Jacqueline Salit

Controversial Independence Party activist Fred Newman gave his take on the presidential race during his weekly conversation with fellow activist Jackie Salit.

He thinks it has nothing to do with the candidates.

From an email:

“War vs. peace. As I see it, that's what the vote's going to look like a year from now on Election Day. It's going to be war vs. peace. The Republican is going to be the war candidate. The Democrat is going to be the peace candidate. And people will vote party, in my opinion.”

It's Friday, and you know what that means: Only two more days until Sunday morning! If you're anything like me--and if you're reading this blog at 4:45 on a Friday afternoon, I suspect you are, you poor devil--Sunday morning is your Friday night, the few hours a week that make life worth living. There's Russert and Stephanopoulos and even boring old Bob Schieffer, not to mention all those other ranters and ravers on the cable networks. It's like a religion without the guilt.

Anyway, I mention this because for quite some time now, I've been enjoying the weekly ... I dunno ... searching for the right word here ... dispatches of Independence Party activists Fred Newman and Jacqueline Salit. Newman and Salit are just like me when it comes to their Sunday morning routine. Except they yell at the television. And then they transcribe their rants and distribute them.

A little background here: Newman is the Marxist playwright, psychotherapist and alleged "cult leader" who is the supposed brains behind the Independence Party. He's also the man behind Lenora Fulani's presidential campaigns, and it says something about his politics that Fulani was the more electable of the two. In this amazing six-part series on Newman by Rita Nissan, Newman says it’s okay for a doctor like himself to have sex with his patients. Salit, his sidekick, is an Independence Party "strategist."

Anyway, I bring all this up because last Sunday’s dialogue was all about Michael Bloomberg, the former Democrat-turned-former-Republican. Newman said Bloomie is now the “Poster Guy” for the independent movement he’s long been fighting for.

(Fred's political punditry is after the jump.)  read more »