by JAMES TARANTO
Wednesday, February 1, 2006 3:14 P.M. EST

SOTU Déjà Vu
The other day we were trying to think of memorable lines from State of the Union addresses, and we came up with only two: Bill Clinton's declaration in 1996 that "the era of big government is over" and George W. Bush's identification in 2002 of an "axis of evil" consisting of regimes in North Korea, Iran and (at the time) Iraq.

But last night we realized just how forgettable the typical SOTU is. Just for the heck of it, after watching this year's speech, we went back to read what we'd written about last year's. As we watched this year's speech, we had been pleased that President Bush reprised the "historic, long term goal" he set out in his Second Inaugural, namely "the end of tyranny in our world." We had totally forgotten that we praised him for doing the same thing last year (albeit less than two weeks after the original speech).

In 2005 we also wrote: "As always, there was too much boring, small-bore domestic stuff--community colleges? the Ryan White Act?--but it was smart to tuck this into the middle of the speech." The Ryan White Act popped up again this year. White, for those too young or too busy to remember, was an Indiana teen who contracted AIDS in the 1980s and became famous for not being gay. (He died in 1990 at 18.) We're sure the Ryan White Act is a worthy initiative, and would like to urge Congress to pass it in time for President Bush not to mention it in the 2007 State of the Union Address.

The domestic stuff this year was pretty much all small-bore, not surprisingly given that last year's call for Social Security reform ended up going nowhere. Bush made note of this--"Congress did not act last year on my proposal to save Social Security"--whereupon the Democrats erupted in applause.

Some think this was a mistake. John Fund, who watched the speech with Jim Fallows, a onetime speechwriter for Jimmy Carter, writes in today's Political Diary (subscribe here):

Mr. Bush shouldn't have handed Democrats an opportunity to stand and cheer by reminding them that Congress hadn't passed his Social Security reform plan. "Whoever wrote that isn't comfortable right now," Mr. Fallows concluded.

We're not so sure about this. Democrats have been known to applaud inappropriately during the SOTU--remember the al Qaeda cheering section?--and Sen. Hillary Clinton in particular looked decidedly unpresidential (not for the only time during the speech) in cheering on Congress's lack of action. Besides, the speech continued as if answering the expected applause:

Yet the rising cost of entitlements is a problem that is not going away. And every year we fail to act, the situation gets worse. So tonight, I ask you to join me in creating a commission to examine the full impact of baby boom retirements on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Ho hum, a commission--but at least this places some burden on Congress to address the problem.

We liked the first part of the speech, on foreign policy, a lot. One highlight was this subtle nod to Ronald Reagan:

America rejects the false comfort of isolationism. We are the nation that saved liberty in Europe, and liberated death camps, and helped raise up democracies, and faced down an evil empire.

You have to be of a certain age to appreciate this fully. On March 8, 1983, President Reagan gave a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, in which he observed: "In your discussion of the nuclear-freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride--the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and labeling both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire.''

Liberal bed-wetters nearly drowned. Here's what New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis wrote the next day:

If there is anything that should be illegitimate in the American system, it is such use of sectarian religiosity to sell a political program. And this was done not by some fringe figure, but by the President of the United States. Yet I wonder how many people, reading about the speech or seeing bits on television, really noticed its outrageous character. Our political sensibilities have become so degraded.

Primitive: that is the only word for it. We laugh at stage representations of William Jennings Bryan, who used religion to argue against everything from the gold standard to Darwinian theory. The Ronald Reagan who spoke in Orlando could easily call it a sin to teach evolution.

But it is not funny. What is the world to think when the greatest of powers is led by a man who applies to the most difficult human problem a simplistic theology--one in fact rejected by most theologians? . . .

One may regard the Soviet system as a vicious tyranny and still understand that it has not been solely responsible for the nuclear arms race.

Today, the president of the United States can refer to the Soviet Union as an evil empire, and it's not controversial in the slightest. If Tony Lewis weren't still alive, he'd be turning in his grave.

We also liked the section on Iran:

Liberty is the future of every nation in the Middle East, because liberty is the right and hope of all humanity.

The same is true of Iran, a nation now held hostage by a small clerical elite that is isolating and repressing its people. . . .

Tonight, let me speak directly to the citizens of Iran: America respects you, and we respect your country. We respect your right to choose your own future and win your own freedom. And our nation hopes one day to be the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran.

That "held hostage" was a brilliant turn of phrase. During America's long national nightmare called the Carter administration, the then-new Iranian regime held several dozen Americans hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, releasing them only after Reagan had been inaugurated. Last night Bush reminded Americans of our own experience with that evil regime and identified us with the suffering of the Iranian people, held hostage 9,486 days and counting.

One decidedly false note came when Bush complained that "America is addicted to oil" and promised new government programs aimed at a great goal: to replace more than 75% of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025." This seemed just like wrongheaded palaver, boob bait for bobos. If we're going to democratize the Middle East, why do we need to reduce imports of oil from the region?

ABC's The Note notes a hilarious response to this from John Kerry*:

In response to a question about the President's "addicted to oil" line, the Massachusetts Senator said, "It's not the American people who are addicted to oil. It's this Administration who is addicted to oil."

This administration will cease to exist in less than three years, so Kerry's even less worried about "oil addiction" than we are.

The Drudge Report also notes that Kerry claimed "53 percent of our children don't graduate from high school." In fact, according to the Census Bureau, 85.9% of 20- to 24-year-olds are high school graduates. In June 2004, while campaigning for president, Kerry did something similar, with a racial edge: He falsely stated that more black Americans were in prison than in college.

* The haughty, French-looking Davos Democrat, who by the way served in Vietnam.

When You're Hot, You're Hot
"Finding the words to accomplish that task falls in large part to Mr. McGurn, who before coming to the White House wrote for the red-hot conservative editorial page at The Wall Street Journal."--New York Times, profile of White House speechwriter Bill McGurn, Jan. 30

Stuffed Shirt
Has Democrat Cindy Sheehan won the support of wine-country Rep. Lynn Woolsey in Sheehan's prospective challenge to unseat Sen. Dianne Feinstein? That isn't clear, but Woolsey invited Sheehan to the State of the Union as her guest. Sheehan did not stay for the speech, however; as the Associated Press reports, she was "arrested and removed from the House gallery" just before the speech:

Sheehan . . . was charged with demonstrating in the Capitol building, said Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. The charge was later changed to unlawful conduct, Schneider said. Both charges are misdemeanors.

Schneider said Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan to the speech and covered it up until she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not allowed, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said.

No doubt this will fuel the Angry Left's paranoid antigovernment delusions about suppression of dissent. Indeed, the San Francisco Chronicle quotes Rep. Fortney Hillman Stark Jr. as saying. "I'm still trying to find out why the president's Gestapo had to arrest Cindy Sheehan in the gallery."

In fact the police were merely enforcing what the Supreme Court has termed a "reasonable time, place or manner" restriction on speech. Another AP dispatch notes that in addition to Democrat Sheehan, Republican Beverly Young, wife of Rep. Bill Young of Florida, got the boot. She was wearing a T-shirt supporting the troops.

That Was Then, This Is Now
Justice Samuel Alito took office yesterday, and the New York Times reports that Alito "is expected to tilt the balance of the court to the right":

For Mr. Bush, the confirmations of Justice Alito, 55, and Chief Justice Roberts, 51, mean that in four months he has named two members of the court who are young enough to influence its rulings for many years. . . .

Conservatives, who have campaigned for decades against the court's decisions on abortion rights and the government's support for religion, celebrated Justice Alito's confirmation as a historic victory. . . . Both sides agree that liberals are likely to be on the defensive in future battles over the court.

When Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed to replace Justice Byron White in 1993, however, the Times didn't report that she was expected to tilt the court to the left. Rather, its story (available here for a price) noted that she drove a Nissan Maxima and had a lot of paperwork to tend to. The only mention of "ideology" came at the end:

After her Court visit, Judge Ginsburg went to the White House for a Rose Garden appearance with Mr. Clinton. Standing by her side in the 89-degree heat, the President predicted that she would be "a great Justice" who would "move the Court not left or right, but forward."

Inviting questions, Judge Ginsburg got this one: "You've been called a liberal, you've been called a conservative, you've been called a moderate. What are you?"

Borrowing pointedly from the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta "Iolanthe," she replied, to the apparent confusion of the White House press corps, "I don't believe that every child that's born alive is either a little liberal or else a little conservative, except in Gilbert and Sullivan."

One wonders what Gilbert and Sullivan would have made of the Roe effect.

Unity Would Unify the Union
"The union would be better and stronger and more unified if we were confirming a different nominee, a nominee who could have united us more than divided us."--Sen. Chuck Schumer complaining about Alito, Jan. 31

What Happened to Laura?
"Alito watched the Senate vote from the Roosevelt Room of the White House with President Bush and his wife, Martha-Ann Bomgardner."--CNN.com, Feb. 1

Media Quagmire
Yesterday's item on journalists' self-absorption over Iraq prompted an interesting observation from reader John Hockert:

In all the discussion about journalist casualties in Iraq, I have heard no one comment on the fact that the media's behavior increases the risk to its reporters. The goal of the terrorists in Iraq, like that of terrorists everywhere, is not to inflict casualties, but rather to frighten people by creating the impression of lawlessness and illustrate the inability of legally constituted authorities to maintain order and provide protection. The media are a vital tool in achieving this goal. If the terrorists can get more media coverage by killing or seriously injuring one reporter than by killing a division of Iraqi soldiers, guess whom they are going to target.

If the networks really wanted to protect their reporters, they would do the following: First, issue large press decals to put on helmets, vehicles, etc. so that reporters were readily identifiable. Second, establish a well-publicized policy that any terrorist injury or killing of a reporter would cause a one-week blackout of any coverage of terrorist acts in Iraq. All coverage from Iraq for that week would focus on progress in rebuilding the nation and "good" news. Such a policy would reduce the deaths of, and injuries to, reporters in Iraq by at least a factor of 10. After all, how many al-Jeezera reporters have been killed by the Iraqi terrorists? The Iraqi terrorists are bloodthirsty and evil, but within their warped view of the world, they are not stupid.

Sadly, the media seem willing to risk the lives of their reporters in order to focus on the bad news in Iraq.

There is a small problem with this proposal--namely, that refusing to cover terrorism would be an act of journalistic dereliction as surely as is the short shrift the media now give to good news. But while the idea may not be completely practical, there's no denying it's thought-provoking.

Dis-Missed!
"Congressional candidate Coleen Rowley publicly apologized Monday after a volunteer placed a doctored picture of U.S. Rep. John Kline as the Nazi soldier Col. Klink of the television show 'Hogan's Heroes' on her campaign Web site's blog," reports the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

In a letter to Rowley, Kline wrote: "Your attempts to smear my good name and 25 years of honorable service in the United States Marine Corps by equating me to a Nazi shows a lack of perspective, a lack of seriousness, and a lack of good judgment. You should be ashamed of yourself."

In responding to the criticism, Rowley campaign manager Joe Elcock said: "We had a volunteer Web site person who didn't understand the implications of using the Colonel Klink image. It is something that is unfortunate.''

Interestingly, the Pioneer Press doesn't tell us either candidate's political party--which, given the usual bias in the press, leads us to suspect that Rowley is a Democrat and Kline a Republican.

What Would Black-Footed Ferrets Do Without Experts?
"Experts: Black-Footed Ferrets Reproducing"--headline, Associated Press, Jan. 31

What Would Shooters Do Without Officials?
"Official: Shooter Had 'Psychological Problems' "--headline, CNN.com, Jan. 31

We Blame the Federalist Society
"Turkey Blames Nicosia for Insolubility of Cyprus Issue"--headline, Xinhuanet (Red China), Feb. 1

That's the Day You Promised to Come Back to Me
"Hornets to Return to Oklahoma City"--headline, Associated Press, Jan. 31

She Has a Weakness for Physical Humor
"Lindsay Lohan in Stitches After Slip"--headline, Associated Press, Jan. 31

I'm Doing Everything I Can--and Stop Calling Me Shirley
From ABCNews.com:

Recently, Larry Watson saw proof in one of the college classes he teaches that Black History Month was needed more than ever.

"I asked the students in my class whether they knew who their Senate representative was," said Watson, who teaches music and sociology at three colleges in Boston. "No one knew. And when I asked who was Sen. Edward Kennedy--the most activist senator in our country--the only thing most of my students could say was that he was fat and that he was drunk. I hate to think what would have happened if I'd asked who was Shirley Chisholm."

Shirley Chisholm was a member of Congress between 1969 and 1983. But isn't it sort of a trick question? Right after being asked about Ted Kennedy, what student wouldn't mix up a dimly familiar woman's name with that of Mary Jo Kopechne?

(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Michael Segal, Wendy Stone, Kirk Stites, Alan Kudravy, Ed Lasky, Nick Olson, Patrick Spero, Douglas Litvin, Andrew Lennie, Jena Olsen, Ethel Fenig, Adam Cahn, Charlie Gaylord, Mike Carroll, Monty Krieger, Ruth Papazian, James Hervey, Andy Hefty, Dan O'Shea, Paul Smith, John Sanders, Kellie Robinson, John Kuckelman, Nicholas Felten, S.V. Lynch, Martin Celusnak, Darryl May, Don Surber, Don Hubschman, Phil Hord, Aaron Krakowski, Jane Freidvald, Bruce Campbell, Alan Jones, Lindsay Osbon, Mark Van Der Molen, Monty Goolsby and Thomas Ferguson. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)

Today on OpinionJournal:

• Review & Outlook: How about a windfall pundit's tax on high TV ratings?
• James Taranto: The media won't defeat America by fighting the last war.
• Jim Fusilli: Cookie Monsters of death-metal music.