Best of the Web Today - December 12, 2003
By JAMES TARANTO
'A Promising Issue'
Are Democrats hoping for America to lose in Iraq? Michael Kinsley seems to think so. "The slow souring of the American adventure in Iraq is a promising and legitimate issue for the Democrats," he writes. "And they will benefit from it no matter what they say."
Kinsley faults the Dems for their incoherent positions on the war, which is a good point if not exactly an original one. But here's a curious passage, to which blogger Edward Morrissey called our attention:
The resolution these gentlemen supported gave warmaking authority to George W. Bush, not to some idealized, all-wise president such as themselves. The resolution did not say, "This authorization to start a war is valid only when used in conjunction with at least two other countries large enough to spot on a medium-sized world map."
If Mike Kinsley can't find Britain, Australia, Spain, Italy or Poland on a medium-sized world map, he's a lot less smart than his reputation.
'Like It or Not, People Will Be Happy'
"Leftyandproud," a poster on the unofficial DemocraticUnderground Web site, reacts to yesterday's news that the Dow Jones Industrial Average had closed above 10000 for the first time since May 2002 (quoting verbatim, except the redacted vulgarity):
Please folks, don't start that "We should be happy for people...They are seeing nice gains in their 401k's..yadda yadda" Bottom line, this will HELP BUSH!
I took a look at my IRA today and see it sitting at a three year high. I admit, for a moment, I felt a moment of glee, then I remembered who this is REALLY helping, big corporations, Bush's supporters, and the sheep who think he really did anything to boost the economy.
Like it or not, people vote with their pocketbooks and when they see these big gains, they will be happy. Couple this with the bigger than ever tax refund checks people we getting (Thanks in no small part to the politically motivated tactic of reducing tax brackets across the board in JULY, and making the bill retroactive, so the first 7 months of overpaid taxes will be INCLUDED in your tax refund...in addition to the doubled child credit and marriage penalty drop...my GOD...I know most of tax cuts help the rich, but this s--- really will help middle America with larger refunds. ALSO, since Dubya dropped the steel tariffs, the price of nearly everything with metal in it will be DROPPING over the next few months...meaning more spending...more demand...more products sold...more corporate revenue...more jobs needed...We need to admit this and prepare for it.
The people are going to be happy.
They like their tax reductions.
They like cheap prices on stuff.
They like their 401k's being up 40% this year.
If the economy keeps this pace, unemployment will likely be down to 5.5% by next November and we better have a damn good argument against Bush's policies. Is there any way we can take credit for helping the economy? We certainly are going to need an argument for this next year.
The Democratic Party: When you're happy, they're not!
But then here's a post one Lance Collins contributed to "Kicking Ass," the charmingly named official Democratic National Committee blog:
Regarding the query why do the lower-income folks support Republicans, I have my own take.
People who don't like their lot in life usually want to blame someone, especially if they feel deprived, as opposed to folks whose whole family history has been one of poverty thus they don't expect anything to change. . . .
Take the average Joe six-pack down here in Texas. (Sorry to generalize but I know plenty of them and that's where my theory comes from). He may not have finished high school, or may have a few junior college credits. He's had numerous jobs because of lack of education, unreliability, failed drug tests, missing work, etc. He has no savings, no credit, and possibly a record, at least a DWI or two. He works full-time at Wal-Mart or construction and hates it. He's perpetually angry at his lot in life, though much of it is his own making. His grandfather and father led a similar life and they blamed everything on African-Americans. Joe six-pack secretly does too, but also blames illegal aliens, homosexuals, "God-haters," and tree-huggers. With so many groups to blame it's hard to pin it all down, but his right-wing radio tells him that all his anger can be conflated into a general disdain for "liberals."
They're a catch all group for everything that's wrong in America. They're the reason the African-American mother gets aid from the state but he does not. They're the reason he see's [sic] so many illegal aliens working when he can't hold a job. All the damned foreigners who got into college because of liberal affirmative action are the reason he couldn't get a college degree. On and on, and on.
It's the classic victim mentality. Please give me someone, anyone, I can blame my misfortune on other than the face I see in the mirror. And the GOP does that.
So according to leftyandproud, if the economy improves people will credit Republicans, while Collins contends those who don't do well blame it on Democrats. If they're right, it's sort of a no-win for the Dems, isn't it?
'He Wasn't Fighting for This Country'
Ron Gunzberger of Politics1.com files a report on the Florida Democratic Party's state convention, where he encountered Storm, "a young guy in a sports coat [who] walked around holding a Dennis Kucinich sign":
At the opening session of the convention, the delegates were shown a video tribute to a young College Democrat activist and military reservist who died fighting in Iraq a few months ago. Three minutes into the video, I spotted Storm leaving in disgust. "I had to walk out of there. That was disgusting--it was like a tribute to imperialism. They said he died fighting for freedom. What freedom was he fighting for? He died fighting for imperialism. Is this a Republican Convention? It was sickening me," he fumed.
Didn't you think the point was to show that Democrats--like Republicans--are also loyal Americans who are willing to fight for this country?
"He wasn't fighting for this country. He was fighting for oil."
So, have you won anyone over to Kucinich yet?
"No--but ask me again around 3:30 this afternoon."
Would anyone be offended if we were to question Storm's patriotism?
'He's Kinda Cool'
New York magazine's Michael Wolff reports on another despairing Dem:
My friend Tom Keane, the political columnist for the Boston Herald, a dedicated as well as optimistic Democrat (he represented ultraliberal Back Bay on the City Council and ran for Congress a few years ago), seemed as near to throwing up his hands as a partisan can come.
"The fact is," he wrote, "everything is breaking George W. Bush's way. Increasingly his reelection looks inevitable. It's going to be a grim July at the FleetCenter." . . .
His column came out the day before Thanksgiving--the day before the president's secret trip to Baghdad--and so he was even more despairing when I called him the day after: "We've got James Bond for president! Did he carry a capsule to bite on if he got captured by enemy troops? Forget James Bond, this is Harrison Ford. Say what you want, as much as a lot of Democrats hate this guy, a lot more people think he's kinda cool."
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that "one national poll now reports that 45 percent of likely Democratic primary voters still cannot name a single candidate." That's another problem Republicans definitely don't have. On the other hand, CNN reports Ralph Nader, the Green Party's nominee in both 1996 and 2000, "is leaning toward another independent run for the presidency." At least most of the Dems presumably know his name.
McGovern II?
We suppose the White House shouldn't take anything for granted, but we're awfully skeptical of claims--made by Bill Kristol, among others--that Howard Dean has some sort of hidden strength that would make him able to beat President Bush, or at least avert a McGovern-magnitude misfortune.
Here's a datum to bolster our view: The New York Post reports that in New Hampshire, "Bush gets 57 percent to Dean's 30 percent among registered voters in the American Research Group poll." A generic "Democratic Party nominee" does somewhat better, losing to Bush by just 51% to 34%.
Remember that Granite Staters, unlike normal people in the rest of the country, have already gotten to know Dean, who's been campaigning there for a year and governed next-door Vermont starting in 1991.
Oh Yeah, We've Been Hanging on Every Word
"If you've paid attention to my father's speeches for the last year, particularly his foreign-policy speeches, the natural choice for him was Dean."--Al Gore's daughter Karenna, quoted by the New York Daily News's Lloyd Grove, Dec. 11
Help Enron, Vote for Dean
While he was governor of Vermont, Howard Dean "enacted tax breaks that attracted to the state a 'Who's Who' of corporate America--including Enron--to set up insurance businesses," the Boston Globe reports. "Dean succeeded in turning Vermont into the kingdom of captives"--concerns that help insure their parent companies. "Vermont has more of these companies than the other 49 states combined."
The Kerry-Chirac Axis
The Boston Globe buries the lead in an article about the latest travails of John Kerry, the haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat, who by the way served in Vietnam:
Touting his own relationships with foreign governments, Kerry disclosed that he was recently told that French President Jacques Chirac is willing to assist with the occupation of Iraq, and Chirac has even signaled a willingness to send French troops to Iraq.
"I've talked with a friend of mine who was in Paris the other day who was meeting with President Chirac at length, exploring some ideas, and the clear conclusion was that there is a place where the president is prepared to be involved and even perhaps put troops on the ground," Kerry said.
Pressed, Kerry refused to identify the friend who spoke with Chirac, or offer further details. "I don't want to drag the president of France into this presidential race."
Kerry also said Howard Dean is vulnerable to Republican attacks on national defense and--get ready for it--"argued that he is best positioned to defeat that strategy with his own background as a decorated Vietnam War veteran."
Clark: Osama Needs a Little Lovin'
Yesterday we noted Wesley Clark's view that incarceration in a "Dutch prison" is a more fitting punishment for Osama bin Laden than death. In 2000 a reporter for Philadelphia City paper visited a Dutch prison, and she describes the conditions there:
Can wives or girlfriends spend a night in the prison? Of course.
Hans shows us the conjugal visit bedroom. If my husband were here we would check in. It resembles a small, pleasant hotel room with a double bed. "We had to soundproof it," laughs Hans. "They made so much noise."
If Clark really thinks bin Laden deserves to continue enjoying physical relations with his four wives, the hundreds of people widowed on Sept. 11 may disagree.
Constitution Shmonstitution
"The Supreme Court that upheld the new campaign finance law on Wednesday was a pragmatic court, concerned less with the fine points of constitutional doctrine than with the real-world context and consequences of the intensely awaited decision."--Linda Greenhouse, "news analysis," New York Times, Dec. 12
Never Let the Facts Get in the Way of a Good Rant
"Yes, Halliburton is profiteering in Iraq--will apologists finally concede the point, now that a Pentagon audit finds overcharging?"--former Enron adviser Paul Krugman, New York Times, Dec. 12
"The officials said Halliburton did not appear to have profited from overcharging for fuel, but had instead paid a subcontractor too much for the gasoline in the first place."--news story, New York Times, Dec. 12
Hey, Where's the ACLU?
Here's an interesting report on a terror-related court hearing:
Forcing reluctant witnesses to testify at secret court hearings is an acceptable practice in the fight against terrorism and doesn't violate anybody's rights, federal lawyers argued today.
"There is a moral and civic duty on all citizens to aid in enforcing the law," Justice Department counsel Bernard Laprade told the Supreme Court.
Interestingly enough, the ACLU doesn't seem to be involved in this case. That's because the story, from the Candian Press, involves the Canadian Supreme Court in Ottawa. But we're sure it's John Ashcroft's fault anyway.
The Birds, the Bees and the Judges
An alert reader calls our attention to a footnote No. 23 in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, last month's Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision declaring the traditional definition of marriage unconstitutional:
It is hardly surprising that civil marriage developed historically as a means to regulate heterosexual conduct and to promote child rearing, because until very recently unassisted heterosexual relations were the only means short of adoption by which children could come into the world.
OK, so they didn't mention the stork or the cabbage patch. Still, someone might want to sit down with the justices of the Supreme Judicial Court and explain to them the facts of life, such as that adopted children are already in the world!
This Just In
"In Cuba, the Price of Education Is Indoctrination"--headline, Houston Chronicle, Dec. 11
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Paying Tribute--II
Here are some more eulogies for Robert Bartley, The Wall Street Journal's editor emeritus, who died Wednesday:
Irving Kristol in The Weekly Standard: "Bob Bartley was one of the most influential journalists of the 20th century. He was also a most admirable human being. Although his controversial opinions, strongly expressed, made him enemies, he himself had no enemies. Petty passions were simply foreign to him. Even his political opponents came to respect his intelligence, his integrity, and his great good nature."
R. Emmett Tyrrell of The American Spectator: "To the last there was a twinkle in his eye, at times a mischievous twinkle. He was a quiet man, punctuating conversation whether social or editorial, with long pauses, which doubtless puzzled some people, but his friends understood: Bob was thinking about the topic at hand. And he often broke his silence with another unforgettable mannerism. He would roll his head left and right while uttering a particularly emphatic judgment in his flat slightly nasal voice intoning the unaccented idiom of the Midwest, his native region in which he took immense pride."
Richard Miniter in TechCentralStation.com: "There's a convention at the Wall Street Journal editorial page to refer to every man, save the vilest dictators and terrorists, as 'Mr.,' but after they are dead, to simply refer to them by their last name. Reflecting on the vast reach of Bartley's ideas, it saddened me to pick up the editorial page and, for the first time, to see Bartley's name without the 'Mr.' I know there were millions of others who felt the same way."
Zero-Tolerance Watch
Louisiana's Bossier Parish School Board "will take a second look at its punishment policy for students caught with over-the-counter medications on campus," the Associated Press reports. As we noted last week, the board suspended sophomore Amanda Styles for possession of Advil. The publicity around Styles's case prompted "a barrage of critical telephone calls and e-mails," and the Bossier school board apparently does not want to become known as the bossiest school board in the country.
The Caught Him Red-Nosed--Uh, -Handed
"Feds to Seek Death Penalty for Rudolph" reads an Associated Press headline, which prompts reader Michael Morley to pen these lyrics:
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
Had a very shiny gun
And if you ever saw it
You would turn around and run
All of the other reindeer
Used laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any poker games
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say
"Rudolph with your gun so bright
Won't you kill my wife tonight?"
Then the cops came to bust him
And they shouted out with glee
"Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer's
In the penitentiary!"
Rudolph says it was all a big mistake: He meant to confess to a sleighing. |
