Monthly Archives: December 2004

December 22, 2004 — Paul Mirengoff

A tribute to Spencer Abraham

The Washington Times pays tribute to an outstanding public servant, outgoing Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. The Times writes: In a period of unusual economic and political turbulence triggered by the September 11 terrorist attacks and volatile energy markets, Mr. Abraham assumed the considerable burden of pushing change in a large, unwieldy and scandal-plagued bureaucracy amid terrorist threats, rising oil prices and a holdover culture of security laxity that had »
December 22, 2004 — John Hinderaker

Tune in to Kudlow

Larry Kudlow has started blogging, and he’s a natural. Go there for sharp commentary on subjects that are mostly, but not entirely, economic. Larry also has a syndicated radio show, and I’ve signed up for an appearance on New Year’s afternoon. I’m not sure whether that’s a terrible time or a great time to be on, but if you’re tired of football by then, tune us in. Today, Larry commented »
December 22, 2004 — Paul Mirengoff

The left continues not to get it

The election, that is. Thus, Kos is mad as hell at John Kerry for screwing up the election, suggesting that he and his advisers “should be lined up and shot” for losing to “this joker” (President Bush, if you were wondering). In reality, John Kerry, while hardly a great candidate, ran as well as any liberal Democrat was likely to. Indeed, one could predict Bush’s victory and his margin of »
December 22, 2004 — Paul Mirengoff

The tragedy and the hope

We’re a bit late linking to this column from yesterday’s Washington Post by Fareed Zakaria. The column is called “Glimmers of Hope in the Arab World,” and it seems to me that Zakaria finds more than just glimmers. His view is that Islamic extremism is losing throughout the Muslim world, and that serious reform is taking place in a number of Muslim countries. He cites, in particular, the Persian Gulf »
December 22, 2004 — John Hinderaker

The Margin of Victory

A few days ago we linked to Stefan Sharkansky’s blog Sound Politics, which is covering the recount in the Washington governor’s race. Reader Mike Barton pointed out that Sharkansky has been investigating, with rather astonishing results: Crunching the data in the King [Ukraine] County voter registration file, I came across precinct SEA 37-1823, or simply Precinct 1823, located in downtown Seattle between Elliot Bay and I-5 near the James St. »
December 22, 2004 — John Hinderaker

The News From Mosul…

…is very bad, of course. There is nothing good to be said about the death of more than twenty American soldiers. But this is a war, and the way to stop casualties in wartime is to win the war, as my favorite historical figure, Ulysses Grant, understood as well as anyone. In the meantime, let’s not let a successful attack by our enemy take our eye off the big picture. »
December 22, 2004 — Scott Johnson

Stealing in plain view

And in slow motion. The latest installment of the Washington gubernatorial election is “Democrats: Gregoire wins by 8 votes.” »
December 22, 2004 — Scott Johnson

Blog of the year?

Or the year of the blog? James Lileks reflects. (Courtesy of Lucianne.) »
December 22, 2004 — Scott Johnson

Thank you, Mrs. Cheney…

for your kind remarks about Power Line on Hardball last night. They occurred in the context of a conversation with a capable interviewer in which your intelligence, attainments, and worthy goals were prominently on display. Your devotion to reviving the study and increasing the knowledge of American history among American kids through your current books was inspirational, as is the story told in the most recent of them, When Washington »
December 21, 2004 — Paul Mirengoff

Secularism and its discontents

That’s the title of the cover essay of the Dec. 27 issue of National Review by Ramesh Ponnuru (I don’t think it’s available online). Ponnuru’s essay is relevant, I think, to the debate between Hugh Hewitt and Jeff Jarvis on whether Christian faith is under attack in this country. Ponnuru addresses this issue in the context of political debate, rather than in the context of Christmas celebrations and other public »
December 21, 2004 — John Hinderaker

Sleight of Hand?

Jim Geraghty at Kerry Spot–Jim, the election’s over; it’s time for a new name–has heard that CBS may be planning a bit of misdirection in connection with the Thornburgh report: A little birdie familiar with discussions at CBS News tells me that the network suits will announce Dan Rather’s replacement the day they release the report into the fake memos. I guess the aim is to distract from the bad »
December 21, 2004 — Paul Mirengoff

One more point on Andrew Sullivan

Sullivan finds it “blindingly obvious” that we don’t have the number of troops in Iraq “needed to keep the peace, to police a country of tens of millions, to seal borders, to gain intelligence and to suppress rioting, looting and disorder.” If that’s our mission then, yes, it’s obvious to me that we don’t have enough troops. Indeed, to “police” the entire country of Iraq might require Vietnam-era troop levels. »
December 21, 2004 — John Hinderaker

Rising in the World

I was driving home from work a few minutes ago, listening to the Hugh Hewitt show. Hugh played an interview that someone did earlier today (I think) with Lynne Cheney. They talked about the internet, and blogs came up. The interviewer asked whether Mrs. Cheney reads any blogs. Mrs. Cheney mentioned Hugh–that’s why he played the tape, of course–and then said, “I love Power Line.” I almost drove off the »
December 21, 2004 — Paul Mirengoff

Rumsfeld’s issues, and Sullivan’s

Andrew Sullivan presents his case for sacking Rumsfeld. We’ve discussed the arguments Sullivan raises, but now I want to look at some of Sullivan’s underlying themes, all of which are fairly common to arguments calling for Rumsfeld’s scalp. Note first the attempt to attribute our problems in Iraq to the alleged personality flaws of American policy makers. To Sullivan, the insurgency and “chaos” in Iraq is not about the recidivism »
December 21, 2004 — John Hinderaker

A Marine’s Father Speaks

People sometimes tell us in emails that we don’t know much about military matters. That’s true. But we have readers who do. This morning, the father of a Marine who is a special operations team leader wrote to offer his thoughts on the “autopen” controversy: If [our son] had been killed, we would have been first informed by a visit – in dress blues – from a condolence team typically »
December 21, 2004 — John Hinderaker

Blair in Baghdad

Tony Blair made a surprise visit to Baghdad to meet with Prime Minister Allawi and with British troops. He and Allawi gave a press conference in which they answered questions, every one of which was more or less hostile. Here is one question, along with Blair’s eloquent response: Q: Nick Robinson, ITV News: Can you just give us a sense of your feelings today? You flew here in secrecy under »
December 21, 2004 — Paul Mirengoff

Hewitt v. Jarvis

Hugh Hewitt and Jeff Jarvis continue their excellent conversation about whether (or to what extent) Christian faith is under fire in this country. I agree with Hugh’s position that an important struggle is occurring “between secular elites and a majority that is Christian.” Hugh’s latest post makes makes the most important points, but I wish add two thoughts. First Jarvis states: I find arguments that there is a war on »