Charles Jaco has written opinion and commentary pieces for dozens of magazines and newspapers. Each week, read and comment on a fresh on-line version. The discussion page enables you to share your view points world wide. If you would like to make a comment go to the " Join the discussion" link below. If you would like to view past editorials visit the Editorial Archive. Editorial 10/27/00 POLITICAL INFIGHTING, POLITICAL INBREEDING. Talk Radio, Bad Politics, and Howler Monkeys. What happens when first cousins marry? Their offspring have talk radio call-in numbers programmed on their speed dial. This never became clearer than last week, when the radio station that pays my mortgage pre-empted the Rush Limbaugh show to cover the funeral and memorial for Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan. From the voice-mail reaction, you would have thought Radio Moscow had pre-empted a Politburo meeting to cover the funeral of a Checheyn rebel. The kindest message left by a few dozen Dittoheads was along the lines of "Yeah, so he died, so what? He was just another tax-and-spend liberal Democrat." Admittedly, these fringe yahoos merrily spit out "liberal" with the same frequency and abandon as Josef Gobbels howling "Jew" at a 1936 Nuremberg rally. And they only make up a small percentage of the population, which is probably why Pat Buchanan is polling such small numbers. But the smaller the rattlesnake, the more concentrated the venom, which may be why otherwise sensible people in the Republican Party listen to them. True, the national GOP recognized a long time ago that their hard right supporters who may or may not eat their young are, in the technical language of politics, nuts. This is why George W. is a compassionate conservative, and why Dennis Hastert gets things done while Newt Gingrich merely trashed the furniture. The national Republicans recognize that most Americans are sensible, sane, and temperate, and that their national leadership needs to reflect that. But the state and local parties can be quite another matter. They have to recognize that the Hezbollah wing of their party knocks on doors, hands out literature, and will show up to vote in a blizzard during an earthquake. Which is the only logical explanation for the Missouri Republican Party tying itself in knots over the vital Missouri U.S. Senate race. Mel Carnahan, the governor and Democratic Senate candidate, dies in a plane crash. State law says his name has to remain on the ballot. State law also says in an event like this, the governor of Missouri can appoint someone to fill the vacancy temporarily should a deceased candidate actually win the election. Simple enough so far, and a reflection of law in 49 other states. In a bizarre twist, Missouri's new governor, Roger Wilson, announces he'd appoint Carnahan's widow, Jean, to fill the seat for two years until a special election should the late governor score an upset over incumbent GOP Senator John Ashcroft. Enter the talk radio yowlers, stage right. They flood the airwaves with all sorts of theories as to why Missourians should be able to vote for precisely the same number of candidates as North Koreans--one. And before you can say "Megadittos from Joe in Warrensburg," the Missouri Republican Party begins a barrage of faxes politically equivalent to raining bombs on Baghdad. Their first theory centers on the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the one that provides for direct election of U.S. Senators. The idea is that since a dead man is not a legal resident of the state, and therefore doesn't meet the criteria for candidacy, that it's unconstitutional to vote for him. How, then, to explain the section of the Amendment that specifically reserves the right to fill vacancies to a state's legislature and governor? This has never happened before in the 211 year history of the Senate, but it has happened in the House, twice in recent memory. In 1962, California Congressman Clem Miller dies less than a month before the election. In 1972, Alaska Congressman Nick Begich meets an untimely end just before voting. ironically, both men died in small plane crashes. Both were Democrats. In both cases, the state parties organized a "tribute" vote. In both cases, the men were elected and their vacancies filled by their state's governors. Okay then, says the Missouri GOP, let's try the 20th Amendment. That one provides that the term of each Federal lawmaker expires on the third of January following an election. But it also allows Congress to move that date. We wonder, the Missouri Republicans theorize, if the GOP majority in Congress could move the date back a few days just in case Carnahan wins and a new Republican governor is sworn in. That way, the vacancy would be filled by a Republican. The phrase "political suicide" begins flashing through a few saner heads, so that idea goes away. Then comes the idea that Governor Wilson promising the job to Jean Carnahan violates the Federal Hatch Act. That's the law restricting political activities of Federal employees and Federal office holders. It turns out that the Hatch Act forbids it only in the case of a quid pro quo, meaning that Wilson would have to be promised something by the Widow Carnahan in exchange for agreeing to appoint her. Then the state GOP opines that the only legal way Jean Carnahan or anyone else can run for the seat is as a write-in. That, unfortunately, is not what the state statute covering this says. It makes it very clear that residents, with full knowledge aforethought, can elect someone post mortem if that person dies less than four weeks before the election and the name has to remain on the ballot. The mystery in all this is that the Republicans have a candidate, John Ashcroft, who is an incumbent United States Senator and was, before that, a two-term governor of Missouri. They should be campaigning on his record and his proposals, not trying to stop citizens from voting for a dead man should they choose. Instead, the GOP leaders--apparently terrified that their candidate can't beat a ghost--are threatening to take their ball and bat and go home if we can't play the game their way. But this is what happens when you listen to people wading in the shallow end of the gene pool. Memo to the Missouri Republican Party--in the zoo of American politics, the extremist wings of any party are the howler monkeys. They're only a tiny, tiny part of the menagerie. But they make the most noise. Join the discussion

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