From The New York Times:
“President Obama intends to nominate Jim Leach, a former Republican congressman from Iowa who is now a professor at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, as the next chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the White House said on Wednesday.[…]”
I think this is a great appointment. Leach, who represented IA-2 (numbered IA-1 from 1977 to 2003, according to the Wikipedia article on Leach) for 30 years until being upset by David Loebsack, was pretty liberal for today’s Republican Party, is a strong supporter of education and the humanities (the Times article mentions that he “founded and was co-chairman of the Congressional Humanities Caucus” in the House), and was among the higher-profile Obamacans. This is a good way for President Obama to pick a highly qualified guy who will get a good reception among his former colleagues in Congress, reward a supporter, and strengthen the meme of bipartisanship all at the same time.
[Title edited; “NEH” had been erroneously typed as “NEA”]
isolating the GOP further and further into the South and reducing them to a right wing rump. Obama may be idealist and bipartisan, but he’s not stupid. He’s being very political with this, and either people will be upset or think that this guy is very smart. I’m thinking most people are thinking the latter.
Obama continues to impress on this front.
This could be wise, in taking them out of the political picture and leaving the extremes to dominate the party. Or, it could potentially backfire, if “apotheosized” moderates get sufficiently pissed off and start speaking out against their party’s direction.
is an understatement, he was the only Republican who could be considered actually liberal and not a one track. Jim Leach was more liberal than the following Democrats: Gene Taylor, Jim Marshall, Jim Barrow, Dan Boren, Mike Mcintyre, Lincoln Davis, Allen Boyd, and Bud Cramer.
This Politico article, more about the McHugh selection for Army Secretary, but also relevant to the Leach selection, seems on point.
http://www.politico.com/news/s…
NEA = National Endowment for Arts
Not that it matters much, as they’re both a bunch of effete socialists who pay otherwise-unemployable preverts to destroy our morals.
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Leach’s surprising defeat, came out of nowhere, IIRC.
In his concession speech, he said something to the effect that it was the happiest day of his life (losing his re-election!).
I recall following up for a few days in the news, but never saw that comment explained or expounded upon. It’s just an odd statement to make on the night of your loss.
this is the Leach from the now infamous Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that deregulated the banking industry and set in motion what happened to our economy. Still, I primarily blame Gramm for that, given their respective actions last year in the campaign. Gramm proved with his “nation of whiners” comment that he didn’t give a shit about regular Americans. Leach, we knew was an economic conservative (though he did vote against the Bush tax cuts in 2003, because of the war funding issue).
It would be interesting, though, if someone could ask Leach about his thoughts on what went wrong with the economy. Has anyone done that?