-too-perfect metaphor for the current state of things between the executive and legislative branches of our national government. We seem to have reached the point where the fight is more important than anything else, including, perhaps, the survival and functioning of the government itself.

A few items of evidence:

• The New York Times last Saturday published a story on delays in the confirmation process for Obama administration nominees to cabinet positions, judgeships and other policymaking positions in the government. "Nominees at all levels of Washington’s bureaucracy — 117 of them in all, including cabinet secretaries, judges and members of obscure oversight boards — are facing delays," reporter Jeremy Peters wrote. "Just last week, the Senate confirmed David Medine, the president’s choice to lead the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. The time between his nomination and confirmation was 510 days. Every Republican voted no."
• When Treasury Secretary Jack Lew requested the resignation of the head of the IRS this week, the head that rolled was that of the acting commissioner of the tax agency. Steven Miller had been acting commissioner since November, when the last confirmed commissioner, a George W. Bush appointee, finished his five-year term. And when Obama named a replacement for Miller, it was a new acting commissioner, who is to serve until the end of the calendar year. Presumably then the president will nominate a real commissioner, who whom the Senate will have to approve, perhaps on the 12th of Never. 
• On Thursday, Sri Srinivasan, an Obama nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, won the unanimous endorsement of the Senate Judiciary Committee. If he wins confirmation by the full Senate, Srinivasan will be the first person confirmed to that important judicial panel since 2006. Four of the court's 11 positions are vacant. Another Obama nominee withdrew after waiting two years for a Senate vote on her nomination.
• The average time for Senate confirmation votes on Obama judicial nominees is now 116 days, three times longer than was the case for George W. Bush.

Obviously, the blame for this state of affairs is not evenly distributed. But equally obvious is that the government cannot possibly be operating at maximal efficiency if large numbers of policymaking positions remain vacant for months, even years. But for the GOP, that probably is the idea. Not only does it frustrate the Obama agenda, but it assures that the party's mantra of big, inefficient federal government will remain true.

Meantime, for the American people, the ground looms ever larger as the executive eagle and the legislative one grapple, each trying to destroy the other.

Singer changes, song stays the same

I was at a meeting last evening and did not get to watch the president's State of the Union Address. I did get home just in time to catch Sen. Marco Rubio's Republican response. And as he began with his litany of what government can't do, I found myself thinking that the GOP may change the complexion or the accent of its speakers, but the message always stays the same. And that's not a compliment.

All the news--before it happens

I was on my way to catch the train this morning and heard on the local NPR station an invitation to engage in a "real-time chat" during the president's State of the Union address tonight.

Whatever happened to listen, then think, then react?

A giant exercise in missing the point

Rob Manker's column today on Page 2 of the Chicago Tribune ("Aside from anti-obese bigotry, no reason POTUS can't be XXL") reads to me like a giant exercise in missing the point. He writes off the recent public discussion of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's weight as mere bigotry against a fat person. He even quotes an expert, Gary Foster, director of the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University, in support of his case: "If you're looking at someone as a presidential candidate, of all the things to worry about, you're going to worry about their body weight? What about their ability to govern? What about their ability to balance a budget?"

But the concern over Christie's weight is not frivolous and bigoted. It's about the man's health, and whether he can be depended upon to live through a presidential term. It was in that context that the issue was raised by an Arizona doctor and former White House physician.

Christie's weight is no less legitimate an issue than would be an elderly candidate's age.

Lives--and Libraries--of the Presidents

A couple of years ago on the way back from a vacation in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, my wife Pam and I stopped at the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids. That visit inspired an item on our bucket lists: To visit all the existing presidential libraries, 20 at last count, 13 of them operated by the National Archives and Records Administration.

On Tuesday, while returning from a family gathering in Texas, we stopped in Little Rock, Arkansas, and spent about three hours at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library. It is housed in a splendid modern structure, situated next to the Arkansas River just outside downtown Little Rock. The building appears to have been designed to evoke one of President Clinton's favorite phrases--"building a bridge to the 21st Century." But in the end, I found myself as unmoved by the Clinton library as I was moved by Ford's, and it took me awhile to understand why.

The Ford museum (the Ford library is located in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan) had a funky feel to it. Touring it felt like going through a trove of old family photos and other memorabilia. While the place obviously followed a plan, it had a relaxed, serendipitous feel. It seemed as if the exhibits were telling a story--or a series of stories--about Ford and his life and times.

Touring the Clinton library, by contrast, felt like sitting through a political science lecture, with Clinton himself as the lecturer. The place seemed relentlessly planned, organized, ordered. At some point pretty early on, I quit listening to the audio tour device over which Clinton explained the displays and exhibits. Between the sound from the device and the sounds piped into each exhibit alcove through ceiling speakers, there was just too much audio. In fact, there was just too much of everything--documents, photos, explanations, placards. I found myself thinking, "What this place needs is a good editor."

Strikes me there's a lesson for journalists in these two different approaches. The Clinton library is like one of those long, ponderous newspaper series on an issue that has been researched beyond exhaustively, but that nobody can stand to read. The Ford museum is like a well-told story--one that is long and important, but engagingly told and full of life and people and color. I know which one I would read first.

The Freezin' Season

It's the freezin' season. I suppose because it was May 1, air-conditioning was turned on in my office, in the classrooms at Loyola and on the CTA train I rode home today. Wouldn't have minded if it had been 80 degrees, but it was closer to 60 and rainy. I found myself having to put on a coat to stay warm in the classroom where I administered one of my final exams. Same thing in my office. But my coat did little good on the CTA, where frigid air issued from the AC vents and left me shivering.

No point complaining. This is the way it has become in modern America. We exult when we have a warm winter like the one just past. But the brains who have designed our modern systems have decided that, come spring and summer, we all must be kept refrigerated like so many sides of beef in a meat locker.