Category: Politics

My friend Jonah Goldberg of National Review has been “outed” as one of the neoconservative puppetmasters of the Bush Administration. According to a review of Pat Buchanan’s new book “Israel’s Amen Corner: How the Zionists Betray the American People and the Will of God,” Goldberg is on Buchanan’s enemies list:

His enemies list of neoconservatives has unsurprising names: Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Irving and William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer and Jonah Goldberg.

Hmm…what do those men have in common? Are they all from New York? Are they all left-handed? No, that’s not it. Hmm…
When I was a lad, I loved reading Buchanan’s columns for their pungent prose and full-strength opinions. Now, I wish this obnoxious windbag would leave the stage for good, taking his “the 1950s were the Golden Age of America and Catholicism” shtick with him. He’s an embarrassment to Catholics, Christians in general, and political conservatives.
(Before you ask: do I think Buchanan is an anti-Semite? No, I’ve not seen any evidence of that. Do I think he loves to play “bait the Jew”? Oh, yes.)

Jimmy Carter, the most ex of our ex-presidents, doesn’t like Senator Zell Miller (D-Olympus) anymore. In his speech to the Republican convention, Miller ripped Carter for being a “pacifist,” and so Carter zings Miller for being “disloyal.”
As the AP article notes, Miller placed loyalty to his family (and to his country, it’s fair to imply) over party membership. Carter’s santimonious words remind us that old age doesn’t necessarily bring wisdom:

By now, there are many of us loyal Democrats who feel uncomfortable in seeing that you have chosen the rich over the poor, unilateral pre-emptive war over a strong nation united with others for peace, lies and obfuscation over the truth and the political technique of character assassination as a way to win elections or to garner a few moments of applause.

“The rich over the poor.” Bleech. Doesn’t he know how many homes John Kerry owns? (All right — how many homes his wife owns.)
Miller, a brother leatherneck, proved an old saying: you can only push a Marine so far, and then he’ll start to push back. Hard.

Hundreds of Catholic pro-lifers made their message heard at a Kerry rally on Saturday. More from Fr. Wilson at the CWN blog.

One of the more loathesome tendencies in American political life is the “gotcha” soundbite. The Democrats are jumping all over President Bush for supposedly saying “I don’t think you can win” the war on terror. (See the transcript.)
The last time they reacted like this, it was when Bush said “We will double our Special Forces to conduct terrorist operations” in a major speech. Clearly, if you read the text and especially if you hear the interview, Bush was saying that we might not win the war on terror in four years, but he was interested in minimizing the conditions where terrorism can flourish.
I know, both sides play “gotcha.” But it just turns people off of politics in general, and that’s not good for anyone. Nobody seriously thinks that President Bush doesn’t think we can win the war on terror — he’s said as much many times, but in his opinion, it will take many years. Nobody believes that he would send Special Forces troops on terror missions, either. It’s insulting to our collective intelligence to play this kind of stupid game.
Oh, wait — I’m sorry, my mistake: The guy who said we would conduct terrorist operations was Senator John F. Kerry in his own nomination speech.

The forces of diversity, tolerance, acceptance, peace, and love are on the prowl in Manhattan:

When marchers approached the Garden, a police detective was knocked off his scooter. He was then repeatedly kicked and punched in the head by at least one male demonstrator, the police said….
As delegate buses arrived at the Garden yesterday afternoon, protesters who had gathered for a demonstration screamed obscenities and gestured rudely at them. When the police spotted Pete Coors, a Republican candidate for Senate from Colorado, walking near the group, they swiftly steered him away….
Some delegates seemed perplexed, even hurt, not because they did not expect protesters to be here, but because they did not expect them to get personal. “They were using foul language, getting real ugly,” said Kim Kirkwood, a delegate from Amarillo, Tex. Her husband, Jim, said he could not understand it. “I have friends who are Democrats in Texas, and we talk about things, agree to disagree.”

The Left talks about respecting others’ points of view just long enough to gain power, at which time they don their boots and stomp on the others’ faces. When they get desperate after being out of power for years, they start screaming and attacking.
Does anyone else notice a (less violent) parallel between the secular Left and the Catholic Left? As their hold on seminaries, universities, chanceries, and other Catholic institutions wanes, they are getting ever more shrill and defensive. Here’s a great example: look at the articles lamenting the orthodoxy of young priests. Even the New York Times has noticed that the typical ordinand these days ain’t exactly Daniel Berrigan.