Monthly Archives: October 2003

October 20, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Blame it on blogging

Leon Wieseltier of the New Republic attributes the problems now faced by his colleague Gregg Easterbrook (discussed by Trunk below) on blogging. According to Wieseltier, “There is no such thing as instant thought, which is why reflection and editing are part of serious writing and thinking, as Gregg has now discovered.” Andrew Sullivan responds that blogging is “a different way of writing, one that acknowledges that it is imperfect and »
October 20, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Under the volcano

It’s not a pretty sight when left-wing gangbangers march into action to destroy admirable men, but they really have it down to a science. Our radio hero Hugh Hewitt has manfully sought to counter the brigades out to humiliate and destroy General Boykin. The same phenomenon is at work with respect to New Republic senior editor Gregg Easterbrook. Over the weekend Steve Hayward wrote about Easterbrook and his current ordeal »
October 19, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Marginalized and misunderstood

From Andrew Sullivan we learn that French President Jacques Chirac has blocked the issuance by the European Union of a harshly worded statement condemning the anti-semitic remarks of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir. Here’s the AP’s report. AP also notes, not without sympathy, that the Malaysian government is claiming that the Prime Minister was misunderstood. It seems that he was simply appealing for calm and reason on the part of Muslims »
October 19, 2003 — Scott Johnson

What is realignment?

In his Weekly Standard article “The (finally) emerging Republican majority,” Fred Barnes argues that a Republican realignment has occurred in the American electorate. Both Deacon and Rocket Man comment briefly on the article in “Breaking away?” Deacon wisely puts a question mark behind Barnes’s thesis. Barnes unfortunately begs the question of what constitutes “realignment” and therefore makes the question as well as the answer somewhat opaque. He seems to be »
October 19, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Rise of Another “Right Wing” Party

When I saw headlines about the impending victory of a “right wing extremist” party in Switzerland, I knew the immigration issue had reared its head again. Nowadays, the only political position that can get you labeled as an “extremist” in Europe is advocacy of curbs of any kind on immigration. Sure enough, the Swiss People’s Party got over 27% of the vote in the election that has just been completed, »
October 19, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

The maturing Republican majority?

In response to my agnosticism as to whether a Republican majority is “emerging,” my conservative cousin from New York had this to say: “It would be interesting to compare the average age of the voters who identify as Republicans vs. those who are Democrats. I suspect that the average age of Democrats is higher than that of Republicans. The Democrats, particularly as regards “White” voters, may be appealing to the »
October 19, 2003 — John Hinderaker

The California Fallout Continues

The San Diego Union Tribune reports on a political conference held yesterday at the University of California: “The conference, which has been held after each of the past five gubernatorial elections, demonstrated how Schwarzenegger’s stunning victory has transformed California politics in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 recall election. “Past conferences often have amounted to acrimonious finger-pointing sessions among GOP campaign strategists while their Democratic counterparts smugly savored their »
October 19, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Waging Clark’s campaign

Below I mention the Boston Globe Ideas piece today assessing Wesley Clark in light of the Kosovo campaign: “Clark’s war.” The Globe piece begins with a reference to Clark’s new book, Winning Modern Wars, and mentions his previous book, Waging Modern War, but doesn’t make much of either of them. Leaving the Globe’s cursory piece in the dust is Newt Gingrich’s brilliant review of Winning Modern Wars that ran in »
October 19, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Visions of sin

The Boston Globe’s lead Ideas piece this week is devoted to an assessment of Wesley Clark’s performance during the Kosovo campaign: “Clark’s war.” The piece seems so cursory to me that it is worthless. In any event, the fun is to be had in the Ideas piece on the new book by literary critic Christopher Ricks on Bob Dylan: “The Dylanist.” Ricks is a serious scholar of Milton who is »
October 19, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Frolicking on Planet Bananas

My vote for Best of the Web today goes to Mark Steyn: “With friends like the Saudis…” Steyn notes the relative ease with which enemy agents have infiltrated American institutions including the military and its Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facility. Steyn writes: “Infiltration-wise, I’d say that’s pretty good. The arthritic bureaucracy at the CIA say oh, no, it would be impossible for them to get any of their boys inside »
October 18, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

The silly season

It isn’t just sportswriters who are indulging in magical thinking (the curse of the Bambino, etc.) these days. The usually sensible political writer Jonathan Rauch also does so when he claims that a “14 year rule” governs who can be elected president. Under this “rule” no one can be elected president who takes “more than 14 years to climb from his first major elective office to election as either president »
October 18, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Breaking away?

I’m not a big fan of claims about “emerging majorities,” even when they are made by observers as astute as Fred Barnes. In this Weekly Standard piece, Barnes argues that we are finally seeing the emergence of a Republican majority. I think Barnes is successful in establishing that there has been a “realignment.” But the realignment consists of the Democrats losing their huge edge in party affiliation. Today there are »
October 18, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Al Franken in Minneapolis

Today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune has a good profile of Al Franken: “Franken sense.” I didn’t realize until reading the profile that he and and I are the same age. The hard copy version of the profile runs with a high school yearbook photo that is unfortunately not available online. All I can say is that if you put my yearbook photo next to his, I think we would qualify as »
October 18, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

The Democratic silent majority

The Washington Post reports that polling of Democrats in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina shows that Democrats prefer a presidential nominee who supported military action against Iraq, but criticized President Bush for not gaining international support, to a candidate who opposed military action from the beginning. This poll may be good news for Dick Gephardt and probably is good news for President Bush. It may be good news for »
October 18, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Sherwin Linton Comes Back

Popular music seems to be today’s theme, so here’s a tribute, courtesy of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, to the Twin Cities’ longest-surviving country musician, Sherwin Linton. Sherwin, now 64, started singing in high school in Watertown, South Dakota, where he had a band called the Fenderbenders. In the 1960’s he had a No. 1 hit on the country charts, Cotton King, and he was twice a contender for country music’s »
October 18, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Today’s good news

Simon and Garfunkel made an indelible impression on me when I saw them perform live on the twelfth floor of Dayton’s department store in downtown Minneapolis in 1967. The duo broke up in 1970, but Simon has remained a gifted songwriter and a vital artist. They are now embarked on a reunion tour that has them touring together for the first time in 20 years. Their first date occurred Thursday »
October 18, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Not for the faint of heart

…is this eye-opening account of Hillary Clinton’s preparation for the restoration: “Hillary Inc.” (Courtesy of RealClearPolitics.) »