Author: Eric Johnson

NRO’s David Frum comments today, “It really is incredible that the Democratic party seems determined to nominate a candidate who sounds, as James Taranto put it, like a conceited 15-year-old.” (Taranto’s original words are here.)
That statement is true, if by “the Democratic party” you mean “Democrat primary voters.” The party establishment hasn’t been tripping over themselves to support Howard Dean, for reasons both petty (he’s not one of the D.C. power-lunch crowd) and substantive (many power-lunchers think he’ll take the party way too far to the Left.)
If he weren’t mildly scary, I’d be inclined to laugh at Howard Dean. For a man whose entire state has far fewer residents than cows, he certainly thinks a lot of his leadership ability. “Mr. President, if you’ll pardon me, I’ll teach you a little about defense.” He could teach the president how to avoid military service, but it’s tough to think of a defense-related subject on which he could tutor the president.
Dean is the quintessence of the liberal Baby Boomer: boundlessly arrogant, with a self-regard that borders on the pathological. He is gripped by a vision of his own righteousness, and — mark this — his first instinct is to tear down edifices and destroy people. Just like his contemporaries who protested in Vietnam, he has no particular vision of the common good, other than a vague idea that he will assist the lowly once he finishes savaging the rich and powerful. In the meantime, he spews calumny and promises an armageddon for his enemies.
Quick trivia question: when was the last time a non-Southern Democrat was elected to the presidency?

One of the most decisive events in the Iraqi pacification campaign hasn’t been mentioned much in our infotainment-driven news media. (In fairness, they have to save room for Michael Jackson stories.) Next month, the old Iraqi currency with Saddam’s face on it will no longer be legal tender — meaning that any stashes the ancien regime has will be worthless.
Maybe Saddam and his thugs have foreign currencies with which to buy attacks on Coalition forces. Hard to say. But if he’s paying his minions in Swiss francs or euros, that kind of thing will stand out. If he hasn’t got the money, look for the “resistance” to drop off precipitously. A lack of cash, coupled with some judicious ass-kicking, will convince the thugs and murderers to pursue more honest employment. You heard it first on Catholic Light !

When the number of things I want to chatter about are many, and the minutes with which I have to chatter are few, I try to pick a subject that hasn’t received enough attention. Tonight, we ask, “Why isn’t Bush going to the funerals of soldiers who died in Iraq?”
Of late, many left-wingers have been asking this question, and it is typical of the Left’s off-the-rails hatred of President Bush. What they’re really asking is,
“Why isn’t Bush calling more attention to deaths in Iraq, which would hurt him politically and give Howard Dean some great footage to use in nasty campaign ads?”
There’s a great answer to their question here, which prompted a slew of responses. Think about something else — if the president went to a funeral, the focus of the event would no longer be on remembering the dead, paying respects to the family, and (if you’re Catholic) praying for the repose of the departed. It would be about the president attending a funeral.
But for the Left, nothing is too sacred to be off-limits to politics, not even a funeral, because to the committed Leftist, politics is sacred: he does not believe in a final, divine justice to be meted out by the perfect Judge, so politics is the only way to achieve justice. Men must seize power and order the world for themselves — or at least the correct men must do so. That this thinking must logically end in the Gulag or Dachau does not occur to today’s man of the Left, any more than it did to yesterday’s.