The Analogist
With the midterm elections now less than a month away, the Democrats have been split into two camps on the issue of war and peace. The most dramatic split, surely, is the one between the House of Gephardt and the House of Gore. The rift is more glaring because, at least at first glance, each…
On the Contrary:
It’s naive to expect partisan politicians to play fair, I know; still, I’m always surprised by the boldness of their hypocrisies. Take the initial reaction of Bush administration cheerleaders to demands for an independent investigation of intelligence failures before September 11. Critics of the intelligence community were playing the “blame game,” they intoned, practically in…
The Left Coast Goes Lefter
California Gov. Gray Davis’ signature on legislation that would bring far more power to the state’s legendary farmworker union has capped and brought into focus a stunning year of progressive accomplishment in the Golden State. Together, a very liberal Legislature and a very calculating governor have enacted the most extensive renewable energy requirement in the…
Mitch Daniels: Due Diligence?
In his 29 years as a maintenance worker for the Indianapolis Power and Light Company (IPALCO), James C. Gilmore had never been asked to do anything like it. But in late 2000 and early 2001, according to an affidavit filed with the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana, he was ordered to remove “many…
Globalism in the Dock
Rangoon, the capital of Burma (now officially called Myanmar), is normally one of the most depressing cities in Asia. It usually exudes the desperate air of a decaying totalitarian metropolis: Beggars wander the central market, queuing for handouts of the worthless local currency, while paramilitary police block access to universities, political party offices and any…
Talent for Deception
Back in 1984, a single radio broadcast forever changed the life of James Talent, a young lawyer in Missouri making his first foray into state politics. It was the peak of the Reagan era. God and country were hot topics, and religious broadcasters were cranking at a fever pitch. James Dobson, who heads Focus on…
Comment: Spot the Spoiler
Bemoaning the failure of the Democratic Party to lead has become a newsroom sport. In The New Republic’s version, the Dems have squandered their Roosevelt-Truman-Kennan foreign-policy heritage by wimping out on Iraq. In New York Times columnist Tom Friedman’s rendition, “The problem with the Democrats is not that they are being drowned out by Iraq.…
It’s Full Employment, Stupid
Newly released data on income and poverty suggest that the recent economic downturn hit lower-income families disproportionately. The latest Census Bureau report found that poverty began rising and median family income started falling in 2001, confirming what many of us have always known: The key to improved living standards for the bottom half was, and…
Deter and Contain
The simplest question that supporters of going to war with Iraq cannot answer is why would Saddam Hussein be less likely to use his weapons of mass destruction if we attack than if we contain him. This debate, essentially within the Republican Party, closely mirrors the struggle over the proposed rollback of communism that raged…
Books in Review:
Crashing the Party: How to Tell the Truth and Still Run for President By Ralph Nader. Dunne Books, 400 pages, $14.95 Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon By Justin Martin. Perseus Publishing, 288 pages, $26.00 The central element of Ralph Nader’s public appeal is, and has always been, honesty. He built his image in the 1960s as…
Neither Consent nor Dissent
As President Bush rushes headlong into war with Iraq, there are endless reasons for concern; but the one that is most disturbing has been least remarked on. The president can be faulted for waiting so long to consult Congress, the United Nations, America’s allies and the Middle Eastern nations likely to be affected (Jordan, Turkey,…
Impaired Faculties?
Writing in late September, the National Review’s Byron York took a telling swipe at Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Contrasting their relatively cozy treatment of conservative University of Utah law professor Michael McConnell, whom President Bush has nominated for the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with their rejection of Texas Supreme Court Judge…
One Cheer for Schröder
For anyone critical of the Bush administration’s foreign policy, there seemed much to cheer about in German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s re-election last month. Schröder, after all, had made opposition to U.S. war plans in Iraq the centerpiece of his party’s campaign. To a liberal or a progressive, there also appeared to be grounds for optimism…
Showtime Iraq
The pregame show is ticking toward the opening kickoff. The networks are up- dating their SHOWDOWN and COUNTDOWN logos, upgrading their drumrolls and trumpet snippets, cueing their cruise missile videos and maps of hitherto obscure regions. The color commentators and military consultants are sipping their coffee in the green rooms, getting pumped. War is the…
Show, Don’t Tell
The great god of laughter, his sides forever split, is not pleased by black comedies, for the simple reason that they tend not to be very funny. The comedy of blackness is usually a kind of local anesthetic, something frozen, producing not humor but a dead-skinned tolerance for the horrible; and there is no situation…
Itty-Bitty Agenda
Some say the Democrats don’t have the courage of their convictions. Could be. But what I worry about more is that they don’t have the courage of the public’s convictions. Take the issue of war with Iraq. Polls have consistently shown that the public is leery of unilateral action in Iraq and would prefer not…
The Taxonomist: Standing Up Against America
Everybody’s annoyed at big American corporations that renounce their citizenship and move to Bermuda to avoid taxes. The public heat has forced even most Republican politicians to feign outrage. In recent months, PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting abandoned its plan to incorporate in Bermuda, as did the Stanley Works, the poster child for unpatriotic corporate behavior. Who could…
