George W. Bush

Stalin? Whodat???

Featured image I think the study of ancient history extends to the advent of the first Clinton administration in 1993 or so. As we all know, and as former Latin students might say, ancient history has fallen into desuetude. I think this may explain the finding reported in Jamie Gregora’s Daily Signal story “This is the percentage of millennials who believe George W. Bush killed more people than Stalin.” I’m sure millennials »

Lies of “Truth” revisited

Featured image This past October 16 the Rathergate film Truth opened in more than a thousand theaters around the country. John and I warned viewers not to take the film at face value in the Weekly Standard article “Rather shameful.” On the film’s opening weekend the Star Tribune also carried my column reminding readers of the film’s factual background. The column was published as “Lies upon lies: The sad state of the »

Jean Edward Smith’s Burning Bush

Featured image I’m not going to read Jean Edward Smith’s new biography of George W. Bush for three reasons, one of them coming directly from Smith himself. Smith, the acclaimed biographer of John Marshall, Lucius Clay, and Dwight Eisenhower, once advised me: “Never write a biography of a living person.” He gave lots of good reasons for this counsel, many of which can be easily surmised. I was a little surprised, therefore, »

The “Strange New Respect” Award Makes a Comeback

Featured image The “Strange New Respect” Award is the invention of Tom Bethell, who noted decades ago how liberals would always start praising a conservative or Republican who showed signs of moderation, Bob Dole being a great example. “New respect”—a phrase you’d actually see in the media—was a euphemism for “moved to the left.” It is a totem of insincere liberalism, a coy way of attacking present-day conservatives. My corollary is that »

Trump channels Code Pink

Featured image It’s no secret that Donald Trump is a vicious bastard. It’s no secret that his views have often been more aligned with liberals than with conservatives. But until tonight, I didn’t know that his stance on George W. Bush is more vicious than that which leftist politicians are willing publicly to take. Nor did I know that Trump once urged Nancy Pelosi to impeach President Bush. In tonight’s debate, Trump »

Gilson’s gallimaufry

Featured image In today’s letters to the editor the Star Tribune publishes Gary Gilson’s apology for his sideswipe of John Hinderaker while swiping me head-on. Here is how it is published it today’s paper: DEBATE OVER THE MOVIE ‘TRUTH’ I apologize for a statement made about the Power Line blog In a Nov. 8 letter to the editor, I wrote that John Hinderaker, a founder of the conservative blog Power Line, had »

Discipline in the 2016 race

Featured image John Sears, Ronald Reagan’s one-time campaign manager, once said “discipline is nine-tenths of politics.” And, as Tevi Troy reminds us: Candidate Reagan put Sears’ dictum into action, running a relentlessly focused communication operation that kept to its message of the day, often to the consternation of the reporters following the campaign. This approach continued into Reagan’s presidency. As the authors of All the President’s Spin put it: “Ronald Reagan’s administration »

“Truth” hurts [corrected]

Featured image The Rathergate film Truth opened in wide release this past Friday. I took a look at the weekend box-office estimates posted by Box Office Mojo in “Truth doesn’t pay.” The film did not appear to be doing well even by comparison with Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. Hollywood Reporter observes that the film flopped on its opening this past weekend. Nevertheless, we may have underestimated the magnitude of the »

Lies of “Truth”

Featured image The Rathergate film Truth opened in more than a thousand theaters around the country this past Friday. The Sunday Star Tribune carries my column reminding readers of the film’s factual background. The column is published as “Lies upon lies: The sad state of the movie ‘Truth.'” I am grateful to Star Tribune commentary editor D.J. Tice for letting the column see the light of day in the hometown paper. Please »

“Truth” and other lies (5)

Featured image Dorothy Rabinowitz is a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board who also contributes excellent reviews of television programs and series to the Journal’s coverage of the arts. This past Friday, I wondered what was up when Journal film reviewer Joe Morganstern omitted any mention of the Rathergate film Truth, which had just opened in New York. Perhaps Morganstern had given way to Ms. Rabinsowitz, for now comes Ms. »

Donald Trump’s most offensive Democratic talking point yet

Featured image Donald Trump is fond of using Democratic talking points. This isn’t surprising. Not that long ago, he admitted to being more of a Democrat than a Republican on the issues. Among other Democratic talking points, Trump has erroneously blamed Republicans for the recession of 2008 and criticized Scott Walker for not raising taxes while parroting Democratic claims that Wisconsin has a $2.2 billion deficit. And I’m not even counting Trump’s »

“Truth” and other lies (4)

Featured image In his article on the New York Times love-in with the perpetrators of Rathergate and the stars of the Rathergate film Truth, Times reporter John Koblin quotes director/writer James Vanderbilt: Mr. Vanderbilt said that he did not want to impose a specific point of view in the movie but instead wanted to simply raise questions. “As a filmmaker I’m not interested in re-prosecuting something, so much as this was a »

“Truth,” according to the Times (5)

Featured image John Koblin reports in the New York Times on the Times‘s own love-in last week featuring Robert Redford, Cate Blanchett, Dan Rather, and Mary Mapes discussing the Rathergate film Truth. Rich Lowry likened the festivities to “a dispatch from another planet.” Koblin’s report captures none of the weirdness. It’s just another day’s work. Perhaps most notably, Koblin observes strict limits reflecting his apparent lack of knowledge regarding Rathergate itself. To »

“Truth,” according to the Times (4)

Featured image The Rathergate film Truth opens today in New York and Los Angeles. It’s coming soon to a theater near you. It opens across the country on October 30. As we might have anticipated, New York Times critic Stephen Holden gives the film a rave review in “‘Truth’ treads a perilous political tightrope.” The rather glaring fraud at the center of the events becomes “a suspenseful detective story in which the »

“Truth,” according to Mary Mapes

Featured image The Rathergate film Truth opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday. The film, as I’ve mentioned a time or two before, is based on Mary Mapes’s Rathergate memoir Truth and Duty. Mapes stands behind the false and fraudulent story that disgraced CBS News. She stands behind the fabricated documents on which the story was based. And now she has Cate Blanchett taking a star turn on her behalf »

“Truth,” according to the Times (3)

Featured image I have taken another pass at commenting on this past Thursday’s New York Times love-in with Robert Redford, Cate Blanchett, Dan Rather, and Mary Mapes talking about the forthcoming Rathergate film Truth. I take a whack at the Times in the City Journal column “Truth and the New York Times.” Power Line readers don’t need my brief refresher course on the facts of the scandal, but I think you will »

“Truth,” according to the Times (2)

Featured image Late last week the New York Times celebrated the forthcoming release of the Rathergate film Truth, starring Robert Redford as Dan Rather and Cate Blanchett as Mary Mapes. The Times event featured all four of them. “The full catastrophe,” as I would like to think of it. The Times convened the panel to discuss the film and the underlying story before an enthusiastic New York audience. Moderated by Times Magazine »