Jimmy Carter: America basher

townhall.com ^ | 5/15/02 | Jonah Goldberg

[kattracks]

Whenever I open the newspaper to find an article about Jimmy Carter (or see him on TV) I scream, "Jimmy Carter?! He's history's greatest monster!" Alas, it's not my joke; it comes from an episode of "The Simpsons." Marge fails to make marshmallow treats for the town bake sale, which results in Springfield being unable to afford a statue of Abraham Lincoln. They settle for a bronze President Carter instead. When it's unveiled, someone shouts, "Jimmy Carter!? He's history's greatest monster!" and the town riots.

My wife thought the line was funny too - the first 500 times I said it. But, in the last few days, I've blown out my quota because the 39th president is a 24-hour news fixture.

Jimmy Carter, who, truth be told, isn't a monster, is in Cuba this week visiting Fidel Castro, the world's most notorious cigar wholesaler and a bona fide monster, in order to improve relations between our two countries.

Until Tuesday, the media hype over Carter's visit was a bit silly because Carter, while doing yeoman work as a homebuilder for the American poor, is something of a joke as an international figure. So, what happened Tuesday? Oh, well, Carter called the United States a liar.

Last week, Undersecretary of State John Bolton announced that the U.S. government has reason to believe Castro's Cuba is developing and exporting "dual use" technology - i.e. technology that can be used both for peaceful purposes as well as to develop weapons of mass-destruction.

So what did Carter do when he got to Cuba? He basically said that the United States was full of it. He explained that the U.S. government didn't tell him about these concerns before he left. Moreover, Carter asked Cuban scientists - in the presence of Castro - and Fidel himself whether they had anything to do with biological weapons or terrorism and they all said no. Heck, if Castro's word isn't good enough, whose is?

It's an unusual thing for a former president to more or less choose sides against the United States and with a hostile nation ruled by a ruthless dictator. Unusual, that is, in the sense that most U.S. presidents - current or former - don't do this sort of thing.

Unfortunately, Carter is the exception that proves the rule. Like a (very) white, un-rhyming Jesse Jackson, Carter has developed an uncanny gift for sucking up to the most appalling dictators on the planet and undermining U.S. policy.

As Joshua Muravchik wrote in the New Republic in 1994 - when Carter was bollixing up then-President Clinton's efforts to stop nuclear proliferation in North Korea - "Jimmy Carter, for all his heroic advocacy of human rights, has a long history of melting in the presence of tyrants."

At the time, Carter said of Kim Il Sung, a brutal Stalinist dictator, "I found him to be vigorous, intelligent, surprisingly well-informed about the technical issues and in charge of the decisions about this country." As for the North Koreans, Muravchik wrote, Carter said the "people were very friendly and open." The capital, Pyongyang, is a "bustling city," where customers "pack the department stores," which looked like "Wal-Mart in Americus, Georgia." North Korea, it should be noted, has suffered from such government-imposed mass-starvation that millions have been forced to live off grass.

While the first President Bush was trying to orchestrate an international coalition to remove Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, Carter wrote a letter to the U.N. Security Council asking its members to stymie Bush's efforts.

As the "human rights president," Carter noted that Yugoslavia's Marshall Tito was also "a man who believes in human rights." Carter saluted the dictator as "a great and courageous leader" who "has led his people and protected their freedom almost for the last 40 years." He publicly told Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, "Our goals are the same. ... We believe in enhancing human rights. We believe that we should enhance, as independent nations, the freedom of our own people." He told the Stalinist first secretary of Communist Poland, Edward Gierek, "Our concept of human rights is preserved in Poland."

Since Carter has left office, he's been even more of a voluptuary of despots and dictators. He told Haitian dictator Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras he was "ashamed of what my country has done to your country." He's praised the mass-murdering leaders of Syria and Ethiopia. He endorsed Yasser Arafat's sham election and grumbled about the legitimate vote that ousted Sandanista Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.

And, I learned from a devastating critique by my National Review colleague Jay Nordlinger, Carter even volunteered to be Arafat's speechwriter and go-fer, crafting palatable messages for Arafat's Western audiences and convincing the Saudis to continue funding Arafat after the Palestinians sided with Iraq against the United States. So, yes, it's unfair to say that Jimmy Carter was history's greatest monster. But it's a safe bet that if Carter could shake the hand of history's greatest monster, he'd leap at the opportunity.

Jonah Goldberg is editor of National Review Online, a TownHall.com member group.

Contact Jonah Goldberg | Read his biography

©2002 Tribune Media Services

[nickcarraway]

Carter should host a show called ``The World's Most Misunderstood Dictator's.''

After electing Carter the nation said D'oh.

[InvisibleChurch]

Remember Jimmy and the Killer Rabbit?

[Light Speed]

"Have the Carters had their home tested for Radon gas"?

[DeFault User]

I cannot recall one domestic or foreign policy issue on which Carter made a good decision. God help us, even Clinton did at least one thing right. A man so consistently wrong as Carter was/is, can only serve as a sort of reverse weather vane on policy. If Carter is for it, I'm against it.

[ozzymandus]

Actually, I think it's nice of Jimmy to remind us of what an ignoramus he is. Every time the RATS campaign, we can remind them of their ex-presidential national embarassments, carter and clinton.

[luvbach1]

Carter has always had a crush on Fidel. He also is incredibly naive, ascribing his own good motives (and I believe they are good even though, as in this case, they often achieve the opposite) to the most odious individuals. As if his wishing it so will make them pure of heart. Instead he accomplishes no good, gives aid and comfort to an enemy, and undermines the President of the United States. Nice Going Jimmy.

[FlyVet]

Jimma cries because he knows he was a failure as Prez. He will cry about it until the day he dies. As with any Lib, it's always somebody else's fault that he failed. He blamed the public for "Malaise". Sorry Jimma, the Malaise was yours. And IT rolls downhill. You didn't get it then, you don't get it now. Stick to building houses. Darn sorry Uncle Ronnie smothered you like he did. But, you deserved it.

[BunnySlippers]

Notice who's wearing the red, white and blue ...

[FlyVet]

Ain't that pic worth a thousand words? Poor Jimma, so ashamed of his country. How pathetic.

[EternalVigilance]

You know, I haven't exactly been a Jonah Goldberg fan; but that piece was very well written, and definitely hit the mark, even if it is a target the size of a house. ;-)

Thanks for posting it...your work is appreciated.

EV

[Freee-dame]

He also is incredibly naive, ascribing his own good motives (and I believe they are good even though, as in this case, they often achieve the opposite) to the most odious individuals.

I remember when he said, during the depths of the cold war, "Those Russians, they really do lie." Duh. What a revelation!

[FlyVet]

I remember when he said, during the depths of the cold war, "Those Russians, they really do lie." Duh. What a revelation!

I haven't figured it out yet. Is he Marxist Idealist (blind), naive, or just incredibly stupid?

[BoomerBabe]

I know the Carters get a lot of credit for their house building for the poor, but there is something about their do-goodism that bothers me. It feels pious and self-serving. I saw Rosalyn on a talk show once, and she came off as smirky and self-satisfied. Her manner seemed incredibly cold to me. Even though on the face of it their work seems worthy of respect, I can't shake this attitude I have about them.

[LenS]

If it helped him politically, Clinton would do the right thing (i.e. sign welfare reform). But Carter was too stubborn to do even that.

The only two positives I can recall for Carter was 1) appointing Paul Volcker, who started the Federal Reserve back onto a sane path and critical to markets, consistency and predictability, and 2) actually producing or finishing some clever weapon systems that weren't popular with the Defense pork crowd (A-10's, Stealth FB's, etc.). Though, to be honest, that second one may be more to the credit of Harold Brown or the inability of the administration to realize what some clever people were doing at R&D. *g* No matter how you slice it, Carter really ranks up there among the worst Presidents of all time. Fortunately for him, Buchanan's legacy of the Civil War will always be rather hard to top.

[monday]

"Is he Marxist Idealist (blind), naive, or just incredibly stupid?"

All of the above plus a certain amount of weasel in his soul. I don't buy the common assumption that he means well.

[The Great Satan]

You know, I haven't exactly been a Jonah Goldberg fan; but that piece was very well written, and definitely hit the mark, even if it is a target the size of a house. ;-)

Yes, this piece was quite an eye-opener. Carter's idiocy goes beyond anything I imagined in my wildest dreams.

[Aim small miss small]

Jimmy Carter is a Johnson.

[FlyVet]

All of the above plus a certain amount of weasel in his soul. I don't buy the common assumption that he means well.

I think that he thinks he means well, but he is guided by a dark light. There is no other explanation for this, that he worships at the altar of Communism. Sickening. He made this choice, "in his heart".

[Tom Bombadil]

Yes, this piece was quite an eye-opener. Carter's idiocy goes beyond anything I imagined in my wildest dreams

Most of us who actually remember Jimmy Carter's presidency are not surprised by his continuing narcissistic involvement in foreign policy. The other bubba will be doing similar things for years to come.

The problem is how to educate people born after 1980 concerning this joker in the face of a media that takes him seriously.