October
4, 2002 9:00 a.m. The
Fix Is In
And
Doug Forrester just has to deal with it.
he last time
Democrats got a state supreme court to overturn an election-law deadline
they did not wish to obey, the U.S. Supreme Court swatted the state court
down. But the Supreme Court may not get involved in New Jersey as it did
in Florida. Top Republicans in Washington are worried that while Republican
Senate candidate Doug Forrester waits for a decision, he may suffer some
political damage.
Forrester's campaign
has been designed, wisely, to make the case that Torricelli had to go
and that he was an acceptable alternative to him. The Democratic counterattack
has been that Forrester had nothing more to offer New Jersey than that
he is "not Bob Torricelli." Demanding a right to run against
Torricelli, rather than some other Democrat, would tend to validate that
critique. The Democrats, from Tom Daschle down, are already saying that
Forrester and his party are afraid of a fair fight and want to deprive
the voters of a choice. It's a deeply unfair charge, since it's the Democrats
who were afraid of a fight under the state law that existed prior to this
week. Fair or not, however, Forrester may end up looking whiny and fearful
if he presses on in court.
It's not impossible
for him to beat Lautenberg. Forrester should challenge him to two debates
a week for the rest of the campaign; judging from his initial campaign
statements, Lautenberg's not up to it. How many people really believe
that Lautenberg is going to serve out a six-year term? The alternatives
before New Jersey voters aren't really Forrester and Lautenberg. It's
Forrester and Senator X.
While Forrester can't
run against Torricelli, he can run against Torricelli-ism. His tack should
be that he is running for Senate and is happy to run against whomever
the Democrats throw at him. But he can, at the same time, make the case
that the Democratic machine is pulling a fast one and that voters should
reject its manipulations. He should work too see that the Lautenberg shuffle
inspires a political backlash, that is, rather than a legal reversal.
BUBBLE
BURST
Sealed Air Corp., the maker of bubble-wrap packaging, is in trouble because
of asbestos litigation. No, it didn't ever make products with asbestos.
Its alleged sin was to have bought a subsidiary of W. R. Grace & Co.
in 1998. Three years later, asbestos litigation drove Grace into bankruptcy.
Now a federal judge has ruled, essentially, that Sealed Air should have
foreseen this eventuality in 1998 and that it was therefore involved in
a "fraudulent conveyance" — e.g., that Grace and Sealed
Air were just trying to keep the subsidiary away from the asbestos claimants.
Sealed Air's stock is down substantially as a result of the litigation,
and it could go bankrupt, too. In short: The lawyers caused the accident,
and now they're collecting the damages.
NOT
FAR FROM THE TREE
On PBS the other day, Aaron Sorkin talked about some of the D.C. friends
who give him story ideas for The West Wing. We caught some quotes in the
Hotline: "For three and a half years, you collect. . . a dozen or
so people that help you out with an anecdote or story, set you out in
the right direction on China or Africa and they're all terrific people
and what they have in common is that they're very funny. So you enjoy
sending e-mails back and forth. The problem is you find that it's two
in the afternoon and I find that all I've done is e-mail Johnny Apple."
Yup, and it shows.
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he last time
Democrats got a state supreme court to overturn an election-law deadline
they did not wish to obey, the U.S. Supreme Court swatted the state court
down. But the Supreme Court may not get involved in New Jersey as it did
in Florida. Top Republicans in Washington are worried that while Republican
Senate candidate Doug Forrester waits for a decision, he may suffer some
political damage. 
