The LuLac Edition #165, March 2, 2007

PHOTO INDEX: THE LATE PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN ARTHUR SCHLESINGER, (CIRCA EARLY 1950s) FORMER GOP CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE JOE LEONARDI FLANKING SOME FAMOUS GUY WE ALL KNOW AND LOVE AND GOP WILKES BARRE COUNCIL CANDIDATE PETER GAGLLARDI DEMONSTRATING JUST HOW BADLY HE NEEDS A NEW CAMPAIGN PHOTO.

GUEST COMMENTARY

Former Congressional candidate Joe Leonardi has weighed in on the Corey O'Brien candidacy and the discussions regarding it this week. Here's a real thoughtful essay on a former candidate's take on handling issues in a heated campaign.

THE PULSE OF A NEW CANDIDATE

I heard Corey O'Brien discuss his run for Lackawanna County Commissioner on WILK and, uncharacteristically, I have some thoughts about his candidacy.First let me prefix all I am about to say with the following: - I am not a resident of Lackawanna County and I am not a Democrat, so either way in the upcoming primary I can not vote for Attorney O'Brien. - As much as I personally like Corey I do bear him some political animosity dating back to my run for Congress.With those admissions out of the way, I would like to see Atty. O'Brien do well in Lackawanna County. He is intelligent, fairly articulate and idealistic. However, after what I heard this morning I can safely opine that, as a candidate, he has a way to go.Most prominent was his naiveté concerning his last employment situation. In my view, this is something he should have never made public. Politics is a business, if his political aspirations were going to negatively impact his employers; a conflict of interest is in fact created. With that said, a politically astute individual should have been aware of this possibility and silently moved on. Whether or not he was asked to leave, was fired or quit is irrelevant. Unfortunately, employment status can be a cost of doing business in politics.Next he needs to stop focusing on Commissioners Cordaro and Munchak at this time --- he is not running against them yet! Presently, Corey is running against the anointed ticket of the Lackawanna Democratic Party --- again, not the sitting commissioners. Democrats who are opposed to Commissioners Cordaro and Munchak are going to vote for the Democratic ticket in November, no matter the name appearing on the ballot. Corey must focus on why registered Democrats should go against the wishes of the Democratic leadership and vote for him. He needs to set himself not only apart, but above current minority Commissioner Washo and his running mate Chris Clauss. They are his opponents in the May primary.Finally, Attorney O’Brien, you are bucking the establishment of your party. This is not an easy task, but you must look like you are bucking them, not nipping at their heels. Be assertive, be forceful, but don’t be petulant. Your willingness to disclose your tax returns is admirable, your challenge to your opponents to do the same is commanding and resolute. These are the ways to demonstrate leadership and commitment. However, I must come back to the discussion about your parting of the ways from your employer, no matter how polite and diplomatic you say it --- any conversation on that matter can be seen as whiny. My unsolicited advise on this is to never, never, never publicly discuss negative repercussions concerning your personal or business life resulting from your decision to run for office.I experienced many, personal and professional, negative outcomes because of my choice to run, I never discussed those negative outcomes in public. To seek elective office was my decision. Your decision to seek office is yours. There will be many more negative repercussions from this decision, deal with them privately and move on.Though on most political issues I vehemently disagree with Corey, I still have a lot of hope for Attorney O’Brien. NEPA needs more people like him, though I would prefer conservative Republicans, to run for office.

Joe Leonardi

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Wilkes Barre Council candidate Peter Gaglliardi wrote a letter to the newspaper regarding the recent snow problems in Wilkes Barre, here’s what he said:

Editor:
There have been countless complaints about the city’s response to the recent snow storm. Wilkes Barre council should follow the lead of the State Legislature and hold hearings on how the city handled the storm and the recovery effort. The hearings should determine what went right, what went wrong,, what lessons have we learned and how we can do better in the future.
This is a defining moment in the history of this city council. A worthy council will hold hearings and improve the situation, an unworthy one will not.

Peter Gagllardi
Wilkes Barre, Pa.

THE DEATH OF A HISTORIAN


Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Kennedy insider who helped define mainstream liberalism during the Cold War and remained an eminent public thinker into the 21st century, has died, his son said. He was 89. Schlesinger suffered a heart attack while dining out with family members Wednesday night in Manhattan, Stephen Schlesinger said. He was taken to New York Downtown Hospital, where he died. Among the most famous historians of his time, Schlesinger was widely respected as learned and readable, with a panoramic vision of American culture and politics. He received a National Book Award for "Robert Kennedy and His Times" and both a National Book Award and a Pulitzer for "A Thousand Days," his memoir/chronicle of President Kennedy's administration. He also won a Pulitzer, in 1946, for "The Age of Jackson," his landmark chronicle of Andrew Jackson's administration. With his bow ties and horn-rimmed glasses, Schlesinger seemed the very image of a reserved, tweedy scholar. But he was an assured member of the so-called Eastern elite, friendly with everyone from Mary McCarthy to Katherine Graham and enough of a sport to swim fully clothed in the pool of then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy. He was a longtime confidant of the Kennedys, a fellow Harvard man who served in President Kennedy's administration and was often criticized for idealizing the family, especially for not mentioning the president's extramarital affairs. "At no point in my experience did his preoccupation with women -- apart from Caroline crawling around the Oval Office -- interfere with his conduct of the public business," Schlesinger later wrote. Liberalism declined in his lifetime to the point where politicians feared using the word, but Schlesinger's opinions remained liberal, and influential, whether old ones on the "imperial presidency," or newer ones on the Iraq war. For both historians and Democratic officials, he was a kind of professor emeritus, valued for his professional knowledge and for his personal past. A native of Columbus, Ohio, and the son of a prominent historian, he was born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger, Jr., but later gave himself his father's middle name, Meier. Family friends included James Thurber, historian Charles A. Beard and future Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter. "My childhood was, in recollection, a generally sunny time," Schlesinger wrote in "A Life in the Twentieth Century," published in 2000. "I don't remember (or have repressed?) bad moments. There was an innocence about growing up in those days." Schlesinger attended Phillips Exeter Academy and in 1938 graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University. During World War II, Schlesinger drafted some statements for President Roosevelt and served as an intelligence analyst for the Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner to the CIA. Schlesinger emerged as a historian with "The Age of Jackson." Published in 1945, when he was just 27, the book offered a new, class-based interpretation of the Jackson administration, destroying the old myth that the country was once an egalitarian paradise. "The Age of Jackson" remained a major text despite eventual criticism -- even by Schlesinger -- for overlooking Jackson's appeasement of slavery and his harsh treatment of Indians. Schlesinger was deeply involved with the Democratic Party, and even when writing about the past he minded the present. "The Age of Jackson," for instance, was completed during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt and its characterization of President Jackson as a great 19th century populist was an acknowledged defense of Roosevelt and the New Deal. Like many liberals of the 1940s, Schlesinger was also trying to reconcile support of the New Deal to the start of the Cold War. He responded by condemning both the far right and the far left, any system that denied the "perpetual tension" of a dynamic democracy. "World without conflict is the world of fantasy," he wrote in "The Age of Jackson." In 1946, Schlesinger helped found Americans for Democratic Action, a leading organization of anti-communist liberals. Three years later, he published the influential "The Vital Center," which advocated a liberal domestic policy and anti-communist foreign policy. The book's title became a common political phrase, still in use decades later, and Schlesinger's call for defending American ideals abroad was endlessly revived as Democrats debated U.S. involvement in countries from Bosnia to Iraq. In the 1950s, Schlesinger became increasingly involved in electoral politics, supporting Adlai Stevenson, the erudite Illinois governor and two-time loser to Dwight Eisenhower for the presidency. In 1960, the historian switched his loyalty to Kennedy, even as he acknowledged that Stevenson was a "much richer, more thoughtful, more creative person." Liberals were wary of Kennedy, but Schlesinger, tired of Stevenson's dreamy detachment, was drawn to Kennedy's "cool, measured, intelligent concern." Over time, he came to embody Schlesinger's ideal for a head of state: charismatic but not dogmatic; progressive yet practical; a realist, he once observed, brilliantly disguised as a romg presidency within the Constitution." He saw American history itself as a continuing "cycle" between liberal and conservative power. In 1998, Schlesinger opposed Republican-led attempts to have President Clinton removed from office, and he later criticized President George W. Bush for his doctrine of "preventive war," saying "I think the whole notion of America as the world's judge, jury and executioner is a tragically mistaken notion." Schlesinger said that his involvement in politics had the unfortunate effect of keeping him from writing more books. His works included "The Age of Roosevelt," an acclaimed series about FDR that he abandoned after joining the Kennedy administration but attempted to revive late in life; and "The Disuniting of America," a controversial text which warned a "cult of ethnicity" could reduce the country to isolated factions. To the amusement of President Kennedy, Schlesinger also wrote film criticism for Vogue and other publications. Schlesinger had six children -- four from his first marriage, to the author Marian Cannon, and two from his second, to Alexandra Emmet.


COUNTDOWN 3

DAYS TO LULAC

ANNOUNCEMENT