Hillary's Challenger Crucified on a Cross of Gold

Late this August, I had the pleasure of sharing a podium with a most remarkable man, Jonathan Tasini. Most Americans won't know his name, which is a shame, because he represents the only democratic challenge to the autocratic tenure of New York's junior Senator, and erstwhile 2008 Presidential contender, Hillary Rodham Clinton. In fact, outside of New York City and its immediate environs, Jonathan Tasini is almost a complete unknown. This intelligent, articulate person who has spelled out a solid "get out of Iraq" plan (and who has endorsed a sound "don't get into Iran" strategy as well) cannot get his candidacy injected into the mainstream of New York electoral policies not because he is a "kook" or purely derived from the fringes of the body politic, but rather for the most disturbing of reasons: He can't raise enough money. In the end, it appears that the only standard that counts in New York (and elsewhere in America, I dare say) is the Gold Standard. Bring enough money to the table, and lo and behold, your candidacy becomes instantly credible.

Compare and contrast the Senatorial bid of Jonathan Tasini with that of fellow Democrat Ned Lamont in neighboring Connecticut. Like Tasini, Lamont was a relevant unknown whose name recognition factor among most citizens in Connecticut was non-existent. Earlier this month Ned Lamont mounted a successful challenge to Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, knocking the three-term incumbent (and one-time Vice Presidential nominee) out of consideration for reinstatement in a fourth term as a democrat (Lieberman may yet challenge Lamont as an independent). Many observers point to the growing anti-war mood sweeping through America, including places such as New York and Connecticut, and Ned Lamont's ability to successfully tap into this sentiment as representing the main reasons for his stunning upset victory. Others will point to Joe Lieberman's unapologetic support not only for the Iraq War, but his unabashed embrace of the republican Bush administration's foreign and national security policies in a time when America is increasingly divided along partisan lines. These factors did contribute to Ned Lamont's viability in opposition to Lieberman. But the only thing that made Lamont viable as a candidate was his ability to underwrite his own election bid to the tune of some four million dollars.Like Jonathan Tasini, Ned Lamont's status as a relative unknown made it virtually impossible for him to generate funds from donations sufficient to sustain a viable state-wide candidacy. Like Tasini, Lamont ran against a powerful incumbent who pulled in major support from the Democratic Party establishment. Unlike Joe Lieberman, who strongly (if wrongly) believes in the merit of his position, Hillary Clinton has taken a chameleon-like posture on Iraq that is steeped not in any strongly held belief that what we are doing in Iraq is right, but rather how her stance positions her in electoral policies.

So while Joe Lieberman may well have the blood of over 2,600 American service members (and many tens of thousands of Iraqis) on his hands for wrongly supporting an unjustifiable war, Hillary Clinton is bathing in this blood having placed her personal political aspirations above those of the men and women who so ably serve America in the Armed Forces, and whose lives it seems are just another chip to be gambled away in this game we call American politics.

If anything, Hillary Clinton is even more vulnerable than Joe Lieberman from the perspective of her support for the war in Iraq. But Jonathan Tasini will never get the chance to mount a State-wide electoral assault on Hillary Clinton, despite the fact that he has articulated policy options on Iraq, Iran and the issue of America's complex relations with the rest of the world that easily trump Ned Lamont (and New York's own Hillary Clinton) in terms of their consistency, depth of insight into the issues at hand, and strong moral base. The reason for this travesty? Jonathan Tasini can't reach into his own pocket and buy himself a seat in the US Senate like Ned Lamont could, and did.