by JAMES TARANTO
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 3:21 P.M. EDT

Party Like It's 1968
CNSNews.com reports on a very strange speech by Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee:

"We're about to enter the '60s again," Dean said, but he was not referring to the Vietnam War or racial tensions.

Dean said he is looking for "the age of enlightenment led by religious figures who want to greet Americans with a moral, uplifting vision." . . .

Alternating between references to the "McCarthy era" of the 1950s, which he accused the Bush administration of reviving, the decade of the 1960s and the current era, Dean explained that he was "looking to go back to the same moral principles of the '50s and '60s."

That was a time that stressed "everybody's in it together," he said. "We know that no one person can succeed unless everybody else succeeds." . . .

Before leaving Tuesday's conference, the DNC chairman thanked those in attendance for giving him "a big lift."

"I came in the wrong door when I first got here," Dean said. "I came in the back, and everybody was talking about praising the Lord, and I thought, 'I am home. Finally, a group of people who want to praise the Lord and help their fellow man just like Jesus did and just like Jesus taught.' Thank you so much for doing that for me."

Dean did acknowledge that some aspects of the War on Poverty were misbegotten, and said "we have to make sure that we don't make the same mistakes."

But there's something bizarre about the head of the Democratic Party yearning for a return to the 1960s. After all, 1968 marked the beginning of the Republican ascendancy in American politics. Richard Nixon's narrow victory in that year's presidential election began an impressive 7-for-10 GOP streak, and of course the Republicans eventually broke the Democrats' congressional majority too. For a Democrat to long for a return to the '60s is the equivalent of a Republican looking back wistfully on the glory days of the Hoover administration.

But there is an obvious explanation for this seeming perversity. Like many liberal baby boomers, Dean (born Nov. 17, 1948) has never gotten over his own youthful narcissism. The Democrats' political resurgence may have to wait until they find a leader who is younger and more mature.

PC: Pretty Costly
There's something satisfying about this report from the Harvard Crimson:

Just days before University President Lawrence H. Summers steps down after losing the confidence of professors, Oracle CEO Lawrence J. Ellison announced that he has lost trust in Harvard University and will not carry through on a pledge made one year ago to donate $115 million dollars [sic] to create an institute to study global health initiatives.

The donation would have been the largest in Harvard's history, but Ellison said Tuesday that with Summers gone, he has lost faith in the University to properly administer the funds.

"The reason I didn't finish my gift to Harvard was because of the way Larry Summers suddenly left Harvard. I lost confidence that that money would be well spent," Ellison said, according to the Daily Telegraph of Britain.

Harvard estimates its endowment at $25.9 billion, so a loss of $115 million is, if not a drop in the bucket, not exactly a drought either. Still, in a just world, the far-left profs who forced Summers's ouster would pay some financial penalty for driving away this pot of cash.

The Majesty of the Law
"A portion of a controversial Texas congressional map was tossed out Tuesday by the Supreme Court, but the overall redistricting plan engineered by state Republicans was found to be proper," CNN reports:

The legislative plan led to the 2004 ouster of four Democratic incumbents from Congress and sparked a bitter partisan battle. The map was promoted by Republicans, including former majority leader Rep. Tom DeLay.

The divided ruling concluded that a congressional district unfairly diluted the voting strength of Latinos. "A state may not trade off the rights of some members of a racial group against the rights of other members of that group," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority.

Well, kudos to CNN's Bill Mears for figuring out what the decision (PDF), which runs 132 pages, says. We're still puzzling over the list of opinions, which concludes the nine-page syllabus:

KENNEDY, J., announced the judgment of the Court and delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts II--A and III, in which STEVENS, SOUTER, GINSBURG, AND BREYER, JJ., joined, an opinion with respect to Parts I and IV, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and ALITO, J., joined, an opinion with respect to Parts II--B and II--C, and an opinion with respect to Part II--D, in which SOUTER and GINSBURG, JJ., joined. STEVENS, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which BREYER, J., joined as to Parts I and II. SOUTER, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which GINSBURG, J., joined. BREYER, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part. ROBERTS, C. J., filed an opinion concurring in part, concurring in the judgment in part, and dissenting in part, in which ALITO, J., joined. SCALIA, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part, in which THOMAS, J., joined, and in which ROBERTS, C. J., and ALITO, J., joined as to Part III.

We think that's six different opinions, though we're not absolutely confident we've counted correctly.

Don't Be a Stranger
There's been a lot of reporting in the past couple of days to the effect that Hamas, the genocidal terrorist outfit that currently is the majority party in the Palestinian territories, has "recognized" Israel. Leave it to the New York Times to describe the whole thing credulously, then add as an afterthought that it's meaningless:

On Tuesday, . . . [Palestinian] political factions completed a draft agreement aimed at a national unity government that could include an implicit recognition of Israel by Hamas. . . .

The draft agreement between the Fatah faction of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, and the Hamas faction of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya is based on a document outlined by Palestinian prisoners. It is described as containing an implicit recognition of Israel's right to exist, because it calls for the creation of a Palestinian state within pre-1967 borders, presumably next to Israel.

Such an accord would move Hamas closer to recognition of Israel--a significant change--and would raise the possibility of renewed Western aid to the Palestinians, which was severely curtailed after the Hamas victory in January.

If the accord backing what would amount to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is completed, it will represent a victory for Mr. Abbas, who had threatened to put the issue to a referendum next month. But Saeb Erekat, a senior Fatah official close to Mr. Abbas, said that the document was incomplete, and that Mr. Abbas wanted to review it and consult further.

Blah blah blah. Eight more paragraphs of this stuff, and then we get this:

The draft document also contains a clause that supports armed action against Israel, which it says should be "concentrated" in areas occupied by Israel in 1967 but not limited to them.

In other words, Hamas (Fatah too) "recognizes" Israel in the sense that, to take a random example, Nicole Simpson's murderer recognized her.

Isn't It Romantic?
The Hill reports that Sen. Joe Biden got a little personal in discussing a possible run for president:

Speaking to a group of 130 twenty- and thirty-something supporters of his leadership PAC last Thursday, Biden indicated that while he thinks he could be an effective chief executive, as far as the job itself goes, he could take it or leave it.

"I'd rather be at home making love to my wife while my children are asleep," he said.

Biden's PAC spokeman [sic], Larry Rosky, said the line illustrates that "this is not an egostistical [sic] pursuit for him" and that he is "frankly totally in love with his wife."

Not to gainsay Biden's conjugal elation, but this is really too much information. Democrats are always talking about the "right to privacy." Can't they exercise it once in a while? Besides, as the State29 blog notes (warning: vulgar headline), "Biden's youngest child is 25."

Flaming Flags
The Senate yesterday rejected a constitutional amendment authorizing Congress to "prohibit the physical desecration" of the American flag. Sixty-six senators voted for the amendment, one short of the necessary two-thirds majority. All Republicans voted for the amendment except longtime opponents Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Lincoln Chafee (R.I.) and Bob Bennett (Utah); 14 Democrats voted "yes"--including, somewhat surprisingly, Michigan's Debbie Stabenow and New Jersey's Bob Menendez, both of whom are up for re-election this year.

By a vote of 64-36 the Senate rejected a measure offered by Sen. Dick Durbin that, according to the Associated Press, "would prohibit damaging the flag on federal land by someone intending a breach of the peace or intimidation of another person." (Although such conduct clearly can be prohibited, it's not clear this bill would have passed constitutional muster. By singling out the American flag, Durbin would have opened the door to a challenge on the ground that the measure was not "viewpoint neutral.")

The vote against the Durbin measure was almost identical to the vote for the amendment. Only three senators--Menendez, Harry Reid (D., Nev.) and Ken Salazar (D., Colo.)--voted for both measures. Only one--Russ Feingold of Wisconsin--voted against both measures.

That means that Feingold is the only senator to agree with this columnist that flag desecration should not be criminalized. We wish we could offer three cheers for his defense of free expression, but the most we can summon up is a grudging half-cheer. Feingold, after all, is a co-author of the notorious McCain-Feingold law, which restricts political speech in ways far more consequential than any flag-burning ban ever will. So Feingold actually ends up serving as an example of how those who fetishize the most offensive forms of expression sometimes turn out to be fair-weather friends of free speech.

Curiously, the New York Times highlights Hillary Clinton's support for the Durbin measure as having "drawn the scorn of her liberal base," even though every Senate Democrat but Feingold backed it, the amendment or both.

Meanwhile, a couple of follow-ups on yesterday's item in which we faulted Newsweek's Jonathan Alter and the New York Times editorial page for their overwrought objections to the amendment.

Alter, as we noted, observed that "the other countries that have banned flag burning include Cuba, China, Iran and Saddam Hussein's Iraq." According to The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg--a foe of the amendment--this is true but misleading:

As opponents point out, [the amendment] would put the United States in the company of China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, pre-invasion Iraq, and other tyrannies. But it turns out that France, Germany, Italy, and India, all of which are reasonably free countries, also have laws against insulting their national ensigns. (Japan, Norway, and--cartoons notwithstanding--polite little Denmark forbid the burning of foreign flags but not their own.) The flag-desecration amendment would hardly mean the death of free expression in America.

The Times, meanwhile, tut-tutted that senators were "messing with the Constitution." A reader reminds us that in March we noted that the Times itself had urged messing with the Constitution to abolish or circumvent the Electoral College.

Make That 40 Trillion Pennies
Yesterday we cited an Associated Press dispatch that reported Bill Clinton had said, in the AP's words, that "an estate tax on the richest one percent of Americans could raise $25 million to $40 million a year." It turns out that either Clinton or (more likely) the AP understated the death tax's revenues by three orders of magnitude, which, as reader John Erickson points out, changes our calculations regarding the prospects for wiping out extreme poverty:

It has to be $25 billion to $40 billion, not million, in which case your example becomes not six weeks but 6,000 weeks or over a century. On the other hand, the administrative costs of distributing 40 trillion pennies would be daunting not to mention the cost of manufacturing those pennies since it costs 1.23 cents per penny to manufacture meaning we would lose $92 billion but, hey, who's counting?

But wait--in this day and age, surely even people in extreme poverty have direct deposit, don't they?

The World's Smallest Violin
"Andrea Yates sobbed as prosecutors played a crime-scene videotape in court Tuesday showing her 7-year-old son floating dead in a bathtub and the bodies of her four younger children laid out on a bed," the Associated Press reports:

The video also showed toys in the yard and a baby swing hanging from a tree outside the suburban home on June 20, 2001, the day Yates killed her five children. She watched that part intently but looked down as the camera moved inside.

In the bathroom, it showed 7-year-old Noah floating face-down. Yates looked up briefly and began to cry.

Noah Yates, John Yates, Paul Yates, Luke Yates and Mary Yates could not be reached for comment.

Zero-Tolerance Watch
From USA Today:

Some traditional childhood games are disappearing from school playgrounds because educators say they're dangerous.

Elementary schools in Cheyenne, Wyo., and Spokane, Wash., banned tag at recess this year. Others, including a suburban Charleston, S.C., school, dumped contact sports such as soccer and touch football.

A ban on soccer? Finally, a zero-tolerance policy we can get behind--even if it is based on the laughable premise that metric football is a "contact sport."

Paradox: Demand Keeps Rising, Despite High Prices!
"Demand for Midtown Office Space Pushes Prices Up"--headline, New York Times, June 28

What Would We Do Without Lt. Eric Escola?
"Lt. Eric Escola, commander of the New Philadelphia post of the Ohio Highway Patrol, said following the Ride Smart, Drive Smart program can prevent fatal motorist and motorcycle accidents. 'Number one, get licensed,' he said. 'Number two, ride or drive sober. . . . And, number three, stay alert and be aware of other vehicles and motorcyclists traveling on the road.' "--Times-Reporter (New Philadelphia, Ohio), June 28

Didn't Bush v. Gore Settle This?
"Chad Deployment by UN Urged"--headline, Financial Times, June 27

He'll Never Visit a British Casino Again
"Half-Ton Mexican Man Loses 200 Pounds"--headline, Associated Press, June 27

We Blame Halliburton
"Putting On Weight? Blame AC, Lack of Sleep, Obesity Study Says"--headline, Orlando Sentinel, June 27

It Takes a Big Cat to Say He's Sorry
"Tiger Apologizes for Rajiv Gandhi's Death"--headline, Associated Press, June 27

High Crimes
"Prosecutors Drop Charges in 7-Story Fall"--headline, Associated Press, June 27

What's the Good Word
From a Zaman Online report, as printed on the Turks.us Web site:

Three suspects have been taken into custody by French police in connection with last Saturday's Molotov *censored*tail attack on the Turkish embassy in Paris. . . .

In the attack on the Turkish Embassy, two Molotov *censored*tails were thrown which caused damage to the embassy entrance but no casualties were reported. . . .

In April this year, Turkey's Paris embassy had been the target of another Molotov *censored*tail attack carried out by unknown persons.

We'd gloat about finding this error, but we wouldn't want the Turks to accuse us of being *censored*y.

Bottom Stories of the Day

• "Paris Hilton Not Converting to Scientology Either"--headline, PostChronicle.com, June 24
  
  
• "It Took Two Years, but Bent Pole Is Finally Gone"--headline, Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 28

Is There a Political Scientist in the House?
In an item yesterday, we remarked that Susan Roberts--or, as she calls herself, "Dr. Susan Roberts"--was not a real doctor but a political science professor. Several readers objected to this statement, including Clifford Edwards:

And just what exactly is a "real doctor"? Are you saying that people such as the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. aren't entitled to that honorific simply because their postgraduate degree is not in medicine? That is insulting to all those who have completed the grueling work involved in writing a thesis, regardless of the discipline.

We make an exception for Dr. King because he's an American hero. But as for "Dr. Roberts," we'll start calling her that as soon as one of our complaining readers lets her perform surgery on him.

(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Jim Orheim, Jared Silverman, John Williamson, Ethel Fenig, Todd Eberle, Keith Cummings, Jason McInnes, Ed Lasky, Edward Schulze, Scott Offen, Naftali Friedman, C.E. Dobkin, William Katz, Ruth Papazian, James O'Toole, Robert Elworth, Steven Snider, Michael Ryan, Gregory Flemming, John Billing, Andy Hefty, William Claggett, Robert LaFleur, John Forsberg, Jim Miller, Jerry Skurnik, Christopher Kilgore, Yehuda Hilewitz, Tad Doviak, Robert Nalley, Clifton Chadwick, Greg Eubanks, Baruch Brodersen, Jack Boyd, Robert Thorndike and Richard Lindstrom. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)

Today on OpinionJournal:

• Michael Oren: A return to targeted killing might improve Israeli security.
• Eugene Volokh (from The Volokh Conspiracy): Would the Supreme Court uphold a "spending limit" for abortion?
• William Mattox: She ain't heavy, she's my wife--and I don't want her to get off my back!