Month: December 2003

I guess it’s hard for many people today to understand the profound racism that animated people like Strom Thurmond for most of his life. It was a racism that didn’t forbid sexual relations with African-Americans, but kept them in a permanently second-class position. And look at the context: Thurmond had sex with Carrie Butler when she was a mere 16 years old and he was 22. She was his servant. And his power over her – and his daughter – was so great that neither woman went public with the fact until now, long after this bigot died. Everyone else in the family went along with this demeaning and dehumanizing escapade. Even now, Thurmond’s son, climbing his own way up the greasy pole of politics, reflects this attitude:

The family doesn’t know much about Williams, Thurmond Jr. said. “I had a conversation with my dad about it about 10 years ago. I asked about this, and he didn’t tell me whether she was or whether she wasn’t (his daughter),” he said. “I did not ask again.”

Why not? The answer is that Carrie Butler’s daughter was illegitimate, of course. But also that neither Butler nor Essie-Mae Washington-Williams, were racially pure enough to be included in Thurmond’s public or even private life, except under a penumbra of secrecy and hush-money. There is a racial closet as well as a sexual one. In the case of Thurmond, both closets were combined. What it reveals is the deep human and necessary hypocrisy of racism; the ancient tendency to sexualize African-Americans as a way to keep them at a distance from full human equality and dignity; and the lingering power of inter-racial sexual taboo. Fascinating also that Thurmond fought so long to maintain miscegenation laws he himself violated so early in his life. He was fighting against himself, against his own daughter, against his own country. And he was never publicly called to account. Better late then never.

I fisk Howard and Hillary’s speeches yesterday. What’s with this “internationalization” blather? Less than meets the eye.

They’re not calling it that, but Howie Kurtz’s often indispensable ‘Media Notes’ online column is now going round the clock. Poor Howie. I’m not sure he realizes what a permanent deadline of ‘now’ does to your mental equilibrium. But welcome to the, er, blogosphere.

From the Guardian:

In the same northern Iraqi town yesterday, about 700 people rallied, chanting: “Saddam is in our hearts, Saddam is in our blood.” US soldiers and Iraqi policemen shouted back: “Saddam is in our jail.”

Ouch.

We’re Texans. No doubt the Family Research Council wants more arrests like this one.

THE VATICAN ON SADDAM: I wish I could say I am surprised. But the current leadership of the Roman Catholic Church – and I include the current pope – is so misguided at this point no one should be surprised. They find excuses for Saddam and strongly supported keeping him in power; and declare loving gay couples “evil.” Not much more needs to be said.

A left-wing skewering in the Guardian. Money quote:

For the first time in its history the Left has nothing to say to the victims of fascism. Defeat explains much of the betrayal. The past 20 years have witnessed the collapse of communism, the triumph of US capitalism and the recognition of the awkward fact that many Third World revolutions are powered by a religious fundamentalism so strange the traditional Left can’t look it in the eye. The result of the corruption of defeat is an opposition to whatever America does; a looking-glass politics where hypocrisies of power are matched by equal hypocrisies in the opposite direction.

“The French will always do exactly the opposite on what the United States wants regardless of what happens, so we’re never going to have a consistent policy,” – Howard Dean, 1998, arguing against exactly the kind of foreign policy he is now advocating.

QUOTE OF THE DAY II: “If he truly believes the capture of this evil man has not made America safer, then Howard Dean has put himself in his own spider hole of denial. I fear that the American people will wonder if they will be safer with him as president.” – Joe Lieberman, finally taking the gloves off. And why shouldn’t Lieberman go for broke with an unabashed pro-war appeal to a largely anti-war primary electorate? It’s what he believes. It distinguishes him. He’s losing anyway. And it’s good for the Democrats to have a serious pro-war candidate (alongside Gephardt). Lieberman now needs a strong, simple ad on this theme – and fast.

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP: Fresh from Howard Dean’s raising of the question of whether president Bush had been tipped off in advance by the Saudis about 9/11 comes Democrat Jim McDermott, not exactly a stranger to conspiracy theories. He tells a radio show in Seattle that

the U.S. military could have found the former Iraqi dictator “a long time ago if they wanted.” Asked if he thought the weekend capture was timed to help Bush, McDermott chuckled and said, “Yeah. Oh, yeah.” He added, “There’s too much by happenstance for it to be just a coincidental thing.” When the interviewer asked again if he meant to imply the Bush administration timed the capture for political reasons, McDermott said: “I don’t know that it was definitely planned on this weekend, but I know they’ve been in contact with people all along who knew basically where he was. It was just a matter of time till they’d find him.”

You begin to wonder if some Democrats have gone nuts – politically as well as psychologically.

Here are two actual reviews of “Angels in America,” the leftist play hailed by every living critic as a masterpiece for the ages. Dale Peck sees its datedness, as well as its merits. Timothy Hulsey is much tougher. Money quote:

The scenes and speeches in Angels never add up, perhaps because Kushner’s characters don’t change or progress much over time. Roy Cohn, the one major character who never fails to impress audiences (and who gives actors a chance to tear off whole chunks of scenery with their teeth), starts the play as an amoral son-of-a-bitch, and ends the play as an amoral son-of-a-bitch. Prior Walter, the protagonist, begins the play as a sweet, introspective left-winger with a trust fund, and ends as a sweet, introspective left-winger with a trust fund. You’d think that angels and AIDS would have had more of an impact on these guys, but no.

I also didn’t realize that Kushner had written an earlier play equating tolerance of Ronald Reagan with aquiescence in Nazism. Ahead of his time, for a change.

ONE QUITS: Kudos to Jewish World Review for pointing out how the religious right’s “Alliance for Marriage” has also allied itself with some terror-supporting Muslim outfits. Hey, it’s one thing the mullahs and Richard John Neuhaus can agree upon. One major conservative rabbi has now quit the organization. Will more follow? Stay tuned.

JEWCY FRUIT: A new line in t-shirts for the Jewishly inclined.

“I have been a severe critic of Saddam Hussein and his regime for decades and find it bizarre that you should have characterized my listing of his crimes as a sign of faint disappointment in his capture. I did not oppose the Iraq war, precisely on the grounds that I couldn’t bring myself to do anything that might keep him in power. I have many Iraqi Shiite friends who suffered from his genocidal policies.
All I was saying, or my wife was saying, was that the task of actually governing Iraq is still there for the Americans, and capturing Saddam may not change all that much–indeed, it is not entirely impossible that some aspects of governing may become more difficult.
There certainly is no doubt that the Bush imperial adventure in Iraq has been deeply marred by their arrogant ignorance of Iraq and their incredibly inept administration of the country since May. Saying so does not make me a supporter of Saddam, and, as someone who has often admired your writing, I am sorry to see you stoop to mere demagoguery.” – Professor Juan Cole. More feedback on the Letters Page.

“Thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed by the US-led unjust and immoral war, and the death toll continues to rise as innocent people are being killed in US military raids, bombardments and Sharon-style collective punishment, and harmed by the depleted uranium shells used by the US-led forces. So at this moment of joy, other questions keep intruding: Who is going to try Bremer, Bush, Rumsfeld and Blair? Will Iraq ever be free?” – Sami Ramadan, Sydney Morning Herald.

GALLOWAY AWARD NOMINEE II: “Terrible news: Saddam is captured. The chicken hawks will gain in power now.” – Ben Richards, Free Dartmouth, Dartmouth College’s liberal blog.

GALLOWAY AWARD NOMINEE III: “There really do seem to be a lot of us here who are genuinely happy that Saddam is captured. This suprises me. I’m not happy they captured him. That’s not to say that I’m sad. I just think today’s news doesn’t stir any emotion in me at all. Saddam was never a threat to me. He never did anything to me personally. I doubt he ever did anything to you. In fact, Saddam, over the course of his life and rule of Iraq, probably did more to help America than any other world leader. …” – from our friends at the Democratic Underground.