With mass departures today from his campaign staff, it may be time to write John McCain’s political obituary. The captain of the Straight Talk Express deserves to go out on his shield like the honorable warrior he has always been.
In an eerie parallel to Herman Wouk’s “The Caine Mutiny,” the Senator from Arizona morphed from a lifelong by-the-book career serviceman to the unhinged Capt. Queeg of the popular 1950’s novel, play and movie.
In the anger over his support for an insane war, it would be an injustice if McCain’s service to his country were swept out with the Iraq wreckage. Unlike Bush, Cheney and, yes, Bill Clinton, he served and suffered through Vietnam, another unjust war not of his making.
Born in the Panama Canal Zone where his father, an Admiral, was stationed, John Sidney McCain III went to Annapolis, was wounded in Vietnam, and captured and tortured during his five and a half years as a prisoner, most of it in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton.”
As a Senator, he has advocated gun control, campaign finance reform and a humane approach to immigration legislation.
McCain might have been a quirky President, but unlike Bush, an honorable one if he hadn’t been derailed by the Rove smear machine in 2000 and his own mistakes for 2008.
But the Republican field of candidates he leaves behind provides the best possible contrast to his integrity.
Ave et vale, Senator.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Ugly Obsession: Seeing Through the Stars
Celebrity journalism has always been the ultimate oxymoron. Journalism is about truth, celebrity is illusion. But now neo-fan magazines and web sites have pushed the contradiction to a new level, seeking what Virginia Heffernan calls “evidence of monstrosity.”
The TV critic of the New York Times writes: “Like so many other 20th-century American institutions, Hollywood beauty is now regularly treated as a fairy tale only for dreamers and chumps. Readers with any sense are supposed to recognize its strategic function but otherwise acknowledge it as a lie. The availability of plastic surgery and the widespread use of tooth bleach and self-tanners and finally the photo manipulation that any grandma can do to brighten up her Canon PowerShot photos has somehow made even transcendent beauty manifestly suspect.”
Debunking beauty is surely satisfying to the mean-spirited and ugly of soul, but is that what’s become of all of us?
I take an old man’s pleasure in looking at Michelle Pfeiffer. Diane Lane and Scarlett Johansson, and no voyeur with a magnifying glass is going to take that away from me.
Heffernan ends up being of two minds about “dismantling fantasy,” but her analysis is devastating. She has been one of my favorite critics ever since she described me as an “ashen-faced talking head.”
The TV critic of the New York Times writes: “Like so many other 20th-century American institutions, Hollywood beauty is now regularly treated as a fairy tale only for dreamers and chumps. Readers with any sense are supposed to recognize its strategic function but otherwise acknowledge it as a lie. The availability of plastic surgery and the widespread use of tooth bleach and self-tanners and finally the photo manipulation that any grandma can do to brighten up her Canon PowerShot photos has somehow made even transcendent beauty manifestly suspect.”
Debunking beauty is surely satisfying to the mean-spirited and ugly of soul, but is that what’s become of all of us?
I take an old man’s pleasure in looking at Michelle Pfeiffer. Diane Lane and Scarlett Johansson, and no voyeur with a magnifying glass is going to take that away from me.
Heffernan ends up being of two minds about “dismantling fantasy,” but her analysis is devastating. She has been one of my favorite critics ever since she described me as an “ashen-faced talking head.”
Republican President? Liar Luntz Has a Plan
Talk about die-hards: The GOP’s piss-on–the-public pollster/pundit Frank Lunz unveils his strategy to keep the White House in ’08. It gets a tad twisty, of course, so follow closely:
Play the “fed up with Washington” card: “Democrats blew into Washington in 2006 as a breath of fresh air in response to Republican scandal, Republican budget mismanagement and a Republican war. But in recent weeks, that freshness has turned stale.”
Sell the voters hope: Luntz says focus groups have been saying, "Don't tell us what George W. Bush did wrong. Tell us what you will do right. Don't talk about the past. Tell us about the future."
Be authentic, even if you have to fake it: Don’t try to “recapture a mood that has long since gone by...the Republican candidate should seek to lead like Reagan, not be Reagan.”
Win Ohio: Give them “a culturally conservative message fused with government accountability and economic opportunity specifically tailored to voters in the industrial heartland.”
Luntz, whose specialty is inverting the truth (“global warming” to “climate change”), is bamboozling himself now into forgetting that he has been discredited to the point that PBS last month, after hiring him as an analyst for a Democratic debate, had to pull back under fire.
A long-time liar for Rudy Giuliani, Luntz has no official place in this campaign. But he no doubt is in a closet somewhere, churning out truthful lies to make America’s Mayor look Reaganesque but not like Reagan, devising a culturally conservative message for his cross-dressing candidate and floating pipe-dream plans for how the Republicans can hold on to the White House with even bigger lies than Bush and Cheney could invent.
Play the “fed up with Washington” card: “Democrats blew into Washington in 2006 as a breath of fresh air in response to Republican scandal, Republican budget mismanagement and a Republican war. But in recent weeks, that freshness has turned stale.”
Sell the voters hope: Luntz says focus groups have been saying, "Don't tell us what George W. Bush did wrong. Tell us what you will do right. Don't talk about the past. Tell us about the future."
Be authentic, even if you have to fake it: Don’t try to “recapture a mood that has long since gone by...the Republican candidate should seek to lead like Reagan, not be Reagan.”
Win Ohio: Give them “a culturally conservative message fused with government accountability and economic opportunity specifically tailored to voters in the industrial heartland.”
Luntz, whose specialty is inverting the truth (“global warming” to “climate change”), is bamboozling himself now into forgetting that he has been discredited to the point that PBS last month, after hiring him as an analyst for a Democratic debate, had to pull back under fire.
A long-time liar for Rudy Giuliani, Luntz has no official place in this campaign. But he no doubt is in a closet somewhere, churning out truthful lies to make America’s Mayor look Reaganesque but not like Reagan, devising a culturally conservative message for his cross-dressing candidate and floating pipe-dream plans for how the Republicans can hold on to the White House with even bigger lies than Bush and Cheney could invent.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Obama Backers Are Too Educated
For those who have been wondering why the Illinois senator is trailing Hillary Clinton in the polls, even though he has raised tons of money, we finally have the answer--from no less an authority than the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
The favorite among voters without a college education always wins, according to Peter Brown, who cites Howard Dean, Bill Bradley, Paul Tsongas, Gary Hart and Ted Kennedy as those who appealed to educated Democrats and lost.
The bad news for Obama is that too many of those who back him went to college, but “That's not to minimize the magnetism of Obama and his ability to bring excitement to the campaign,” Brown generously concedes.
Maybe Obama can catch up by taking dumbing-down lessons from Fred Thompson, who is making an art of it. Or better yet, he might console himself with the $34 million he has on hand and disregard pollsters who have trouble with “post hoc, ergo propter hoc,” as the college-educated might say.
The favorite among voters without a college education always wins, according to Peter Brown, who cites Howard Dean, Bill Bradley, Paul Tsongas, Gary Hart and Ted Kennedy as those who appealed to educated Democrats and lost.
The bad news for Obama is that too many of those who back him went to college, but “That's not to minimize the magnetism of Obama and his ability to bring excitement to the campaign,” Brown generously concedes.
Maybe Obama can catch up by taking dumbing-down lessons from Fred Thompson, who is making an art of it. Or better yet, he might console himself with the $34 million he has on hand and disregard pollsters who have trouble with “post hoc, ergo propter hoc,” as the college-educated might say.
The Dating Game
Rep. Christopher Shays, an Iraq war stalwart on the order of his Connecticut colleague, Sen. Joe Lieberman, has just had an epiphany: He wants all American troops out by December 2008.
Meanwhile, they can keep fighting or policing or whatever the hell it is they’re doing until Shays gets re-elected in November 2008. How many will die between now and then?
Meanwhile, they can keep fighting or policing or whatever the hell it is they’re doing until Shays gets re-elected in November 2008. How many will die between now and then?
Word War Won: Webb KOs Graham
In less than 20 minutes today on “Meet the Press,” the debate over Iraq came into clear focus.
Freshman Democratic Sen. Jim Webb cut through the Republican fog of obfuscation and called Iraq by its proper name--not a war but a “botched occupation.”
As Sen. Lindsey Graham, parroting the Bush line about fighting terrorism, kept ducking behind Gen. Patraeus, Webb pointed out that the occupation brought Al Qaeda to Iraq, that the Iraqis are telling us to get out and our troops have lost faith in the operation and want to come home.
Pitting pitiful Graham against Webb was a mismatch. The South Carolina Senator, whose military experience consists of doing legal paperwork, was up against a Vietnam veteran with the Navy Cross, whose family has served the country since the American Revolution and who has helped run the Defense Department.
If patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels, Webb was having none of Graham’s and the session led to verbal fisticuffs that, on the scorecard of a not-impartial judge, ended with a KO by Webb.
It was encouraging to watch the senator from Virginia have Graham for breakfast. Hillary Clinton backers have been touting him as a running mate, and it’s easy to see why.
Freshman Democratic Sen. Jim Webb cut through the Republican fog of obfuscation and called Iraq by its proper name--not a war but a “botched occupation.”
As Sen. Lindsey Graham, parroting the Bush line about fighting terrorism, kept ducking behind Gen. Patraeus, Webb pointed out that the occupation brought Al Qaeda to Iraq, that the Iraqis are telling us to get out and our troops have lost faith in the operation and want to come home.
Pitting pitiful Graham against Webb was a mismatch. The South Carolina Senator, whose military experience consists of doing legal paperwork, was up against a Vietnam veteran with the Navy Cross, whose family has served the country since the American Revolution and who has helped run the Defense Department.
If patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels, Webb was having none of Graham’s and the session led to verbal fisticuffs that, on the scorecard of a not-impartial judge, ended with a KO by Webb.
It was encouraging to watch the senator from Virginia have Graham for breakfast. Hillary Clinton backers have been touting him as a running mate, and it’s easy to see why.
Terrorists Get Old, Too
Time works its will on everyone, even fanatics. Those who don’t strap explosives to themselves and ascend to their 72 virgins are not immune to the coming of age.
Here is Osama bin Laden in the latest terrorist video, looking wan and grey, reduced to a 50-second cameo, waxing philosophical:
"So this whole broad life is summarized by him who was inspired by God, the Lord of the heavens and earth, praised and exalted is he. This glorious prophet who was inspired by God summarized this entire life by these words...Happy is the one who was chosen by God as a martyr."
That elegiac snippet of uncertain vintage suggests aging and the loss of fire in the belly. In Wordsworth’s words, “Whither is fled the visionary gleam?”
But compared to Carlos the Jackal, bin Laden is still in his prime. Venezuelan-born Vladimir Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, who bombed his way to fame in the 1970s, in an interview from a French prison this week, called the current Islamic terrorists the Gallic equivalent of whippersnappers.
“They are not professionals,” Carlos scoffed. “They’re not organized. They don’t even know how to make proper explosives or proper detonators.”
In his day, Carlos pointed out, killing people at random was amateur night. He selected his targets to make a point.
Comforting as it is to know that terrorists get old and flabby, like the rest of us, it would be churlish not to wish them an early death to escape these mortal pangs.
Here is Osama bin Laden in the latest terrorist video, looking wan and grey, reduced to a 50-second cameo, waxing philosophical:
"So this whole broad life is summarized by him who was inspired by God, the Lord of the heavens and earth, praised and exalted is he. This glorious prophet who was inspired by God summarized this entire life by these words...Happy is the one who was chosen by God as a martyr."
That elegiac snippet of uncertain vintage suggests aging and the loss of fire in the belly. In Wordsworth’s words, “Whither is fled the visionary gleam?”
But compared to Carlos the Jackal, bin Laden is still in his prime. Venezuelan-born Vladimir Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, who bombed his way to fame in the 1970s, in an interview from a French prison this week, called the current Islamic terrorists the Gallic equivalent of whippersnappers.
“They are not professionals,” Carlos scoffed. “They’re not organized. They don’t even know how to make proper explosives or proper detonators.”
In his day, Carlos pointed out, killing people at random was amateur night. He selected his targets to make a point.
Comforting as it is to know that terrorists get old and flabby, like the rest of us, it would be churlish not to wish them an early death to escape these mortal pangs.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
George Bush's Groucho Moment
Now that Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki has suggested we’ve overstayed our welcome, the President should take a look at Groucho Marx’s classic example of a graceful exit from an embarrassing situation:
Hello, I must be going/I cannot stay/I came to say/
I must be going/I'm glad I came/But just the same/I must be going... Ta-Ta!
Protocol requires a polite response to the PM’s statement that Americans can leave “any time they want” and his top aide’s saying we are treating Iraq like "an experiment in an American laboratory."
For the sake of diplomacy, as we go out the door, we should be deaf to the complaint that our military is committing human rights violations, embarrassing the Iraqi government and cooperating with "gangs of killers" in the campaign against al-Qaeda.
But no good guest should overlook his host’s heavy hints that the party’s over. Groucho never would have. Here are our hats, what’s our hurry?
Hello, I must be going/I cannot stay/I came to say/
I must be going/I'm glad I came/But just the same/I must be going... Ta-Ta!
Protocol requires a polite response to the PM’s statement that Americans can leave “any time they want” and his top aide’s saying we are treating Iraq like "an experiment in an American laboratory."
For the sake of diplomacy, as we go out the door, we should be deaf to the complaint that our military is committing human rights violations, embarrassing the Iraqi government and cooperating with "gangs of killers" in the campaign against al-Qaeda.
But no good guest should overlook his host’s heavy hints that the party’s over. Groucho never would have. Here are our hats, what’s our hurry?
ABC's Leaky Terrorist Coverage
Al Jazeera West is at it again. ABC TV’s doughty “investigative team,” which specializes in Al Qaeda handouts, is reporting the impending Mother of All Terrorist Attacks, as gleaned from an exclusive interview with Taliban military commander Mansour Dadullah.
"You will, God willing, be witness to more attacks," he told a Pakistani journalist, according to ABC.
“Just last month,” the network notes, “Dadullah presided over what was termed a terror training camp graduation ceremony in Pakistan, supposedly dispatching attack teams to the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany.”
The question arises: Why are Dadullah and his “Pakistani journalist” being so good to ABC? Last month, they gave the network an exclusive on the “graduation ceremony,” which was dutifully reported without qualification.
No one would want to dampen the investigative team’s zeal for terrorist coverage, but perhaps Brian Ross and his crew are cultivating their sources a bit too much.
Terrorists must have their Scooter Libbys, too, and it would be a shame if American journalists hadn’t learned to be more skeptical of all leakers bearing gifts.
"You will, God willing, be witness to more attacks," he told a Pakistani journalist, according to ABC.
“Just last month,” the network notes, “Dadullah presided over what was termed a terror training camp graduation ceremony in Pakistan, supposedly dispatching attack teams to the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany.”
The question arises: Why are Dadullah and his “Pakistani journalist” being so good to ABC? Last month, they gave the network an exclusive on the “graduation ceremony,” which was dutifully reported without qualification.
No one would want to dampen the investigative team’s zeal for terrorist coverage, but perhaps Brian Ross and his crew are cultivating their sources a bit too much.
Terrorists must have their Scooter Libbys, too, and it would be a shame if American journalists hadn’t learned to be more skeptical of all leakers bearing gifts.
Chertoff's Squirrel Spies
Now that the Iranians have blown their cover, the story of our rodent black ops can be told.
Last week, in a desperate last-ditch attempt to preserve their covert status, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff attributed information about imminent terrorist activities to his “gut feeling.”
Now it can be revealed that he was relying on the work of the Squirrel Intelligence Corps, whose existence was unknown until a number of agents were ferreted out and detained by the Islamic Republic’s Secret Police.
"In recent weeks, intelligence operatives have arrested 14 squirrels within Iran's borders," the state-sponsored news agency IRNA reported. "The squirrels were carrying spy gear of foreign agencies, and were stopped before they could act, thanks to the alertness of our intelligence services."
Our secret squirrels were trained by the Harvard Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, which concealed its efforts by leaking data about allegedly jocular experiments in “squirrel fishing.”
A critical element of the Iranian operation was timing. According to the journal Scholarly Squirrel, although males of the species “are notorious for chasing females...between July and August, female squirrels are ready to mate only one day out of each season.” Islamic agents apparently took advantage of our operatives’ distraction in anticipating the crucial date.
In keeping with security procedures, Director Chertoff would not comment, but a spokesperson reflected Homeland Security’s disappointment by an off-the-record reference to the observation of Sarah Jessica Parker, “You can't be friends with a squirrel. A squirrel is just a rat with a cuter outfit.”
Last week, in a desperate last-ditch attempt to preserve their covert status, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff attributed information about imminent terrorist activities to his “gut feeling.”
Now it can be revealed that he was relying on the work of the Squirrel Intelligence Corps, whose existence was unknown until a number of agents were ferreted out and detained by the Islamic Republic’s Secret Police.
"In recent weeks, intelligence operatives have arrested 14 squirrels within Iran's borders," the state-sponsored news agency IRNA reported. "The squirrels were carrying spy gear of foreign agencies, and were stopped before they could act, thanks to the alertness of our intelligence services."
Our secret squirrels were trained by the Harvard Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, which concealed its efforts by leaking data about allegedly jocular experiments in “squirrel fishing.”
A critical element of the Iranian operation was timing. According to the journal Scholarly Squirrel, although males of the species “are notorious for chasing females...between July and August, female squirrels are ready to mate only one day out of each season.” Islamic agents apparently took advantage of our operatives’ distraction in anticipating the crucial date.
In keeping with security procedures, Director Chertoff would not comment, but a spokesperson reflected Homeland Security’s disappointment by an off-the-record reference to the observation of Sarah Jessica Parker, “You can't be friends with a squirrel. A squirrel is just a rat with a cuter outfit.”
Bush on Mt. Rushmore
The George W. Bush Afterlife Society will please come to order. First, the invocation from Rabbi Joe Lieberman:
“(H)e will be judged as a president who saw the threat, and in the midst of an unpopular war, he stuck with it...his ratings among the historians will be greater than his ratings in the polls today.”
The Reverend Rush Limbaugh rises to expand on this theme in today’s sermon:
“Long after we’re all dead and gone, when historians who are not yet born begin to write about this era, they’re going to place George Bush in the upper echelon of presidents who had a great vision for America.”
And then the featured speaker, the theologian and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute Michael Novak, who had a few words to say about the honoree:
"Faith is not enough by itself because there are a lot of people who have faith but weak hearts. But his faith is very strong. He seeks guidance, like every other president does, in prayer. And that means trying to be sure he's doing the right thing. And if you've got that set, all the criticism, it doesn't faze you very much. You're answering to God."
Amen. At this point, members will pray for the historians who answered a survey of the History News Network--338 heretics said they believed President Bush is failing, while 77 said he is succeeding. Fifty heathen thought he was the worst president ever, worse than Buchanan. We will pray for enlightment for these lost souls.
The final item on the agenda this evening will be a report from the Committee to Raise Funds for the George W. Bush Sculpture on Mt. Rushmore
“(H)e will be judged as a president who saw the threat, and in the midst of an unpopular war, he stuck with it...his ratings among the historians will be greater than his ratings in the polls today.”
The Reverend Rush Limbaugh rises to expand on this theme in today’s sermon:
“Long after we’re all dead and gone, when historians who are not yet born begin to write about this era, they’re going to place George Bush in the upper echelon of presidents who had a great vision for America.”
And then the featured speaker, the theologian and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute Michael Novak, who had a few words to say about the honoree:
"Faith is not enough by itself because there are a lot of people who have faith but weak hearts. But his faith is very strong. He seeks guidance, like every other president does, in prayer. And that means trying to be sure he's doing the right thing. And if you've got that set, all the criticism, it doesn't faze you very much. You're answering to God."
Amen. At this point, members will pray for the historians who answered a survey of the History News Network--338 heretics said they believed President Bush is failing, while 77 said he is succeeding. Fifty heathen thought he was the worst president ever, worse than Buchanan. We will pray for enlightment for these lost souls.
The final item on the agenda this evening will be a report from the Committee to Raise Funds for the George W. Bush Sculpture on Mt. Rushmore
Friday, July 13, 2007
Wiping Away Bush's Grin
Peggy Noonan, who used to write for George Bush’s father and now writes for the Wall Street Journal, has had enough. She wants to fire the President. One of the reasons is that he’s in too good a mood.
At yesterday’s press conference, she notes: “There was the usual teasing, the partly aggressive, partly joshing humor, the certitude. He doesn't seem to be suffering, which is jarring. Presidents in great enterprises that are going badly suffer: Lincoln, LBJ with his head in his hands. Why doesn't Mr. Bush?”
When Lincoln lost an election, he remarked that he “was too old to cry, but it hurts too much to laugh.” Not Bush, and his “What? Me Worry?” grins are driving former supporters like Noonan up the wall.
“President Bush,” she writes, “was hired to know more than the people, to be told all the deep inside intelligence, all the facts Americans are not told, and do the right and smart thing in response.
“That's the deal...If you are a mid-level Verizon executive who lives in New Jersey, this is what you do: You hire a president and tell him to take care of everything you can't take care of--the security of the nation, its well-being, its long-term interests. And you in turn do your part...You work, pay your taxes...become involved in local things--the boy's ball team, the library, the homeless shelter. You handle what you can...and give the big things to the president.
“And if he can't do it, or if he can't do it as well as you pay the mortgage and help the kid next door, you get mad. And you fire him.
“Americans can't fire the president right now, so they're waiting it out. They can tell a pollster how they feel, and they do, and they can tell friends, and they do that too. They also watch the news conference, and grit their teeth a bit.”
So do we all.
At yesterday’s press conference, she notes: “There was the usual teasing, the partly aggressive, partly joshing humor, the certitude. He doesn't seem to be suffering, which is jarring. Presidents in great enterprises that are going badly suffer: Lincoln, LBJ with his head in his hands. Why doesn't Mr. Bush?”
When Lincoln lost an election, he remarked that he “was too old to cry, but it hurts too much to laugh.” Not Bush, and his “What? Me Worry?” grins are driving former supporters like Noonan up the wall.
“President Bush,” she writes, “was hired to know more than the people, to be told all the deep inside intelligence, all the facts Americans are not told, and do the right and smart thing in response.
“That's the deal...If you are a mid-level Verizon executive who lives in New Jersey, this is what you do: You hire a president and tell him to take care of everything you can't take care of--the security of the nation, its well-being, its long-term interests. And you in turn do your part...You work, pay your taxes...become involved in local things--the boy's ball team, the library, the homeless shelter. You handle what you can...and give the big things to the president.
“And if he can't do it, or if he can't do it as well as you pay the mortgage and help the kid next door, you get mad. And you fire him.
“Americans can't fire the president right now, so they're waiting it out. They can tell a pollster how they feel, and they do, and they can tell friends, and they do that too. They also watch the news conference, and grit their teeth a bit.”
So do we all.
Giuliani, Thompson: Tainted New Friends
As America’s Mayor goes South and Fred Thompson comes North looking for support, they are not being too choosy about the company they keep.
This week Giuliani lost his Southern chairman to a sex scandal. Last month saw the departure of his South Carolina chairman Tom Ravenel, indicted for selling cocaine. Filling in is his father, a former Congressman who called the NAACP the "National Association of Retarded People" during a debate over the Confederate flag in 2000.
Meanwhile, Thompson is in Manhattan guided by his New York Chairman, former Sen. Alfonse d’Amato, an ethically challenged public figure whose other job these days is Chairman of the Poker Players Alliance lobbying to overturn a federal ban on internet gambling.
Fonzie arranged a breakfast yesterday for Thompson with Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy, who holds Giuliani responsible for the deaths of his members on 9/11. At an ensuing press conference, Thompson praised Cassidy’s union, saying “They've paid a terrible price. They sacrificed for all of us.”
As the two Republic front runners contest for the nomination, it may be a colorful campaign with no holds barred.
This week Giuliani lost his Southern chairman to a sex scandal. Last month saw the departure of his South Carolina chairman Tom Ravenel, indicted for selling cocaine. Filling in is his father, a former Congressman who called the NAACP the "National Association of Retarded People" during a debate over the Confederate flag in 2000.
Meanwhile, Thompson is in Manhattan guided by his New York Chairman, former Sen. Alfonse d’Amato, an ethically challenged public figure whose other job these days is Chairman of the Poker Players Alliance lobbying to overturn a federal ban on internet gambling.
Fonzie arranged a breakfast yesterday for Thompson with Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy, who holds Giuliani responsible for the deaths of his members on 9/11. At an ensuing press conference, Thompson praised Cassidy’s union, saying “They've paid a terrible price. They sacrificed for all of us.”
As the two Republic front runners contest for the nomination, it may be a colorful campaign with no holds barred.
Two Cheers for the Plan B Lifestyle
The surging sales of the morning-after pill evoke mixed feelings. While the new contraceptive certainly gives women (and men) more freedom of choice, its popularity raises qualms about how far we’ve gone toward becoming a Plan B society.
Marry the wrong person? No-fault divorce. Stuff your face for years? Try diet pills and, if they don’t work, surgery. Run up too many bills? Go bankrupt.
In a society that believes in second chances, it’s hard to argue against the right to correct mistakes, but whatever happened to pay as you go, look before you leap or plain old think twice?
More to the point, there is still no totally free lunch. Uproot your children’s lives, tamper with your body chemistry, lose your credit rating, the “delete” button won’t solve everything.
At the risk of sounding like an old scold, one thing more: Get into the wrong war and try to find a Plan B pill for that.
Maybe we should be taking a longer, harder look at the Plan A’s in our lives.
Marry the wrong person? No-fault divorce. Stuff your face for years? Try diet pills and, if they don’t work, surgery. Run up too many bills? Go bankrupt.
In a society that believes in second chances, it’s hard to argue against the right to correct mistakes, but whatever happened to pay as you go, look before you leap or plain old think twice?
More to the point, there is still no totally free lunch. Uproot your children’s lives, tamper with your body chemistry, lose your credit rating, the “delete” button won’t solve everything.
At the risk of sounding like an old scold, one thing more: Get into the wrong war and try to find a Plan B pill for that.
Maybe we should be taking a longer, harder look at the Plan A’s in our lives.
Political Theater of the Absurd
The tragic comedy in Washington is beginning to look like an Absurdist revival. George Bush is “Waiting for Godot” while Congress is doing “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.”
Godot is Gen. Petraeus and, as in Beckett’s play, he is unlikely to appear, at least not in the sense the President is expecting. In September, when Petraeus comes on stage, the best Bush can hope for is an ambiguous soliloquy that, as the General has already indicated, measures progress in terms of years, even decades.
Meanwhile, Congress wrestles with a script of declarations, non-sequiturs, evasions and pauses that seek the certainty of withdrawal but only demonstrate the futility of language.
In a prolonged final act of bitter, chaotic conflict, the actors keep milling around the stage, striking poses and making their speeches but is anyone listening?
What’s left of the audience, even those who applauded the first act, is heading for the exits while the carnage continues offstage.
Godot is Gen. Petraeus and, as in Beckett’s play, he is unlikely to appear, at least not in the sense the President is expecting. In September, when Petraeus comes on stage, the best Bush can hope for is an ambiguous soliloquy that, as the General has already indicated, measures progress in terms of years, even decades.
Meanwhile, Congress wrestles with a script of declarations, non-sequiturs, evasions and pauses that seek the certainty of withdrawal but only demonstrate the futility of language.
In a prolonged final act of bitter, chaotic conflict, the actors keep milling around the stage, striking poses and making their speeches but is anyone listening?
What’s left of the audience, even those who applauded the first act, is heading for the exits while the carnage continues offstage.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
"My Country, Right or Wrong"
John Boehner is a living metaphor for the political muddle in Washington over Iraq.
During a meeting of the Republican Congressional caucus yesterday, the House Minority Leader reportedly characterized Senate colleagues as “wimps” for backing away from unquestioning support of the Bush policy.
He was rebuked by Rep. Heather Wilson, a former Air Force officer, who expressed admiration for Sen. Richard Lugar’s speech about rethinking Middle East policy.
Boehner is an emotional man. In May, before debate about the Surge, he wept openly as Rep. Sam Johnson talked of his years as a POW in North Vietnam, describing how his captors would play tapes of antiwar protesters back home over prison loudspeakers.
The Minority Leader was strongly moved by Johnson’s analogy of his experience in hearing that opposition to any expression of Congressional disapproval of the policy in Iraq.
There is no reason to question Boehner’s sincerity or patriotism, but his judgment is another matter. He embodies a classic American debate.
In 1816, after a victory, Naval Commander Stephen Decatur proposed a toast: “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.”
In 1872, Sen. Carl Schurz, a former General, amended that declaration: “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”
George Bush has complicated that difference by re-defining patriotism as support for a mindless, belligerent foreign policy that has alienated our country from almost all of the civilized world.
In Boehner’s heart, it may simply be a question of patriotism, yes or no. But someone should explain to him that Bush’s Neo-Cons have hijacked American patriotism and that some of those in both parties who truly love their country are fighting to get it back.
During a meeting of the Republican Congressional caucus yesterday, the House Minority Leader reportedly characterized Senate colleagues as “wimps” for backing away from unquestioning support of the Bush policy.
He was rebuked by Rep. Heather Wilson, a former Air Force officer, who expressed admiration for Sen. Richard Lugar’s speech about rethinking Middle East policy.
Boehner is an emotional man. In May, before debate about the Surge, he wept openly as Rep. Sam Johnson talked of his years as a POW in North Vietnam, describing how his captors would play tapes of antiwar protesters back home over prison loudspeakers.
The Minority Leader was strongly moved by Johnson’s analogy of his experience in hearing that opposition to any expression of Congressional disapproval of the policy in Iraq.
There is no reason to question Boehner’s sincerity or patriotism, but his judgment is another matter. He embodies a classic American debate.
In 1816, after a victory, Naval Commander Stephen Decatur proposed a toast: “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.”
In 1872, Sen. Carl Schurz, a former General, amended that declaration: “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”
George Bush has complicated that difference by re-defining patriotism as support for a mindless, belligerent foreign policy that has alienated our country from almost all of the civilized world.
In Boehner’s heart, it may simply be a question of patriotism, yes or no. But someone should explain to him that Bush’s Neo-Cons have hijacked American patriotism and that some of those in both parties who truly love their country are fighting to get it back.
Nice Guy Nixon, Longing to Belong
Even in the White House, he felt the whole world was a club that wouldn’t take him in as a member.
New documents and tapes released yesterday by custodians of the de-sanitized Nixon Library and Museum only add to the picture of an angry, isolated, paranoid President plotting to get everybody else before they got him and, at the same time, wanting to be perceived as a regular guy.
There is an 11-page memo from 1970 complaining that he never got credit for being “nicey-nice,” listing all his "good deeds"--calling sick people, writing to those who were experiencing hard times, giving parties for the poor. "There are innumerable examples of warm items," he wrote, echoing his exaggerated sense of being unappreciated.
Typically Nixon wanted to manipulate an outcome without getting caught doing it. "With regard to the whole warmth business, a very important point to underline is that we do not try to broker such items," he wrote, not wanting the White House to be seen as promoting them but letting them be "discovered."
Somewhere under all that insecurity and misplaced guile was the man Nixon wanted to be. I got a glimpse of him in 1966 when the former Vice President and failed candidate for Governor of California was practicing law in Manhattan.
When conversation at the dinner table turned to baseball, his calculating manner gave way to enthusiastic fan talk. That led me to suggest there was a perfect job opening for him--Commissioner of Baseball.
His eyes lit up. “Can you get it for me?” he asked.
If he had gotten that job, there would be no library and museum now, but he might have had a happier life, as would we all.
New documents and tapes released yesterday by custodians of the de-sanitized Nixon Library and Museum only add to the picture of an angry, isolated, paranoid President plotting to get everybody else before they got him and, at the same time, wanting to be perceived as a regular guy.
There is an 11-page memo from 1970 complaining that he never got credit for being “nicey-nice,” listing all his "good deeds"--calling sick people, writing to those who were experiencing hard times, giving parties for the poor. "There are innumerable examples of warm items," he wrote, echoing his exaggerated sense of being unappreciated.
Typically Nixon wanted to manipulate an outcome without getting caught doing it. "With regard to the whole warmth business, a very important point to underline is that we do not try to broker such items," he wrote, not wanting the White House to be seen as promoting them but letting them be "discovered."
Somewhere under all that insecurity and misplaced guile was the man Nixon wanted to be. I got a glimpse of him in 1966 when the former Vice President and failed candidate for Governor of California was practicing law in Manhattan.
When conversation at the dinner table turned to baseball, his calculating manner gave way to enthusiastic fan talk. That led me to suggest there was a perfect job opening for him--Commissioner of Baseball.
His eyes lit up. “Can you get it for me?” he asked.
If he had gotten that job, there would be no library and museum now, but he might have had a happier life, as would we all.
The Queen, Kramer and Other Celebs
Amid all the glum stuff, some major news has been, as they say on the Daily Show, falling through the cracks:
*In a shoot, celebrity photographer Annie Liebovitz tells Queen Elizabeth to lose the crown--it would look better, “less dressy.” The Sovereign is not amused and asks with annoyance, ”Less dressy--what do you think this is?” In earlier times, a beheading might have ensued.
*Kramer is cooling it in Cambodia. After his comedy-club expletive outburst, Michael Richards is finding peace at daily spiritual seminars conducted by a Hindi monk known as Swami G., who is "on a mission to re-establish the science of inner bliss on planet Earth." Kramer, minus his slide step, will be touring temples and visiting Angkor Wat.
*It won’t be featured on the “Weddings” page of the Sunday New York Times, but Osama bin Laden’s fourth-eldest son Omar, 27, has married a 51-year-old British grandmother. They "met cute" while she was riding a horse near the Great Pyramid in Egypt. Jane Felix-Browne, who has had five previous husbands, is trying to get a visa for her newest, who is working as a scrap metal dealer in Saudi Arabia.
*Once home to William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davis, the most expensive U.S. residence is for sale in Beverly Hills. Asking price: $165 million. On 6.5 acres, it has 29 bedrooms, three swimming pools, tennis courts, a state-of-the-art movie theater and disco. The current owner, an attorney, is looking for a “lifestyle change.”
If there’s a theme here, it escapes me.
*In a shoot, celebrity photographer Annie Liebovitz tells Queen Elizabeth to lose the crown--it would look better, “less dressy.” The Sovereign is not amused and asks with annoyance, ”Less dressy--what do you think this is?” In earlier times, a beheading might have ensued.
*Kramer is cooling it in Cambodia. After his comedy-club expletive outburst, Michael Richards is finding peace at daily spiritual seminars conducted by a Hindi monk known as Swami G., who is "on a mission to re-establish the science of inner bliss on planet Earth." Kramer, minus his slide step, will be touring temples and visiting Angkor Wat.
*It won’t be featured on the “Weddings” page of the Sunday New York Times, but Osama bin Laden’s fourth-eldest son Omar, 27, has married a 51-year-old British grandmother. They "met cute" while she was riding a horse near the Great Pyramid in Egypt. Jane Felix-Browne, who has had five previous husbands, is trying to get a visa for her newest, who is working as a scrap metal dealer in Saudi Arabia.
*Once home to William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davis, the most expensive U.S. residence is for sale in Beverly Hills. Asking price: $165 million. On 6.5 acres, it has 29 bedrooms, three swimming pools, tennis courts, a state-of-the-art movie theater and disco. The current owner, an attorney, is looking for a “lifestyle change.”
If there’s a theme here, it escapes me.
"The Civil War Nobody Voted For"
OpEds come and go, but there was an unusual one in the New York Daily News the other day. Titled “This Is Not Our Fight,” its subhead read, “Congress must end U.S. role in a civil war nobody voted for.” The byline: “Robert Byrd & Hillary Clinton.”
Its final paragraph: “As Bush admitted in his State of the Union address in January, ‘This is not the fight we entered in Iraq.’ We could not agree more. This is not the fight Congress authorized, Mr. President. If you want to continue to wage this fight, come to Congress and make your case. Otherwise, bring our troops home.”
This was a collaboration by one Senator who wrote an OpEd (in the New York Times) in October 2002 opposing the resolution to allow Bush to invade Iraq and another who, while expressing admiration for his warning, voted for it.
Its appearance signals the seriousness of an effort this month to introduce a resolution to withdraw the 2002 authorization.
Of the myriad of proposals for bills to bring home the troops, this one offers the best hope for a Congressional challenge that, if passed by a veto-proof two-thirds vote in each house, would provoke a Constitutional crisis that might end up in the Supreme Court and test whether or not Justice Anthony Kennedy has become a permanent member of a conservative majority.
The OpEd itself, appearing in a major newspaper that has been gung-ho for the war, is a sign of the times. If a tabloid can change its mind, why can’t Congress?
Its final paragraph: “As Bush admitted in his State of the Union address in January, ‘This is not the fight we entered in Iraq.’ We could not agree more. This is not the fight Congress authorized, Mr. President. If you want to continue to wage this fight, come to Congress and make your case. Otherwise, bring our troops home.”
This was a collaboration by one Senator who wrote an OpEd (in the New York Times) in October 2002 opposing the resolution to allow Bush to invade Iraq and another who, while expressing admiration for his warning, voted for it.
Its appearance signals the seriousness of an effort this month to introduce a resolution to withdraw the 2002 authorization.
Of the myriad of proposals for bills to bring home the troops, this one offers the best hope for a Congressional challenge that, if passed by a veto-proof two-thirds vote in each house, would provoke a Constitutional crisis that might end up in the Supreme Court and test whether or not Justice Anthony Kennedy has become a permanent member of a conservative majority.
The OpEd itself, appearing in a major newspaper that has been gung-ho for the war, is a sign of the times. If a tabloid can change its mind, why can’t Congress?
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Farewell to a Lady
"My mother," Lynda Bird Johnson once told me, "thinks well of everybody. She's even sure the Devil's been maligned. Just got a bad press.”
I got to know the First Lady during the time her daughter worked for me when I was editor of McCalls.
She was womanly in a way that has gone out of style. Without the chic of Jacqueline Kennedy or the country-club cool of Laura Bush, Claudia Taylor Johnson devoted most of her life to herding a bull-in-the-china-shop husband from the Texas panhandle to the White House.
When he had a massive heart attack in 1955, she slept for a month on a cot in his hospital room.
"I never turned over in the night," LBJ later recalled, "that I didn't hear Lady Bird's feet hit the floor coming to see what I needed." After that, she changed his diet, subdued his frantic schedule and kept him alive with her positive outlook.
She will be remembered for her dedication to beautifying America with wildflowers, but Lyndon Johnson was her life’s work. She never stopped.
Not long before he died, I spent a weekend at their ranch as she was managing his life down to the last millimeter to keep him from sliding into despair.
At dinner I watched Lady Bird covertly sliding serving dishes out of reach and subtly signaling the server to remove them before he could ask for more and keeping the conversation cheerful, making sure to focus on him so he would be forced to respond. She surrounded him with friends and grandchildren and, as always, kept him within bounds by softly saying, “Now, Lyndon...”
History will have mixed feelings about a President who changed race relations in America forever by pushing through Congress against all odds the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the rallying cry of the movement, “We shall overcome,” and then damaged the country with his stubborn refusal to end a disastrous war.
But whatever he achieved would never have been possible without the loving woman who died today at 94.
I got to know the First Lady during the time her daughter worked for me when I was editor of McCalls.
She was womanly in a way that has gone out of style. Without the chic of Jacqueline Kennedy or the country-club cool of Laura Bush, Claudia Taylor Johnson devoted most of her life to herding a bull-in-the-china-shop husband from the Texas panhandle to the White House.
When he had a massive heart attack in 1955, she slept for a month on a cot in his hospital room.
"I never turned over in the night," LBJ later recalled, "that I didn't hear Lady Bird's feet hit the floor coming to see what I needed." After that, she changed his diet, subdued his frantic schedule and kept him alive with her positive outlook.
She will be remembered for her dedication to beautifying America with wildflowers, but Lyndon Johnson was her life’s work. She never stopped.
Not long before he died, I spent a weekend at their ranch as she was managing his life down to the last millimeter to keep him from sliding into despair.
At dinner I watched Lady Bird covertly sliding serving dishes out of reach and subtly signaling the server to remove them before he could ask for more and keeping the conversation cheerful, making sure to focus on him so he would be forced to respond. She surrounded him with friends and grandchildren and, as always, kept him within bounds by softly saying, “Now, Lyndon...”
History will have mixed feelings about a President who changed race relations in America forever by pushing through Congress against all odds the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the rallying cry of the movement, “We shall overcome,” and then damaged the country with his stubborn refusal to end a disastrous war.
But whatever he achieved would never have been possible without the loving woman who died today at 94.
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