2162 Votes (originally aired April 6, 2005)
The Democratic National Convention begins with Rep. Matt Santos and Vice President Bob Russell still vying for the nomination (1) and with former Vice President John Hoynes still a factor. Expectations are turned around, when Governor Ed Baker decides to go along with a "draft Baker" campaign instead of simply becoming Russell's running mate. Santos is encouraged to drop out of the race, but wins Bartlet's support with a key speech and gets enough delegate votes to become the nominee. At the same time, federal agents begin investigating the source of a leak (2) about the existence of a military-operated space shuttle (3), and it looks like it may be CJ.
- The Santos-McGarry ticket appears in some ways to be a Democratic version of the Bush-Cheney ticket, with a relatively young Texas politician at the top and an old Washington hand with past health problems as the vice-president.
- Pennsylvania Governor Ed Baker loses momentum in his last-minute bid to become the nominee when it is leaked that he had not disclosed that his wife had been treated for depression. Presidents and presidential candidates do not have to disclose their medical records for public review and are not subjected to any official, independent medical review of their ability to serve in office.
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Political Conventions (last updated April 7, 2005) (back to top)
With three candidates still vying to become the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, the Democratic Party's nominating convention in the West Wing universe is the first to decide a presidential candidate since the 1950s.
Democratic Governor Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois in the 1950s was "drafted" by President Harry S Truman and Illinois supporters into running for the first time in 1952 but did not win the nomination until the convention's third ballot. He won his party's nomination again in 1956, this time on the first ballot. The 1956 convention was still notable for being the last time that a major presidential candidate left the decision as to his running mate to the convention delegates, who elected Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee as Stevenson's running mate. Stevenson ultimately lost both general elections to General Dwight Eisenhower.
More recently, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) challenged President Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination in 1980 up through the convention, when Kennedy lost an effort to change a voting rule and finally conceded the party nomination. Kennedy still continued to fight Carter on the party's platform, and the final document was reportedly filled with so many concessions to Kennedy's forces that Carter himself reportedly did not strongly support it.
Officially, political conventions serve two functions. First, they serve as the culmination of a party's democratic process of selecting its presidential nominee. Before 1832, nominees were selected by party elites in a caucus system. After the 1830s, parties began holding primaries to elect delegates to the convention, and these delegates would elect a nominee at the conventions. The caucus method is still used in some states such as Iowa.
Second, political conventions are the forum at which parties adopt the platform for its campaigns. This document is written beforehand by a committee, though dissident members can write a minority report if there is strong disagreement on a particular issue. Since the platform is meant to be usable by all candidates, the document typically is general and vague. Republican presidential candidate Wendell Willkie once called them "fusions of ambiguity."
These two functions have diminished in importance as political parties have tried to minimize conflict at conventions by deciding matters beforehand and by recent changes in convention rules. Since the 1950s, presidential candidates have been determined through the primary process so that there is little doubt about the nominee when the convention actually opens. And in recent years, platforms have not been too prominent, with fights largely centering on the abortion issue (for more on abortion, go here).
Political parties have also changed convention rules and delegate selection procedures to ensure more widespread support within the party. These changes began after the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which was marked more by violent protests over Vietnam and Mayor Richard Daley's infamous malapropism about the police than for the substantive actions taken there (Hubert H. Humphrey was nominated after Lyndon B. Johnson announced he would not run again).
Nonetheless, conventions are still a forum which commands the nation's attention. The conventions are still important in offering a forum for the candidate and his party to make their case to the country and by focusing the country's attention on the presidential candidate for at least one night. Almost all candidates have received a boost in their approval ratings following a convention.
As for the other nights, however, the conventions have been criticized as infomercials where nothing of substance is done. One notable exception was the 1992 Republican National Convention, when Pat Buchanan gave a controversial speech about a cultural war within the United States.
Sources: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., National Party Conventions, 1831-1980 (1983). Congressional Quarterly, Inc., Selecting the President: from 1789 to 1996 (1997).
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Leak Investigation (last updated September 25, 2005) (back to top)
In the wake of a leak of classified information about a secret military-operated space shuttle, the FBI begins investigating the source of the leak and suspects someone in the Bartlet administration, possibly CJ.
This is reminiscent of an ongoing investigation into the apparent disclosure of the identity of an undercover CIA operative, Valerie Payne, to conservative columnist Robert Novak in or around July 2003. It is also reminiscent of other investigations such as whether a senator, Richard Shelby (R-Arizona), disclosed classified information to reporters in June 2002; investigators reportedly concluded that Shelby had divulged intercepted messages but did not charge him with a crime.
Not every leak of classified governmental information is punishable by a crime. However, it does seem likely that a leak of this nature could violate federal law, specifically 18 USC 793(e), which states that:
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"Whoever, lawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it … Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both." |
Plame Leak Investigation
As for the investigation into the disclosure of Valerie Plame's identity, that stems from a statement President George W. Bush made in his State of the Union speech on January 28, 2003. During the speech, Bush presented evidence that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction and said, among other things, that "[t]he British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." (see statement with full text here).
Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV questioned the veracity of this statement months later with a July 6, 2003 op-ed piece in the New York Times in which he described his role in investigating - and discrediting - Niger's suspected link to Iraq's weapons program. Days later, CIA Director George Tenet issued a statement that the reference to Africa was suspect and should not have been presented to Bush.
"Legitimate questions have arisen about how remarks on alleged Iraqi attempts to obtain uranium in Africa made it into the President's State of the Union speech," Tenet wrote. CIA officials investigated such allegations in late 2001 and early 2002 and concluded that the allegations were dubious, Tenet wrote. Subsequent reliance on a British report that concluded otherwise "should not have been the test for clearing a Presidential address. This did not rise to the level of certainty which should be required for Presidential speeches, and [the] CIA should have ensured that it was removed."
The controversy over this statement then became something bigger stemming from a July 14, 2003 piece by columnist Robert Novak. There, Novak discussed Wilson's Niger investigation and identified Wilson's wife as an "Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction" and wrote that "two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate" the allegations. Novak later wrote that he did not receive a planned leak and that he simply put together some information and made an imprecise word choice.
Some have said that Novak's identification as to Wilson's wife shows that White House officials violated federal law against the disclosure of identities of U.S. covert agents. Democrats called for the appointment of an independent prosecutor to investigate the matter; such positions have sometimes been used to investigate high-level executive-branch officials, but the decision to use one was up to the Attorney General since the expiration of the prior independent counsel law in 1999 (for more on independent counsels, go here) and instead the investigation has been handled by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of the Northern District of Illinois. According to reports, Fitzgerald said in a filing in March 2004 that he had completed his investigation except for receiving the testimony of two reporters who have tried appealing court orders compelling their testimony.
Sources: CIA Director George J. Tenet's July 11, 2003 statement about the State of the Union reference is on-line here. Joseph C. Wilson 4th, What I didn't find in Africa, New York Times, July 6, 2003. Robert Novak's July 14, 2003 column, Mission to Niger, is available on-line here and an October 1, 2003 follow-up is available on-line here.
U.S. Space Programs (last updated September 26, 2005) (back to top)
It is no secret that the United States has been seeking to develop some military-related space capabilities in recent years, though there were no reports as of fall 2005 that it has developed its own space shuttle. Developing a military-operated space shuttle probably would not violate international treaties, but some of the actions that such a shuttle could be used for - developing bombs and other weapons that could be dropped from orbit - arguably could violate a treaty that the United States entered into in the 1960s.
Developing something like a space shuttle for military use was proposed in a 2001 report by a commission examining how U.S. space activities were organized and managed in support of national security. The Commission expressed concern about a "Space Pearl Harbor," an attack on U.S. satellites or civilian assets, and pointed out "warning signs of U.S. vulnerability" such as a 2000 report by the Xinhua news agency that China's military was "developing methods and strategies for defeating the U.S. military in a high-tech and space-based future war."
The commission recommended that one objective of U.S. space security policy should be "assured access to space and on-orbit operations," which a space shuttle would help achieve. The commission stated that U.S. interests "depend critically on assured and timely access to space" and that the United States "should continue to pursue revolutionary reusable launch vehicle technologies and systems."
Still, it does not appear that the Defense Department has actually put money into developing its own space shuttle, especially given the problems that NASA's space shuttle has had in recent years, most notably the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003 due to a breach in its left wing's thermal protection system caused by a piece of insulating foam. While the space shuttle Discovery returned to space in July 2005, it still faced problems during launch.
Military budgets available on-line here) show that the Defense Department has devoted millions of dollars in recent years to programs for launching satellites and payloads, but none to developing its own reusable launch vehicle, or something like a space shuttle. The following table shows the space programs identified in the FY 2006 budget (on-line as a PDF here) :
| Service
| Program
| Description
| FY 2006 Budget Amount (in millions)
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| Army
| Ground Systems
| Super-high frequency beyond-line-of-sight communications to deployed forces
| $66.5
|
| Navy
| Mobile User Objective Satellite System
| Narrow-band communications
| $470
|
| Air Force
| Advanced Extremely High Frequency Satellite
| Worldwide communications
| $1,194.3
|
| Air Force
| Defense Support Program
| Early warning of missile launches and detonations
| $42.7
|
| Air Force
| Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle
| Launches medium-to-heavy-weight satellites
| $864.4
|
| Air Force
| Medium Launch Vehicles
| Launches medium-weight satellites
| $111.2
|
| Air Force
| NAVSTAR Global Position System
| Provides global system of satellites for navigation purposes
| $719.6
|
| Air Force
| Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) - High
| New technologies for detecting strategic and tactical ballistic missile launches
| $756.6
|
| Air Force
| Transformational Satellite Communications
| Worldwide communications
| $835.8
|
| Air Force
| Space Based Radar
| Worldwide surveillance through satellites, first of which planned for FY 2015 launch
| $225.8
|
| Air Force
| Wideband Gapfiller Satellite
| Wideband communications
| $166.4
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It is worth noting that the space shuttles operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have brought military payloads into orbit in the past.
As noted above, the United States is a party to the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, better known as the Outer Space Treaty (on-line here). Article IV of this treaty does not prohibit the development of a military-operated space shuttle, but it does prevent the United States from installing any weapon of mass destruction in orbit around the Earth or on the moon and it limits the use of any lunar bases to peaceful purposes. Article V holds that states "shall render to [astronauts] all possible assistance in the event of accident, distress, or emergency landing on the territory of another State Party on the high seas."
Sources: The Report of the Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization was released on Jan. 11, 2001 and is on-line here; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's May 8, 2001 response is on-line here. The Defense Department's FY 2006 budget is on-line here; information on space programs was taken from the Program Acquisition Costs by Weapon Systems document on-line as a PDF here. The Outer Space Treaty is on-line via the State Department here.
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