The Guardian seems alarmed by the possibility of an early, 50,000 troop initiative to rid the world of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. I find it encouraging. Meanwhile, in the latest leak, the “inside-out” strategy appears to be a serious one. Or is this a bluff? Either way, it’s good news. It suggests we’re nearing the point when real decisions are about to be taken. Not a moment too soon.
GOOD SOLDIER PURDUM: Now we see why Todd Purdum wrote that silly no-news puff-piece on Colin Powell earlier this week. He was told to. The follow-up came yesterday with a Times editorial calling on Powell to engage in insurrection against “the sharks” among his fellow cabinet members. Why “sharks”? Even the Times doesn’t say they’re trying to get rid of the secretary of state. I think this was just an insult. Meanwhile, the ground is being laid for the Times to oppose the war against Iraq.
DEPENDS WHAT THE MEANING OF “GREED” IS:
“‘Blaming Clinton is absolutely ridiculous,’ ex-Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin told me. ‘We all have our faults, and Bill Clinton has his faults. But money and greed are not among them.'” – from Gloria Borger’s recent U.S. News column.
“The news that the Clintons are seeking government help to erase some of their substantial legal debts, first reported by ABC News, comes one month after Mr. Clinton reported earning more than $9 million last year by making 59 speeches in more than a dozen countries.” – New York Times, July 27.
ROVE WATCH: Another awful and completely political decision from the Bush administration: withdrawing funds from the United Nations Population Fund. Why? Because it is claimed that such funds support forcible abortions and sterilizations in China. The only trouble is that there’s no hard evidence that the funds do indeed do that. A State Department report, according to David Broder in yesterday’s Washington Post, stated that, “We find no evidence that UNFPA has knowingly supported or participated in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization in the PRC [People’s Republic of China]. We therefore recommend that . . . the $34 million which has already been appropriated be released to UNFPA.” The white House still punted. This is pandering to the Gary Bauers of this world – even when there’s not even a solid basis for doing so. Will there come a point at which Karl Rove realizes that sometimes the most naked piece of interest group politicking is not, how shall we put this, good politics?
THE OVERLAP: We dropped by a small lesbian band Saturday night, which was performing cover songs at a local restaurant. And at one point, I think I identified one small common denominator between gay men and lesbians. Helen Reddy. The epiphany occurred as I watched several gay men and lesbians moving their lips together as they sang along to the unforgettable lyrics of “Angie, baby.” Of course it isn’t a perfect overlap. Lesbians take her seriously. We don’t. They think the song is creepy. We think it’s hilarious. But for one blissful moment, that oxymoron, “the gay-lesbian community,” had a scintilla of reality. (If anyone has any other thoughts about what exactly gay men and lesbians culturally have in common, drop me a line. After Patsy Cline and k.d. lang, I drew a blank.)
WELCOME, ALAN: An old friend and Tory MP finally comes out to the general public. The times they are ‘a changing.
SAFIRE’S MISTAKES: Bill Safire is a wonderful columnist and he also makes mistakes. We all do, buddy. Over the past two years or so of writing sometimes more than 1000 words a day, I’ve made my share. But the old media is hardly innocent. Last February, Safire conceded he had misplaced the context of a quotation by Shakespeare, miscalculated the odds of several politicos, misunderstood the real meaning of “parlous,” got the name of a Conan Doyle watchdog wrong, and so on. Nothing wrong with that, and his corrections column was gracious, if far less prompt than most bloggers’. All this is simply to say he should get off his old media high-horse. I know it’s tough to have online competition, but hey, you’re a libertarian, Bill. Start enjoying it.
CAMILLE, ME, AND YOU: The dialogue is continuing offline. It took a little longer than a week. I hope to post the interview starting next Monday. Thanks for your patience.
The Dish 