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I sometimes wonder what the Founders, if they could return to life and see their creation, would think of today’s American Republic. President George W. Bush described the Constitution of the United States as “just a goddamned piece of paper†before he went on a rampage all over the world in what he called the... Read More
In my September 24 column, “Truth Is Evaporating Before Our Eyes,†I used the destruction of the CBS news team that broke the Abu Ghraib story and the story of President George W. Bush’s non-performance of his Texas Air Force National Guard duties to demonstrate how accusations alone could destroy a Peabody Award winning, 26... Read More
Donald Trump has buried George W. Bush, for good. Or so we hope. This might not be "Morning in America," but it is a moral victory for values in America. Somewhere in those Judeo-Christian values touted by “values voters†is an injunction against mass murder. Before the February 20 South Carolina primary, it looked as... Read More
“The evil that men do lives after them,†wrote Shakespeare. A prime example, former US President George W. Bush who appeared last week campaigning in South Carolina for his amiable younger brother, Jeb. George W. continues to haunt the Republican Party and damage its electoral chances. At home, Bush has been staying out of public... Read More
Making America great again, the theme of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, depends on dispelling the myths and myth-making that made America bad. Beginning with George W. Bush. Said Saint Augustine: "The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works." The Republican Party under Bush did the devil's work. Bar the sainted Ron... Read More
The latest news that Jeb Bush has named two very public and outspoken homosexuals to prominent positions in his campaign confirms fully the worst fears that many grass roots traditional conservatives have regarding his role in Republican politics leading up to the 2016 elections. According to columnist Steve Deace in a February 28 piece, titled,... Read More
Today being John Milton's 400th birthday, I have been reading Paradise Lost in the terrifically well-annotated Cambridge University Press paperback edition. Reading? Well, I've been … looking into it. The infallible Dr. Johnson: Just so. My own browsings are further obstructed by a peculiar transformation the text occasionally seems to undergo right before my eyes.... Read More
John Maynard Keynes[1] once observed that: "Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist." The master in this master-slave relationship need not actually be an economist. It was only that Keynes was writing about economics[2] when the thought occurred to him. That... Read More
Some readers accuse me of having nothing good to say about President Bush, but I can hardly help that. He swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, and even his defenders don’t seriously say he has done so. I can easily imagine a movie called Mr. Bush Goes to Washington and America Goes to Hell.... Read More
When I was a kid learning to play chess, I couldn’t wait to move my queen. She was the most powerful piece on the board, so I wasted no time using her to attack. Guess what? On his next turn, my opponent captured her. It hurt my little feelings, but those were the rules. I... Read More
American sportswriting has changed a lot since the 1920s. It’s less lyrical, hyperbolical, and moralistic than in the days when Grantland Rice and others set its lessons in rhyming verse. Schoolchildren used to memorize “Casey at the Bat†— the tragic story of Mudville’s great slugger striking out in the clutch. But American optimism demanded... Read More
Back in 2000, candidate George W. Bush described himself as “a uniter, not a divider.†If we didn’t all remember that, you’d think I’d made it up. Now Bush has dubbed himself “the decider.†Well, things change, people change, and our perceptions of them change; but with Bush, everything has changed, and in the most... Read More
I don’t watch television much anymore, but I gather that Stephen Colbert is the hottest comedian on the tube this month. I missed his latest achievement, an act of lese majesty at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, where he ridiculed the chief guest, President Bush, without mercy. Bush and his wife had to take... Read More
The Princeton historian Sean Wilentz has caused a stir by arguing, in Rolling Stone magazine, that George W. Bush may be the worst president in American history. Of course you have to bear in mind that Wilentz, as a good liberal, ranks Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt among the greatest. Still, he has uttered a judgment... Read More
Things are getting messy. Before I address today’s headlines, let me offer my simple, comprehensive peace plan for the Middle East. First, give Palestine back to the Brits. Then adopt a reverse Monroe Doctrine: the United States will stay out of the Eastern Hemisphere. Think about it. Okay, now to today’s headlines. Abdul Rahman, the... Read More
In the 1979 movie The In-Laws, Peter Falk plays a dotty former CIA man who awes his sidekick, Alan Arkin, a timid dentist whose daughter is married to Falk’s son. “Were you involved in the Bay of Pigs operation?†asks the fascinated Arkin. Falk replies proudly, “Involved in it? It was my idea!†“Success has... Read More
What’s the proper form of address for a terrorist with a long record of mass murder? Emily Post doesn’t cover this one, but in the state of Israel his title may be “Mr. Prime Minister.†The political career of Ariel Sharon, successor of such democratic leaders as Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, appears to have... Read More
The debate over the Iraq war is essentially over. “I think there’s a fair chance we’ll win,†says Brent Scowcroft to Jeffrey Goldberg in The New Yorker. “But look at the cost.†Scowcroft was the first President Bush’s national security advisor, his best friend, and a hawk in the first war on Iraq. But that... Read More
The January 30 elections in Iraq confounded those who predicted that they would be a bloody disaster. They weren’t. This illustrates why it’s unwise to stake your principles on predictions. If your predictions are wrong, you risk discrediting your principles. Members of the outnumbered, outvoted, disgruntled Sunni minority were unable to deter or discourage most... Read More
After the banquet comes the indigestion; after the Lord Mayor's parade comes (or came, in the days before internal-combustion engines took over from horses) the man with the shovel. I've been on a victory high the past few days. As a principled conservative, though, I have had my discontents with George W. Bush's presidency. Now... Read More
After the American electorate wades through the scintillating debate about which presidential candidate is less patriotic than the other, some voters may display an interest in picking one of them to vote for. Many have already decided, and the bad news for President Bush is that a lot of them are the people who voted... Read More
Since the eight Clinton years already seem like the good old days, we shouldn’t be amazed at the huge, affectionate reaction to Ronald Reagan’s passing. Reagan himself was a symbol of the good old days even while he held office. In our nostalgia, we forget how contentious the Reagan years actually were. President Bush is... Read More
Once you’ve killed a certain number of people, even with the best will in the world, it becomes awkward to make the cheerful admission, “I goofed.†Halfway through his river of blood, Macbeth reflects that going back would be as tedious as going all the way across. Actually, it turns out that he hasn’t even... Read More
Last week they didn’t know who Richard Clarke was, if they’d even heard his name. This week they’re all attacking his character and motives with utter certitude. “They†are the Bush defenders in the media, the ones who insist that their president has never told a lie, so that those who suggest otherwise must be... Read More
Many years ago I heard the first lady of the United States give a speech. I didn’t fully approve of her, and I was determined not to be easily impressed — my usual wary attitude toward the high and mighty. My resolution lasted about five seconds. Her opening sentence was a one-liner Bob Hope would... Read More
The question has become a roar: Did the Bush administration lie about “weapons of mass destruction†to get the country into war with Iraq? Republican royalists resent the very idea that their president could lie. It seems to them what the awful French would call lese majesty. Of course our (lower-case) republican institutions are based... Read More
I had a history minor in college, so listen up. I know what it is to stay awake long nights boning up on why World War I started — the world war nobody talks about — and to remember the facts long enough to pass an exam. In a nutshell, some archduke got shot in... Read More
“Either you’re with us, or you’re with the terrorists.†This is the Bush “doctrine,†and it is dangerous nonsense. It’s a piece of moral blackmail, designed to force the people of the whole world to choose between false alternatives. It means that if you refuse to play ball with America — George W. Bush’s America,... Read More
To read the conservative and neoconservative press, you’d think that President George W. Bush combined the military genius of Napoleon, the courage of Coriolanus, and the moral wisdom of Confucius. My own view is that he confirms the truth of the adage “Never send a boy to do a man’s job.†Actually, the presidency is... Read More
President George W. Bush, speaking on August 24th: This little nugget of Compassionate Conservatism calls for some close textual analysis. Calls for it? It fairly shrieks for it. Where's my scalpel? There are people in Mexico … For "Mexico" you could equally well subsitute any one of a hundred or so other countries in that... Read More