Say this about Clinton: he always understood how to triangulate. The president who doubled the number of gay discharges form the military, signed the ban on HIV-positive immigrants, and jumped energetically on the Defense of Marriage Act, told Kerry to back marriage and civil union bans for gays in the campaign. Kerry, to his enormous credit, didn’t go there. But then Kerry never presided over the execution of a retarded man for his own political purposes either.
L’ETAT, C’EST W: “And it has happened abroad, as well, where the president’s opponents and enemies – which is to say America’s opponents and enemies – must now be pulling their hair and gnashing their teeth with frustration and resentment.” – Bill Kristol. He ends his piece of triumphalism by quoting Danton. What does it tell you about what’s happened to Burke’s conservatism when its current advocates are citing French revolutionaries as inspiration? What next? Robespierre? Lenin?
DESERT CIVILIZATION: Check out this fawning account of the life of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph. My favorite snippet:
His skills as a mediator were celebrated throughout the region. They had been honed during a long apprenticeship as Ruler’s Representative in the Eastern Region of Abu Dhabi, lasting from 1946 until he took over as Ruler in a bloodless coup 20 years later. His sense of honour became a trademark. He never betrayed the solemn fraternal oath he and his brothers swore before their mother Sheikha Salaama not to murder each other.
What restraint!
The Dish 