Senatorial candidates lead week of Mock Election 2004 debates, lectures

Imagine positive discourse and the right to disagree. Picture students exercising their First Amendment freedoms and discussing domestic and foreign policy issues. In this voting season, the student group Cornell Mock Election 2004 hosted the talks of the town.

A full, season-long slate of lectures and debates ended last week after a talk by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the U.S. Senate Debate for New York, a debate between pundits Bill Press and Ron Kessler, a foreign policy debate between Duke Professor Bruce Jentleson and Cornell Professor Jeremy Rabkin, and a lecture by Sandy Berger, former national security adviser.

Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography From left: U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Conservative Party candidate Marilyn O'Grady and Republican candidate Howard Mills debate Oct. 19 in Kennedy Hall's Call Auditorium.
Robert Barker/University Photography Ronald Kessler, left, formerly of the Washington Post, listens to Bill Press, an MSNBC political analyst, during "Throwdown: A Debate on the President," Oct. 20 in Ives Hall.
Nicola Kountoupes /University Photography Jeremy Rabkin, Cornell professor of government, left, speaks to Duke University Professor Bruce Jentleson, right, during an Oct. 19 foreign policy debate in McGraw Hall.
Robert Barker/University Photography U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) speaks about "Victories Won, Challenges Ahead, Gay Rights in the U.S. and Israel" on Oct. 18 in Uris Auditorium.	Kevin Stearns/University Photography Sandy Berger '67, former national security adviser to President Bill Clinton, speaks on "The Politics of National Security" Oct. 21 in Statler Auditorium.

Arguably, the 2004 U.S. Senate Debate for New York, hosted on campus, became the jewel of the Mock Election effort. Two weeks before the Oct. 19 debate, Sen. Charles Schumer and his opponents, Howard Mills (Republican) and Marilyn O'Grady (Conservative), agreed to debate. The agreement was reached thanks to efforts from the League of Women Voters of New York and the Cornell Mock Election student group.

The senate debate at Cornell was the only one broadcast live, statewide on television and radio during this election season. The debate was moderated by Bill Carey of News 10 Now, and the candidates were questioned by Cornell senior Kathryn Wickham and junior Raj Shah. The telecast was broadcast regionally by Time Warner Cable and nationally by C-SPAN.

At the debate, the candidates showed stark differences. On whether the Patriot Act should be renewed, O'Grady said the act itself has been successful at deterring terrorism. Mills said the Patriot Act should be re-authorized with sunset provisions, and Schumer said the Patriot Act should be re-adjusted and re-examined.

Discussing Iraq, Schumer explained, "The war on terror is our greatest challenge for this generation." He does not endorse a draft. O'Grady said that U.S. efforts in Iraq were succeeding because we are "keeping the terrorists occupied in Iraq; there's less of a risk finding them in Times Square."

Mills said the U.S. effort in Iraq was beneficial. "The most effective weapon we have is the advance of freedom itself," he said.

On the subject of gay marriage, Schumer and Mills support civil unions, while O'Grady wants a Constitutional amendment to define marriage and keep gays from forming civil unions.

The high price of gasoline was also discussed. "Oil prices are a killer," said Schumer, who advocates dipping into the federal strategic oil reserve. "These high prices are hurting our whole economy." O'Grady wishes to stay away from the strategic oil reserve and instead begin drilling on national park land in Alaska.

Mills and Schumer support the re-importation of prescription drugs from Canada, while O'Grady, a physician, opposes re-importation -- the pharmaceuticals are not guaranteed to be safe, she said. "The safety issue is bogus," said Schumer, who explained that drugs coming from Canada were mostly manufactured in the United States.

-- Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.

Israel is gay-rights model for a less enlightened U.S., says Barney Frank

Frank, the first openly gay member of Congress and an outspoken proponent of a strong Israel, addressed only part of his topic in his lecture. He said Israel's democracy is in better shape than is the United States' at a time when Americans' patriotism is questioned if they criticize their government. Even Arabs have more freedom of speech in Israel than Americans do in America, Frank said, noting: "If you are an Arab -- and you want to get up and say you have a rotten, vicious, corrupt government -- you'd better be in Israel."

Likewise, gay rights are much more robust in Israel -- and particularly in the Israeli military -- than in the United States, Frank said. He promised the next time his party has a majority in the House of Representatives, he will reverse the U.S. military's don't ask/don't tell policy. At a time when the U.S. military is discharging much-needed Arab-language translators because they are gay, Frank added, "the most effective military force in modern history [Israel's] openly integrates gays."

But it took a student's question about idealism versus pragmatism to bring Frank back to the "challenges ahead" part of his topic. He pointed, as one example of an idealist's pragmatism, to the passage of laws that outlaw job discrimination against lesbian, gay and bisexual people -- but not the transgendered, the people in the process of sex changes. Law-abiding employers worry about logistical matters -- like providing bathrooms for transgendered workers -- an amused Frank said.

"So we chip away," he said of increased employment rights for lesbians, gays and bisexuals. "A couple years later it will be easier to come back and cover the transgendered when we can say [to employers], 'See, what were you afraid of?'"

The congressman, who is the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, acknowledged a hand-lettered sign in the back of Uris Auditorium: "Frank Senate '05." Another student had asked if he would run for John Kerry's Massachusetts seat in the Senate. That decision depends on whether Democrats can regain control of the House, in which case Frank could chair the powerful finance committee and he would want to stay put.

If not, Frank said he is very interested in replacing Kerry in the Senate. Polls in Massachusetts polls already give him a 20-point lead over his most likely opponent, Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, he said.

-- Roger Segelken

Journalists joust over presidential candidates

Press is the author of Why Bush Must Go: The Top Ten Reasons Why George Bush Doesn't Deserve a Second Term. Kessler has written A Matter of Character: Inside The White House of George W. Bush.

Press told the mostly student audience: "This is the most important election in our lifetime. It's about everything -- the economy, jobs, health care, social security, the Supreme Court, civil liberties, terrorism and the war in Iraq." Press called Bush the worst of the past eight presidents, stating: "He's not up to the job."

Kessler maintained that Bush is protecting the American people by ensuring a strong FBI and CIA, who will "penetrate the plots before they happen." He defended the Patriot Act as necessary, adding, "The bottom line is that since Bush took office we haven't been attacked."

"There were eight years between the first bombing of the World Trade Center and Sept. 11," Press shot back. "I don't remember Republicans going around saying, 'That Janet Reno is doing a great job.'"

While Kessler conceded that "the Bush White House is secretive," he asserted that "Bush operates like a very good CEO. He solicits different views -- that's why you have a Colin Powell in his cabinet -- he reads briefing materials, asks questions, that's how he makes up his mind."

"He lacks intellectual curiosity," Press declared, relating how Bush had publicly stated that Sweden had no army. When someone mildly suggested that perhaps the president had meant Switzerland, Bush angrily said no and repeated his error.

Kessler defended Bush's decision to invade Iraq. "How is it wrong to depose a dictator who killed 300,000 people?"

Press supported deposing the Taliban in Afghanistan to go after Osama bin Laden but criticized the war in Iraq as wrong and unfounded.

On the lackluster economy, Kessler noted that the country was in the throes of a recession when Bush took office. Press decried the three million jobs lost under Bush's watch, resulting in a record fewer jobs when his term ends than when he took office.

Kessler said that Bush's tax cut for the rich makes sense, not only as an economic stimulant but because "the rich pay more money in the first place." Press stressed John Kerry's commitment to giving a tax cut to the middle class, "who need it more than the rich."

Press ended with a rousing plea to the audience: "Save America! Dump George Bush!"

Kessler's closing statement: "We don't need a flip flopper in the White House. We need [Bush's] long-range vision."

-- Linda Myers

Berger urges students to 'influence what happens'

Berger presented a speech on "The Politics of National Security" to a near-capacity audience in Statler Auditorium as the final presentation in the Cornell 2004 Mock Election campaign. He was introduced by President Jeffrey Lehman, who praised the students involved in the Mock Election for making Cornell "one of the most politically aware campuses in the country."

Berger reminisced about his days as a Cornell undergraduate government major, when he experienced "the brutal moment" of Nov. 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. He likened it to the "searing" moment of this generation of college students on Sept. 11, 2001. He told students, "We cannot take back what has already happened ... but we can influence what happens next."

Students' first votes, cast in the upcoming presidential election, "may be the most consequential vote you ever cast," Berger said, adding, "we do have to choose what kind of leadership we will bring to a troubled world: determined or domineering, bold or brash, high-minded or high-handed."

Critical of the Bush administration's foreign policy, Berger said he supports John Kerry for president because he can provide a "positive vision" to the world that George W. Bush has failed to provide.

"The frontline of terrorism today is not Iraq. The frontline is wherever we are," he said. "It's therefore essential that we define for the world who we are in a way that rallies others around us, not against us, that isolates the extremists, not ourselves.

"Some American leaders seem to believe that power is the same as influence," he said, adding that "might without moral authority does not assure us of influence" and "moral authority derives from different things than our military muscle -- things like what we stand for, how we treat others, and whether we help the rest of the world achieve the peace, prosperity and progress Americans want for ourselves."

He praised the establishment of Cornell's medical school in Qatar. "I'm proud my alma mater is part of helping the Arab world meet challenges like education, opportunity and health and that Cornell's founding vision -- 'any person, any study' -- now extends across global barriers as well," he said.

Berger offered his analysis of the choices America faces in Iraq, in dealing with nuclear proliferation and in the fight against jihadist terrorism. The full text of his speech is available at http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Oct04/Berger_speech.pdf.

His speech was warmly received by his audience. Ryan Chang, a junior majoring in government, said: "His broad outline was very appropriate and I liked his conclusions and his inspiring words. I wish he had more time to speak about the specifics of his proposals, especially regarding North Korea and Iraq."

"I liked when he echoed Kerry in the first debate when he made his point that power does not equal influence," said graduate student Sharon Cleary. "It was nice to hearken back to a better world in seeing him."

-- Linda Grace-Kobas