Roundup: Media's Take

David Broder: About John Lewis Gaddis's Advice to the Bush Administration

David Broder, in the Wash Post (12-19-04): ...What I took away from [a recent discussion with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar] ... was a realization that diplomacy -- not military force -- must be the main tool in meeting these challenges. That is all the more true because of the strong reluctance the American people feel toward engaging in another Iraq or any other struggle so costly in lives and treasure. In the lead article of the forthcoming Janu

Eric Boehlert: Bush's Astonishingly Low Poll Numbers Are Unprecedented

Eric Boehlert, at Salon.com (12-21-04): [Eric Boehlert is a senior writer at Salon.] Republicans like to brag about the sweeping mandate that President Bush received on Election Day. But as he prepares for his second term, Bush approaches Inauguration Day with historically weak job-approval ratings, according to a series of new opinion polls. Unless there's a dramatic turnaround in public sentimen

Jonathan Tepperman: Anti-Anti-Americanism (NYT Book Review)

Jonathan Tepperman, in he NYT (12-12-04):WITHIN months of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, the global surge of sympathy for the United States began to ebb. Before the invasion of Iraq, London's Sunday Times reported that equal numbers of Britons ranked Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush as the top threat to world peace. In France, a book claiming that Washington itself ha

German Immigration Issues Compared To 1950s/1960s Problems

Richard Bernstein, The New York Times, 12/15/04 Imagine a former American president publicly grumbling that it was a mistake for a certain group to have been allowed to immigrate to the United States -- the Irish, say, or Jews, or Pakistanis. The outrage would be justifiably loud. But a former German chancellor, Helmut Schmidt, now 85, recently declared that Germany should never have invited in all those Turkish guest workers in the 1950's and 60's, because, he s

Bush's Proposed Tax Code Compared To Past Endeavors

Kathleen Pender, The San Francisco Chronicle, 12/16/04 Are we to believe that George Bush is serious about tax simplification? In the past four years, Bush, with the help of Congress, has made the Internal Revenue Code read like a stack of John le Carre novels that have been torn up and sewn back together -- randomly. Of course, our current leaders are not the only ones who have added tonnage to the tax code."People were complaining about

Jenna Bush's Potential Job Analyzed In Light Of Past 'First Children'

Fay Fiore and Richard Rainey, Los Angeles Times, 12/16/04 For a while there, it appeared Jenna Bush might be mimicking her father's youthful taste for the partying lifestyle. She was caught with a phony ID in a Mexican restaurant and photographed fallen on the floor at a frat party, cigarette in hand. But now, at age 22, she's starting to act a lot more like Mom. She has decided to settle in sedate Washington, and she's applied for a job teaching dis

New York City's Politics Go National

Alexandra Marks, Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA), 12/16/04 What once worked for Giuliani and Kerik raises eyebrows in Washington. So what if Bernard Kerik had a personal relationship with a company believed to be connected to the Gambino mob family? Or that he hired a foreign nanny and didn't bother to check her immigration status or pay her taxes? And is it a problem that once a New Jersey judge issued an arrest warrant for the guy for

Columnist Accused Of Inciting Hatred Of Islam

Iqbal, Sacranie, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON), 12/14/04 In his column last Saturday, Charles Moore began with an almost unbelievably provocative question."Was the prophet Mohammed a paedophile?" he asked. The charge of paedophilia refers to Mohammed's marriage with Aisha. Yet a paedophile is one who is primarily aroused by children. For most of his married life, the Prophet (peace be upon him) had one wife, who was a widow with children of her own. After her death

Bull Fighting/Killing Protested In Spain

Elizabeth Nash, The Independent (London), 12/13/04 In the closing moments of a bullfight, the matador extends his arm and aims his sword at the wavering, maddened beast before him. He lowers his cape and watches the bull's head dip to expose the vulnerable spot behind the shoulders, then he runs to plunge the blade to the hilt. The bloodied animal drops to the ground and the matador turns to acknowledge the cheering crowds. This is the kill - the climax of the bu

Corporate Funding Raises Ethical Questions For NAACP

Greg Barrett and Kelly Brewington, The Baltimore Sun, 12/13/04 [Editor's Note: The original article is much longer.] Critics who say corporate allies and member attrition have softened the nation's oldest and most storied civil rights organization probably never uttered those views in the presence of Dennis C. Hayes. The NAACP lawyer and interim president stiffens in his chair. The NAACP talks tough. The dog hasn't lost its bark."No one gives m

George Will: Democrats Must Get Rid of the Snobs

by George Will

Some liberals simply cannot control their insuppressible reflex to look down their upturned noses at the American electorate. Writing in The American Prospect, a liberal monthly of which he is co-editor, Robert Kuttner, in a thoughtful analysis of Democrats' difficulties developing a distinctive values vocabulary, argues that "when Democrats fail to articulate pocketbook issues as values, class resentments become cultural ones," and Republicans prosper. Then, in his penultimate paragraph, his own cultural resentments against the American majority, as he imagines it, drive him into a ditch:

Reuel Marc Gerecht: How Iran Could Help Fan the Flames of Iraqi Nationalism and Help Us Win the War

Reuel Marc Gerecht, in the WSJ (12-13-04): [Mr. Gerecht is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.]... The strongest trump playing in favor of America and against Iran is Iraqi nationalism. Nationalism is easily the most successful European export to the Middle East, rearranging, subordinating, and sometimes eliminating older ties of faith, family and tribe. Iraq's Shiites are the progenitors of modern Iraqi nationalism. They, much more than their Sunni Arab c

The New Deal Court Case Conservatives Are Trying to Undermine

Adam Cohen, in the NYT (12-14-04): The New Deal made an unexpected appearance at the Supreme Court recently - in the form of a 1942 case about wheat. Some prominent states' rights conservatives were asking the court to overturn Wickard v. Filburn, a landmark ruling that laid out an expansive view of Congress's power to legislate in the public interest. Supporters of states' rights have always blame

The Nuclear Options Republicans May Use to Stop Senate Filibusters of Court Nominees

Duncan Currie, in the Weekly Standard (12-6-04): THE SENATE'S COLD WAR over judicial nominations is at a crossroads. With a newly minted chamber taking office January 4, and a new minority leader already designated, the time seems ripe for a fresh start. The Republican majority wants an end to all active Democratic filibusters of appellate court nominees and the cession of such tactics in the future. Will the opposition comply? The answer hinges on two unknowns:

Why We Need a Leader Like Wild Bill Donovan in Charge of Intelligence

Charles T. Pinck & Dan Pinck, in the NYT (12-10-04): [Charles T. Pinck is president of the O.S.S. Society. Dan Pinck, an O.S.S. veteran, is the author of "Journey to Peking: A Secret Agent in Wartime China."] FOR those who have been around long enough, the debate over the reorganization of the United States intelligence community has a familiar air. The issues and arguments

Significance Of IBM's Sale Of PC Business To Chinese

David Teather, The Guardian (London), 12/09/04 IBM yesterday sold its personal computer business to China's leading manufacturer, Lenovo, in a deal that reflects the profound changes taking place in the economic world order and marks the end of an era for one of America's most iconic companies. The sale is a great leap forward for China, still nominally a communist country, onto the global business stage. The deal is the largest overseas acquisition by a Chinese compan

Progress In Turkish Education

Vincent Boland, Financial Times (London, England), 12/09/04 At first glance, the campus of Sabanci University, onthe edge of Istanbul, looks more like an office park than a seat of learning. Surrounded by motorway construction and dismal industrial buildings, its appearance would disappoint those who associate universities with dreaming spires. But in the five years since it was founded, the university has emerged as a new kind of academic institution in Turkey.

Lawrence Of Arabia Evaluated In Light Of Problems In Iraq

Dan Murphy, Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA), 12/08/04 In the spring of 1920, British occupation forces were tied down by an Iraqi uprising that began in Fallujah. British biplanes had rained bombs down on insurgent- occupied towns while ground forces had gone house to house confiscating weapons at the cost of thousands dead. By August, British generals said they had the uprising well in hand. But a retired British colonel dissented, writing an

Elizabeth Taylor Accused Of Owning Van Gogh Stolen By Nazis

Marcel Berlins, The Guardian (London), 12/07/04 On April 14, 1963 the London art dealer Francis Taylor, acting on behalf of an anonymous client, went to a Sotheby's auction and bought a Van Gogh painting, Vue de l'Asile et de la Chapelle de St Remy, for $ 257,000. It didn't take long for the identity of the real purchaser to be revealed: Elizabeth Taylor, his daughter. Her interest in the painting had, until the sale, been kept secret. If it became public, her fa

Ralph Nader Interviewed By The Guardian

Julian Borger, The Guardian (London), 12/7/04 [Editor's Note: This is a longer than normal post.] Fasten your seatbelts: He is one of the last true radicals in American public life and the man who single-handedly created the politics of consumer rights. But he is also, for many Democrats, the man who cost Al Gore the presidency in 2000 by running as an independent candidate and splitting the moderate vote. So, after a disastrous result this year, will Ralph Nader run f