Karl Rove and Howard Dean held a "spirited" debate at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Monday night, about an hour's drive from my office. A beyond-capacity crowd of more than 2,000 attended while another 500 who couldn't get in reportedly watched a video feed in a nearby auditorium. People were clamoring to see these two heavyweights wage a war of words.
Rove, former senior advisor and chief of staff to President George W. Bush, and Dean, former Vermont governor and Democratic National Committee chairman, apparently hold these debates around the country from time to time, each earning upwards of $25,000 per appearance. This one caught my eye because Rove - sans Dean - will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming Benefits Selling Expo (April 19-21 in Washington D.C.), the annual event sponsored by one of Life Insurance Selling's sister publications, Benefits Selling.
While the media was not permitted to record Monday night's debate, reports I heard about it on local television stations and in the newspaper all mentioned that it was, predictably, a highly partisan dialogue where multiple attendees said the partisanship made it "difficult to support either side."
Rove talks about "mistakes made by President Obama," including proposed health care reform and increasing the national debt. Dean counters that Obama is trying to fix the previous eight years of "foreign and domestic mess." Imagine that - a Republican and a Democrat sticking to the blame game, just like we hear relentlessly from Congress.
On the same day as the Rove-Dean debate, Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) announced he was fed up with Congress and would not seek re-election, becoming the latest in a series of senators announcing retirement due to frustration with dysfunction in Congress.
"There is too much partisanship and not enough progress; too much narrow idealogy and not enough practical problem-solving. Even at a time of enormous national challenge, the people's business is not getting done," Bayh said during his press conference. Like him or not, it's hard to disagree with that.
Is he just another Democrat crying that they couldn't get a health care reform bill passed? Perhaps. But the problem goes much deeper than the health care debacle. Campaign statements notwithstanding, congressional politicians swear by either red or blue - not red, white and blue.
