V15 N14 Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009 HPI’s All-Political Hoops All-Stars Basketball stardom in DePauw Tiger (and future congress- man) Lee Hamilton led Evansville the Hoosier state rarely Central to the state title game, won the Trester Award, but had to accept translates to political power the award in the locker room during an injury. (DePauw University Photo) By BRIAN A. HOWEY NASHVILLE, Ind. - Basketball season is upon us and hope abounds. Purdue is ranked No. 7 in the nation. Butler’s Bulldogs are 10th. Things are looking up for the Hoosiers in Bloomington. The Final Four returns to India- napolis next March. And the Peru Tigers are returning to historic TigArena for the first time in a generation. So in the spirit of Indiana’s passion, I thought it was time to compile the first HPI All- Politics Basketball All-Stars (not to be confused with the annual HPI “Power 50” published in January). Two events prompted me to put together this list. First, U.S. Reps. Baron Hill and Brad Ellsworth played a pickup game with President Obama earlier this fall. Then, a few See Page 4 Sarah, Oprah & me By BRIAN A. HOWEY ELKHART - I watched Sarah on Oprah the other day. The ex-governor of Alaska didn’t come off as bad as I thought she would, me being one of those “lamestream media” types. “This is not good public Actually, I found Gov. Sarah Palin before most Americans did. When policy. It is good politics.” there was rampant speculation on - Sen. Vi Simpson, whether Barack Obama would put on the Hillary Clinton on the Democratic tick- property tax caps legislation that will et, I wondered: Is there a Republican woman ready for a national ticket? come up during the 2010 Indiana Sadly, the names within the Big General Assembly Tent Grand Old Party were sparse on the gender front. There was Sen. Kay HOWEY Politics Indiana Page 2 Weekly Briefing on Indiana Politics Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009 Bailey Hutchison, former Gov. Chris- Howey Politics gress. I don’t believe Hoosiers have tine Todd Whitman, or the two Maine ever sent a female Republican to Con- Indiana senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan gress. The Republicans need to take Collins, although they are those suspi- note of the Indiana Senate, where is a nonpartisan news- cious moderates. some half dozen female senators have Beyond that, not many Repub- ascended into leadership. letter based in Indianapolis lican women came to mind. What we’re seeing this and published by NewsLink But I week - including to- remembered Gov. day in Fort Wayne and Inc. It was founded in Palin; went to the Noblesville - is a Repub- State of Alaska lican love affair with the 1994 in Fort Wayne. website and found ceiling shatterer. They the Palin family. I love Sarah Palin. I can liked what I saw: Brian A. Howey, publisher see why. When she talks First Dude Todd of learning her child Trig Mark Schoeff Jr.,Washington Palin, a fisherfolk had that “extra chro- Jack E. Howey, Editor of the north slope. mosome” as she told The governor Beverly Phillips, Associate Oprah, she asked, “Why was a reformer us?” Todd replied, “Why Editor who took on the not us?” calcified Republi - As the step-dad to a can establishment lovely autistic 9-year- Subscriptions: there, and won! old, the sequence hit a $350 annually HPI via e-mail; She is attractive. deeper spot within me (Am I sexist for than the torrent of Palin $550 annually HPI & HPI Daily saying so?) fan lust and media feed- Wire. After ing frenzy. She talked Call 317-627-6746 watching Sarah on Oprah, I began to about her grandson’s father - Levi- see all sorts of grays emerge for this who had just finished his photo shoot Howey Politics Indiana Palin story. It has a Dan Quayle tinge with Playgirl Magazine in New York. PO Box 40265 to it. An obscure but talented politi- This is the full thrust of the Palin tab- cian is plucked out of the masses and Indianapolis, IN 46240-0265. loid glare. But Sarah Palin left the fam- immediately put on the Big Stage with ily door open for teenage Baby-Daddy the glare of the klieg lamps and a tor- Levi (or is it Ricky Hollywood?), even Contact Us mented, craving news media, pissed if Oprah had to coax her into inviting that they didn’t get the scoop. The him over for Thanksgiving dinner. www.howeypolitics.com campaign handlers lose their grip and She talked about the [email protected] the nominee twists and twirls in the infamous Katie Couric interviews. It Howey’s Mobile: 317-506-0883. gale. was those disastrous sessions (along There were all those adoring with the infamous turkey decapitation Indianapolis Fax: 317-254-0535. fans, like the 24,000 Hoosiers who presser after the election) that gave Washington: 202-256-5822. showed up during rush hour at Verizon me great concern that someone this Music Center, or the male Hoosier Business Office: 317-627-6746. unsophisticated could have become a Republican delegate who quickly heartbeat away from a presidency that Howey Politics ©2009, anointed Sarah “one hot chick” at the would have to deal with two vicious Indiana . All rights reserved. national convention. wars, the Wall Street meltdown, the That was not what the Photocopying, Internet forwarding, auto industry collapse, and the Great Lugar Series on Public Excellence had Recession of 2009 that pushed the faxing or reproducing in any form, in mind. If the Republican Party wants jobless rate up to 10 percent (some in whole or part, is a violation of to regain enduring power, it needs statistics say it’s more like 17 percent). to not only expand the Big Tent into Yet, on Oprah, Sarah Palin federal law without permission from regions of America (like New England) talked about Couric as “the perky one” the publisher. but also into demographics. It needs who didn’t just get an hour or so with more women in statehouses and Con- the veep nominee. According to the HOWEY Politics Indiana Page 3 Weekly Briefing on Indiana Politics Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009 ex-governor, Katie kept popping up in some four different crossed her mind). interviews. And the governor was saying things the McCain She is a political celebrity. But she is not presi- campaign handlers cringed at because she was out of the dential material, even though William Kristol thinks she is. loop. According to Palin, the worst moments of someone Kristol, a former aide to Vice President Quayle, explained, in the deer-in-the-headlamp mode got stitched together in “I don’t think it is foolish for Palin to think, ‘You know what, several 2 minute packages on the CBS Evening News. if that’s the world we live in now where people don’t value This has that Jim Baker handling Dan Quayle — maybe correctly — years of experience in Washington, greek tragedy written all over it. The McCain campaign had or two terms counts more than two and half years as wrapped up the nomination essentially in February 2008 governor of Alaska.’ Maybe she thinks she gets out there and then it wasted time, money and ultimately the vice and becomes a leader of the conservative movement, and presidential nomination luster. And it wasn’t Sarah Palin’s then a leader of the Republican Party, and then conceivably fault. She simply got swept up in the whirlwind. a nominee of the Republican Party, and then conceivably a Now her book, “Going Rogue,” which seems president just as Obama did.” to be more intent on settling scores as opposed to pon- Say what? If he really, truly thinks this - particularly dering the great dilemmas of the day and providing great after the Sarah-inspired debacle in New York 23, which thoughts and enduring solutions, has hit the stands. It will contributed to the razor thin health care vote in the House be No. 1 on the New York Times best seller list. Why didn’t - then Bill Kristol should come and run the Sarah Palin Sarah just tell Katie that she reads Newsweek, the Weekly presidential campaign. Standard, Rolling Stone and the New York Times? As for Sarah and me, I still can’t erase the great Today, Hoosiers will adore Sarah Palin. They will unease with the thought that she came perhaps one quote stand in long lines outside bookstores and extra cops will (“the fundamentals of the American economy are sound”) have to come in to keep the crowds orderly. Lots of TV away from the heartbeat away. cameras will show up. She will get lots of publicity and But after watching Oprah, I found a real, compas- there will be rampant speculation that she will run for sionate woman. I hope the Republican Party brings us even president (even though she told Oprah the thought hadn’t more. v fellow citizens in a way that seems to work even in years Daniels GOP speech when things are going against our party?” Daniels said. This kicked off speculation of a preordained reignites ‘12 speculation “Draft Mitch” movement, similar to the one that began as a whisper campaign in 2002, reaching a crescendo in 2003 By BRIAN A. HOWEY and finally the candidacy. CARMEL - Gov. Mitch Daniels speech to Indiana Then came the crux of his remarks. “Many of them Republicans Monday night has reignited speculation that he are alarmed at the direction of our nation and they’re has his eyes on the White House, some- right to be.