Among the political blogosphere’s biggest liabilities is that a majority of those commenting on politics and public policy have never worked on a campaign, have never served as an aide to a federal, state or municipal lawmaker, and simply have no contextual understanding regarding their own misguided, uninformed opinions.

Moreover, most of these bloviators have nothing but bad things to say about everyone and everything. DCspectator goes out of its way to avoid gratuitously trashing politicians and others in the public spotlight. At least they’re out there as players — competing, winning, losing, contributing and making a difference one way or another.

That being said, there’s just one thing to say about the U.S. Senate “candidacy” of Kathleen Troia “KT” McFarland: Her campaign is a joke, and she’s made a fool of herself.

When KT first entered the race, it was somewhat interesting — a former Reagan Pentagon official, ostensibly with high-end, military and foreign policy credentials; someone who could conceivably debate Senator Hillary Clinton, an Armed Services Committee member, with credibility and legitimacy.

In fact, KT’s Reagan-era Pentagon credentials are largely bogus upon closer inspection. When her campaign claimed she was an author of Reagan’s “Star Wars” speech, well, that’s when the charade really began — and it’s been all downhill from there.

Where to begin w/ the Vegas lounge act comedy routine?

– McFarland failed to vote in numerous New York elections and had even missed voting for President Ronald Reagan in 1984, for whom she claimed to be an important Reagan Pentagon official;

– McFarland had occasionally voted at both her Southampton and Manhattan addresses in violation of state Election Law, which allows ballots to be cast from only address;

– There are several discrepancies in McFarland’s résumé and has falsely claimed to be the highest-ranking woman in the Pentagon at a time when two other women held higher-ranking posts.

And let’s not even get into her bizarre allegation that Senator Clinton “had helicopters flying over my house in Southampton today taking pictures.”

McFarland’s campaign is a laughing stock in Washington, and the only other statewide GOP ’06 candidate
she can be remotely compared to is Florida GOP Senate candidate Katherine Harris. But at least Harris has $10 million to work with, is a sitting member of congress, and actually has a real campaign — despite it’s incredible ineptitude. It’s somewhat ironic that Ed Rollins and Adam Goodman – two quality operatives — were Harris’s key consultants in Florida before flying the coup.

McFarland’s campaign? She doesn’t really go out in public, and while through a spokesman denounces negative campaigning, allows Rollins to appear on Hardball with Chris Matthews and other programs to trash her opponent, Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, in the worst possible way.

This goes far beyond “good cop-bad cop” politics, which is totally kosher and legit; but allowing Rollins and others to continue the bashing of Spencer’s personal life while proclaiming her opposition to negative campaigns shows her to be something quite the opposite of her former boss Ronald Reagan: a coward.

One can only hope NY Republicans give McFarland the hook, and send KT back to Southampton, Park Avenue, or wherever she claims to reside.

Al D’Amato is right: KT’s “a joke” and “a candidate in her own mind.”

As incumbent members of Congress gaze forebodingly across the electoral landscape towards November, a new Zogby interactive poll shows some astoundingly poor results in regard to how trustworthy Americans find Congress, the Courts, the Media and other public institutions:

Overall, just 3% said they think Congress in general is trustworthy, compared to 24% who said President Bush is trustworthy and 29% who said they can put their faith in the national court system, the survey shows. Corporate leaders in America are nearly as widely distrusted as Congress – just 7% said they are trustworthy.

However, Americans do feel they can bank on the actions and words of their friends and co-workers – 75% said the people they work with and live near are trustworthy.

How Americans rate the trustworthiness of select groups, with 5 being most trustworthy and 1 being not at all trustworthy.

High (4+5)
Medium (3)
Low (1+2)
Not Sure

Congress
3%
20%
76%
–

Corporate Leaders
7%
23%
69%
1%

The Media
11%
31%
58%
–

The President
24%
7%
69%
–

The Courts
29%
38%
33%
1%

Friends and Co-Workers
75%
21%
4%
1%

Despite the ongoing debate regarding the statistical veracity of online surveys, which is valid, the size of the sample conducted 4/18-24 was 8,175 adults with an error margin estimated to be 1.1%, thus making the results worth considering.

When Arizona GOP Senator John McCain shows up in Manhattan later this week to speak at the New School graduation to reportedly defend the U.S. involvement in Iraq, the throngs of protesters sure to show up will simply end up as press fodder for McCain’s ongoing courtship of the conservative GOP base.

McCain, speaking on Saturday to graduates of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, said of Iraq, “”If an American feels the decision was unwise, then they should state their opposition and argue for another course — it is your right and obligation. But I ask that you consider the possibility that I, too, am trying to meet my responsibilities, to follow my conscience, to do my duty as best as I can, as God has given me light to see that duty.”

McCain is scheduled to deliver virtually the same speech at the New School as he did at Liberty, and the protest coverage — “counter-programming” as it’s known to campaign folks — will surely aid his political fence-mending efforts.

In the big press build-up to McCain’s Liberty University speech, there was a general expectation of a McCain apology to Falwell, and a new courtship of evangelicals after having attacked them as “agents of intolerance” during the 2000 South Carolina GOP primary.

But that never happened — and despite the fact the press wanted to write the story of McCain sucking up to Falwell, Falwell was barely even mentioned. The national print and TV stories were about McCain defending the war, not apologizing to evangelicals.

As far as McCain’s New School press coverage is concerned, the more protesters the better as far as McCain’s people are concerned.

After the cost and visibility of including member-designated spending projects in the New York state budget became an issue in this year’s negotiations, the Empire Page decided to gauge how registered NYS voters feel about the practice — and the results of a new survey conducted for the Empire Page by Siena College are very clear. By large margins, New Yorkers oppose the practice and believe more transparency is necessary, and that more details should be disclosed.

When asked whether directing state spending to local projects, which has added more than $200 annually to the state’s debt for the past 8 years, was “mostly a good thing,” “mostly a bad thing,” or “mixed,” 43% said mostly bad, 33% said mostly mixed and only 8% said mostly good.

Voters who identify themselves as Independents or Republicans are somewhat more unhappy with member items than Democrats (80% and 79% versus 73% respectively). Minority voters (African-American and Latino), on the other hand, favor member items more than white voters. 16% of those who identified themselves as African-American and 19% of those who identified themselves as Latino view Member Items as mostly a good thing.

“Those in Albany who don’t believe the public knows or cares about these increasingly controversial budget matters might be surprised that only 15% of those polled either have no opinion or don’t know enough about the issue,” stated Peter G. Pollak, Editor. “As we’re seeing in some of the national polling about the spending situation in Washington, New Yorkers are increasingly skeptical of Albany’s spending priorities and decisions. The fact that fewer than 10 percent of New Yorkers believe member items is good for New York State speaks volumes.”

Voters Want Public Disclosure

When informed that the Legislature doesn’t automatically disclose to the public who gets money from Member Items or how much they get, just 5% of voters found this acceptable. 87% oppose it while 8% are not certain or don’t have an opinion.

Support for public disclosure was most popular among voters who identify themselves as independents (91% versus 89% of Republicans and 86% of Democrats). Voters from the suburbs and upstate were also more supportive of disclosure than those who live in New York City (91% and 91% versus 78%, respectively) and once again Latino voters were least in favor of disclosure (26% oppose disclosure versus 5% of African Americans and 3% of whites).

The poll of 620 registered NYS voters, conducted from 4/24 to 5/2 by Siena Research Institute for The Empire Page, has an error margin of +/- 3.9%. To see the regional, demographic, party and other cross-tab results, go to www.empirepage.com.

GOP consultant and grassroots expert Terry Nelson is the hottest consultant in town at the moment, and the former Bush-Cheney ’04 political director’s recent alignment with John McCain’s Straight Talk America PAC is rightly seen as a boon to McCain’s developing presidential effort — especially in Nelson’s home state of Iowa.

But Nelson’s new hook-up as a partner in the NYC-based Mercury Public Affairs
DC office is being viewed in a similar manner when it comes to boosting Mercury’s political and corporate presence in Washington.

Mercury, which has merged its DC office with Fleishman-Hillard Government Relations concurrent with the addition of Nelson, will clearly benefit from having a well-rounded practice, according to Doug Goodyear, CEO of DCI Group, among the nation’s premier GOP consulting entities.

“McCain is lucky to have him, and so is Mercury — they will be a formidable combination,” Goodyear observed,” noting that high quality grass roots capabilities are becoming an increasingly prevalent and important component in corporate communications efforts. “Think of the additions Terry brings to the equation: Bush relationships, Iowa experience, national political contacts… he’s smart and strategic — the whole package.”

One K Street PR firm executive also said Nelson’s new gig “is a big deal,” while conceding that “most of the grass roots stuff is total b.s., and of dubious quality and value. But Nelson’s product and expertise is first-rate all the way. This is a great score here in town for the Fleishman and Mercury guys — no question about it.”

Was it worth pushing the button on the remote to shell out fifty bucks on Saturday night for the Oscar De La Hoya-Ricardo Mayorga pay per view? Absolutely. Despite the fizzling undercard, the main event for the WBC junior middleweight belt was an excellent, high energy, brutal fight.

For the past month, Mayorga the crude, hardened street tough had been taunting the Golden Boy, calling him “my bitch” to everyone who’d listen. Oscar, coming off a 20 month layoff after being taken out by a monster body shot from Bernard Hopkins, had reason to fear Mayorga, a fast, hard core brawler with a good chin and an ugly mean streak.

But just 30 seconds into round one, the style match-up De La Hoya had been counting on became quickly apparent as his technical prowess, speed and Mayorga’s low right hand made him vulnerable to a left hook, Oscar’s best weapon. And bang — just 80 seconds into round one, a huge De La Hoya left hook landed right on Mayorga’s chin, producing one of those beautiful slo-mo replays where the perfect shot on the button stopped him cold and put him down in a heap. Good chin or not — no one could have remained standing after taking that shot. “Bitch my ass!” could be heard off camera from someone in the De La Hoya corner as Mayorga barely staggered off the canvass.

That was already the beginning of the end for Mayorga, despite the fact it took until the 6th round for Oscar to win on a TKO. De La Hoya simply beat him up — with no talk, no showboating. It was all business — and worth watching next weekend for free on HBO.

As he notes in today’s NY Sun, John P. Avlon is moving from the Sun back over to Giuliani-world as communications director and senior policy advisor for Solutions America, Giuliani’s PAC — which also just hired a fundraiser. But that’s another story.

Avlon is a smart, insightful journalist who writes interesting stuff.

On his last day at the paper, here’s one of his best past columns, which takes a David Brooks-like look at the popular culture:

Jerry Garcia’s Conservative Children
BY JOHN P. AVLON
August 9, 2005

Think back to the ringing guitars, the spinners, the patchouli oil and the haze of pot smoke hanging over an arena – the psychedelic country rock of Grateful Dead concerts seem like an unlikely cradle for today’s conservative commentators.

And yet, 10 years to the day after Jerry Garcia’s death on August 9, 1995, no less than three of Generation X’s most high-profile young conservatives remain dedicated Deadheads: Deroy Murdock, Tucker Carlson, and Ann Coulter. This perhaps unexpected fact highlights the stark gap between the stereotype of the crew-cutted, humorless, Muzak-listening conservative of the past and the libertarian-leaning conservatives who came of age during the Reagan era.

It’s easy to forget that the highest grossing touring act of the 1980s was not some spiked-hair, synthesizer duo, but the Grateful Dead. Their seemingly perpetual concert tour was the equivalent of joining the circus, a quintessentially American rite of passage. The smiling bearded visage of Jerry Garcia was as much a marker of day-to-day life in the times as the reassuring presence of Reagan’s square jaw and pompadour in the White House. And so perhaps it’s not surprising that the children of Reagan and Garcia grew up to be internally noncontradictory amalgams of both influences.

Deroy Murdock, a nationally syndicated columnist and contributing editor with National Review Online, is also a veteran of 69 Grateful Dead concerts, by his count. “It’s easy to reconcile my affection and admiration for Ronald Reagan and Jerry Garcia: They both were committed to individual freedom,” Mr. Murdock attests. “The patriotism and love of country that Reagan embodied, Garcia also reflected. I remember the sole American flag waving on top of the stage at outdoor Grateful Dead shows as well as the patriotic lyrics, with their iconography of the Old West: cowboys, gambling in saloons, and steam trains crossing the prairies.”

The primary overlap from adolescent enthusiasm into adult ideology seems to be in the common ground of libertarianism. “My two favorite definitions of libertarianism come from P.J. O’Rourke and Jerry Garcia,” Mr. Murdock says. “As P.J. put it, ‘Make a right at taxes. Make a left at Sex. And straight ahead is paradise.’ When Garcia was asked how Deadheads should behave at the band’s concerts, he said, ‘Do what you want, man. Just don’t stand on anybody’s head.’ This just happens to parallel the Golden Rule, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’”

Tucker Carlson, who now hosts a nightly show, “The Situation,” on MSNBC, is a veteran of more than 50 Grateful Dead concerts and still listens to the Dead every day at home with his wife and children. “Following the Grateful Dead was one of the last structured-but-wild things you could do in America, at least when I was in high school and college,” Mr. Carlson said. “I always liked how apolitical the band was, at least in public. Garcia’s position seemed to be: ‘We’re just musicians. We’re not here to tell you what to do or how to think.’ He was totally opposed to lectures – giving or receiving them. He was the opposite of the self-righteous liberals who ran the schools I went to.”

This seems to hit on a second major point that can explain the thriving existence of Jerry Garcia’s conservative children. The rigid humorlessness of the politically correct crowd during the 1980s and 1990s was one of the right wing’s greatest recruiting tools. The evolution of the American left-wing from “We Shall Overcome,” peace-and-love advocates to angry, blame-America-first guilt mongers had the effect of turning campus liberals into the mirror image of the uptight conventional conservatives of the 1950s and 1960s. It became rebellious to resist their influence: reading Hunter S. Thompson led to appreciating P.J. O’Rourke; attending a Dead show and admiring Ronald Reagan were not contradictory. The optimistic “live and let live” atmosphere of Grateful Dead shows were a welcome asylum from the increasingly personal attacks levied on college campuses during the height of the culture wars.

But as George Will once said, “The four most important words in politics are, ‘up to a point,’ ” and this trend of enthusiastic, conservative Grateful Dead aficionados has its logical limits. Ann Coulter is fond of pointing out her love for the Grateful Dead as a way of disarming critics, but it is tough to imagine how Jerry Garcia would appreciate her book-length defense of Joseph McCarthy. Likewise, her comment to a Salon.com interviewer who asked, “So it’s up to the community to decide whether or not to burn queers in the public square?” – Ms. Coulter replied, “Right. That preserved the maximum freedom” – doesn’t exactly reek of “live and let live” libertarianism. Nonetheless, Ms. Coulter counts herself a fan, and all the protests in the world can’t erase that fact.

Ten years to the day after his death, the influence of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead live on, in wide and improbable circles. Especially in a time of increasingly rigid political partisanship, it’s perhaps helpful to recognize that personal experience and superficial political assumptions can sometimes be at odds – the book cover does not tell the whole story. One of the enduring, if unexpected, lessons of Jerry Garcia’s life is as apple-pie American as it gets: We’d all get along a lot better if we refocused on Thomas Jefferson’s founding promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Put aside the developing sketchy facts for a moment. This Patrick Kennedy “story” has quickly become a feeding frenzy of tittilating speculation, and Roll Call’s Mary Anne Akers noted on Scarborough Country –in lowbrow manner — that speculation about “what really happened” are legit because Kennedy has “struggled with depression” and “cocaine abuse.”

Despite the fact the Congressman’s Ambien story is out here in DC tonite floating like a pinata, the actual reporting of facts has been quickly overrun by the cable punditry, and the ap and everyone else is about to pile in big time — there’s a scent of “cover up” in the air.

This story, though, about getting up and being confused due to a “drug cocktail” about the need to vote, and crashing his vehicle, already is being mocked and laughed at. An “expert” on MSNBC has discounted Kennedy’s story as not credible. The “cover-up” is already the storyline…

Fair or not — mostly unfair — this is a big break and headline distraction for the Hill GOP here in town.