Friday, June 3, 2005 4:00 P.M. EDT

Don Rickles Democrats
"Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean further burnished his shoot-from-the-lip reputation Thursday" by suggesting that President Bush won re-election because Republicans are lazy, the Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Asserting that some Florida voters stood in line for eight hours in November, Dean said that was a hardship for people who "work all day and then pick up their kids at child care."

But, he said, Republicans could stand in eight-hour lines "because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives."

Blogger Trey Jackson has video. It's a strange complaint coming from the head of a party whose most recent presidential nominee was a man who married another man's fortune. A "60 Minutes" profile of Dean from October 2003, when he was the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, suggests that this latest line of attack may reflect an unresolved adolescent rebellion:

That journey began in a wealthy, Republican family. The governor's father, Big Howard, as everyone called him, was a stockbroker who supported Barry Goldwater. Howard Dean grew up on Park Avenue and [in] the exclusive ocean-side community of East Hampton on Long Island.

"My father was a very hard working guy, but every Friday, the rule was, we all had family dinner, no matter what," recalls Dean. "There were no social engagements in the Dean household before 9:00 p.m. at night on a Friday. So we were close. It was fun, too."

But after Howard Dean went to Yale, he started to rebel against his father's brand of politics.

Yet Dean isn't the only Democratic leader who is practicing the Don Rickles style of politics. Here's a passage from a Rolling Stone interview with Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader:

Rolling Stone: You've called [President] Bush a loser.

Reid: And a liar.

Rolling Stone: You apologized for the loser comment.

Reid: But never for the liar, have I?

The Associated Press reports that another Democrat yesterday said of the vice president: "Cheney is hated as the most cruel monster and bloodthirsty beast, as he has drenched various parts of the world in blood."

Oh, sorry, that wasn't a Democrat--it was a spokesman for North Korea's communist regime. We should have known; the NoKo nuts at least have a little flair in their style of insult.

Horatio Alger Republicans
This report from the Orange County (Calif.) Register makes for quite a striking contrast with Howard Dean's comments:

The quickest route to the American dream is through the GOP, the chairman of the Republican National Committee told Hispanic community and business leaders Thursday.

"We want to make sure the American dream touches every willing heart," said Ken Mehlman. "This party is the American party."

Mehlman said the GOP's encouragement of home and business ownership, personal accountability and hard work vs. social service handouts are the American values that appeal to many Hispanics.

His comments were delivered during a visit to the Lincoln Juarez Opportunity Center, a non-profit organization in the city's immigrant business district, as part of a "Conversations with the Community" series.

A couple of weeks ago USA Today observed the same contrast:

National party chairmen Howard Dean and Ken Mehlman have the same job titles but different jobs. One is on a mission to rebuild, the other to expand.

Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, is courting black and Hispanic voters on a regular basis. Beyond the usual run of speeches, fundraisers and meetings with donors, he has visited Latino neighborhoods and historically black campuses. He has attended black-oriented receptions and ceremonies, spoken to minority chambers of commerce and raised money for Otto Banks of Harrisburg, Pa., a black city council candidate new to the GOP.

Dean, who reaches Day 100 as Democratic National Committee chairman Monday, is for the most part speaking to diehard Democrats who are the backbone of their party. He's addressed Democrats in nine states dominated by Republicans, such as Kansas and Mississippi, and in party strongholds such as California and Massachusetts. He's spoken to labor unions, gay-rights groups and state party chairs--all pillars of the party.

"Some Democrats are frustrated by the contrast between the two approaches," notes the paper's Jill Lawrence--and a BusinessWeek report suggests that frustration may be affecting the party's treasury:

Howard Dean is in trouble with party moneybags. The former Vermont governor seems to be doing a better job flaying the Republicans than bridging the cash chasm between the parties. . . .

After achieving money parity with the GOP in 2004, Democrats have fallen far behind. According to the Federal Election Commission, the DNC raised $14.1 million in the first quarter of 2005, vs. the Republican National Committee's $32.3 million. Dean drew about 20,000 new donors, while his rivals picked up 68,200. The bottom line: Republicans have $26.2 million in the bank vs. $7.2 million for the Dems.

With wry understatement, BW points out that "Dean is not a natural fit for the 'stroke and joke' style that traditional party chiefs use to extract cash from well-heeled contributors." But his outbursts certainly are entertaining--especially for Republicans.

Baffled by Principle
In the London Review of Books, David Runciman, a political theorist at the University of Cambridge, reviews a book called "Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight over Taxing Inherited Wealth," whose authors chronicle the campaign to repeal America's death tax, a levy they favor:

This is one of the most interesting books about politics, and power, and the way the world is going, that you are ever likely to read. What makes it so fascinating is that it is a mystery story. The mystery is this: how did the repeal of a tax that applies only to the richest 2 per cent of American families become a cause so popular and so powerful that it steamrollered all the opposition placed in its way?

What's the big mystery? Runciman seems to take for granted that if a policy hurts only 2% of the population, the other 98% have no good reason to oppose it. To see why this assumption makes no sense, compare it to an issue dear to the hearts of some liberals: same-sex marriage.

The analogy is not precise, since same-sex marriage remains unpopular--but it's far less unpopular than a Runcimanian view of the world would suggest it should be. According to exit polls, 4% of voters last year identified themselves as "gay, lesbian or bisexual." Yet while a large majority of Americans oppose same-sex marriage, a considerable number of heterosexual Americans support it, even though they have nothing to gain thereby.

In 2004 voters in 11 states passed ballot measures that prophylactically banned same-sex marriage. According to the Senate Republican Policy Committee (link in PDF), the "yes" vote ranged from 57% in Oregon to 86% in Mississippi--solid majorities all, but well below the 96% of Americans who are not gay. It seems clear, then, that the vast majority of "no" voters were motivated by principle rather than self-interest.

Runciman acknowledges that death-tax opponents argue that the tax is "unjust in principle," but this he declares "brazen--and from the outside baffling." He simply cannot imagine that anyone would adhere to a principle with which he disagrees. This failure of imagination is at the heart of contemporary liberalism's problems.

Chutzpah Alert
Yesterday we noted that Rep. John Conyers, a far-left Detroit Democrat, has said he plans to introduce a resolution commending Mark "Deep Throat" Felt for leaking information about corruption in the Nixon administration. A reader calls our attention to a letter Conyers wrote to then-Attorney General Janet Reno in February 1998, in which he took quite a different approach to allegations of leaking involving corruption in another administration:

I am requesting an independent investigation into whether Mr. Starr and his office have illegally leaked grand jury evidence, conducted unauthorized ultra vires [beyond the scope of his legal power] investigations, improperly intimidated witnesses, engaged in numerous conflicts of interest, undermined the role of the Secret Service to protect the President and been involved in other misconduct.

The latest leak to the news media regarding the alleged contents of grand jury testimony by White House Aide Betty Currie is only the latest highly disturbing example of this possible misconduct. In addition, I was not surprised to find that the leaked information may be unreliable. . . . I find it extraordinary that after spending over $30 million of taxpayer funds in five years, [Independent Counsel Ken] Starr is not aware whether his office is in fact complying with such rudimentary legal procedures and standards such as grand jury secrecy.

The same could have been said of the FBI director in 1972-73, could it not?

Bob Who?
One final "Throat" thought. We were struck when reading John O'Connor's Vanity Fair article by the lead anecdote, which began with a knock on the door of Joan Felt's house:

Upon answering it, she was met by a courteous, 50-ish man, who introduced himself as a journalist from The Washington Post. He asked if he could see her father, W. Mark Felt, who lived with her in her suburban Santa Rosa home. The man said his name was Bob Woodward. . . .

Woodward's name did not register with Joan, and she assumed he was no different from a number of other reporters, who had called that week. . . . Joan was suddenly curious. Unlike the others, this reporter had come by in person. What's more, he claimed to be a friend of her father's. Joan excused herself and spoke to her dad. He was 86 at the time, alert though clearly diminished by the years. Joan told him about the stranger at the door and was surprised when he readily agreed to see "Bob."

She ushered him in, excused herself, and the two men talked for half an hour, Joan recalls. Then she invited them to join her for a drive to the market nearby. "Bob sat in the backseat," she says. "I asked him about his life, his job. He said he'd been out here on the West Coast covering [Arizona senator] John McCain's [presidential] campaign and was in Sacramento or Fresno"--four hours away--"and thought he'd stop by. He looked about my age. I thought, Gee, [he's] attractive. Pleasant too. Too bad this guy isn't single."

Bob Woodward is probably America's best-known print journalist, and certainly the only one to have been portrayed by Robert Redford in a major motion picture. Yet Joan Felt, a contemporary of Woodward and the daughter of "Deep Throat" himself, didn't know who he was. It's a reminder of just how unusual are those of us who follow politics closely.

France and Friends
From Thomas Friedman's New York Times column today:

Yes, this is a bad time for France and friends to lose their appetite for hard work--just when India, China and Poland are rediscovering theirs.

[Former Enron adviser] Paul Krugman is on vacation.

Hat tip: Donald Luskin.

Baby, It's Cold Outside
"An attempt by two men from northern Minnesota to cross the Arctic Ocean to call attention to global warming ended this morning because of poor weather conditions," reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Lonnie Dupre, 43, and Eric Larsen, 33, were forced to abandon their planned 100-day, 1,200-mile trek after encountering unexpectedly heavy snow storms, strong winds and unusual ice conditions, according to Jane Kochersperger, a media officer with the environmental group Greenpeace, which co-sponsored the trip.

Al Gore, call your office!

This Just In
"Internet Is Changing Business"--headline, Portland (Maine) Press Herald, June 3

Other Than That, Mrs. Lincoln . . .
"He was really an OK guy to me, besides holding a gun to my head."--Tammi Smith, who was held hostage by Dennis McAninch after a botched robbery at a Shelbyville, Ind., convenience store Wednesday

Snuffleupagus Gets Snubbed
"Bird, Oscar to Help Pick Olympic Team"--headline, Indianapolis Star, June 2

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
"Obesity Research Shows 3 Crucial Periods"--headline, Associated Press, June 3

Jesus Christ, Superstarlet
Amid all the hubbub over "Deep Throat," an even bigger bit of news this week was largely ignored. Check out this press release from the LBI Institute, issued Tuesday:

A new edition of the Gospels of the Bible for the first time shows Christ as a woman, named Judith Christ of Nazareth, and God as female. . . .

"This long-awaited revised text of the Gospels makes the moral message of Christ more accessible to many, and more illuminating to all," says Billie Shakespeare, V.P. for the publisher. "It is empowering. We published this new Bible to acknowledge the rise of women in society."

Amazing. Not only are God and his Son female, but so is Shakespeare, and she's alive and well and working in middle management. What's next for LBI, a book showing that the pope is really a mome?

Lender of Last Resort
"Four sliced bagels were left in the yard of a city councilman facing a recall election, some of them bearing messages that said 'Burn, Lender' and 'Recall Bagel Boy,' " the Associated Press reports from Fountain, Colo.:

Police opened an investigation after the official, Al Lender, found the bagels last week. Lender is a grandson of the Lender's Bagels founder, Harry Lender.

Lender has been at the center of controversy recently. Earlier this year, he said he once served time in prison for selling cocaine in Connecticut. . . .

"It's a hate thing," said Lender, whose dog was briefly ill after eating one of the bagels. "If they vote me out, I'm gone," he said. "But stuff like this, resorting to harming animals, is not right."

Well, Lender's political career has been something of a dog's breakfast of late. In April, the Colorado Springs Gazette published an article with the headline "Fountain Councilman Says 'I Quit,' Then Waffles." Still, no matter how much of an Eggomaniac he may be, he doesn't deserve to be the target of a vicious shmeer campaign.

(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Ed Lasky, Ethel Fenig, Drew Anderson, Yehuda Hilewitz, Jim Orheim, Doug Levene, Karol Sheinin, Mark Van Der Molen, Dan O'Shea, Thomas Dillon, Michael Zukerman, Michael Segal, Marcia Wilson, Ben Gibbons, Ruth Papazian, Michael Ladenson, Steve Prestegard, Jim Clark, Todd Ruppert, Michael Throop, Charlie Gaylord, John Loughmiller, Lori Trump, Michael Squire, John Sanders and Chris Stetsko. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)

Today on OpinionJournal:

• Review & Outlook: Europe's economic anxiety is a product of the welfare state.
• Daniel Henninger: Michael Jackson is a freaky culture's Peter Pan.
• The Journal Editorial Report: Tune in this weekend for a discussion of the housing market, Europe's populist revolt and "Deep Throat."

And on the Taste page:

• Review & Outlook: Paris Hilton's mom gets a "reality" show.
• Tony & Tacky: A father in Iraq watches his daughter graduate in Ohio; a drug-dealing ice-cream man.
• Eric Gibson: Is it bye-bye, Bilbao, and hello, bottom line?
• Cameron Stracher: Technological advances can't free us from life's "hassle quota."
• John Miller: Was Satan behind Bush v. Gore?