Category: The Dish

"Jon, tonight the vice president is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Whittington. According to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush. Everyone believed at the time there were quail in the brush. And while the quail turned out to be a 78-year-old man, even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists he still would have shot Mr. Whittington in the face. He believes the world is a better place for his spreading buckshot throughout the entire region of Mr. Whittington’s face." – Rob Corddry, last night.

Get your Cheney buckshot jokes here.

Just when you think the vice-president has created a p.r. disaster nothing could detract from, you come across a picture like this.

The military’s gay ban has cost almost $364 million since its revamp under Clinton. I’m sure there are better ways for the Pentagon to spend that money.

They just scored a quiet victory for proselytizing by military commanders.

Here’s the attempt by Ramesh Ponnuru to burnish his own conservative credentials by slighting mine:

"While Sullivan loves to write about his allegedly consistent record of opposing big government, such opposition was not at all a major theme of his writing in the 1990s. When most conservative writers fought the Clinton health plan in 1993 and 1994; when they cheered Newt Gingrich in his efforts to cut federal spending in 1995 and 1996; when they opposed the budget deal of 1997 for its spending increases; when they tried to stop the creation of the new entitlement for children’s health care; when they protested the efforts to regulate cigarettes and campaign finance: Sullivan had almost nothing to say. (Except when he came out for campaign-finance "reform.") But he now pretends that those of us who did say something at that time have less sterling records than he does."

Touched a nerve, did I? Well, for around six of the years in the 1990s, I was editing a liberal magazine. Nonetheless, I was not exactly famous for maintaining liberal orthodoxy in its pages. One of the articles I published was by Elizabeth McCaughey – an article many said did more to destroy Hillary-Care than any other piece of journalism. I can reassure Ramesh that I was not beloved by my colleagues for the piece. At TNR, I also edited many essays that pursued conservative ideas – including welfare reform, where TNR played a critical role (thanks, largely, to Mickey), intervention in the Balkans (thanks to Leon), opposition to affirmative action (me and Marty), defense of Israel (all of us), and, of course, the Bell Curve (me). Not exactly a liberal pedigree. My own writing focused more on cultural issues, but were consistently small-government conservative: for a balanced budget, against hate crimes laws, against outing, against identity politics, and for marriage. I even came out against job discrimination laws for homosexuals. Unlike Ramesh, I actually risked something for my conservative ideals – friends and some colleagues, estrangement from the gay establishment, and even my job – which is partly why, perhaps, I am more appalled by the Republicans’ betrayal of conservatism than he seems to be. I endorsed Bob Dole in 1996, for Pete’s sake. I was withering in my critique of Clinton, but stopped short of supporting impeachment. As for big government, I was thrilled by the 1990s, which did indeed see reduced government spending – and even surpluses! I can’t see how I have moved much at all. But the Republicans have. In the 1990s, they were taken over by religious fundamentalists. The Bush administration is the consequence.

I described Richard John Neuhaus as a former Marxist. I fear I am wrong. While he once said he longed for a Christian version of Marx, I’ve been told he was not a Marxist as such; just a leftist. I apologize for the error.

New York Magazine has a cover-story on the phenom. It’s a piece you’d expect from Adam Moss, the editor (and an old friend). It’s a very acute piece about status, how blogdom now has an A-list, how corporations are now in on the business, how links can build a lot of traffic, how money can be made. After reading it, I should confess to some sadness. I miss the days when it was just one dude writing his thoughts to whoever wanted to read it. I hope bloggers don’t get too entranced with traffic and ad revenues, although they are addictive in a way. It should still be fun – and a blog with a hundred readers can be just as effective in what it does as one with a million. If your goal is chasing readers and revenue, rather than just venting to whomever, you risk losing what makes blogging so fresh. Perhaps, alas, we already have.

"You’ve probably received lots of emails about your post about Haiti yesterday. I am an American living in Haiti, sitting at home right now because there are crowds out burning tires in the streets and the school where I work is closed.

I found it curious that you called the Haiti elections "self-run" – it’s true that the CEP is a Haitian body, but we had the UN, the EU, and the OAS helping with the elections, and certainly paying for them (60 million dollars, reportedly, as one friend of ours figured, about $21 US per vote). And to say that everyone accepts the results is a bit premature.  First, we don’t HAVE official results yet, and secondly, people are marching in the streets protesting the concept that anyone but their candidate could possibly win."

I may have allowed hope to overcome experience. I am grateful for the reality check.

Don’t miss Glenn Greenwald’s update. It’s very funny how his most vociferous critics prove him doubly right.

"President Bush exercised the powers of the imperial presidency to the utmost in the area in which those powers are already at their height — in our dealings with foreign nations. Unfortunately, the record of the administration has not been a happy one, in light of its costs to the Constitution and the American legal system. On a series of different international relations matters, such as war, international institutions, and treaties, President Bush has accelerated the disturbing trends in foreign policy that undermine notions of democratic accountability and respect for the rule of law."

Who said this? Me? Marty Lederman? Bob Barr? Al Gore? Nah. It’s John Yoo, the architect of George W. Bush’s torture and rendition policies, the man who believes it’s ok not just to waterboard and beat detainees but to crush the testicles of their children, if the president deems it necessary for national security. But a confession: I changed one word throughout the quote. Yoo is describing Bill Clinton, not George W. Bush. How soon they change.