Posted on 04/17/2003 10:55:31 AM PDT by Rummyfan
Bill Clinton, always. My kind of suicide. The ever-reliable British press — and more
hat to say about Bill Clinton's recent comments, in which he trashed U.S. foreign policy (in the most untutored and common way)? There aren't many words left. We've said it all, about Bill Clinton. He doesn't get any better; quite the opposite. In fact, his departure from the presidency, and from active politics, seems to have freed his inner dope. No longer having to worry about votes — done with triangulation — he's at liberty to be a sort of slightly-more-moderate Susan Sarandon.
I can't improve on Bill Kristol's comment, on Inauguration Day 2001, after Clinton gave that rally speech in the airport hangar: "hopelessly vulgar."
Want a little more Bill Clinton? Okay. I was intrigued by an item on Page Six, a New York Post gossip page (which is not on page 6, incidentally). It seems that Clinton attended a Willie Nelson concert, at the Beacon Theater. When the ex-prez walked onstage to speak, "there was loud booing and yelling." This evidently irked Clinton, who made some remark about "angry Republicans." (Perhaps he wanted to say "angry white males.")
Said the Post, "A Clinton aide acknowledged some booing, but added: . . . [Clinton] was not upset at all. [The crowd] gave him quite a rousing ovation and he was mobbed by all the talent."
Now, what I want to know is, Is that "talent" like celebrities or "talent" like nubile women?
There are reports that the (former) Iraqi information minister — nicknamed by some "Comical [not Chemical] Ali" — killed himself. This would accord with the shame-and-honor theory of Arab life. My main thought, however, was that it's nice when one of these extremists can kill himself without murdering innocent others in the bargain.
I quote you Mark Bowden in the Philadelphia Inquirer, who was quoted by Daniel Pipes in the New York Post: In Iraq, "the defending army attempts to place its own civilians in danger." And the invading army "tries to avoid killing and hurting them."
A weird, weird world, and war.
Time magazine had a story on the widespread anguish in the Arab world over America's liberation of Iraq, and the failure of Saddam Hussein to put up a tougher fight. A U.S. official was quoted as saying, "Let's face it, if 9/11 happened tomorrow, there would be dancing in the streets."
You mean, again?
David Letterman had a priceless comment about Iraq — deep, too. "And now the really difficult part: We have to rebuild Iraq into a strong and independent nation that will one day hate the United States."
There is enough wisdom in that crack to merit a dissertation.
A reader of ours keeps one of the now-familiar photos from liberated Iraq on his fridge. It has three exultant G.I.'s in it. "After two days it occurred to me that there's a Polish American and a black American. Wanna bet that the third G.I. isn't Latino American? So much for the Anglo-Saxon imperialist blah, blah, blah."
A nice insight.
Carol Moseley Braun is on the presidential stump, and she's lettin' it fly. The ex-senator said, "When Democrats get in, they give us peace and prosperity. When Republicans get in, they give us depression and war." Pretty stark, huh? Of course, if a Republican said something like that (think Bob Dole, in the '76 debate versus Mondale), he would attract a stink storm. But no one pays attention to Carol Moseley Braun. Maybe one should.
You know how Democrats expropriate certain words and phrases — good and important ones — and turn them into something mushy and awful? Back in the '80s, when national security was a big issue (as it is now), Democrats took to saying, "Education is a national-security issue. Medicare is a national-security issue." Etc. It was the only way they could play the game — the GOP was clobbering them on the real issue of national security.
Well, listen to another Democratic presidential candidate, Rep. Dennis Kucinich: "Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. Homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction. Lack of adequate education is a weapon of mass destruction."
Honestly, there is something perturbing and sick about that.
Uh-oh: Still another Dem presidential candidate — Sen. Bob Graham — is a third-person-er. Like Bob Dole. The other day, he said, "The fact that I am from Florida . . . will help elect the next president of the United States, which I am confident will be Bob Graham." I had to check that sentence a couple of times — because I couldn't tell whether it was Graham ("I") or someone else, talking about Graham.
So annoying.
When I started out in journalism, I heard that the British press was bad — famously bad, comically untrustworthy, outrageously unreliable. If a British paper asserted that Copenhagen was the capital of Denmark, or that Eli Whitney had invented the cotton gin, you couldn't believe it.
I thought this was rather hard on the Brits. Surely that was a stereotype — maybe springing from envy of British style — and, besides, on my trips to London, I'd found the press entertaining and rich.
But the Observer comes out and says, "William Kristol, a long-time friend of Bush from Yale days . . ."
It's hard to pack more falsity into so few words! (Kristol and Bush — any Bush — are not, er . . . friends. And Kristol went to Harvard, both undergrad and grad. Other than that . . .)
Robin Winks, the Yale historian — he really was at Yale — is dead. There was a time when I gobbled up just about every book on intelligence and espionage I could. And just about the best was Winks's Cloak and Gown, about the relationship between academia and the CIA.
A magnificent thing.
May I commend an article to you? It is about affirmative action and American higher education, and it was penned — pretty bravely, I would say — by a professor at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. 'Tis here.
In a previous Impromptus, I marveled that Saddam had in his possession a video of The Hanoi Hilton, one of the greatest anti-Communist movies ever made. It was found in the collection at one of his palaces. "So curious!" I observed.
Many, many readers wrote and said, "Don't you get it, Jay? Saddam and his henchmen weren't watching The Hanoi Hilton for the anti-Communism, etc.; they were watching it for the torture. Maybe gleaning some new techniques."
Of course!
I was taken with the insight provided by a reader of this column. He noted that the media were repeatedly referring to looting Iraqis as "looters" and "thieves." (Fair enough.) But, back during the L.A. riots, you never heard "looters" or "thieves" — only "protesters" and so on.
Wish I had thought of that.
I publish the below letter because I don't think that its sentiments are atypical:
"I'm a card-carrying Democrat who believes strongly in the ideals that the Left stands for, or at least used to stand for. (I'm not happy that the Democrats are now the party of racial discrimination in the name of 'diversity' and hobbling immigrant children through 'bilingual' education.) I am eagerly looking forward to the 2004 election so that I can cast my ballot for President Bush. He has led the country through a time of tribulation with courage and resolve, and I don't think anyone could have done better. He was a bit shaky at first, but he has truly grown into the job since 9/11, and turning him out next year would be an act of supreme folly. I think he is destined to be compared with Lincoln and Roosevelt in terms of wartime leadership, and while I may disagree with some of the administration's domestic policies, what we as a country are involved in right now is far greater than any of the things that the two parties tend to bicker over. I doubt I'm alone in feeling this way, so it seems quite likely that Bush will win re-election by a Reaganesque margin.
"P.S. If you print this, please do not use my last name. I work in the publishing industry, and it could hurt my career. Leftists aren't always as tolerant as they claim to be."
Really?
On this same theme, you might want to check out a commentary by Jeffrey Scott Shapiro in Insight magazine: Gore voter deeply affected by Sept. 11 and bowled over by President Bush.
In my yesterday's column, I made a comment about the sport of Halliburton-bashing.
A reader writes,
"I was a Mormon missionary in Venezuela from '94-'96. For some reason I loved to see Halliburton trucks, facilities, and people around. I don't know why. I just remember driving by a Halliburton building and being pleased on thinking that the building was full of guys from Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. I still get warm fuzzies thinking about Halliburton, no kidding."
"Dear Jay: Recently I started working for an organization that runs leadership conferences in D.C. for international and American high-school students. We are told to always be sensitive to other cultures. The student handbook includes leadership quotes from famous people, and lo and behold they have a quote from Castro. I'm trying to figure out what their definition of 'sensitive' is.
"Also, in our writings we cannot use the word 'American.' We must use 'U.S. culture,' or 'U.S. citizens,' etc. I've worked with foreigners for many years, including Canadians, and always hear them say 'American.' Who are we being sensitive to?"
Finally, "You quoted that Baghdad imam as saying, 'Now I can start to live.' I remember when South Africa held its first open elections, and seeing video of an old black man being wheeled out of the polls. He had to be eighty. He was pounding his hands on the arms of the wheelchair and shouting, 'Today I am a man! Today I am a man!' I'm choking up just writing it. It's the simple eloquence that comes from a hardship you and I are lucky enough never to have known.
"I hope we shall soon hear such sentiments coming from Cuba and North Korea — and Zimbabwe and Libya and Vietnam and Sudan and . . ."
There is a P.S.: "Advice for Kim Jong Il: Reinforce your monuments."
I should say!
The Democrats do -- he's their point man. Remember his remarks after the '02 defeat? The Dems are now committed to one thing: Bush bashing, on every issue, in every venue, and the nation be damned. Get used to it, it's only going to get worse, and Bubba will lead the charge.
Abortion is a weapon of mass destruction, Denny-boy.
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