The Dish

Oh, okay. So Bush’s best friend at Yale and major fundraiser, Roland Betts, is Jewish; and Bush is also good buddies with Tom Bernstein, big Dem, winning bonus points for bi-partisan philo-semitism. So I hereby give in. The man’s probably circumcized as well.

“By blocking funding, Dubya just reversed over seven years of progress, wiped out hundreds of vital overseas health programs, and made it very clear he fully intends to decimate as much of your right to choose as possible without being thrown too painfully into the fiery pits of sanctimonious political hell by intelligent and appalled women everywhere over his vapid gall and aww-shucks misogyny. Just the first dangerous and smirking political salvo in what promises to be a very ugly assault on women’s personal freedom and self-definition, and which will probably devolve into a big dumb GOP-sponsored defense of abstinence and sexual ignorance and the stiffly mechanical God-fearin’ missionary position, in the dark.” – Mark Morford, San Francisco Chronicle, January 24.

Oh, okay. There’s Ari Fleischer. Sorry. Did Rumsfeld sign off on that one?

You’ve got to hand it to Strom Thurmond. Now that Poppy Bush has his son in the White House and Colin Powell has his son at the FCC and Bill Clinton has his wife in the Senate and Mitch McConnell has his wife in the Cabinet, Strom gets to nominate his own 28-year-old son, not long out of law school, to be U.S. Attorney for South Carolina. Those Judiciary Committee Hearings could be tough, couldn’t they? Just so long as Strom doesn’t recognize the kid in front of him.

Log Cabin Republicans just put out an interesting press release, supporting school vouchers. Citing the occasional case where public school authorities refuse to protect gay kids from harassment and even violence, LCR points out that vouchers can empower parents to take their gay children out of schools where they are at risk. Similarly gay parents of straight kids can have more choice in placing their children in non-homophobic environments. Not exactly the most important argument for vouchers, but a sign that the gay movement is maturing and deepening ideologically. Next up: gays for guns. Instead of hate-crime laws, why not encourage gay men to defend themselves with weapons if attacked by gay-bashers? That’ll teach the thugs a lesson the thought police never will.

Philip Weiss asks the unasked question in the current New York Observer. The answer is: probably not as anti-Semitic as Phil Weiss. But it is interesting, is it not, that there are no Jews in W’s cabinet. (No homos either, closeted or otherwise so far as I can tell.) Weiss wonders whether this stems from W’s notoriously hostile reaction to the meritocratic elitists – read Jews – at Yale. To my mind, it’s a sensibility thing. Some goyim just don’t get it: Jewish humor, learning, ambition, wit, intellect, and so on. Bush is clearly one of those types. He’s uncomfortable around people with ‘ideas.’ He can sniff out condescension like a beagle near a McDonalds wrapper on the sidewalk. He’s not an ideologue, like Thatcher or Reagan, who both adored Jews and surrounded themselves with them. He’s more at home with practical types. I bet he’d get along better with Israelis than American Jews, for example. Does that make him anti-Semitic? Surely not. Rather he’s un-Semitic. He interacts with Jews the way some homosexuals interact with women: they might as well not exist. This could be a problem when he needs some intellectual support from the ideological press. But I have a feeling he won’t need much. There won’t be much ideological in the next four years to support.

No, I don’t get dressed up in pink to cavort around the English countryside. But that doesn’t mean I’m not appalled by Tony Blair’s latest piece of authoritarianism in banning fox-hunting. To see why, check out Foxy Business, posted opposite, and printed in this week’s issue of Time.

It’s a tight field so far, crammed with hyperbolic inanities worthy of the man this award is named for. But an early entry goes to Michael Chabon, a lovely fiction writer, whose politics comes off the shelf marked NPR. Here’s his take on W’s first day in Slate, debating with that perky contrarian Frank Rich: “So, right off the bat, pretty much the first thing G.W.B. does on settling back in that big black chair … is get to work on abortion. Did you catch that? The first thing! He’s going to block funding to international family planning organizations that offer abortion and abortion counseling. I suppose that in a way, as a message, as a deliberate indicator of future intentions, it’s as significant as Clinton starting right in with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. But far more accurate, I’m afraid, and, God help us and the 7 billion other people on this planet now under the stewardship of the world’s most powerful Eric Carle fan, far more consequential. Maybe it’s just because I find it such a reprehensible and contemptible act that it strikes me as so much more significant than Clinton’s move, which was, taken on its own terms, far more equivocal and ultimately pointless.” A point of information. Clinton’s first move in 1993 was not lifting the ban on gays in the military. It was ending the ban on overseas abortion funding that Bush has just reinstated! Duh. But when one side, representing around half the country, does this, it’s political courage. When the other side, representing around half the country, does it, it’s “reprehensible and contemptible.” Earth to Chabon. You write wonderful short stories. Stick to them.

Devastating piece in today’s New York Times on John Ashcroft’s record in Missouri. According to reporter James Dao, Ashcroft’s record in that state was running as a fire-breathing conservative but governing as a pragmatic centrist: “As attorney general, for example, he ruled that religious literature could not be distributed at public schools and that federal money could not be used for teaching parochial school students, though he supported both policies. And when term limits ended his tenure as governor in 1992, the most common criticism against Mr. Ashcroft was not that he had been a firebrand conservative who tried to dismantle state government, but a careful administrator more adept at blocking Democratic initiatives than twisting arms to advance his own.” Take that, Ms Michelman! “Three times,” Dao reports, “[Ashcroft] endorsed Democratic-backed tax increases for roads and schools. He signed legislation increasing penalties for crimes motivated by bigotry and raised spending on legal services for the poor. And his legislative agendas relied heavily on bipartisan ideas, from economic development to higher pay for teachers to tougher penalties for criminals.” It looks increasingly likely that Ashcroft is going to be easily confirmed this week. As likely as the surprising development that the culture war waged by the Left is beginning to lose just a little bit of its steam.

Saw George Stephanopoulos on Sunday at the ABC News Brunch. I’ve always liked him, despite our differences. He’s never obnoxious, often smart, and he sure looks better than he did when he was flacking for Bill. So he deserves some credit for stating the obvious on television yesterday: “He [Clinton] pardoned a man named Marc Rich. You may not remember Marc Rich but he was a banker, a commodities trader, who was trading with Iran when they were holding terrorists and trading with South Africa under the Apartheid regime, indicted by Rudy Giuliani, instead of facing trial he went on the lam, lived in Switzerland for 17 years. His ex-wife has given $600,000 almost, over $500,000 to the Democratic Party over the last two years. This is outrageous.” Yes, George. But so was almost everything else. Rich’s ex-wife says she’s appalled and never asked for it. But Clinton’s not after her money; he’s after his. Who’s gonna bankroll a Hillary campaign? The Big Creep went out as he came in – hustling for cash. Here’s what the man deputed to process pardons at the Justice Department said about Clinton’s shameless abuse of his office even in its final hours: “I’ve never seen anything like this. We were up literally all night as the White House continued to add names. Many people on the list didn’t even apply for pardons.” No, but did they offer the Democrats half a million?