Ed Cred

Deke Rivers wonders why Richard Nixon's son-in-law gave $10,000 to embattled Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker:

Edward Cox is always looking for a way to make a name for himself, and get more into the political game. That Cox is a centrist, and very bright for the most part makes this donation to Scott Walker all the more sad as it only underscores Cox’s desire to be playing in the arena regardless of the sewage he needs to step into.

Why he feels a need to do this is a mystery.

There is little Cox can do at this stage of his life (age 66) other than donate money, given he has no electoral track record. He seems to enjoy playing in New York politics, but there is really nowhere his attempts at making a splash will land him other than at the place he started.

There is no legacy for Cox other than his White House wedding to a president’s daughter. It has always perplexed me why everyone seems to know that except Cox himself. And he is bright enough to figure this out.

Surely Tricia Nixon had the chat with him about this matter.

Maybe Cox was trying to buy tea party cred. In 2010's New York gubernatorial election, he tilted left when the rest of the GOP was lurching right. The result: 2016 Democratic frontrunner Andrew Cuomo, New York's superstar governor.

Past Eddie

A half-dozen candidates are standing in line for Ed Cox's job as New York GOP chairman, according to the New York Observer:

Like his father-in-law, Mr. Cox has a rare ability to inspire an almost nameless, vitriolic animus among his detractors.

When The Cox Crows Three Times

Embattled New York GOP chairman Ed Cox, who helped elect a Democrat governor by undermining the presumptive Republican nominee, may be able to keep his job if he axes his top aide, Tom Basile. A report says Cox is tempted -- and yet:

[U]p to now, he has refused to dump Basile - insisting the better you do your job, "the more criticism you're going to get."

I know!

They Don't Trust Him With Their Party

New York state GOP chairman Ed Cox's critics call on him to resign:

[I]t was Mr. Cox, his critics argued, whose exertions in seeking an alternative to Rick A. Lazio, rather than coalescing the party behind him, weakened Mr. Lazio in the primary for governor, opening the door for Carl P. Paladino’s Tea Party-fueled primary upset.

Andy And Jerry

Tough talk from New York's Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Andrew Cuomo, possible during a campaign only because his opponent, Carl Paladino, is unelectable. I'm wondering if California's Jerry Brown has the same gumption:

Andrew M. Cuomo will mount a presidential-style permanent political campaign to counter the well-financed labor unions he believes have bullied previous governors and lawmakers into making bad decisions. He will seek to transform the state’s weak business lobby into a more formidable ally, believing that corporate leaders in New York have virtually surrendered the field to big labor.

And even as he girds for war, Mr. Cuomo, the state attorney general and an expert practitioner of political hardball, also plans to lavish attention on individual legislators, who he says are sick of being demonized and eager for accomplishment after years of gridlock and enmity.

Poor Coxswain

The GOP is expected to fare poorly in New York, and the party chairman's expected to get the blame.

Nixon In Cuomo's Corner?

Not too long ago, the tea party's media boosters were saying that establishment critics of TP-approved candidates missed the point by dwelling on some of the candidates' scandalous backgrounds, questionable characters, pervasive gaffes, or glaring lack of experience or qualifications. It didn't matter if mainstream critics said they were wing nuts. Voters would know that kind of elitist hoo-ha when they saw it. All that mattered, it was confidently said, was that, once elected, they'd do the right thing on taxes and spending.

But then came New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, the TP's most bracing brew, who's mad as hell, who's going to clean up Albany with a baseball bat, and who's polling 24% compared to the 59% lead -- that's a 35-point spread -- now enjoyed by an archetypal political insider and big-government dynast, Democrat Andrew Cuomo.

Makes you wonder what might've happened if state GOP chairman Ed Cox (above) hadn't helped clear the way for Paladino by spending the first half of the year trying to deny the nomination to a more presentable conservative, Rick Lazio, by manufacturing a primary challenge from Lazio's left. Lazio beat back Cox only to be hit on his other flank by Paladino, who was advised by another Nixonite, consultant Roger Stone. Stone got his start in the dirty tricks apparatus launched in 1972 by Nixon aide Dwight Chapin.

It was just the kind of of dual enfilade that Nixon loved -- when performed on Democrats, that is. Since Paladino won the primary in September, Stone has been urging him to soften his presentation, but it's apparently too late. On the other hand, Nixon always liked Andrew's dad, former Gov. Mario Cuomo. Politics works in mysterious ways.

Black Socks Scandal

Alex Gibney on Roger Stone, seeking to be New York 's one-man gubernatorial recall-and-replacement apparatus. Mature readers only, please.

They're Now Mad As Hell, Too

Patt Morrison on the latest self-inflicted wound of New York's GOP gubernatorial candidate, Carl Paladino, who spoke at a synagogue even though female reporters were barred:

Would Paladino have agreed to appear at an event at which the organizers had said, OK, but no black reporters allowed? No Latino journalists? Had that happened, Paladino would have had an even bigger self-made mess on his hands than he does now.

The Angry Player

The New York Times describes how angry self-proclaimed outsider Carl Paladino, the GOP gubernatorial candidate in New York who pretends to be a regular guy, has gotten rich by feeding at the public trough and buying influence with politicians. By his own definition, he's why authentic regular guys should be angry about politics as usual. He also displayed the practiced politician's ability to bury the hatchet when it serves his interests by showing up at party chairman Ed Cox's birthday party. Paladino was Cox's third Republican choice for governor this year.

Coffee, Tea, And Free WiFi

In its latest on-line story about yesterday's NY GOP debacle, the New York Times juxtaposes the Nixonian players without quite closing in on the glaring Nixonian irony:

The victory [by Tea Party conservative Carl Paladino] capped a topsy-turvy race in which the Republican state chairman, Edward F. Cox, doubting [Rick] Lazio’s chances, tried to recruit a Democrat to carry the party’s banner, but then found himself outflanked by an insurgent whom he and much of the party’s leadership had denounced.

A businessman who made millions in real estate in the Buffalo area, Mr. Paladino entered the race in April and mustered only 8 percent of the party’s support at its convention in May, after reports of his e-mails drew condemnation from Republican and Democratic leaders alike.

But with Roger J. Stone Jr., the flamboyant former Nixon operative, advising him, he circumvented the party leadership, petitioned his way onto the primary ballot by collecting 30,000 signatures and quietly cobbled together a coalition of disaffected groups.

The third piece of the Nixon jigsaw is in a separate Times story:

Christopher Cox, the wealthy son of the state Republican chairman and a grandson of President Richard M. Nixon, was crushed Tuesday night in his bid for the Republican nomination to represent Suffolk County in Congress.

Mr. Cox, 31, who runs a consulting business, lost badly despite spending $1.3 million of his own money, and having the ardent support of Tea Party groups. But he ended up a distant third in a three-way contest, losing to Randy Altschuler, a self-made businessman with the backing of the Conservative Party.

With most precincts reporting, Mr. Altschuler had 45 percent. George Demos, a former prosecutor, had 31 percent, and Mr. Cox 24 percent.

Looming over the state's politics all year has been the complex Nixon political settlement. Gut-fighter Stone, Nixon's post-presidential confidante and a junior member of the Dwight Chapin-launched dirty tricks apparatus in 37's 1972 reelection campaign, and his angry man Paladino did way better reading 2010's Tea Party leaves than Nixon son-in-law and former Nader's Raider Ed Cox. Cox's move last spring was a Byzantine, failed bid to line up an ex-Democrat to challenge Lazio from the left. (As for Cox's "secret maneuvers," I know them well.) He was thinking about winning the general election against Andrew Cuomo. Stone was thinking about winning the nomination, which he did by grasping that this is not the year in the GOP for newly converted Democrats.

New York political insiders will have to explain why the Tea Party endorsement that powered Paladino to a massive victory did absolutely nothing for young Christopher in Suffolk County. It's a good day for me to be headed to Washington for some good political and musical talk with an wise old friend over dinner before attending an Episcopal schools board meeting in Alexandria.

Restoration Hardball

While the Democratic incumbent in New York's first congressional district, Tim Bishop, watches delightedly, three Republicans, including Nixon grandson Christopher Nixon Cox, hammer each other senseless:

In direct mailings and broadcast advertisements bombarding Fox News viewers and listeners of WABC radio, each man accuses the others of being carpetbaggers, frauds and bogus conservatives....

Mr. Cox does claim to have created jobs as a lawyer and a business consultant, but has shied away from providing any numbers or details about those efforts, which is something his rivals, of course, ridicule.

“There’s nothing that would qualify him to run for Congress other than winning the birth lottery,” [rival candidate and former prosecutor George] Demos said.

The primary election's Tuesday. Most experts say the district leans Democratic in November.

All The President's Remaining Men

Rick Lazio probably wishes he didn't have Nixon to kick him around anymore.

The conservative ex-congressman (shown at right), who had the unenviable job of running against Hillary Clinton for U.S. Senate in 2000, wants to be this year's GOP nominee for governor of New York. He fought Nixon War I in the late spring against the state party chairman, Nixon son-in-law Ed Cox, who had backed a more moderate candidate, Steve Levy, after going to the trouble of helping persuade him to convert from Democratism. Cox (below) has also been accused of trying to set the stage for a Senate run by his and Tricia's son, Christopher, who's aiming for the altar and the House this year.

At the June GOP convention, Lazio handily beat back the Cox-Levy challenge. But now he has to contend with yet another Nixonite, Roger Stone, who pops up in the paper today as the key strategist for an insurgent with Tea Party bona fides, real estate tycoon Carl Paladino. The primary's Sept. 14, and while Lazio's still ahead, according to the New York Times, Paladino is picking up strength.

Stone (that's he, with his idol) was one of Nixon's closest political friends when Kathy and I were working for the ex-president in New York and New Jersey in the 1980s. He'd done dirty tricks in the 1972 Nixon campaign and was a key Reagan strategist in 1984.  Nixon and Stone spent countless hours talking politics, and some of Nixon's White House-era aides resented it. During one of Roger's not-infrequent brushes with notoriety, one of the president's older men, who had already complained that Roger used Nixon's name too freely around Washington (which is precisely what Nixon wanted him to do), told me, "I knew he was no good. It couldn't happen to a better guy."

Be that as it may have been, he's back, yet again, as implacably resilient as the president himself. Meanwhile, assuming Lazio can beat back his second Nixon challenge in one year and make it all the way to November, we can assume he won't be playing 37 in the Lotto.

The Subtle Mind Of The People

By the same margin, New Yorkers oppose the Manhattan mosque and defend its planners constitutional right to build it.

Faster Eddie

Nixon son-in-law Ed Cox's campaign to be New York's GOP chairman picks up steam as the incumbent bows out.

Empire Statement

RN son-in-law Ed Cox is in line to be New York State GOP chairman.

The Proof Is In The Sausage

The New York Times has two big stories about the state's new senator this morning. One is about how Gov. David Patterson muffed the selection process. The other is about its most excellent outcome, his choice of Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, a feisty, intelligent, Mandarin-speaking centrist Democrat with Presidential ambitions who fits so perfectly with the Zeitgeist that it's hard to imagine Patterson considered anyone else. If she'd move to California, I'd vote for her.

Obviously, he did consider someone else, because he had to, namely Caroline Kennedy. The Times suggests he has suffered political damage as a result of the Senate derby. From this distance, it's hard to see why. Sure, it wasn't pretty, but politics usually isn't. The governor deserves props for keeping someone out of the Senate who wasn't qualified and who seems to have thought (along with many of her media and political boosters) that she could gain the office by pedigree.

Amid the Times's Saturday-morning sneers (what's really eating 'em, anyway?) is that Gillibrand has the support of the NRA and only votes for gay rights 80% of the time. Political insiders predict that when she no longer has to worry about what her relatively conservative rural upstate district thinks, she'll abandon her interesting mix of positions and become a decent, unimaginative, lockstep liberal just like Caroline Kennedy. We'll see. Says one of the downstate pols who think Gillibrand isn't liberal enough, yet:

“If we have royalty, it’s the Kennedys,” said Assemblyman Peter M. Rivera, a Bronx Democrat and chairman of the Assembly’s Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force. “The way she was treated, the backbiting and the attacks, it was insulting,” he said....

But we don't have royalty. We have politics. We have backbiting, attacks, and insults, and that's just the way we like it.

Quote Of The Day

The AP asked Caroline Kennedy about the elections she hasn't voted in since registering to vote in New York in 1988.

I was really surprised and dismayed by my voting record. I'm glad it's been brought to my attention.

Next Year, We Tax Candy Canes and See's

To help battle obesity -- and, oh yeah, raise more money for the state -- New York's governor, David Patterson, has had this inventive idea:

In 2009 consumers will have to pay an 18% tax on non-diet sodas and sugary drinks.