True conservatives just want a turn

November 3, 2009

If there's one thing liberal pundits are experts on these days, it's the sorry state of conservatism. The airwaves and the Op-Ed pages brim with more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger lamentations on the GOP's failure to get with President Obama's program, the party's inevitable demographic demise and its thralldom to the demonic deities of the right -- Limbaugh, Beck, Palin.

Fido, a.k.a. the climate criminal

October 27, 2009

Perotistas on the march

October 20, 2009

One of the most macabre images I've ever heard described came in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami in 2004. Before the tidal wave crashed on shore, beach- goers stood around and idly gaped as the water drastically receded. Bewildered, they didn't realize they were looking at the prelude to a calamity.

Reading between the lines of Obama's poetry

October 13, 2009

'All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling," Oscar Wilde once remarked.

We need a bigger House

October 6, 2009

Watching the House of Representatives on late-night C-SPAN, you might have any number of reactions, including seppukuseppuku-inducing boredom. But, depending on who's talking and the quality of his or her chart-and-easel presentation, you might also feel disgust, rage, contempt or, in rare cases, inspiration. But whether you hail from the right, the left or the allegedly vital center, one reaction you probably won't have is: "Gosh, if only there were more of these jokers."

A pragmatic look at Obama's pragmatism

September 29, 2009

'When John McCain said we could just 'muddle through' in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights," Barack Obama thundered as he accepted the Democratic nomination for president in Denver last year. "John McCain likes to say that he'll follow Bin Laden to the gates of Hell. But he won't even go to the cave where he lives."

Irving Kristol's clear thinking

September 22, 2009

'Iam so nostalgic." That's the phrase I associate most with Irving Kristol, who died last week at the age of 89.

The EPA is choking democracy

April 21, 2009

One of the most important events of our lifetimes may have just transpired. A federal agency has decided that it has the power to regulate everything, including the air you breathe.

How to solve the pirate problem

April 14, 2009

Well, that was simple. Shoot the pirates, problem solved.

Obama's bailout for the despots

April 7, 2009

It's President Obama's worst bailout so far. He's going to rescue the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Liberals' dirty shame

March 31, 2009

In 1996, Milos Forman directed "The People vs. Larry Flynt," the propagandistic film that made a "1st Amendment hero" out of the publisher of Hustler, a racist and filthy porn magazine. And yet Frank Rich of the New York Times dubbed it "the most timely and patriotic movie of the year."

Labor's 'card check' tricks

March 24, 2009

At the end of the 19th century, unsuspecting workers were "shanghaied" -- a practice originated in that Chinese city -- to work on British ships, which desperately needed the labor. All manner of tricks were used to hoodwink the poor souls into service at sea. According to one legend, press gangs, or "crimps," would put a coin -- "the king's shilling" -- in a man's drink. If the mark drank the ale only to see the coin at the bottom of an empty glass, it was too late and he was a member of the Royal Navy.

Mixing politics and bonuses doesn't pay

March 17, 2009

Hats off to Larry Summers. The president's chief economic advisor told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that there's nothing to be done about the fact that American International Group is contractually obliged to pay millions of dollars in bonuses to thousands of employees, some of whom helped ruin their company -- and, to some extent, the national economy. "We are a country of law; there are contracts. The government cannot just abrogate contracts."

Obama's fear-mongering

March 10, 2009

Imagine a child falls down a well. Now imagine I offer to lend the parents my ladder to save her, but only if they promise to paint my house. Would you applaud me for not letting a crisis go to waste? Or would you think I'm a jerk?

The tired war on Rush Limbaugh

March 3, 2009

Here we go again. Rush Limbaugh is public enemy No. 1.

Obama finds the Bush center

February 24, 2009

Here's something President Obama's biggest fans may need to hear: He's just not that into you.

The 'truth to power' gap

February 17, 2009

'Speak truth to power," a phrase of Quaker origins adopted by campus radicals, Hollywood gadflies and establishment journalists, has become something of an abracadabra slogan to justify criticizing government or big corporations.

On stimulus bill, centrists are over the line

February 10, 2009

I'm with the liberals on this one. They're fuming at the self-proclaimed "centrists" in the Senate who've taken it upon themselves to trim the stimulus bill at the edges.

Democrats are hypocrites when it comes to paying taxes

February 3, 2009

During the presidential campaign, Joe Biden insisted that paying your taxes is a patriotic duty. No, scratch that. He said that supporting a tax hike was the American thing to do. "It's time to be patriotic," he told America's putative tax slackers. When asked whether he might be questioning the patriotism of people who don't want higher taxes, Biden, as is his wont, took things to the next rhetorical level. Forget patriotism, insisted Joe, paying higher taxes is a religious obligation.

What Obama brings to conservatives

January 20, 2009

Iam proud and excited by the fact that we are inaugurating the first black president of the United States. He wasn't my first choice for president, but he is nonetheless my president. And if ever there were a wonderful consolation prize in politics, shattering the race barrier in the White House is surely it.

Skeptical of Obama's stimulus plan

January 13, 2009

Barack Obama has a curious definition of "non-ideological." He's insisting on bipartisan support for a stimulus package that will cost more than anything Uncle Sam has ever bought, save perhaps for victory over the Axis powers. He says he wants "to put good ideas ahead of the old ideological battles" and doesn't care whether they come from Republicans or Democrats. But he also says that "only government" can pull us out of this crisis.

Who're the real Nazis?

January 6, 2009

'Go back to the oven! You need a big oven, that's what you need!"

The 'ought' decade

December 23, 2008

Does anyone know what we're supposed to call this decade? Is it the 2000s? The twenty-ohs? We're coming up on the last year of it and I still have no idea. Personally, I always liked the "oughts," as in, "back in ought-six, I ate a brick of cheddar cheese in one sitting."

It's no time to panic

December 16, 2008

We are in what might be called the Great Freakout of 2008.

O.J., Obama and race in America

December 9, 2008

On Oct. 3, 1995, O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. But few people today still defend his innocence. Even Simpson suspended his search for the "real" killer long enough to come perilously close to admitting guilt, including in his semi-confessional book, "If I Did It."

An ugly attack on Mormons

December 2, 2008

Did you catch the political ad in which two Jews ring the doorbell of a nice, working-class family? They barge in and rifle through the wife's purse and then the man's wallet for any cash. Cackling, they smash the daughter's piggy bank and pinch every penny. "We need it for the Wall Street bailout!" they exclaim.

The true school scandal

November 25, 2008

Hypocrisy is an overblown sin. Better to be a hypocrite who occasionally violates his principles than a villain who never does.

'No' to Obama's experimental government

November 18, 2008

On Sunday night, President-elect Barack Obama told CBS' "60 Minutes" that Franklin D. Roosevelt would be a model of sorts for him. "What you see in FDR that I hope my team can emulate is not always getting it right, but projecting a sense of confidence, and a willingness to try things. And experiment in order to get people working again."

The GOP looking glass

November 11, 2008

Was George W. Bush a conservative president?

Obama's not 'new'

October 28, 2008

There's an old saying: The oldest word in American politics is "new." Only in that sense is there anything new to Barack Obama.

The media vs. Joe the Plumber

October 21, 2008

At a John McCain rally in Virginia on Saturday, Tito Munoz had come to face the enemy: the news media, which had declared war on Joe Wurzelbacher.

Obama's getting off easy

October 14, 2008

The Democratic nominee scorned the "prejudice and bigotry and hatred and division" on display in the Arizona senator's campaign. As for his own platform, he said that "we will do all these things because we love people instead of hate them. ... Beware of those who fear and doubt and those who rave and rant about the dangers of progress."

Biden, the master gasbag

October 7, 2008

Last Thursday's vice presidential debate was the most revealing, and depressing, event of the entire campaign because it showed how irredeemably fraudulent America's political class is and how superficial the voters who will decide this election are.

No one's clean in this mess

September 30, 2008

On Sunday evening, Republican House Minority Leader John A. Boehner explained his considered opinion on the $700-billion Wall Street bailout plan: It's a "crap sandwich," he said, but he was going to eat it.

E-mail to Obama: dishonest TV ad, wrong audience

September 16, 2008

After running a brilliant and historic primary battle to defeat Hillary Clinton, the Obama campaign is now in disarray. Why?

McPalin rattles Team Obama

September 9, 2008

Barack Obama, a famous fan of pickup basketball, must recognize his plight: It's two on one now. John McCain drafted Gov. Sarah Palin, the star point guard from the Wasilla Warriors, to double-team Obama.

Sarah Palin: the new life of the Grand Old Party

September 2, 2008

While Republican National Convention planners obsessed about the course of Hurricane Gustav, the only subject delegates and conservatives in general could discuss during the weekend's pre-convention activities (i.e. drinking) was the potential beam of sunshine, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Obama flubs the 'presidential' test

August 26, 2008

With Sen. Joe Biden slated to give Wednesday's keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama's vice presidential pick will stay in the national limelight awhile longer. Who among us can contain their excitement?

Good and evil and Obama

August 19, 2008

In the wake of the fascinating forum hosted by Pastor Rick Warren at his Saddleback Church in Orange County, everyone is focusing on the contrasts between presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. More interesting are the contrasts between the intellectual-theologian Obama and the political Obama.

Obama without his script

August 12, 2008

The Obama campaign has for months pursued the odd strategy of having the junior senator from Illinois act as if he were already kinda-sorta president of the United States. In June, it tried sticking a quasi-presidential seal on his lectern. Then in July, he conducted what seemed like official state visits with foreign leaders and delivered something like a "prenaugural" address in Berlin, inviting comparisons to JFK and Reagan.

Can Obama rescue Bush?

July 1, 2008

Breaking news! The ultimate White House insider plans a tell-all book about the Bush years. Boasting unprecedented access to the president's thinking, it will run counter to almost everything we've been told about Bush's radical presidency.

Dining room dollars

June 10, 2008

Al Gore claims (though I've found no evidence to back it up) that "good enough for government work" once implied that such work met the highest standards of excellence. Maybe. But in the U.S. Senate's kitchens, "good enough for government work" means any meal that doesn't require a stomach pump.

How neo are the neocons?

April 22, 2008

In the play "Embedded," Tim Robbins' 2003 satire about the Iraq invasion, a thinly veiled Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz shout with Nazi-like gusto, "Hail Leo Strauss!" and get sexually aroused at the prospect of international conquest. During the post-9/11 age of neo-phobia, when an irrational fear of anything that might be called "neoconservative" gripped the nation, such critiques passed as intelligently nuanced.

Evolution of religious bigotry

April 1, 2008

I just watched "Fitna," a 17-minute film by Geert Wilders, head of the Dutch Freedom Party, which takes a hard-line stance against Muslim immigration.

A race conversation? What are you talking about?

March 25, 2008

Thank God for Barack Obama. For until his "More Perfect Union" speech last Tuesday, it seems it never occurred to anyone that America needed to talk about race. "Maybe this'll be the beginning of a conversation," Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan proclaimed on "Meet the Press." According to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, just the fact of Obama's address proves that a "national dialogue on race" is "essential." The Chicago Tribune reported that "many voters, black and white, say they were moved by Obama's speech ... which they see as a long-awaited invitation to begin an honest, calm national dialogue about race." Newspaper editorial boards agree. In the words of the San Diego Union-Tribune: "Prodding Americans to confront their racial differences is, by itself, an accomplishment of historical proportions."

Obama's rhetoric, American realities

February 12, 2008

'Bill Clinton: Obama's White Half Won Maine," read the headline on the humor site Scrappleface this week. "Obama gets to play both sides of the race card," a fictional Bill Clinton told the site. "I told you he won South Carolina because he's black, like Jesse Jackson. So, to be consistent, I'd have to say he won Maine because he's white like Michael Dukakis."

We were warned

January 29, 2008

At a briefing for conservative journalists before the State of the Union address, White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten said President Bush isn't wistful about the close of his presidency and doesn't foresee a day when he will pine to be back in the Oval Office. Chuckles broke out in the room at the perhaps unintentional comparison to Hillary Clinton's surrogate in chief, who -- as with everything else in his life -- has decided to make the '08 election all about him.

What 'The Daily Show' cut out

January 22, 2008

If you're like me, you probably watch Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." If you're like me, you probably also turn to reruns of "Scrubs" or "Seinfeld" when the newsmaker interview comes on. If that's the case, you probably missed me and Jon Stewart playing Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots last week.

Taking liberties

January 20, 2008

Remember this? "There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical...."

Obama's real fairy tale

January 15, 2008

Ilike Barack Obama. The Clintons, not so much. But the Clintons are right and Obama is wrong.

Voting in the age of 'Dr. Phil'

January 8, 2008

What do you want in a president?

Politics? We'll take good cheer

December 25, 2007

There's been a lot of hand-wringing over the spectacle of presidential candidates campaigning during Christmas thanks to the front-loaded primary schedule. But I like it. It provides a nice reminder of how unimportant politics really are

Clintonian triangulation comes full circle

December 18, 2007

The most enjoyable aspect of watching the HMS Hillary take on water is the prospect that Bill -- and his cult of personality -- will go down with the ship too.

The Democrats' feel-good guy

December 11, 2007

Who would have guessed that running on the politics of hope was a smart move after all?

Romney's JFK moment

December 4, 2007

Washington is atwitter. Mitt Romney will give a "JFK speech" accounting for his Mormonism the way then-Sen. John F. Kennedy dealt with his Catholicism. Political junkies just love Kennedy nostalgia. So profound is the Kennedy cargo cult that Michael Dukakis -- who was as much a reincarnation of JFK as Weird Al Yankovich is of Frank Sinatra -- tapped Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen as his 1988 running mate because he believed it would revive the "Boston-Austin" axis of the JFK-LBJ ticket. Recalling the electricity and verve of that Democratic ticket, who among us can deny Dukakis' wisdom?

At peace with Pax Americana

November 27, 2007

For lack of a better word, the United States is getting tagged as an "empire" from all quarters. Indeed, it's been a century since the notion of an American empire got such wide circulation, and back then Washington truly had designs on such expansion. (Google "Spanish-American War" if you're unfamiliar with this period.)

Ron Paul isn't that scary

November 20, 2007

As the hopeless but energetic presidential campaign of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) builds momentum in name recognition, fundraising and cross-ideology appeal, media conservatives are beginning to attack Paul in earnest. Republican consultant David Hill condemns the candidate's "increasingly leftish" positions. Syndicated columnist Mona Charen calls Paul "too cozy with kooks and conspiracy theorists." Film critic and talk radio host Michael Medved looks over Paul's supporters and finds "an imposing collection of neo-Nazis, white Supremacists, Holocaust deniers, 9/11 'truthers' and other paranoid and discredited conspiracists."

The rich aren't made of money

November 13, 2007

'The question is: Should we be giving an extra $120 billion to people in the top 1%?"

Is fake news now the standard?

November 6, 2007

'Pat Philbin, the man who staged a fake FEMA news conference on the California wildfires last week, has lost his promotion because of the event, which begs the question: What does it actually take to get fired from FEMA?" That was the lead story on the latest installment of Weekend Update, the faux news broadcast on "Saturday Night Live."

Candidate Hillary: the GOP's dream

October 23, 2007

The most interesting thing to come out of the umpteenth Republican debate Sunday is confirmation that the GOP is dying to run against Hillary Clinton. Like Don Rickles flaying a heckler, each candidate whacked at Clinton as if she were a pants-suited piñata. When they were done with their one-liners, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee deadpanned: "Look, I like to be funny. There's nothing funny about Hillary Clinton being president."

Why be pro-life?

October 16, 2007

Idon't know if life begins at conception. I don't really know what "life" means. Consciousness? Possessing a soul? Well, if consciousness defines the issue, then life surely does not begin at conception. Not even the most adamant pro-lifer claims otherwise.

The unspeakable American culture

October 2, 2007

In a recent speech at the National Press Club, Katie Couric expressed somber disapproval of the jingoistic excesses after 9/11. Among the things that vexed her: "The whole culture of wearing flags on our lapel and saying 'we' when referring to the United States." From what I can tell, nobody among the journalistic swells bothered to ask, "Who isn't 'we,' Kemo Sabe?"

Stick to your guns, Rudy

September 25, 2007

When Rudy Giuliani spoke to the National Rifle Assn. last week, there was no way he could say anything remotely pleasing to the audience and remain consistent to his record. The former New York City mayor was one of the NRA's biggest targets in the 1990s, and for good reason: His positions were largely indistinguishable from the Clinton administration's, from which he received lavish praise for helping the feds impose an assault weapons ban, among other NRA no-nos.

Bashing Bush with Greenspan

September 18, 2007

'While there are significant long-term risks associated with such contractual arrangements, the well-informed actor, motivated by some historically recognized intangibilities -- maximization of regalement, binary association, et al -- finds that those outweigh the downside risks. To wit, would you -- exigencies and externalities permitting -- enter into a matrimonial association of indefinite duration with me?"

The real 'blowback' behind Osama

September 11, 2007

On April 17, 1987, Osama bin Laden led 120 of his most fierce Arab mujahedin into battle. The attack was planned for months and billed as a major offensive for the warriors of God against the atheistic Soviet Red Army and its apostate Afghan puppets. The target: an Afghan government position on the outskirts of Khost.

The media's Katrina malpractice

September 4, 2007

Last week, according to LexisNexis, there were more than 2,000 newspaper and wire stories on Hurricane Katrina, along with blanket coverage on cable news. This newspaper alone ran no less than two dozen articles of one kind or another around the two-year anniversary of the worst natural disaster ever to hit the United States.

It was always all about Al

August 28, 2007

'Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father's best days."

Popping the left's Internet bubble

August 21, 2007

'The government and the corporate media," declares a prominent activist website, have created a "propaganda machine whose goal is to continue the expansion of a [fascist] state and to control every aspect of our lives and fortunes."

Karl Rove: Bush's Napoleon

August 14, 2007

There's an old maxim that if Napoleon had been struck by a cannon ball on his way toward Moscow, he would be remembered as an unrivaled military genius and liberator. But Napoleon overstayed history's welcome and was treated harshly for it, first by the Russians and Mother Nature, then by his own people and, ultimately, by the historians.

Too uninformed to vote?

July 31, 2007

Can you name all three branches of government? Can you name even one? Do you know who your congressman is? Your senators? Do you even know how many senators each state gets? If you know the answers to these questions (and you probably do because you're a newspaper reader), you're in the minority.

My president's better than yours

July 17, 2007

AT A CANDIDATE forum for trial lawyers in Chicago on Sunday, Hillary Clinton proclaimed that the Bush administration is "the most radical presidency we have ever had."

Live Earth: Dead on arrival

July 10, 2007

'IF YOU WANT to save the planet, I want you to start jumping up and down. Come on, mother-[bleepers]!" Madonna railed from the stage at London's Live Earth concert Saturday. "If you want to save the planet, let me see you jump!"

The wealth between our ears

July 3, 2007

WHAT IF humanity disappeared tomorrow?

The Cheney irony

June 26, 2007

I'M A LONGTIME member of a pretty select group: the Dick Cheney Fan Club. Chapters gather in phone booths, refrigerator boxes and, at the annual convention, we take up three whole booths in the back of a nearby Arby's.

Western fictions, Arab realities

June 19, 2007

I HAVE BEEN scouring EBay for the last couple of days, hoping to snag a one-of-a-kind item. But, alas, it hasn't turned up yet. I'm looking for the late Yasser Arafat's Nobel Peace Prize. It was looted from Arafat's Gaza compound by the victorious forces of Hamas, a jihadist group backed by Iran and Syria that has routed the once-mighty forces of Fatah from power in Gaza. According to the Jerusalem Post, a Fatah spokesman said: "They stole all the widow's clothes and shoes."

Do away with public schools

June 12, 2007

HERE'S A GOOD question for you: Why have public schools at all?

Immigration's bad guys

June 5, 2007

ENOUGH Emma Lazarus. For many of us, the definitive pro-immigration speech comes from Bill Murray in "Stripes": "We're all very different people. We're not Watusi, we're not Spartans, we're Americans. With a capital 'A.' And you know what that means? Do you? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We're the underdog. We're mutts…. But there's no animal that's more faithful, that's more loyal, more lovable than the mutt. Who saw 'Old Yeller'? … I cried my eyes out."

John Edwards' poor scam

May 29, 2007

THERE'S A LITTLE hustler in every politician. But sometimes there's a little politician in a hustler. Such is the case with John Edwards.

The redemption of John Ashcroft

May 22, 2007

HERE'S MORE reason to love democracy: In the Soviet Union, you had to be thrown into internal exile before you could be rehabilitated. In Red China, you were paraded around town with a dunce cap on your head. But to be redeemed in Washington, all you need to do is obstruct the political villain du jour.

Just how crazy are the Dems?

May 15, 2007

MOST FAIR-MINDED readers will no doubt take me at my word when I say that a majority of Democrats in this country are out of their gourds.

Netroots on shaky ground

May 8, 2007

IT'S IRONIC. At precisely the moment so many people think that the Republican Party and the conservative movement went off the rails, the people who hate the right the most want to copy it.

The will of the uninformed

April 24, 2007

HUGE NUMBERS of Americans don't know jack about their government or politics. According to a Pew Research Center survey released last week, 31% of Americans don't know who the vice president is, fewer than half are aware that Nancy Pelosi is the speaker of the House, a mere 29% can identify "Scooter" Libby as the convicted former chief of staff of the vice president, and only 15% can name Harry Reid when asked who is the Senate majority leader.

Political-correctness Kabuki theater

April 17, 2007

EVERYTHING worth saying about the Don Imus thing — which isn't much — has been said already. We've now moved beyond Imus to the "national dialogue" phase of this familiar cycle. This is where we're supposed to tackle hard questions and deep truths about our society.

Conservatives, don't ignore McCain

April 10, 2007

BARRY GOLDWATER, the patron saint of modern conservatism, gave a famous speech to conservative Republicans who were angry with their shabby treatment at the hands of the Nixonites. Get over it, Goldwater told them.

The 'queen of nice' goes nuts

April 3, 2007

RENOWNED metallurgist Rosie O'Donnell proclaimed on TV on Thursday that Sept. 11, 2001, was a more significant date than most of us realized. It was, in her words, "the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel."

Campaign reform? Try campaign inflation

March 27, 2007

MICHAEL R. Bloomberg, a self-made billionaire, reportedly tells friends that his idea of good financial planning is to have his check to the undertaker bounce. "So," asks the Washington Post, "how does a billionaire spend all his money before he dies?" Well, "he just might drop a cool half-billion on a long-shot bid to become the nation's first modern president from outside the two major political parties."

Betraying their base -- the Democrats can do it too

March 20, 2007

IT'S IRONIC. Republicans by most accounts got trounced in the last election because they "lost their way." The latest cover of Time magazine even has a picture of Ronald Reagan crying like that American Indian from the old anti-pollution ads of the 1970s. Instead of a bunch of roadside litter, the Gipper is supposedly looking at the GOP's mess.

Unity is overrated

March 13, 2007

BECAUSE WE'RE AT the start of the electoral roller coaster, the part where the car slowly chugs upward, building anticipation for the gut-wrenching plunges and loop-the-loops ahead, I'd like to distribute a little political Dramamine.

The Joe and Valerie show

March 8, 2007

SURE, SURE, "Scooter" Libby might go to jail. His career is in tatters, his life a shambles. Even Denis Collins, the omnipresent juror-journalist, says he and his peers feel sympathy for Libby, the "fall guy" in this whole spectacle. But really, who is the real victim?

Maybe a Democrat should win

February 15, 2007

THERE IS AN IDEA out there. Perhaps not a fully formed one. Perhaps more like the whisper of one gusting like a sudden draft through the rafters of the conservative house, causing some to look toward the attic and ask fearfully, "What was that?"

Global cooling costs too much

February 8, 2007

PUBLIC POLICY is all about trade-offs. Economists understand this better than politicians because voters want to have their cake and eat it too, and politicians think whatever is popular must also be true.

Fight today or occupy forever

January 25, 2007

'AS I LOOK AT Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be-President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. 'When comes the end?' … And as soon as he became president, he brought the Korean War to an end." This was part of freshman Virginia Sen. Jim Webb's stentorian Democratic response to President Bush's State of the Union address.

At least Bush wants to win

January 11, 2007

AMERICANS ARE torn between two irreconcilable positions on the Iraq war. Some want the war to be a success — variously defined — and some want the war to be over. Conservatives are basically, but not exclusively, in the "success" camp. Liberals (and those further to the left) are basically, but not exclusively, the "over" party. And many people are suffering profound cognitive dissonance by trying to believe these two positions can be held simultaneously. The motives driving these various positions range from the purely patriotic to the coldly realistic to the cravenly political or psychological perfervid. Parsing motives is exhausting and pointless, but one fact remains: "End it now" and "win it eventually" cannot be reconciled.

Jerry Ford's magic

December 28, 2006

ONE OF MY favorite scenes from "Stripes" is when Bill Murray's girlfriend complains about how he constantly plays Tito Puente albums. Murray responds that, one of these days, "Tito Puente's gonna be dead, and you're gonna say, 'Oh, I've been listening to him for years, and I think he's fabulous.' "

Giuliani: the man to defend American culture

December 21, 2006

AMERICA NEEDS a Pym Fortuyn, and Rudolph Giuliani may be the man for the job.

Iraq needs a Pinochet

December 14, 2006

I THINK ALL intelligent, patriotic and informed people can agree: It would be great if the U.S. could find an Iraqi Augusto Pinochet. In fact, an Iraqi Pinochet would be even better than an Iraqi Castro.

Jonah Goldberg: It's losing we hate, not war

November 30, 2006

ONE THOUSAND three hundred and forty seven days.

Jonah Goldberg: Why Trent Lott?

November 16, 2006

WHO SAYS the Republicans are the Stupid Party?

Jonah Goldberg: The GOP betrayed its base

November 9, 2006

BEFORE I JOIN in the sport of post-defeat Republican recrimination, allow me first to indulge in a rare moment of bipartisanship.

A border bonfire smolders

November 2, 2006

THERE ARE two obvious ways to save the bankrupt liberal radio network Air America: Get Al Franken some new, funny material and hire a Lou Dobbs. I say "a Lou Dobbs" because the CNN host himself is probably too expensive, but his limousine populism is pretty easy to rip off: "Blah, blah, blah. Corporations are out to get you, Washington has sold you out, the fat cats have declared war on the little guy" and so on.

Jonah Goldberg: The Dems' identity crisis

October 26, 2006

NATIONAL REVIEW Editor Rich Lowry recently noted an explosion of "precriminations" among Republicans looking to assign blame for GOP losses in advance of election day. Blogger Glenn Reynolds offered a "pre-mortem" along similar lines. And the media have already started "pre-celebrating" the Democratic victory they expect Nov. 7. In the same spirit, let me offer a "pre-bunking" of the liberal gloating should the Democrats in fact win big.

Jonah Goldberg: Iraq Was a Worthy Mistake

October 19, 2006

THERE'S A STRICT taboo in the column-writing business against recycling ideas. So let me start with something fresh.

Jonah Goldberg: Foley Flap Highlights Dems' Hypocrisy

October 5, 2006

THE DEMOCRATS prayed for an October surprise and, like manna from heaven, a hypocritical, sexually disturbed Florida Republican dropped into their laps. They looked at the cyber-stalking ephebophile and said, "Behold, this is good."

Jonah Goldberg: Terrorists' 'Excuse du Jour'

September 28, 2006

OF COURSE the war in Iraq has made us less safe, and I didn't need the National Intelligence Estimate to tell me so. Who could possibly deny that Iraq has become, in the words of the NIE, a "cause celebre" for jihadists? One need only read the newspaper to conclude that Iraq is spawning more terrorists. (Indeed, one fears that all the authors of the NIE did was clip from the newspapers).

Jonah Goldberg: A Disgraced, Corrupt Ex-Governor ...

September 21, 2006

A SURE SIGN of a political movement's maturity is the discretion it shows in picking its leaders. Which is why gay groups could show how grown-up they are by excommunicating James McGreevey.

Lighten Up on Bolton

September 17, 2006

I SPEAK NOW not so much in praise of John Bolton as in dispraise of Boltophobia. Bolton is a fine man, a sharp intellectual, a committed public servant and has the most aggressive mustache in American politics today. He's done a first-rate job as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during his yearlong interim appointment, and were it not for the waffling of Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who has sorta-kinda-maybe changed his mind on Bolton in order to get reelected in liberal Rhode Island, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Jonah Goldberg: Bring on the Democratic Takeover

September 14, 2006

CONSERVATIVE Republicans have learned a painful lesson over the last few years. It turns out power isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Jonah Goldberg: Analogy vs. Analogy

September 7, 2006

'EXAMPLE IS THE school of mankind," proclaimed Edmund Burke, the founder of modern conservatism, "and they will learn at no other."

Jonah Goldberg: Give Bush a Break

August 31, 2006

LORD KNOWS I have my problems with President Bush. He taps the federal coffers like a monkey smacking the bar for another cocaine pellet in an addiction study. Some of his sentences give me the same sensation as falling backward in one of those "trust" exercises, in which you just have to hope things work out. Yes, the Iraq invasion has gone badly, and to deny this is to suggest that Bush meant for things to turn out this way, which is even crueler than saying he failed to get it right.

The Web's yellow DNA

June 22, 2006

WE'RE IN THE middle of another of the perennial tempests over the promise or the peril of the Internet. I've always been skeptical of some of the more utopian claims of Internet boosters and the dystopian fears of its critics.