MoveOn.org
Best of the Web Today - January 14, 2004
By JAMES TARANTO
Goldwater's Revenge
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The far-left outfit MoveOn.org, in the news recently for posting and then pulling a pair of ads likening President Bush to Hitler, announced the winner of its anti-Bush ad contest at a ceremony Monday, and the Drudge Report excerpts some comments from various B-list celebrities who performed there. Examples:
"Despite all of this stupid bullsh-- that the Republican National Committee, or whatever the f--- they call them, that they were saying that they're all angry about how two of these ads were comparing Bush to Hitler? I mean, out of thousands of submissions, they find two. They're like f---ing looking for Hitler in a hawstack [sic]. You now? I mean, George Bush is not Hitler. He would be if he f---ing applied himself."--Margaret Cho, comedian
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"Son of a Bush and his crew is at it again, because, we do not want 8 years run by a Colon, a Bush and a Dick."--Chuck D, rapper
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"I was afraid that Bill O'Reilly would come and, with a shotgun at my front door and shoot me for being unpatriotic. But I decided that that's actually, that fear that was silencing me is actually why it's so important that MoveOn exist and do this ad contest."--Julia Stiles, actress
It's mildly troubling to contemplate that such puerile rantings actually reflect the mentality of a significant political movement. As we noted in June, MoveOn.org has exercised an outsized influence in the Democratic Party; it was instrumental in establishing Howard Dean--who, to be fair, is somewhat more refined than his fans at MoveOn--as the party's presidential front-runner.
The rise of the Angry Left over the past year follows the erosion of the Democratic Party from New Deal majority party to its present sorry state.<font size=3> This was a long process, dating back at least to the election of 1968, when the Dems more or less permanently lost the White House. But it got a push just recently from the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law, which took effect after the 2002 election.
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McCain-Feingold places significant new restrictions on political party fund-raising and speech, the result of which is to weaken the parties and strengthen "independent" groups like MoveOn, which are far less restricted. Because the Democratic Party was weaker than the GOP to begin with, it is feeling the brunt of the McCain-Feingold restrictions and is far more vulnerable to being supplanted by extremist outfits like MoveOn, which may be able to rally the base but can never appeal to independents and moderates.
It would be bad for the country if the Democratic Party were to turn into a fringe party; in politics as in economics, the country as a whole benefits from real competition. One can hope that Democratic voters pull back from the brink and support one of the more sensible candidates in the field, or, more realistically, that the party recovers its sanity after suffering a blowout in November.
On the other hand, there's no denying that Democratic disintegration is good for the Republican Party, at least in the short run. This makes it a little ironic that McCain-Feingold, though its chief sponsor was a Republican, won support mostly from Democrats: The 60 "yea" votes for it in the Senate included 48 Democrats (plus independent Jim Jeffords) and only 11 Republicans. Just two Dems--John Breaux of Louisiana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska--cast a vote for party over ideology.
Another irony: It has been 40 years since the Democrats won a resounding victory in a race for the White House. That was in 1964, when the GOP nominee, Sen. Barry Goldwater, was seen as an extreme right-winger. The moderate Republican who led the Dems to their suicidal embrace of campaign finance "reform" is none other than John McCain--the man who now holds Goldwater's Senate seat.
Raining on MoveOn's Parade
"Former Vice President Al Gore will deliver a major address attacking the Bush Administration's policies on global warming and the environment<font size=3> at the historic Beacon Theatre in New York City on Thursday, January 15," according to a MoveOn press release.
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They should have added "weather permitting." Here's the National Weather Service forecast for New York:
Tonight. Snow developing early this evening. Snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches. Lows around 13. Light and variable winds. Becoming northeast 10 to 15 mph after midnight. Wind chill values as low as 5 below.
Thursday. Mostly cloudy with snow ending in the morning. Windy and colder. Total snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches. Highs around 18. North winds 20 to 30 mph. Wind chill values as low as 5 below.
It wouldn't be unreasonable to surmise that whoever controls the weather doesn't like MoveOn or Al Gore.
Howard Dean, Unilateralist
USA Today has unearthed a letter Howard Dean, then governor of Vermont, wrote to President Clinton in July 1995, which gives the lie to any claim that Dean's opposition to liberating Iraq was a matter of principle.
"I have reluctantly concluded that the efforts of the United Nations and NATO in Bosnia are a complete failure," Dean wrote the president:
Since it is clearly no longer possible to take action in
conjunction with NATO and the United Nations, I have
reluctantly concluded that we must take unilateral action.
If Dean favored unilateral action then, why does he insist
now that America was wrong to free Iraq from Saddam
Hussein's brutal rule without "permission" of the U.N.?
Here's the campaign's attempt at an explanation:
The word "imminent" is key to differentiating Dean's
policy from the president's decision to invade Iraq, said
Jeremy Ben-Ami, policy director for Dean's campaign.
Bush "sold the war on the basis of an imminent threat to
U.S. security, and that has now been shown to be false,"
Ben-Ami said. Since the threat from Iraq was not imminent,
the administration could not properly justify the war, he
said.
But this is a lie. In fact, in his 2003 State of the Union
Address, the president said precisely the opposite:
Some have said we must not act until the threat is
imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced
their intentions, politely putting us on notice before
they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and
suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all
recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity
and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it
is not an option.
It seems unlikely that Dean was actually an admirer of Saddam Hussein's tyranny, and we don't remember his raising any objections when Congress and President Clinton made "regime change" official U.S. policy in 1998. It's hard to avoid the conclusion, then, that Dean's position in favor of preserving Iraq's erstwhile dictatorship is a matter of pure partisan opportunism, no more than an attempt to smear the president, and national security be damned.
Meanwhile, the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader reports that Wesley Clark is playing dumb about Iraq. "Clark yesterday called for a congressional probe of the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq," the paper says:
"I don't think we can wait for this election to begin a
probe," he said. "We have to demand that probe now . . .
(while) we don't know what other tricks the administration
might have up its sleeve to pursue its original design,
whatever that was, for the Middle East." . . .
"We don't know what the motivation was" for invading Iraq,
Clark said. "We just don't know." But he said
Americans "have a right to know the answer. Why did we go
into Iraq?"
In the unlikely event that Clark actually is as dumb as
he's acting, we suggest he read the aforementioned State
of the Union speech as well as President Bush's Sept. 12,
2002, address to the U.N. General Assembly.
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Malaise Meets Malice
"Howard Dean will visit Plains, Ga., on Sunday for appearances with former president Jimmy Carter," the Boston Globe reports:
Coming after endorsements from Al Gore and Bill Bradley, the tacit offer of support from Carter will align Dean with the most prominent Democrats to run for or claim the White House in recent years, except for former president Bill Clinton, who has vowed to stay out of this year's nomination fight. Aides said Carter will not officially endorse Dean and will remain neutral in the race, but will offer "words of praise."
The Carter appearance also is aimed at bolstering support for Dean in the South.
Well, Carter was the last Democratic presidential nominee other than Clinton to win a Southern state. In 1980 he managed to carry his native Georgia. Somehow, though, we have a hard time imaging Dean duplicating this feat.
This Just In
"In Iowa Fight, Kerry Wields War Record"--headline, Washington Post, Jan. 14
Dumb and Dumberer
Remember Neal Starkman? He's the guy who, as we noted last week, published an op-ed in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ("intelligent as a post") attributing support for President Bush to "the S factor"--stupidity. In yesterday's P-I, one Tom Carter of Kenmore weighed in on a related topic (last letter):
The Bush administration reports that during the past five months 278,000 jobs have been created. The $350 billion tax cut for 2003 signed by President Bush, which included the $400 rebates to 25 million families, was intended to increase employment through a stimulated economy. That would suggest that every new job since August has cost taxpayers about $1,258,993.
Carter is talking about money that the government refrained from taking from taxpayers, but he casts this as a "cost" to the taxpayers. Who's stupid?
Making a Mountain Out of a Molehill
"Paul O'Neill Gives Troubling Peak Inside White House"--headline, Detroit Free Press, Jan. 14
What Would Liberals Do Without Statistical Evidence?
"In the last few years, some liberals have also expressed interest in marriage-education programs. They say a growing body of statistical evidence suggests that children fare best, financially and emotionally, in married two-parent families."--New York Times, Jan. 14
Ferment in Tehran
It's a situation vaguely reminiscent of the failed 1991 coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev, which led to the Soviet Union's dissolution. In Gorbachev's role is Mohammad Khatami, Iran's "reformist" figurehead president, who, though crazy, is not as crazy as the mad mullahs of the Guardian Council, led by the "supreme leader," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who really run Iran.
London's Daily Telegraph reports that last night Khatami threatened to resign in a "trial of strength between Islamic hardliners and reformers":
He warned that he would take all the country's prominent reformers with him unless hardliners rescinded a ban preventing thousands of progressives from standing in next month's parliamentary elections.
The Associated Press reports that Khameini "ordered hard-liners Wednesday to reconsider their disqualification of more than 3,000 pro-reform electoral candidates." Is this the beginning of the end of the current crisis, or is the current crisis is the beginning of the end for the mad mullahs? Stay tuned.
The Road to Damascus
"Recent American moves showing Washington has the military might and political will to get its way in the Middle East appear to have forced a pragmatic softening of Syria's hard-line position toward Israel," the Associated Press reports.<font size=4> Did we not tell you that the road to peace goes through Baghdad?<font size=3>
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Zero-Tolerance Watch
When 13-year-old Carl Grimmer said "Hey!" to his classmates last month, he could not have imagined what he was starting. Our item yesterday updating our earlier items has prompted a flurry of clarifications from readers, which afford us the opportunity to take this column in new and unforeseen directions.
First of all, a few readers e-mailed us to say that the squirrel shown in the "Nut Sac Dance"--the obnoxious music from which is identical to the music on pompous pedagogue Beverly Sweeney's Web page--actually is anatomically correct. This Corbis photo would seem to confirm the claim.
Many of you informed us that we missed the back story. It turns out that the naughty squirrel dance is a satire of something called the Hampsterdance, which was a Net sensation, and the subject of a Salon article, back in 1999. The Hampsterdance spawned some violent satires, including The Hamster Blast (in which you wipe out the critters with a virtual machine gun to the familiar musical accompaniment) and Microgerbil (which hampsterdances when you set the oven to power level 3).
It turns out, too, that the music was not original to the Hampsterdance. According to Erik Newman, in a post to the alt.banjo Usenet newsgroup, the music comes from the 1973 Disney film "Robin Hood": "Robin Hood and Maid Marion are foxes, and Little John is a bear. The narrator/minstrel (Roger Miller) is a rooster." Miller's character, which sings the song (which Hampsterdance speeded up), is called Alan-A-Dale.
A couple of other interesting points about Richland Middle School, the institution Carl Grimmer attends: According to GreatSchools.net, "This school's test scores are below average compared to schools facing equal or greater challenges."
Also, the Web page for the school's administration lists three Richland leaders: the principal, the assistant principal and someone whose title isn't given but who appears to be a counselor of some sort. All three attended Texas Women's University, which seems a bit odd, since all three are men.
Life Imitates 'South Park'
Dr. Schwartz: Kyle, a circumcision is a very common thing for Ike to have. His father had it, his grandfather had it. And his brother had it.
Kyle: No! No, it isn't true!
Dr. Schwartz: We're not going to cut it off! We're just goin' to snip it, so it looks bigger.
Stan: Oh, hey, that doesn't sound like a bad idea!
Cartman: Heyeah, I want to get a circumstision, too.
--"Ike's Wee Wee," an episode of "South Park," aired May 27, 1998
"After going to a dozen bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs last year, Laura Jean Stargardt told her parents she wanted one of her own. She said she found the singing inspiring and offered to learn Hebrew. She also said she wanted a big party. Her parents thought the request was unusual since the family is Methodist. But they co-hosted a lavish party for her and two of her friends last month that looked like a bat mitzvah, without the religion."
--Wall Street Journal (link for WSJ.com subscribers), Jan. 14, 2004
From Bad to Diverse
At Gavin Newsom's inauguration as mayor of San Francisco last week, portly performer Ed Asner read an essay by Kevin Starr, the California state librarian called "San Francisco, City and the World," which, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, "charted the evolving ethnic diversity of San Francisco."
But when Newsom presided over his first meeting of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors yesterday, he came under attack because the essay wasn't "diverse" enough. For one thing, as Supervisor Tom Ammiano complained, it didn't mention "the contributions of LBGT people to the history and development of San Francisco." Spicing up a familiar sandwich by adding garlic to the recipe? No, it turns out LBGT stands for "lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender."
Supervisor Bevan Dufty "noted the essay also neglected to include Japanese Americans and the labor movement." Needless to say, Starr is repentant:
"Of all the groups I mentioned, there were gay groups in all of them," Starr said. "My charge was not to write on civil rights groups or sexual persuasion groups."
Still, he said, "I could have put a phrase in there; it apparently struck a chord that it wasn't in there. I regret that very much." . . .
As for the Japanese Americans, "I don't know how I missed them," he said. "That's a very important ethnic group."
During the essay, the Chronicle notes, "for each ethnicity mentioned, there was a child dressed in traditional clothing and carrying a San Francisco flag." Starr asks a pretty good question vis-à-vis the people of LBGTishness: "Who would have come out with the flag?"
Mountaineers Pay a High Price
"An attempt to auction off the state of West Virginia drew 56 bids and nearly enough promised dollars to fill the state's projected budget hole," the Associated Press reports from Morgantown. "By Tuesday evening, with five days to go in the sale of item number 2372779353, 'Entire State of West Virginia,' bidders had bumped the ante up to just $1 short of $100 million."
But then eBay abruptly pulled the auction, on the ground that it was a "joke." Well, here's how the lot was described:
I, as emperor of West Virginia, have been appointed as steward of this sale. You are bidding on the ENTIRE STATE of West Virginia. Please note that this auction does not come with governing rites, nor the inhabitants of said property. You also may not change the state flag, bird, or so on. This is merely for bragging rights, or to hang a sign in your garage that says, "I own West Virginia." Also please note, you will have every right to succeed [sic] from the union, but that has been tried in the past without much success. I am also willing to relinquish the seat of "Emperor" FOR FREE!
Does this sound like a joke to you? Incidentally, West Virginia did successfully secede from Virginia, after Virginia (ultimately unsuccessfully) seceded from the union.
Meanwhile, the Charleston Gazette reports that "West Virginia residents are paying more for illegal drugs than people in other states, a study says." The study found that "state residents pay more for powder cocaine than any other area of the country, except for parts of Vermont, Virginia, South Carolina, North Dakota and Montana."
U.S. Attorney Kasey Warner, who announced the findings of the National Drug Intelligence Center, offered this explanation: "Maybe people have the ideas that us poor hillbillies in the backwoods will pay more for our drugs." No wonder they're running a budget deficit in Charleston. |
