America's Political Class
Life in the 21st Century is a reader-supported publication. Please become a paid subscriber.
No fun, my babe, no fun to write about the American political class and the beltway heart of darkness. It's the equivalent of being tasked with cleaning the Augean stables but, knowing the nearby river was as befouled as the stable floor. Don't get me wrong, I've long empathized with the Greeks and life’s underlying tragedy, that even the hardest task must be undertaken with a certain joy. Nonetheless, the Greeks weren't perverse enough to comprise Sisyphus' rock of shit, eternally rolling back to engulf him.
Unintentionally, the Post succinctly lays bare the devolution of the DC political class in the obit of Mike Berman. Don't misunderstand, Mr. Berman is no more culpable than others, but his story is DC's story. Berman came to DC with Walter Mondale's vice-presidency and never left. Boy, what a degenerate, foul smelling political legacy has been left by those who came to DC with Carter and stayed. The Post pulls back the curtain writing,
“For decades after the Carter administration, Mr. Berman was a prominent member of two distinct Washington castes: the behind-the-scenes political operatives and the well-connected lobbyists whose respective powers come from their access to the powerful.”
Then the nut,
“Mr. Berman wore another hat as co-founder of the Duberstein Group, a lobbying firm where his network among Democrats was paired with the deep GOP alliances of Kenneth Duberstein, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s chief of staff. The group’s clients — which Mr. Berman called a roster of “overdogs” — included Time Warner, Anheuser-Busch, General Motors and oil giants such as BP.”
Thus was born the contemporary DC political class, where the hoi polloi is offered TV façades of partisan difference, while bipartisanly fleeced in the halls of power.
His political and lobbying worlds overlapped — and at times could seem at odds. Perhaps most striking was the 1993 Senate confirmation hearings for a Florida environmental official, Carol Browner, who was President Bill Clinton’s pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Berman helped coach Browner’s successful nomination process. The Duberstein Group, meanwhile, was pressing lawmakers for more oil-friendly regulations on behalf of its client, Shell.” (See my recent piece Nigeria and Shell)
Funny how the Post had to go back thirty years to find an example, as if there isn't one after another for the next three decades. Most pathetically, the Post emphasizes Berman's advocacy of LGBT issues, used by the political class as a contemporary, secular indulgence, all sins forgiven. The Post writes his LGTB advocacy grew out of “Mr. Berman’s lifelong battles with obesity, and prejudices he perceived.” Mr. Berman was a victim too.
Today's Post also has any number of other articles on the perils of a threatened Trump restoration. Just as the Post, Mr. Berman never understood they created Trump.
Ok, I need to go shower.