2008: A disempowered Establishment makes its move

David Broder, Bloviator-in-Chief at The Washington Post, is reporting that a "bipartisan group" is considering backing an independent run for the White House, possibly by New York City's mayor, the rare politician who could single-handedly fund such an operation.

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a potential independent candidate for president, has scheduled a meeting next week with a dozen leading Democrats and Republicans, who will join him in challenging the major-party contenders to spell out their plans for forming a "government of national unity" to end the gridlock in Washington.

Those who will be at the Jan. 7 session at the University of Oklahoma say that if the likely nominees of the two parties do not pledge to "go beyond tokenism" in building an administration that seeks national consensus, they will be prepared to back Bloomberg or someone else in a third-party campaign for president.

The effort is being led by, among others, former U.S. senators Sam Nunn and David Boren. In a letter sent to those summoned to the Jan. 7 session, the once-powerful solons said that "our political system is, at the least, badly bent and many are concluding that it is broken at a time where America must lead boldly at home and abroad. Partisan polarization is preventing us from uniting to meet the challenges that we must face if we are to prevent further erosion in America's power of leadership and example."

The question arises whether the threat to unleash an independent challenger is genuine or if the specter of a Bloomberg candidacy is being used to frighten the big party nominees into line behind the restoration of a deposed Establishment after eight years of policy excesses and abuses of power by the Bush-Cheney radicals. The self-described "centrists" may also hope to prevent American voters, revolted by the corruption and incompetence of the current presidency, from "going too far" and electing a populist peace candidate who will not understand that what is needed is not a change of policy but a change of management.

With the possibility that the reliably status quo candidacies of Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton could be dead as early as next week, the Establishment is waking up to the likelihood that the next president -- be he John Edwards, Barack Obama, Mike Huckebee or Mitt Romney -- may not be as committed as they are to restoring the reins of American power to their dead hands.

How hard these Bush years must have been on them, exiled to endowed chairs on provincial college campuses with nothing to do but watch "Empires Behaving Badly" videos.

As reported by Broder, the group invading Norman next week is notable for its lack of what Bill Clinton might describe as "change agents:"

Conveners of the meeting include such prominent Democrats as former senators Sam Nunn (Ga.), Charles S. Robb (Va.) and David L. Boren (Okla.), and former presidential candidate Gary Hart. Republican organizers include Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.), former party chairman Bill Brock, former senator John Danforth (Mo.) and former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman.

It may be lulling that Boren, who will host the gathering as Sooner president, asserted to Broder that the meet "is not a gathering to urge any one person to run for president or to say there necessarily ought to be an independent option. But if we don't see a refocusing of the campaign on a bipartisan approach, I would feel I would want to encourage an independent candidacy."

The list of acceptances suggests that the group could muster the financial and political firepower to make the threat of such a candidacy real. Others who have indicated that they plan to attend the one-day session include William S. Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine and defense secretary in the Clinton administration; Alan Dixon, a former Democratic senator from Illinois; Bob Graham, a former Democratic senator from Florida; Jim Leach, a former Republican congressman from Iowa; Susan Eisenhower, a political consultant and granddaughter of former president Dwight D. Eisenhower; David Abshire, president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency; and Edward Perkins, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Honestly, weren't you just as happy when you thought that most of these people were gone for good?

For his part, Bloomberg, who has been flirting all year with the idea of running as an independent, may see the meeting as an opportunity to use those who would use him. "As mayor, he has seen far too often how hyperpartisanship in Washington has gotten in the way of making progress on a host of issues," said Bloomberg's press secretary, Stu Loeser. "He looks forward to sitting down and discussing this with other leaders."

Nunn and Cohen went out of their way on talk television this morning to say that the meeting is not intended to generate an independent candidacy, but is about the need to rebuild and reconfigure our military forces, about the risks from nuclear proliferation and terrorism, and about restoring U.S. credibility in the world.

Funnily enough, two of the candidates most likely to be the nominees, Edwards and Huckabee, are issues-oriented and unlikely to be particularly partisan as campaigners or as president. I suspect that either one of them will welcome the support of politicians from any party who are willing to sign on to the particulars of their respective programs.

Voters should be suspicious of a call for a "government of national unity" that is devoid of content, as if the only thing that's important is whether we can't all just get along. If Nunn and his comrades want to get behind someone who supports universal health care and reduced military spending, as the majority of the American people do, it might be easier to take them seriously. But power, unfortunately, not the quality of the lives of Americans, is what is behind rhetoric that equates partisan divisions during what they inflate to "a time of national challenge" with the difficulties faced by Great Britain during World War II.

"Electing a president based solely on the platform or promises of one party is not adequate for this time," Boren said. "Until you end the polarization and have bipartisanship, nothing else matters, because one party simply will block the other from acting."

The most telling indication of the group's intentions comes from former senator Cohen, however. "The important goal all of us share," he said, "is to get government back to the center." In plain English this means, "we're going to wrest power from the Bushite whackos and take it safely back in our hands, where it belongs."

It's difficult not to conclude that Nunn et al will be content to accept as worthy of the office any White House aspirant who indicates his willingness to welcome them back to the table.

The rest of the story: The Washington Post