Joe Conason, Salon: Take another look at Geraldine Ferraro's record in Congress

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Geraldine Ferraro still needs to apologize

To fully grasp why her remarks about Obama were so outrageous, take another look at her record in Congress.

By Joe Conason

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2008/03/14/ferraro_clinton/



Former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro addresses the Women's Summit at Bryant University in North Smithfield, R.I., March 13, 2008.

Ferraro's three terms in Congress produced little in the way of legislation -- again unlike Obama, whose single term in the Senate has seen him mark several milestones, in particular a landmark ethics reform package. That wasn't the kind of thing that Ferraro would have supported back when she was in the House, since she prided herself on cuddling up to the leadership rather than challenging the status quo in any way. She was an ordinary pork-chopper, but her personality and determination won over Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, then the House speaker. It was the late O'Neill, a fine man in many ways, who made the mistake of recommending her to Walter F. Mondale as a vice-presidential prospect in 1984. The worthy but lackluster Democrat from Minnesota was seeking to spice up his candidacy with a different kind of running mate, and considered several potential female and African-American nominees before settling on Ferraro.

The female running mate was a clever gambit that the Democrats executed very poorly. As inspiring as the Ferraro story was when she took the stage at the July 1984 convention in San Francisco, her nomination turned out to be unhelpful to the Democratic ticket, which lost 49 states to the incumbent Republicans, President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush. Circumstances were generally unfavorable to Mondale, whose own inept campaigning made matters still worse, but the initial euphoria over the first woman on a major party ticket evaporated as soon as the press took a closer look at her background.

As Village Voice investigative reporter Wayne Barrett later revealed, the Republican oppo researchers knew much that Mondale evidently didn't about Ferraro and her family's connections with organized crime, dating back at least two generations, and how she had personally profited from those unsavory bonds. (Barrett and William Bastone continued to report on those links for the Voice when Ferraro ran for the Senate in 1992, discovering literally dozens of contributions and deals that involved the worst thugs in New York.)

To Ferraro, reports of her husband's criminal associations proved only the "anti-Italian" bias of the press. Her claims of ignorance about her husband's real estate business -- he rented space in lower Manhattan to a Mob porn operation and a Chinese sweatshop, among many other questionable deals -- were not entirely plausible, since she was an officer of his company and shared office space with him. There were tax problems, too, and despite a spirited performance at a press conference where she evaded as many questions as she answered, her image never quite recovered before Election Day.

[izzybeans]

1. Sounds like she is strategically placed to be on a "campaign finance" committee.

Yuck.

[Independent-Voter]

2. Yawn - another corrupt bigot shilling for Hilly. No surprises here.

[Coexist]

9. you are supposed to read the OP.

[Independent-Voter]

16. I did - I was talking about Ferraro

[Coexist]

17. oh, lol!

[PVnRT]

3. I've been learning a lot about that woman in the past few days

very little of which is good.

[joeybee12]

4. So Joe has become a liar, huh? she performed admirably at that

press conference and was cleared of evertything...nothing like the left-wing smear machine to make Fox look credible these days.

[MagickMuffin]

6. Did you even read the article?.?.? I did

Joe has been a huge Clinton defender for years. I thought he was probably supporting Hillary, of course I have no way to know for sure.

Like he said go and check out Ferraro's record from when she was in congress. Go see for yourself if Joe is such a liar.

[roguevalley]

22. good grief. I remember this when she was running for vp. she's

a crook and so is her husband, unless you think mob connections, slum lording and the rest is acceptable.

[MagickMuffin]

5. Here's her response about her experience at the debate with GHW Poppy Bush

Well, let me first say that I wasn't born at the age of forty-three when I entered Congress. I did have a life before that as well.
I was a prosecutor for almost five years in the district attorney's office in Queens County and I was a teacher.
There's not only what is on your paper resume that makes you qualified to run for or to hold office. It's how you approach problems and what your values are.

I think if one is taking a look at my career they'll see that I level with the people; that I approach problems analytically; that I am able to assess the various facts with reference to a problem, and I can make the hard decisions.

I'm intrigued when I hear Vice-President Bush talk about his support of the president's economic program and how everything is just going so beautifully. I, too, recall when Vice President Bush was running in the primary against President Reagan and he called the program voodoo economics, and it was and it is.

We are facing absolutely massive deficits; this administration has chosen to ignore it; the president has failed to put forth a plan to deal with those deficits and if everything believes that everything is corning up roses, perhaps the vice-president should join me as I travel around the country and speak to people.

People in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, are not terribly thrilled with what's happening in the economy because they're standing in the light of a closed plant because they've lost their jobs. The people in Youngstown, Ohio, have stores that are boarded up because the economy is not doing well. It's not only the old industries that are failing, it's also the new ones.

In San Jose, California, they're complaining because they can't export their high-tech qualities — goods — to Japan and other countries. The people in the Northwest — in the state of Washington and Oregon — are complaining about what's happening to the timber industry and to the agriculture industry.

So, so things are not as great as the administration is wanting us to believe in their television commercials. My feeling, quite frankly, is that I have enough experience to see the problems, address them and make the tough decisions and level with people with reference to those problems.

Wow, so she admits that experience isn't all that important. But its how one approaches problems that count.

I guess that should clear things up about Barack's experience.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

I clearly remember her tone...

...and never cared for it.

"I'm intrigued when I hear Vice-President Bush talk about his support of the president's economic program and how everything is just going so beautifully."

To me, it's a little George W. Bush-y...I don't know. I've never been that motivated to carefully analyze it and articulate my feelings to the world at large. I remember seeing her on TV and felt that her style depended, in large measure, upon swagger and sarcasm (which every political candidate employs in varying degrees, yes)...

All I can say, and I don;t say it to "attack" her, is that I just never cared for her personal style, period. The legitimacy of reporting on her background isn't the issue. She's "mob-tied" or "squeaky clean" or somewhere in between. I just don't care for the manner in which she expresses herself.

[MagickMuffin]

8. I'd have to agree, I think she's sounds kinda condescending

At least that's what I hear when she speaks. It's unfortunate, but it is what it is.

[K Gardner]

7. I remember that press conference.. quite the show back in the day !

[butterfly77]

10. After listening to her comments,,,

about Obama my take is, she is saying blacks are not suppose to run for president and they are not suppose to win...but women do..

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. Hah!

That sounded like folk wisdom from her home borough of Queens, N.Y., where she once represented the Archie Bunker constituency in Congress -- and where racist resentment of all those "very lucky" black people was once a common refrain (and can still be heard in certain saloons and clubhouses today).

As a native of Queens I can fully attest to this. It was amusing to see so many people shocked by Ferraro's statements. I would say a large majority of Queens people in her demographic harbor those precise sentiments.

[Adelante]

20. On Staten Island, too

My native land.

[GoneOffShore]

12. Oh my.

K&R

[EmilyAnne]

13. She's very ill, I think. Multiple Myeloma. Her political career is pretty much over. I don't

understand the need for this reexamination of her career.

[Tarheel_Dem]

14. If she weren't on her "Yeah I Said It, and I'm not backing down" tour

you might have a point. She has chosen to, in essence, become the face of the Clinton Campaign making the rounds on all the news shows, and to that I say.....Reexamine Away. She's asked for it.

[EmilyAnne]

15. I know. You're right. Its just so pitiful. I can't believe it, actually. I wish she would just

say, "look, I was wrong. I said a stupid thing." Why won't she let it go? Its weird.

[sallyseven]

18. Well you have to did up dirt.

That way we don't have to pay attention to what is going on under our noses. $200 billion transfers to rogue mtg. banker, allowance of changes to the Ozone by bush this week. So much stuff and so little time while we trash Hillary and Geraldine. So much more fun. Pay attention to what is going on damn it.

[Tarheel_Dem]

19. I would hope that in the interest of balance, you have called upon

your fellow Clinton supporters to pay attention as well? Unless you've been in a cave, you have to have noticed that gdp has become Rev. Wright Central. One wouldn't want to think you're a hypocrite, right?

[DarienComp]

21. Joe Conason who has defended Hillary tirelessly for nearly two decades now

is he on the Dead-To-Me list now?