Polygon, the Dancing Bear

Occasional notes on politics, history, technology, architecture,
and the life of a county clerk

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Current entries

Sunday, October 22, 2006, 10:32 pm

One of the less noticed offices on the November ballot is Michigan Secretary of State. This is the position with authority over elections, voter registration, driver's licenses and many other things in the state.

I'd like to invite you to all to meet Carmella Sabaugh, our Democratic candidate for Secretary of State, Tuesday, October 24th from 5 to 7 PM at the Arbor Brewing Company, 114 E. Washington St. in Ann Arbor.

Sabaugh is the Macomb County Clerk/Register of Deeds, a position which has given her a dozen years of experience conducting elections (among many other duties) in the state's third largest county. Not only is she a successful innovator, but has had great success working with the Metro Detroit media and winning the confidence and votes of Macomb County's notoriously fickle "Reagan Democrats".

With your support on November 7th, Sabaugh will replace Michigan's Republican Secretary of State, Terri Lynn Land (see also this critical page about Land's record).

Sabaugh has proposed a number of changes to make registration and voting easier and election results more trustworthy.

This is an opportunity to meet the candidate, not a campaign fundraiser. Please join us at Arbor Brewing on Tuesday, 5-7 pm!

....Posted by Lawrence Kestenbaum —

Sunday, October 1, 2006, 12:07 am

Political Graveyard in New York Times. Today's New York Times, in an historical sidebar to the Mark Foley scandal titled Hitting a Self-Destruct Button, cites Political Graveyard's trouble and disgrace page, and quotes me on the history of sexual scandals among politicians.

Here's the relevant excerpt, discussing "Washington's 'What On Earth Was He Thinking?' Caucus":

... But the sex subcaucus is easily the biggest.

"You always seem to have politicians doing bizarrely self-destructive things, especially involving sex," says Lawrence Kestenbaum, creator of "Political Graveyard," a history Web site that includes an exhaustive cataloging of transgressions by politicians.

Under the heading "Politicians Who Were Ever in Trouble or Disgrace," the section contains 420 entries, in chronological order, many of them involving present and former members of Congress. Among the escapades:

Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, was reprimanded when it was revealed that a male lover had been running a prostitution business out of his Capitol Hill apartment.

Donald (Buz) Lukens, Republican of Ohio, who was convicted of a misdemeanor for having sex with a 16-year-old girl.

Dan Crane, Republican of Illinois, and Gerry Studds, Democrat of Massachusetts, both of whom were censured by the House for having sexual relations with teenage pages — Mr. Crane with a female in 1980, Mr. Studds with a male in 1973.

The "Politicians Who Were Ever in Trouble or Disgrace" section comes with the devastatingly simple disclaimer "Very Incomplete!"

Mr. Kestenbaum says improprieties in the political realm tend to resonate more than in others. First, they tend to become public, necessitating apologies and, in many cases, resignations. He points out that if Mr. Foley were a purchasing manager at some store, he might actually keep his job.

"The political world tends to be very judgmental," Mr. Kestenbaum says. This creates towering spectacles of dishonesty, famous last words that are often caught on tape. Mr. Clinton created the gold standard for this when he looked into a camera and indignantly declared, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

Go read the whole piece.

The Political Graveyard has been online for ten years, has gotten at least 100 million hits, has been featured in many news media, but this is the first time that the New York Times has ever mentioned the web site.

....Posted by Lawrence Kestenbaum —

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