Month: February 2004

This is what happens when an administration regards the war on terror as a mere matter of law enforcement:

Clinton had demonstrated his willingness to kill bin Laden, without any pretense of seeking his arrest, when he ordered the cruise missile strikes on an eastern Afghan camp in August 1998, after the CIA obtained intelligence that bin Laden might be there for a meeting of al Qaeda leaders.
Yet the secret legal authorizations Clinton signed after this failed missile strike required the CIA to make a good faith effort to capture bin Laden for trial, not kill him outright.

The Clinton administration’s feckless attempts to get Osama are, to my mind, a huge neon warning about what might happen if John Kerry becomes president.

Naomi Wolf versus Harold Bloom. With Camille on the sidelines.

AT THE END OF THE LINE: Here’s a documentary short of the line of couples in San Francisco waiting to get married. I found it revealing and deeply moving. The pictures of all those regular and not-so-regular couples waiting patiently in line for hours and hours and even days to get a piece of paper which probably won’t give them any rights at all – that’s revolutionary in the public consciousness. Suddenly, it’s not the gay pride parades and mardi gras festivals that illustrate gay lives. Suddenly, it’s love and patience and kids and umbrellas and bouquets and tuxedoes and all the other bric-a-brac of living. How hard is it to tolerate that?

Here’s a sentence from the latest Pew poll on what’s happening to Bush’s popularity: “The level of polarization in the president’s favorability exceeds that for President Clinton in September 1998, during the impeachment battle.” Gulp. In the Pew poll, Bush’s approval ratings are now at 48 percent. Ryan Lizza has more analysis here.

More signs of conservative extremism in Washington.

” Both Truman and Ford ran for reelection after suffering the mother of all shellackings in mid-term elections two years before. We all know about the 1974 election, but 1946 is noteworthy as the last time the Republicans won a majority of the votes cast for House seats until 1994. It was as dramatic a midterm rejection of the incumbent as 1974 or 1994.
The populace was angry, they didn’t respect the President, and they let him know in the mid-terms. Ford and Truman were both able to recover, in Truman’s case successfully and in Ford’s case within a hair’s breadth of success, based on the excesses of their opponents.
I’m not sure what this says about Bush, but perhaps it means that the Democrat and Independent outrage is building up bigger than ever–and the Republican romp in 2002 was the worst possible result for Bush’s reelection. Or maybe it just means that political junkies spend too much time reliving the past and boxing in their own minds with old patterns.”

His highness backs marriages for gays. And a county in New Mexico issues more licenses.

I’ll be on the network Chris Matthews Sunday show with Peggy Noonan and Sam Donaldson this weekend.

Jesus said nothing about homosexuality. But he was adamant about the impermissibility of divorce. How can the Protestant right ignore his direct teachings on one and yet demand Constitutional action against the other? On their own Biblically inerrant terms? Can someone clue me in here?

At this point in the election cycle, only three post-war incumbent presidents have been behind their challengers in the polls: Harry Truman and Gerald Ford. And George W. Bush.

EUROPE TACKLES ANTI-SEMITISM: Not exactly. They’re finally holding a conference about it. That’s what Europeans do whenever there’s a real problem. I seem to remember a lot of conferences in the 1990s about genocide in the Balkans, but they did nothing about it. And in reporting the conference, we get this paragraph from the Guardian:

Meanwhile, some European commentators have caused offence by identifying a “cabal” of largely Jewish neo-conservatives driving Washington’s unilateralist and pro-Israeli agenda.

Unilateralist? Will this lie never die?

Bored of red and blue states? How about states where people say “Grammy Hall” as opposed to “Grandma Hall”? Or states where students call an easy course a “gut”? It’s all here, if it’s a very slow day in the office. Bonus fun: use the results to find out if you’re more Yankee or Dixie! Believe it or not, I came out marginally Dixie. It’s the residue of my English accent, I suppose.

BUSH KEEPS HIS PROMISE: And Blair gets his Gitmo prisoners.

EMAIL OF THE DAY: “As an independent, Republican-leaning Edwards supporter. I guess I’m a swing voter – I voted for Clinton in ’92, Dole in ’96 and Bush in 2000. If Edwards is the nominee, I will vote for him. If Kerry is the nominee – feckless, say-anything, “Do you know who I am?” John Kerry – I will vote for Bush. It’s that simple. And I imagine that a big reason Karl Rove is keeping his powder dry on Kerry right now, who’s incredibly vulnerable to attack based on his record, is that the White House would much prefer to run against Kerry than Edwards.” – more feedback on the Letters page. For a different view of Edwards, check out Overlawyered.com.

IS IT ALREADY LEGAL IN NEW YORK? A fascinating piece of legal arcana about marriage licenses in New York state. Meanwhile, Bill Daley comes on board. And here’s a quick way to send flowers to some of the couples waiting in line outside San Francisco City Hall.
CORRECTION: That should be Richard Daley, not Bill.