Best of the Web Today - November 18, 2005
By JAMES TARANTO
Still Flaky
Even the New York Sun is hyping the news that Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, supposedly a hawkish moderate Democrat, has joined the cut-and-run caucus. "Bush in 'Nosedive' as Murtha Urges Retreat" reads today's Sun headline (though the lead sentence says "President Bush's power appears to have reached a nadir," which would mean he's coming out of a nosedive). Here's what Murtha had to say:
Mr. Murtha said American forces should "immediately redeploy" from Iraq in order to help Iraqis take control of their country. "The presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is impeding this progress. Our troops have become the primary target of the insurgency. They are united against U.S. forces, and we have become a catalyst for violence," the congressman said.
This is not news. Murtha flaked out on the liberation of Iraq even before Congress approved it. In September 2002, a month before the congressional authorization, an outfit called Veterans for Common Sense reported that Murtha was "questioning a war-powers resolution that even most Democratic leaders seem reluctant to oppose":
''All of us want to get rid of Saddam,'' Murtha says. But he believes that [President] Bush ''went about it the wrong way.'' . . .
Murtha says a key reason for questioning a second Iraq war is strategic. He's worried that it would cost the United States not only money and lives, but also important allies. By moving without international support, Bush could alienate Arab allies, and ''we could lose access to the intelligence we need to fight the war on terrorism.'' . . .
Nothing he has seen in intelligence reports has convinced him that Bush needs to rush through a resolution, Murtha says. Even so, he has not decided how he will vote.
Murtha ended up voting in favor of the liberation. Then, in May 2004, as the Associated Press reported, he called for more troops:
"We cannot prevail in this war as it is going today," Murtha said yesterday at a news conference with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. Murtha said the incidents of prisoner abuse in Iraq were a symptom of a problem in which U.S. troops in Iraq are undermanned, inadequately equipped and poorly trained.
"We either have to mobilize or we have to get out," Murtha said, adding that he supported increasing U.S. troop strength rather than pulling out.
Murtha had rather eccentric views about where the increased troop strength should come from. As we noted in October 2004, he was one of only two members of Congress to vote for a bill that would have reinstated the draft--a bill opposed even by its sponsor, grandstanding Charlie Rangel.
An exchange with Margaret Warner on last night's "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer," though, suggests that Murtha has simply taken leave of reality:
Warner: But may I ask you, sir, if you believe--[the president] says--for whatever reason, Iraq has become the center of terrorism - that if the U.S. appears to retreat in the face of that, that it will be a blow to the American fight against radical Islamic terrorism? What do you say to that?
Murtha: Well, I say that the fight against Americans began with Abu Ghraib. It began with the invasion of Iraq. That's when terrorism started. It didn't start when there was criticism of this administration. This administration doesn't want to listen to any ideas.
So according to Murtha, "terrorism started" either in March 2003 (with the "invasion of Iraq") or in May 2004 (when the Abu Ghraib miniscandal came to light). One wonders where he was in, say, September 2001. One wonders, too, how a political party can keep a straight face while putting him forward as a spokesman on national security.
(Hat tips: Glenn Reynolds and Mickey Kaus.)
On Capitol Hill
"Scientists Find Fear Gene"--headline, Reuters, Nov. 17
The Clinton Legacy
It must be very frustrating to be Bill Clinton. The president who was obsessed with his "legacy" is unquestionably going to be overshadowed in history by his successor--and that's true even if, or perhaps we should say especially if, President Bush's detractors are right and he's the most godawful president in world history. Anyway, the Austin American-Statesman reports on an appearance by Madeleine Albright, Clinton's secretary of state, who made a weak effort to burnish her erstwhile boss's legacy:
Albright criticized the Bush administration for "a deliberate way of not learning the lessons" of Clinton's efforts to make peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. She said Clinton had so impressed the Arabs that he "could be elected president of any country" in the Middle East.
How many countries in the Middle East even had free elections when Bill Clinton was president? If you limit it to Arab countries, you can count them on the fingers of one foot.
They Just Weren't That Into Him
Remember Michael Berg? He was a proto-Sheehanoid, the father of Nick Berg, whom al Qaeda terrorists beheaded in Iraq last year. In May 2004, the elder Berg penned an op-ed for Britain's left-wing Guardian, attacking President Bush while excusing his son's murderers:
People ask me why I focus on putting the blame for my son's tragic and atrocious end on the Bush administration. They ask: "Don't you blame the five men who killed him?" I have answered that I blame them no more or less than the Bush administration, but I am wrong: I am sure, knowing my son, that somewhere during their association with him these men became aware of what an extraordinary man my son was. I take comfort that when they did the awful thing they did, they weren't quite as in to [sic] it as they might have been. I am sure that they came to admire him.
Today's New York Times reports from Milan on Islamist reaction to the scene of Nick Berg's murder:
Playing an Internet video one evening last year, an Egyptian radical living in Milan reveled as the head of an American, Nicholas Berg, was sawed off by his Iraqi captors.
"Go to hell, enemy of God!" shouted the man, Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, as Mr. Berg's screams were broadcast. "Kill him! Kill him! Yes, like that! Cut his throat properly. Cut his head off! If I had been there, I would have burned him to make him already feel what hell was like. Cut off his head! God is great! God is great!"
Yahia Ragheh, the Egyptian would-be suicide bomber sitting by Mr. Ahmed's side, clearly felt uncomfortable.
"Isn't it a sin?" he asked.
"Who said that?" Mr. Ahmed shot back. "It is never a sin!" He added: "We hope that even their parents will come to the same end. Dogs, all of them, all of them. You simply need to be convinced when you make the decision."
But it's all Bush's fault! Oh, and al Qaeda has nothing to do with Iraq!
Un État Plus Rouge
Remember how Hurricane Katrina was going to lead to a rebirth of liberalism? We were never quite clear how this was supposed to work, and in any case it clearly didn't. The Los Angeles Times reports from Baton Rouge, La., on the changes Katrina wrought in the politics of the hardest hit state:
Before hurricanes Katrina and Rita, there was a familiar equilibrium in the Louisiana Legislature, whose hallway still is pocked with bullet holes from Huey P. Long's assassination. Black Democrats were key allies of Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, and conservative rural lawmakers harbored age-old grievances about New Orleans' grip on political power.
Now, with the city's population dispersed--and no indication of whether, or when, most residents will return--some lawmakers hope they are witnessing a permanent reversal of fortunes, said Elliot Stonecipher, a political analyst based in Shreveport.
Now, with the city's population dispersed--and no indication of whether, or when, most residents will return--some lawmakers hope they are witnessing a permanent reversal of fortunes, said Elliot Stonecipher, a political analyst based in Shreveport.
"This state has totally changed politically," state Rep. Charlie DeWitt, a rural conservative Democrat, tells the Times. "I think it's going to be probably one of the most conservative states in the South." The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports (last item) that two Democratic state representatives have become Republicans. State legislators' Party membership remains a lagging indicator: 39 of 105 state House members and 15 of 39 state senators belong to the GOP.
What Would We Do Without Kerry?
"Kerry[*] Says He Still Wants to Be President"--headline, Associated Press, Nov. 18
* The haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat, who by the way served in Vietnam.
What Would Sources Do Without Sources?
"Source: Cheney Isn't Woodward's Source"--headline, Associated Press, Nov. 17
Wolfe in the Fold
Yesterday we suggested that Sen. Barbara Boxer might have been better off plagiarizing rather than writing her own novel. It appears that at least part of her novel is derivative of another work, Tom Wolfe's "A Man in Full" (1998). An equine sex scene in the Boxer book begins as follows:
A ton of finely tuned muscle, hide glistening, the crest of his mane risen in full sexual display, and his neck curved in an exaggerated arch that reminded Greg of a horse he'd seen in an old tapestry in some castle in Europe Jane had dragged him to.
This is from Wolfe's equine sex scene, at page 308:
His entire musculature, rippling beneath his hot black hide in the shaft of sunlight, indeed, his very hide itself, every ounce of his one ton, his three million dollars' worth of horseflesh, was now a hopeless, helpless slave to that single synaptic impulse: rut rut rut . . .
This isn't plagiarism; Boxer would be a better writer if she stole Wolfe's words. Though in fairness, Wolfe is not a better senator than Boxer either.
More Good News About 'Global Warming'
"Study: Global Warming Threatens New Jersey"--headline, FoxNews.com, Nov. 17
Thanks for the Tip!--XIII
"Health Tip: Flu Can Kill"--headline, HealthDayNews, Nov. 18
Gee, That's 'Comforting'
"Bird Flu Drug 'Safe' Despite Death Link"--headline, Daily Telegraph (Australia), Nov. 19
'Look Out for That Guy in the Uniform, if You Catch My Drift'
"Man Arrested for Stealing Car, Alluding Police"--headline, Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot, Nov. 16
It's About Time That Mooch Gave It Back
"Superman Returns Trailer"--headline, IGN.com, Nov. 17
Bottom Story of the Day
" Editorial: Convoy of Dish Network Vans Hogs I-95 Passing Lane"--headline, Press Journal (Vero Beach, Fla.), Nov. 17
Still Dead
"One of the most durable, canny and empirical of modern dictators, Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teodulo Franco y Bahamonde became master of Spain as a result of a military conspiracy, a dash of luck, timely help from foreign corporations, the influence of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and crucial armed assistance from Hitler and Mussolini," the New York Times reported in Franco's obituary:
At the close of his long and sternly authoritarian rule, Generalissimo Franco could look back on 36 years of an imposed stability that rested on a policy of suppression of fundamental democratic rights. But it was also a stability that gave Spain a rising standard of living, industrial growth and an important alliance with the United States.
His regime, exceedingly harsh at the outset, was moderated somewhat from the middle of the nineteen-fifties into a condition of relative calm that persisted to the end of his rule. Contributing to this was the memory of the Civil War, a renewal of which none of his organized opponents wanted to provoke. There were outbursts against Franco--from the Basque nationalists, from among students--but these were put down.
One of the last such episodes, which revealed an increasing impatience with Franco, occurred in September, 1975, when five convicted terrorists were executed despite protests from most of Western Europe and appeals for clemency from Pope Paul VI.
Ironically, today Spain has a democratically elected Socialist government that believes in appeasing terrorists and propping up fascist regimes. Yet as London's Guardian notes, there is something of a Franco revival going on:
A revisionist history book praising the former Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco, whose regime liquidated tens of thousands of opponents over nearly 40 years, has shot to the top of the bestseller list in Spain. . . .
"Franco should . . . receive the gratitude and recognition of the majority of Spaniards," writes Pío Moa in Franco: an historical review. The success of the book, which repeats old claims that Franco brought peace and prosperity while creating a country ready for democracy, has revealed an undercurrent of opinion happy to reject the idea that he was little more than a brutal, vengeful dictator.
Agence France-Presse, reporting from Cogollos, Spain, adds this wistful bit of Francophilia:
In his heyday, former Spanish military dictator General Francisco Franco loved to sail up and down the coastline of his native northern region of Galicia in his private yacht, Azor.
But since his death on November 20, 1975, the rusting hulk of a vessel has become a poignant, and rare, symbol of a bygone era.
Generalissimo Francisco Franco died in Madrid on Nov. 20, 1975. Thirty years later, he is still dead. |
