Careful-what-you-wish-for Dep’t

Do we really want to live in a country where the money men can force the winner of a Senate primary to withdraw?

Of course I’m delighted that Todd Akin put his foot in his mouth about abortion, that the GOP establishment is running away from him, and that the result is to get the theocrats mad at the plutocrats. All good, clean fun.

But if it’s really true that the NRSC and Karl Rove have the power, by threatening to withhold money, to force the winner of a statewide primary to drop out of the race, that’s much worse for American politics than some stupid misogyny backed by bad science.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com

5 thoughts on “Careful-what-you-wish-for Dep’t”

    1. I didn’t get that either. Maybe Mark means it’s worse because Rove is at least an intelligent person? But then, how to explain Romney’s campaign?

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