From the WSJ Opinion Archives
The
O'Neill Kerfuffle
Remember Paul O'Neill? Neither did we, but he was President Bush's first Treasury
secretary. Gently shown the door a little over a year ago, O'Neill has resurfaced,
having collaborated on a new book, "The Price of Loyalty," by erstwhile
Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind. O'Neill is now a critic, sort of,
of the Bush administration, and for about 36 hours--between the time "60
Minutes" aired Sunday and the time "Today"
aired today--he was a hero of the Angry Left, driving former Enron adviser Paul
Krugman into a frenzy of excitement.
Krugman credits O'Neill with showing "courage" by "giving us an invaluable, scathing insider's picture of the Bush administration." Among other things, O'Neill reveals that President Bush wanted to cut taxes. But didn't he make some mention of that in the 2000 campaign? "Most startling of all," Krugman writes, "Donald Rumsfeld pushed the idea of regime change in Iraq as a way to transform the Middle East at a National Security Council meeting in February 2001."
Why does Krugman find this "startling"? As O'Neill himself said on "Today" today, "People are trying to make a case that I said the president was planning war in Iraq early in the administration. Actually, there was a continuation of work that had been going on in the Clinton administration with the notion that there needed to be regime change in Iraq." He continues:
One of the candidates had said this confirms his worst suspicions. I'm amazed that anyone would think that our government, on a continuing basis across political administrations, doesn't do contingency planning and look at circumstances. Saddam Hussein has been this forever. And so, I was surprised, as I've said in the book, that Iraq was given such a high priority. But I was not surprised that we were doing a continuation of planning that had been going on and looking at contingency options during the Clinton administration.
It's cute, too, how last week the Angry Left was denouncing the Bush administration for having "no plan" for Iraq, and now the complaint is that it did have a plan.
"There's much more in Mr. Suskind's book," Krugman raves. "All of it will dismay those who still want to believe that our leaders are wise and good." But the Associated Press notes that O'Neill doesn't share Krugman's enthusiasm:
Asked if he plans to vote for Bush in November's presidential election, O'Neill said he "probably" would. "I don't see anyone who is better prepared or more capable," he told NBC.
This underscores why the Democrats are in such deep trouble. So effectively have they convinced themselves of an absurdly overwrought case against President Bush that they've forgotten you can't beat an incumbent without a plausible challenger--and thus they seem likely to end up with Howard Dean, or maybe Wesley Clark. But we'd better stop there; we don't want to ruin the story by telling you how it ends.
Dean: Offensively Defensive or Defensively Offensive?
At first glance, these seem like dueling headlines:
"Dean Goes on Offensive in Iowa"--Washington Post, Jan. 13
"Surges by Rivals Put Dean on the Defensive in Iowa"--New York Times, Jan. 13
Actually, though, offensiveness and defensiveness are perfectly balanced in Howard Dean, the yin and yang of the Angry Left. This quote epitomizes the delicate interplay: "I'm going after everybody because I'm tired of being the pin cushion here." Funnily enough, the Post, whose headline calls Dean "offensive," includes only the defensive ("pin cushion") part of the quote.
"We've had a hard couple of months with all those folks from Washington beating up on us," the Times quotes Dean saying, defensively, immediately followed by an offensive remark: "This is the time we can get our revenge."
Here's another one: "The reason that all those folks are coming at us debate after debate, newspaper column after newspaper column, is because they're afraid. They're afraid of having ordinary people run their country. This is our country, it's not their country." In three sentences he goes from cowering in the face of "folks . . . coming at us" to hinting that he's ready to deport the lot of them.
It's
an Ireful Day in the Neighborhood
Yesterday we
noted that Howard Dean, who claims to take his inspiration from Jesus, came
up with a loophole when asked why he doesn't love his neighbor: "George
Bush is not my neighbor," he told 67-year-old Dale Ungerer. That's fortunate
for the president, given this story in today's Des Moines Register:
All those enthusiastic Howard Dean volunteers who have flocked to downtown Des Moines in recent weeks may be trying to elect the next president, but Charlie Sereg wishes they would watch where they park their cars and toss their trash.
"They're terrible neighbors," he said Monday.
Sereg works at Merrill Axle and Wheel Service Inc., 1403 Walnut St., which his parents have owned since 1932. He shares a back alley with Dean's Iowa campaign headquarters, 1408 Locust St.
"They were parking on my lot, and they were throwing trash in my Dumpster," Sereg complains. Now there's a sign saying: "This is NOT a Dean for America Dumpster!"
Meanwhile, the Boston Globe quotes Dean as saying: "In small towns all across America, I've discovered that people are honest, they stand up for what they believe, they're courteous to their friends and neighbors, they listen respectfully and are respectful of other people." They use their own Dumpsters, too.
It's
a Wonderful Wife
When you're John Kerry, you have to take good news where you can find it. Yesterday
the haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat who by the way served in
Vietnam, won the endorsement of Christie Vilsack, whose husband, Tom Vilsack,
is governor of Iowa. "Kerry's campaign considered the first lady's endorsement
to be the next best thing to the governor's blessing," the Associated Press
reports. Tom is staying neutral.
Well, Kerry's doing better with the ladies than Howard Dean is. A profile in today's New York Times suggests the diminutive doctor can't even count on the endorsement of his own better half.
General
Disarray
Wesley Clark has surged to second place in the New Hampshire polls, and the
conventional wisdom these days seems to be that he's the closest thing to a
serious threat Howard Dean has in the race for the Democratic nomination. Maybe
this is right, maybe not, but we kind of hope it's right, because it would be
a shame if Clark's wacky statements escaped the press's full scrutiny just because
he turns out to be an also-ran. This is from today's Dallas Morning News:
Trodding deep into President Bush's back yard, Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark assailed the president for making "unpatriotic" military decisions in Iraq and deceiving Americans about the war.
"He went in before all the diplomatic solutions were extinguished," Gen. Clark, the former supreme commander of allied NATO forces, told more than 400 supporters gathered Monday night at the Westin Galleria in Dallas for a fund-raiser. "That is not patriotic. That is sheer, bad leadership.
"I don't think it's patriotic to dress up in a flight suit and prance around," Gen. Clark added, referring to the former Texas governor's visit aboard a military plane to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. "George W. Bush took us to war based on a preconception, a party ideology and without adequate reason or justification."
Blah blah blah, but there's that business about "patriotism" again. The Dems are just obsessed with patriotism, aren't they? When they aren't defending themselves against imagined Republican charges that they're unpatriotic, they're actually calling Republicans unpatriotic. But do you ever hear a Republican whine about such charges?
The Morning News also quotes Clark as saying: "I do not believe that al Qaeda was involved in 9-11." Is this like Howard Dean saying he doesn't want to prejudge Osama bin Laden? Nah, just a Freudian slip: " 'I misspoke,' Gen. Clark said as he rushed back to the lectern. 'I meant to say that Saddam Hussein wasn't linked to 9-11.' "
Over at Slate, Chris Suellentrop has compiled a list of the general's kookiest utterances. Salon's Joe Conason, meanwhile, offers the nutty theory that President Bush's idea of a manned mission to Mars is--we're not making this up--about oil, and specifically that Halliburton is eager to drill on Mars. We wouldn't be surprised if Clark picks this up in the next week or two.
Mr. Short-Term Memory
"You know, I have also been accused of comparing Bush to a Nazi. And I did not do it. I would not do it, exactly because I have lived under a Nazi regime. So I know the difference. But how come that I'm accused of that?"--George Soros, "Wolf Blitzer Reports," CNN, Jan. 12, 2004
"Soros believes that a 'supremacist ideology' guides this White House. He hears echoes in its rhetoric of his childhood in occupied Hungary. 'When I hear Bush say, "You're either with us or against us," it reminds me of the Germans.' It conjures up memories, he said, of Nazi slogans on the walls, Der Feind Hort mit ('The enemy is listening'). 'My experiences under Nazi and Soviet rule have sensitized me,' he said in a soft Hungarian accent."--Washington Post, Nov. 11, 2003
This
Just In
"Upper-Income Tax Increase Advocated by Top Democrat"--headline, San
Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 13
Zero-Tolerance
Watch
It turns out 13-year-old Carl Grimmer, whose suspension from Texas' Richland
Middle School we noted
Thursday, has posted his own account of the incident on his family's Web
site. It's longish but includes some interesting new details. It turns out that
when Carl was summoned to the assistant principal's office for sending the message
"Hey!" to computers on the school's network, a policeman was present.
From Grimmer's account:
Dr. Santiago [the assistant principal] pulled out a book of crimes and punishments for the school, but they couldn't find anything like what I did. But he started listing off punishments I could get. He said, "Punishment by officer" and the officer was smiling and nodding his head while he pointed to himself.
How can anyone fail to be impressed by such a display of courage by Richland Hills' Finest? Grimmer's mother, who was also summoned to the school, offers this delightfully sardonic commentary (ellipsis in original):
When I went to the school, I tried to explain that NET SEND wasn't a big deal. Mr. Rollins [the principal] told me that I had to respect his position. He knew Carl was a good kid, and if it weren't for that he would have taken Carl out and put him in an alternative school . . . which is a school for kids that get caught with drugs and are real criminals. He was very adamant about suspending Carl, and he explained that he was making an example of Carl to keep the other kids from doing the same thing. I tried to explain to him that there was a simple way to keep NET SEND from working on his network if he didn't want it to be used, but he had no interest in that. Later I called the school and asked if I could get a job as a network administrator. I told them that they must need someone who actually knew what they were doing. They didn't seem interested in interviewing me, though. I don't know why.
Meanwhile, we've tracked down the source of the obnoxious music on pompous pedagogue Beverly Sweeney's Web page: It turns out to have been lifted from something called "The Nut Sac Dance." Before we give you the link to the source, we must warn you that it features photographs of squirrels that are, uh, not exactly anatomically correct, but let's say that some might find anatomically offensive. Sorry, we don't know quite how to describe it without going into detail; if you want to see for yourself, click here--but don't say we didn't at least try to warn you.
Who
Knew?
"Walking Daily Can Prevent Weight Gain, Study Says"--headline, Springfield
(Mo.) News Leader, Jan. 13
A
Well-Deserved Award
Little Green Footballs has given out its second annual Robert Fisk Award for
Idiotarian of the Year. This year's winner: Rachel Corrie, the terror advocate
who died in a bulldozer accident last March. Corrie picked up 28.8% of the vote
in the 10-candidate finals, edging out Michael Moore (26.7%), who also finished
second (behind Jimmy Carter) in 2002. Moore, who we hear dedicated his most
recent "book" to Corrie, is the Susan Lucci of idiotarians. As one
LGF commenter writes, "Michael Moore has to be crushed he didn't win."
(Elizabeth Crowley helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Nathan Dewey, Barak Moore, Doug Levene, Ted Barszewski, Robert LeChevalier, Scott Yenor, Edward Schulze, Yehuda Hilewitz, Peter Shalen, Paul Cooper, Tom Linehan, Darren Gold, Chris Stetsko, Richard Miniter, Charlie Gaylord, Cesar Canizales, Michael Segal, Kyle Dubbert, Jim Naso, David Skurnick, Heidi Huettner, Tom Harris, Philip Lindquist, Henry Hanks, Kurt Schneider, Tim McClellan, Napoleon Cole and Carl Sherer. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Jason Riley: Will black voters back an angry white man for president?
- Brendan Miniter: Why President Bush is promising the moon (and Mars).
- Daniel Casse: A Clinton strategist portrays the country as a collection of voting blocs.
