“In these awful days, George W. Bush has become the American Yasir Arafat, an empty, repetitive, shifty public personality who talks out of both sides of his mouth, with little or nothing to say from either of ’em.” – Nicholas von Hoffmann, New York Observer.
GORE’S ARSENIC LIE: If you want a good example of how Al Gore has turned into Terry McAuliffe, check out Spinsanity’s dissection of Gore’s repetition of the simple lie – that president Bush tried to increase the levels of arsenic in the drinking water. Gore knows this is untrue. He’s not dumb. But he says it anyway. You can expect the repetition of such untruths from the likes of Michael Moore, but from Gore? After what he learned (or didn’t learn) in the last campaign?
“NOTORIOUS”: Some of you have written to say that the American cardinals’ use of the word ‘notorious’ to distinguish some sexual abusers from others is not as ominous as I might have thought. The distinction is designed to separate priests who have merely been accused and those who are already exposed in the public sphere as child-abusers or minor-seducers. I take the point. But I still do not see why the public nature of any accusations should affect treatment in any way. This is not about p.r. It’s about protecting the abused. The criteria for laicization of priests should be the same regardless of whether that priest’s misbehavior is well known or a complete secret. Until the hierarchy can stop thinking about ‘reputation’ and start thinking about morality, little will change.
The Dish 