The Dish

“Orwell always described himself as a socialist, never as a liberal. He disliked the Tory Party and the class system and the empire. His rationalism has been described (by me) as “Protestant Atheism”. That is, he had a great respect for scripture and for the hymnal, and employed their images and rhythms in his own prose. His favorite line of justification was a line from John Milton – “By the known rules of ancient liberty..” This expressed the conviction that there was a common and innate understanding of freedom, which would outlive all ideologies.” – the conversation about Orwell concludes on the Book Club Page. Thanks for all your emails. Next Friday, Hichens and I will be reprising our C-SPAN duet, live in D.C., from 8 – 10 am, ET.

Charles Krauthammer sends exactly the right signal to the president.

James Lileks, as usual, has the ex-veep’s number.

GOOD FOR BARNEY: Congressman Frank criticizes another Democrat. The Stonewall Democrats’ Chad Johnson also does the honorable thing. But then Johnson (an old friend) is an honorable guy.

THANKS: Last month was our biggest ever. We broke through the 1 million visit mark easily – with 1.13 million visits from 273,000 unique visitors.

Brad DeLong, with whom I often disagree but who’s invariably worth reading, points out some interesting data in the latest economic report. Bottom line:

Take the 7.6% [productivity] growth rate of the last quarter of 2001, the 8.3% growth rate of the first quarter of 2002, the 1.7% growth rate of the second quarter, and now the third quarter’s 4.0%, and realize that over the past four quarters America’s measured economic productivity has grown by 5.4%. This is an amazing performance for a time over which total hours worked have been falling.

As readers know, I’m no trained economist, but it strikes me that the huge productivity gains of recent times are extremely good news for all of us. There was much in the boom that was dumb, much in the bubble that was ludicrous, but much underneath that may one day be seen as a big leap forward for the American economy.

HITCHENS ON REGRETS: “I think that regret is for those you didn’t sleep with, while remorse is for those with whom you did. There are some past battles where I wish I had done more for the cause, and very few moments over which I feel embarrassment. (I was fifty-two, since you ask, on 11 September 2001.) It was a clarifying day all right, but the thing began for me on 14 February 1989, when Khomeini issued his “fatwah” against Salman Rushdie. I have been denouncing “under-reaction” to Islamic theocratic violence ever since, and it begins to look like steady work.” – more reader and Hitchens to-and-fro on the Book Club Page.

THE GOODS ON LAW: Did he once tell this guy to keep quiet about sexual abuse? At this point, you can’t rule it out. Can anyone tell me why Cardinal Law hasn’t resigned yet?

THE GOODS ON THE FBI: Heather Mac Donald examines how the Clinton administration kept the FBI ham-strung in the run-up to 9/11.

SIMON PANDERS: Yep, it’s not just the Dems that gay-bait, of course. The hopeless Republican candidate in California has been trying to use anti-gay themes in his outreach to Latinos. Isn’t this exactly what’s wrong with the Republican Party? There’s a whole new constituency out there to woo and win, i.e. Hispanics. So why do you have to scapegoat and smear another group to do it? Got nothing else to say?

WELLSTONE ON GAYS: Not what you might have imagined. Wellstone eagerly voted for the “Defense of Marriage Act,” sponsored by the religious right and signed by Bill Clinton. The Judd Brothers have more, including a particularly brutal piece about Wellstone’s alleged attitude toward gays in something called ‘The Progressive Review.” First time I knew of this. I guess none of Wellstone’s radical supporters would bring it up, would they?

The New Republic’s blog does a handy little job on Mondale’s acceptance speech.

“Economy Races Ahead at 3.1 Annual Rate in Summer,” – Associated Press headline on the AP website.

“Economy Grows at 3.1 percent. Consumer spending on big-ticket items fuels third quarter surge.” – Washington Post.

“Economy Grew at 3.1% in 3rd Quarter, Slower Than Expected” – New York Times.

When Michael Ledeen first suggested this, I thought he was joking. But it makes a twisted sort of sense as a deterrent, doesn’t it?

One of my acquaintances here in Provincetown said something arresting yesterday. We’re friendly, although he’s about as perfect an example of a New York lefty, with Wellstonian touches, that I’ve ever met. He disagrees with almost everything I say, naturally, was against the war in Afghanistan, let alone Iraq, thinks Bush is a corporate crony cipher, etc. etc. etc. The first thing he brought up when we bumped into each other was the Wellstone memorial service. It really bugged him. He felt the pure partisanship, the jeering and cheering, the fanaticism almost, just after a family has been killed, was about as unseemly a spectacle as anything one could imagine. As I’ve seen the clips, I can’t help but agree. What on earth could they have been thinking? That picture of Clinton and Mondale yucking it up, for example. Sure, there are times at political wakes when such outbursts of hilarity are appropriate. But shouldn’t an ex-president and an ex-vice-president be aware of what that would look like in such a context? I have a feeling that the Wellstone rally-cum-memorial-service will shortly become a symbol of something: the pre-eminence of political values over humane ones. This is what a lot of people hate about politics. And you can’t blame them. This attitude is not the exclusive province of either party, of course. But one of the reasons Bush is popular, I think, is precisely because he doesn’t seem at all times motivated by such values, however much his critics try to prove the contrary. There’s a decency there that was sadly lacking Tuesday night. And it’s that contrast that so many find instructive.

SOME OTHER BONES: “I’ll accept compliments from the Right when they agree that Henry Kissinger belongs in the dock, and when they admit that this failure on their part is also sheltering Saddam Hussein from an indictment for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and when they acknowledge that their trashing of the International Criminal Court is a betrayal of the whole ethos of “regime change”. And after that, I have some other bones to pick with them…” – Christopher Hitchens lets it rip on the Book Club Page, as the email chat continues.

Will Saletan writes this of the Wellstone “memorial service:”

“Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning,” Wellstone declares in a videotaped speech shown on the overhead screens. “Politics is about improving people’s lives.” But as the evening’s speakers proceed, it becomes clear that to them, honoring Wellstone’s legacy is all about winning the election. Repeating the words of Wellstone’s son, the assembly shouts, “We will win! We will win!” Rick Kahn, a friend of Wellstone’s, urges everyone to “set aside the partisan bickering,” but in the next breath he challenges several Republican senators in attendance to “honor your friend” by helping to “win this election for Paul Wellstone.” What can he be thinking?

My feelings entirely. Is there a chance that this kind of spectacle will actually persuade voters not to vote for Mondale? I guess not.

Ah, yes, one Ted Rall again.