Status Quo

Robert Reich, President Clinton's former labor secretary, and Jeff Faux, president of the Economic Policy Institute, have written cogent critiques of the Democratic status quo in the November-December issue of American Prospect. "How the debate is framed -- what options are put before the public -- makes all the difference," writes Reich, who contends that Democratic timidity has, in a few short years, telescoped the debate from the high purpose of whether to provide universal health care to a wrangle on Republican turf over how taxes should best be cut.Why has the Democratic Party become so quiescent?

The American clock brings us to the 50th anniversaries of two extraordinary events involving two extraordinary women, Gloria Richardson Dandridge and Madalyn Murray O'Hair — both strong-willed champions of liberty and disturbers of the status quo, but women of very different character, purpose and legacy. One is now 91 years old, long esteemed as a brave civil rights leader who refused to smile on demand and who famously brushed away a bayonet. The other was a noisy atheist, reviled as the most hated woman in America; she died a violent death nearly two decades ago. This month marks 50 years since the race riots in Cambridge, the small city on Maryland's Eastern Shore that became a crucible for civil rights in 1963.

IN TAIWAN'S legislative elections last weekend, the island's voters handed their president a setback, Beijing's saber-rattlers a victory, and a caught-in-the-middle United States at least a temporary reprieve from escalating cross-strait tensions. Having earlier this year voted their pro-independence President Chen Shui-bian a second term, Taiwanese voters had been expected to accord his Democratic Progressive Party a parliamentary majority. And Mr. Chen then was expected to proceed toward attempting to rewrite the Republic of China's constitution and perhaps even the island's political name to reflect in law its growing de facto independence from China -- potential moves prompting increasingly credible military threats from Beijing.

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding. - Louis D. Brandeis Just a few words and little thought separate yet another stronghold of the American economy from ruin. It doesn't have to be that way. The U.S. patent system has made America's biotech and pharmaceutical industries the envy of the world. This month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case posing the question: "Are human genes patentable?"

Bush administration foreign policy started out as a "status quo-plus" operation, with the emphasis on status quo, and more than three years later the description still fits. Well, let's make it "status quo-plus-plus-plus." The Bush-Baker-Scowcroft team did pull off the gulf war, seize the moment on German reunification and push Middle East negotiations. But on the whole this administration was and remains as compulsively cautious as any American government could be.This week, after months of hesitation, President Bush will unveil his plan for long-range economic support for the tottering states of the former Soviet Union.

IN CLASSICAL antiquity, the Stoic doctrine advocated that if a completely new beginning is to be made, nothing of the old must remain.Fortunately, one does not have to be a Stoicist, nor even a political philosopher, to see today that the status quo now prevailing in the Middle East cannot be sustained.There are now about 200 million Arabs dispersed in 22 heterogenous states. A high percentage of them still live below subsistence level, while few thousand have wealth that neither they nor their descendants could ever live long enough to spend.

Three political parties in Maryland, the Green, Libertarian and Populist parties, have done something highly unusual in U.S. political history: We have nominated the same candidate for the U.S. Senate, Kevin Zeese. This "Unity Campaign" is also supported by Democrats, Republicans and independents. Why? Our country is facing serious problems not being addressed by the status quo parties. Our economy is at risk from massive trade deficits, record federal deficits, a constantly rising U.S. debt and record-high personal debt.

Well, we're not getting Bloomberg. Fuhgedaboutit. He's mayor of New York and, while he's donated a ton of money to the Johns Hopkins University, his alma mater, he's not about to pull up stakes, establish residency in Baltimore and run for mayor here. He's far more likely to run for the White House. So we're not getting Bloomberg. (And the Orioles probably won't be getting A-Rod if he opts out of his Yankees contract, either.) Day after tomorrow, there's an election in the City of Baltimore, where Democrats rule and the winner of the party's ho-hum 2007 primary will be the next mayor.

An excerpt from a recent Orange County Register editorial:RECKLESSNESS, apparently, is in the eye of the beholder. President Clinton, for instance, professed Monday to see recklessness in a GOP congressional proposal to sunset the current federal tax code as of the final day of 2001 -- so as to force work to begin soon on a replacement.Mr. Clinton denounced the idea without qualification, charging that the plan could disrupt the economy by creating a crippling uncertainty about future tax policies.

Baltimore School Superintendent Richard C. Hunter proposed yesterday a $551.2 million budget for the next fiscal year that would largely maintain the status quo while financing two of Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's dearest priorities: greater local control and extra money for individual schools.Later, in the first show of organized support for the superintendent since the school board voted last month not to renew his contract, about 20 citizens called for Dr. Hunter to be retained, castigated the board and pledged to campaign for an elected board, instead of one appointed by the mayor.

The waters surrounding Towson University become more brackish every day. State Sen. James Brochin didn't help matters with his comment that the Towson community is "fully supportive" of university President Maravene Loeschke ("State senator fires back at Franchot, defends Towson president," April 18). Perhaps he wouldn't have made that statement if he had done his homework first. Has he picked up a paper recently or read online about the uproar over the debacle at Towson University?

Over dinner the other day with a new acquaintance, the topic of food and ethics (and thus vegetarianism) came up. My new acquaintance, Mr. W., is about 60 pounds overweight and was enjoying an oversized cheeseburger on a white bun with a side of fries. He informed me, in all seriousness, that vegetarian diets are risky due to the likelihood of nutrient deficiency. Had Mr. W. read the recent article in The Sun ("Tips on switching to a vegan diet," Jan. 24), he may have cited it as evidence to support his claim.

Unlike Saturday's practice, which was punctuated by the return of tight ends Ed Dickson and Dennis Pitta, Monday's session did not provide similar storylines. There were no players who ended a recent absence to return to the practice field at the team's headquarters in Owings Mills. And on the flipside, there were no new players added to the list of players absent from previous sessions. Starting right guard Marshal Yanda missed his third consecutive practice with a strained right knee.

Some Baltimore activists are fighting against a charter amendment that, if approved by voters in November, would align Baltimore's elections with the presidential election cycle - and in the process give the mayor and most of the city's other elected officials an extra year in office. The advocates are absolutely right that the proposal is not the ideal solution to the city's problems of unnecessary election expenses and low turnout. But given a recent state law change that controls the timing of Baltimore's primary election, voters should approve the charter amendment.

The Ravens said they wanted to upgrade the offensive line in the offseason, but so far they haven't. It's still early, but it looks like the team has pretty much committed to the same bunch of characters from a year ago. The Ravens didn't re-sign left guard Ben Grubbs, their best offensive lineman. Instead, they re-signed veteran center Matt Birk to a three-year contract and allowed left tackle Bryant McKinnie to collect a $500,000 roster bonus -- a clear indication he'll return next season.

"How do we stop Newt?" I've now been asked that question by a lot of conservatives. It's not that I'm the go-to guy for that sort of question. Rather, one gets the sense that many "establishment" conservatives are asking everybody that question - in staff meetings, at the chiropodist, even at the McDonald's drive-thru. ("I'll have two happy meals, two chocolate milks and - by the way - do you have any idea how to stop Newt?") The other night, while having drinks with some prominent conservatives, I said I thought there was a significant chance that Newt Gingrich will not only win the nomination but that he might be the next president.

The latest round of baseball's muddled labor negotiations is scheduled to begin today in New York with the two sides, as usual, seeking very different outcomes.For the Major League Baseball Players Association, the goal is to maintain the status quo. Keep intact the salary system that has sent the average player's pay soaring over $1 million. Leave a generous benefits package undisturbed. Give back nothing.The owners will come from the opposite direction. They will paint a picture of baseball on the edge, of franchises awash in red ink and of a sport doomed unless the players agree to major changes in their salary structure.

In the protracted debate over whether and how to build the transit project known as the Red Line, one compelling issue has been all but lost: the miserable status quo. For decades, the main transportation corridor through West Baltimore has been six-lane U.S. 40, known for much of its length as Edmondson Avenue. Each weekday morning, hordes of commuters from Catonsville, Ellicott City and other places to the west invade West Baltimore on their way downtown. Each weekday evening, they alternately race and crawl through the same neighborhoods, leaving nothing behind but their exhaust fumes.

The legacy of Prohibition, if Ken Burns is to be believed, is a system of organized crime not only empowered by that ill-fated law but so greatly enriched as to have become "too big to fail. " Kevin Sabet rightly, though grudgingly, concludes that America's current effort to incarcerate our way out of an intractable drug problem may be ever-so-slightly misguided ("Drug legalization: Wrong lesson of Prohibition," Oct. 9), but he has little to say about alternatives. He says nothing about the money trail, either in the liquor trade or in the drug trade.

CIA Director Leon Panetta becomes secretary of defense Thursday, taking over Washington's largest and most powerful bureaucracy with a budget that amounts to nearly 60 percent of discretionary federal spending. He will be stepping into the shoes of the most influential member of the Obama administration, Robert M. Gates, who has been canonized for his efforts over the past five years. For the past two months, Secretary of Defense Gates has been on a farewell tour of U.S. think tanks, universities and military academies, advocating policies that will make Mr. Panetta's job extremely difficult.