by JAMES TARANTO
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 3:34 P.M. EST

'I Was Just Waving It'
Is there a serious antiwar movement in America? Salon's Michelle Goldberg, who is highly sympathetic to the antiwar cause, has a devastating piece on this weekend's protest in Washington. Here's the opening anecdote:

Allan Johnson, a high school English teacher and debate coach from Fairfax, Va., held a sign saying "U.S. Troops Out of Iraq. Bring Them Home Now!" at Saturday's "End the Occupation" rally in Washington. In fact, though, Johnson isn't sure he wants to bring the troops home now, or to end the American occupation of Iraq. At least, not yet.

"We've made a giant mess," said Johnson, a handsome man who wore his long snowy hair in a ponytail and had a sparkling stud in one ear. "I would hate for the Bush administration to halfway fix things and then leave, and then blame the Iraqis if things go wrong. Once you go to somebody's house and break all the windows, don't you owe them new windows?"

Why, then, was he marching at an End the Occupation rally? "I don't agree with all the people here, believe you me," he said. But his own sign? He glanced at it, startled, and explained that someone had handed it to him. "I didn't even look at it," he said. "I was just waving it."

The group that sponsored the protest, International Answer, is evil, not clueless. A front for the Stalinist Workers World Party, Answer is engaging in outright sedition; Goldberg quotes from an Answer pamphlet: "The anti-war movement here and around the world must give its unconditional support to the Iraqi anti-colonial resistance"--that would be the guerrillas and terrorists who've been blowing up American servicemen, Iraqi civilians and international do-gooders.

If the peace-freaks who've taken to the street can't be taken seriously, what about the antiwar tilt of the Democratic Party? One suspects this is more the lurching of a dying beast than a serious political program, and Goldberg has a telling quote:

There's no liberal message that separates the welfare of the Iraqi people from that of the Bush administration. In a New Republic article this week, Michael Crowley quotes Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., complaining that his colleagues' Iraq stances are driven by blind rage. "In trying to pin them down, I say, 'At the end of the day, we have to have a policy to cope with what to do now,' " he told Crowley. "And they say, 'Well, we're just pissed off.' They don't really even attempt to argue the policy of it."

Those of us who've endured the various Democratic presidential debates are left with the same impression. It's hard to imagine any of the current presidential candidates, outside the lunatic fringe (Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich), opposing the liberation in Iraq if a Democrat were in the White House. For the other candidates (with the partial exceptions of Joe Lieberman, Dick Gephardt and Carol Moseley Braun, who to varying degrees have refused to join the cut-and-run crowd), the war seems to be beside the point. They want President Bush to lose, and if America loses in the process, well, that's just collateral damage.

Paul Bawls
"Hello, New York Times subscription department? Yes, I'm calling to report a wet paper. That's right, I got my paper this morning but it was soaking wet. OK. Yeah, so you'll credit my account? Great, thanks a lot.

"Hey, just out of curiosity, do you have any idea why my paper was wet? It wasn't raining this morning; there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was who? Klugman? The guy from 'The Odd Couple'? Oh, Krugman, Paul Krugman--the former Enron adviser. What do you mean, Donald Luskin started it? What happened?

"Yes . . . uh-huh . . . I see . . .

"OK, so let me see if I have this straight: Donald said Paul likes Mohamad, but Paul said he doesn't like Mohamad, he just hates George. Then Paul said Donald is a mean old stalker and his country sucks, and Paul started bawling like a baby, drenching the op-ed page in tears. And that's why the paper was wet.

"Oh dear, children can be so cruel, can't they? And Paul is such a sensitive boy. Well, you give Paul a nice soothing glass of milk and comfort him by telling him he's a very bright young man who'll grow up to do great things, and crying is nothing to be ashamed of.

"Hopefully that'll put him in a better mood, so Friday's paper will be dry."

'A Media Coup'
How's this for an offensive headline: "Attack Is a Media Coup for Iraq Resistance, Experts Say." That appeared on the front page of yesterday's Los Angeles Times. There's something almost obscenely decadent about a newspaper reporting on an attack against Americans as if it were a public-relations campaign.

Along similar lines, here's the first paragraph of a story in today's Long Island Newsday: "The latest rocket and bomb attacks in Baghdad are only the most recent in a series of setbacks for the Bush administration that threaten to turn Iraq into a political liability just as the 2004 election cycle is beginning."

Oh, and by the way, some people were killed.

What Would We Do Without Bush?
"Bush Blames Attacks in Iraq on Terrorists"--headline, Associated Press, Oct. 28

This Just In
"Sept. 11, 2001, like Pearl Harbor, traumatized the nation."--editorial, San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 28, 2003

Right to Die or Right to Kill?
Michael Schiavo's effort to starve his wife, Terri, to death, has been widely portrayed as a "right to die" case. But Mrs. Schiavo is in a vegetative state, unable to communicate a desire to live or die. Yesterday on "Larry King Live" Mr. Schiavo was asked to explain:

King: Why do you want the feeding tube removed? In other words, let's say the parents say they'll take care of her, right? Is that what they say?

Schiavo: Mm-hmm.

King: Walk away.

Schiavo: Why should I, Larry? This is Terri's wish. This is Terri's choice.

King: It's not written anywhere, right?

Schiavo: Yes, but it's been decided for six years of litigation that this was Terri's wish. . . . And I'm going to follow that wish, if it's the last thing I can do for Terri. I love Terri deeply. And I'm going to follow it up for Terri.

King: How old was she when this happened?

Schiavo: Twenty-five.

King: A 25-year-old said to you, if I die, if I'm in this kind of state--most 25-year-olds wouldn't think of something like that?

Schiavo: It was a comment from watching certain programs. She said, we were watching some programs, and she says, I don't want anything artificial like that. I don't want any tubes. Don't let me live like that. I don't want to be a burden to anybody. She's also made comments to other people about different stories.

If Terri really felt that way, she could have put her wishes into a living will, a legal document that stipulates the conditions under which treatment is to be withheld and specifies a "health care agent" who is authorized to interpret the will's provisions. (The New York State Bar Association Web site has a sample will.) Had she done so, this could accurately be described as a "right to die" case. Michael Schiavo and his partisans seem to be arguing that secondhand reports of offhand comments that Mrs. Schiavo supposedly made after a television show have the same weight as a living will. This seems irresponsible to say the least.

Partial-Truth Journalism
From a Reuters dispatch on the Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003:

Under the bill that has gone to Bush, a doctor could face up to two years in prison as well as civil lawsuits for performing a "partial birth" abortion, defined as intentionally killing a fetus as it is being delivered. The bill's sponsors say it entails sticking a sharp object into the base of the fetal skull.

What do the bill's opponents say it entails?

Life Imitates the Who

"I'm a boy, I'm a boy / But my ma won't admit it / I'm a boy, I'm a boy / But if I say I am, I get it"--lyrics, "I'm a Boy," the Who, 1966

"Woman Argues Son Should Be Allowed on Girls Team"--headline, WMUR-TV Web site (Manchester, N.H.), Oct. 27, 2003

These Newfangled TVs Are Dangerous!
"LCD Television Technology Set to Explode"--headline, Broadcast Engineering, Oct. 27

An Off-Off-Year
The year before a presidential election is usually the most boring in the election cycle. Control of Congress and a majority of governorships are at stake in midterm elections like last year's, and the election in the year after the presidential election includes three races that have a high profile by virtue of their proximity to America's media centers: for governor of New Jersey and Virginia and mayor of New York.

This year, of course, we've been blessed with the delightful California governor's race. But the three regularly scheduled races are also worth a modicum of interest:

• In Kentucky, Rep. Ernie Fletcher, a Republican, has a 52% to 43% lead over Democrat Ben Chandler, the state attorney general, the Associated Press reports.
  
  
• In Mississippi, Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, leads incumbent Democrat Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, 50% to 45%.
  
  
• In Louisiana, "Republican Bobby Jindal has moved to a virtual dead heat with Democrat Kathleen Blanco," reports the Lafayette Advertiser. Jindal trails Blanco by two percentage points, 43% to 41%, or 47% to 45% when "leaners" are included.

Kentucky and Mississippi both have Democratic governors and both vote a week from today; Louisiana's departing governor is a Republican, and the vote to replace him is Nov. 15. Having already won California, Republicans could finish the year with a net gain of three governorships; if the Democrats sweep the November elections, they will have broken even for 2003.

Dean Expands His Base
We've often noted that Democratic front-runner Howard Dean's supporters are almost all white, but now Dean has won the backing of a prominent black Democrat: Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. says he'll formally endorse Dean, who he says has "the best chance to be the next president of the United States." The New York Times cites one other black Democratic pol who's endorsed Dean, Rep. Major Owens of New York. And others are eyeing the peevish peacenik:

Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, another prominent African-American in Congress, escorted Dr. Dean to two black churches in Detroit on Sunday. Two other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Representative Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Detroit and Representative Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston, have expressed interest in Dr. Dean, his aides said.

If Dean manages to draw significant black support, it's hard to see how anyone stops him from getting the nomination.

Maybe We Should Call It a Bye-ku
"Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone on Monday abandoned plans to run for re-election to Japan's parliament and marked the occasion by writing a haiku," the Associated Press reports from Tokyo. The AP reproduces the verse:

With dusk yet to come
Cicada persists in song
While it still has life

Now this is a great idea. Why not haikus for the various Democratic presidential candidates as they drop, one by one, from the race. We'll start with Bob Graham:

9:50 p.m.:
Apply scalp medication
Drop out of the race

Who's next? We're guessing Kerry, after New Hampshire. As luck would have it, "served in Vietnam" is five syllables.

Have Blog, Will Travel
Josh Marshall, who's been perhaps the blogosphere's biggest innovator when it comes to including actual reporting on his blog, took up a collection to raise money for a trip to New Hampshire. Marshall says he'll spend the last week and a half or so before the Democratic primary reporting on the Granite State campaign exclusively for his TalkingPointsMemo blog.

The fund drive was a huge success, raising nearly $5,000 in less than 24 hours. In fact, Marshall says he's raised far more than he needs for the trip and is offering to give some back.

Like all good ideas, this one is subject to refinement, and it strikes us that there's one shortcoming to Marshall's plan: There are already hundreds of reporters in New Hampshire; what difference does one more make? Why not raise money to report on an undercovered political event?

There's a vote on Feb. 24, or maybe it's March 2; campaign calendars we've consulted differ. Just to be safe, we'd like to spend almost all of February and the first few days of March on the scene, offering exclusive reports from this crucial state to Best of the Web readers. So how about it, who wants to pony up to send us to cover the Hawaii caucuses?

(Elizabeth Crowley helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Jim White, Jan Wasilewsky, Edward Schulze, Shelly Sobel, Steve Prestegard, Barak Moore, Bernard Levine, Robin Anderson, Buddy Smith, Mike Buck, Daniel Sterman, Yishai Ben Mordechai, Barry Annis, Steve Hilton, John Schaff, Daniel Goldstein, Thomas Dillon, Michael Segal, Scott Hartig, Christian Peck, Tom Linehan, Peter Wine and Edward Hildebrand. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)

Today on OpinionJournal:

• Melanie Kirkpatrick: As North Koreans die, South Koreans look the other way.
• Brendan Miniter: Congress digs a $500 million hole.
• Gail King: The National Endowment for the Arts brings Shakespeare to the heartland.