THE FOUNDATION

“Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters.” —Samuel Adams

INSIGHT

“In the writings of the Ephesians there was this precept, constantly to think of some one of the men of former times who practiced virtue.” —Marcus Aurelius

“I am entirely persuaded that the American public is more reasonable, restrained and mature than most of the broadcast industry’s planners believe.” —Edward R. Murrow

“When the political columnists say ‘Every thinking man’ they mean themselves, and when candidates appeal to ‘Every intelligent voter’ they mean everybody who is going to vote for them.” —Franklin P. Adams

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” —Ernest Benn ++ “Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.” —Ambrose Bierce

UPRIGHT

“Sen. Clinton ticked off the issues about which she is ticked off, because she says the Bush administration has failed to deal with them. They include health care, Social Security, Medicare and Iraq. The Bush administration has attempted to address all of these, but Democrats have blocked any progress. It’s an old political trick. You work against success and then blame failure on the president.” —Cal Thomas

“In Congress, Democrats have decided to chip away at the war with various symbolic postures but not to oppose it outright: That way, if things go well, they can muscle in on the credit, but if things go badly, they’ll be able to say they told you so without getting stuck with the blame.” —Mark Steyn

“Our political elite and chattering classes deserve a stiff rebuke for ignoring—and encouraging the public to ignore—the truth: In a global war for the Free World, there is nowhere to run.” —Frank Gaffney

“I find myself arguing with a whole bunch of people on the left who ‘know’ things that aren’t true. I’m both amused and surprised not only at the ignorance out there, but the confidence with which it is bandied about.” —Dinesh D’Souza

“Democratic California Assemblywoman Sally Lieber has announced that she will introduce a bill this week to make it a crime to spank children who are 3 years old or younger, punishable by up to a year in jail or a $1,000 fine. If this zany idea were to become law, California could be the place where the nanny state meets the authoritarian state.” —Debra Saunders

“[This] is a world in which facts always bow to feelings. What matters is not so much that you do good, but that you feel virtuous, or perhaps more to the point, are seen to be virtuous.” —Mona Charen

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“So now, as the U.S. and its allies work to economically isolate Iran, as a second aircraft carrier heads to the Persian Gulf, as coalition forces arrest Iranian officials suspected of stirring violence in Iraq, what is Russia’s response? Last week, Russian defense minister Sergei Ivanov confirmed that Moscow had sold air defense missiles to Iran. Yes, that’s right. Russia is selling weapons to Iran. It’s selling weapons to a state that is a leading sponsor of terrorism, whose president has vowed to wipe Israel off the map. It is selling these weapons even though the UN has been warning and cajoling and threatening Iran to stop its nuclear program for years. How did Ivanov justify the sale? Simple. It was all part of a contract signed in December 2005. Translation: Business is business, and to hell with the rest of the world. The Russians insisted that the sale doesn’t violate any international agreements. And that the missiles are short-range and purely defensive. But let’s see. What might Iran be defending? Its illegal uranium-enrichment sites? Other nuclear facilities where it is likely to be developing the expertise to build a bomb? And whose forces would be the likely targets of those missiles? The Russians, like the Chinese, issue reassuring pronouncements about opposing Iran’s nuclear march. The Chinese recently called on the Iranians to give a ‘serious response’ to the UN resolution. Yes, harumph, harumph. Serious!… Iran poses a grave nuclear threat. Russia seems intent on giving it cover.” —Chicago Tribune

DEZINFORMATSIA

Obama mania:“Two major stories tonight: A vicious attack in Baghdad… And Senator Barack Obama takes a big step toward running for President.” —CBS’s Katie Couric ++ “Democratic rising star Barack Obama takes a major step toward a run for the White House… His political resume is rather thin, but in the 2008 race, that could be a plus.” —ABC’s Kate Snow, both on Rising Star Obama’s beginning to commence to look into running for president

European envy: “Just about every expert on energy says the best way to become energy independent is to raise the price of oil and gas, to have a serious energy tax. Why not call for it? Couldn’t we become independent much more quickly if we had the kind of energy tax you see in Europe?” —ABC’s George Stephanopoulos

Much ado about nothing: “In Washington this week, the beginning of a trial that reaches the highest levels of power. Former White House aide Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby is being tried on five felony counts stemming from the investigation into who outed an undercover CIA agent. While the case involves weighty issues of national security and could send a man to prison, for many in Washington it has all the makings of a good thriller.” —ABC’s John Berman *Two words: Sandy Berger.

So noble: “The purpose of this old-fashioned newspaper crusade to stop the war is not to make George W. Bush look like the dumbest president ever. People have done dumber things. What were they thinking when they bought into the Bay of Pigs fiasco? How dumb was the Egypt-Suez war? How massively stupid was the entire war in Vietnam? Even at that, the challenge with this misbegotten adventure is that WE simply cannot let it continue.” —Molly Ivins

Newspulper Headlines: Sounds Like Quite a Party: “Drug and Alcohol Experts to Meet” —West Lothian (Scotland) Courier

Don’t Expect Them in Morning Classes on the 24th: “Ole Miss Alcohol Study Group to Finish Jan. 23” —Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

‘You’ve Been Robbed’: “Crime Victims Need Notification” —Paris (TX) News

Rowdiness? At a Hockey Game?: “Police Probe Rowdiness at Hockey Game” —Boston Globe

We’d Forgotten How Bad Thought Was: “Amnesia Is Worse Than Thought” —United Press International (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

THE DEMO-GOGUES

This is news?: “I’m in and I’m in to win.” —Hillary Clinton ++ “As a senator, I will spend two years doing everything in my power to limit the damage George W. Bush can do. But only a new president will be able to undo Bush’s mistakes and restore our hope and optimism.” —Hillary Clinton

From the aspiring next First “Lady”: “I’ll do whatever I’m asked to do. I am very proud of my wife… I can only tell you that I know her better than anybody on Earth, and she’s got the best combination of mind and heart, the ability to lead and learn, to stand fast… and to make honorable agreements with people who disagree with her, than anybody I’ve known.” —Bill Clinton

The poor dears: “This [ethics] legislation has been extremely difficult to deal with. It is difficult because it deals with our lives.” —Harry Reid

Bottoms up: “Escalation would be a policy of desperation built on denial and fantasy.” —Teddy Kennedy *Kinda like drinking, huh Ted? ++ Let’s talk: “[The Iraq] policy has been a failure right from the beginning. It was poorly thought out. It was poorly implemented. And deepening military involvement now is not the answer. Perhaps these recent events may prove that it’s not a deepening in military involvement that is need. It is a political solution which is needed in Iraq.” —Sen. Carl Levin ++ Some Democrats still root for America: “It is critical that we take advantage of this opportunity to win… Iraq is the central part of a larger and ultimately longer-term conflict in the Middle East… Are we going to surrender to [the terrorists]… and encourage people like them to be in authority and power all over the Middle East and in a better position to strike us again?” —Joe Lieberman, who actually wanted more than 21,000 additional troops

VILLAGE IDIOTS

This week’s “Character-Deficit Disorder” Award: “My whole book is written about Palestine and its lands, and about what is going on against the Palestinian people, which is, in my view, very similar, and in some cases even worse, than what happened to the blacks in South Africa…[We must] end the abominable and relatively unknown horrible prosecution—or persecution of the Palestinian people.” —Jimmy Carter

Junk science doesn’t equal military threat: “As scientists, we understand the dangers of nuclear weapons and their devastating effects, and we are learning how human activities and technologies are affecting climate systems in ways that may forever change life on Earth. As citizens of the world, we have a duty to alert the public to the unnecessary risks that we live with every day, and to the perils we foresee if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change.” —Stephen Hawking, cosmologist and mathematician

Offended: “We put all our concerns on hold to let the leaders lead [in Iraq]. I think we’re owed a big, massive apology.” —actor/director Robert Redford

Belly laugh of the week: “I wrote this book [’What a Party’] to remind people what the Clinton administration meant to us and the world. [The Clinton years showed how to] restore moral authority.” —Terry McAuliffe **Ha ha ha ha ha!

SHORT CUTS

“Obama is at that stage in Presidential politics which roughly equates to lighting a charcoal grill: You stack the briquettes, pour on the lighter fluid, throw in a match and… whoa! Smoke and fire and heat! Very exciting. But you can’t cook a steak on that.” —Rich Galen

“It’s possible that nothing is going to fix Iraq, but ‘Why can’t we all just get along’ parleys have about as much chance of bringing the factions together and ending Iranian and Syrian mischief as a rabbi has of being elected king of Saudi Arabia.” —Ralph Peters

“Stuart Taylor Jr., the liberal but brilliant legal reporter for the National Journal, described The New York Times’ coverage of the Duke lacrosse rape case as ‘[w]orse, perhaps, than the other recent Times embarrassments.’ For a newspaper that carries Maureen Dowd’s column, that’s saying something.” —Ann Coulter

“Peevish, dissatisfied, weary and dismissive: That’s how the conservative base feels about their president. Granted, they think Bush is better than Hillary, whom they believe should be skywriting ‘Surrender Dorothy’ over the Emerald City. But a politician eager to capture the nomination for ‘08 would do well to ask: After six years of one-party rule, what does the base have besides some peeling bumper stickers and a few judicial appointments?” —James Lileks

David Letterman: “Top Ten Little-Known Facts About Barack Obama”: As a child, was taunted with “Obama’s so fat jokes”; After finishing Harvard law, served as Doug Llewelyn’s understudy on “The People’s Court”; Follows Bush’s weekly radio address DJ-ing the “Barack and Roll Power Hour”; Real last name: Obamawitz; At Senate hearings, throws on his iPod whenever John Kerry has the floor; Makes immigration speeches as hilarious, uninformed foreigner “Borat Obama”; Presides over congressional committee to lower Al Gore’s body fat; Only running for President to tick off Hillary.

Jay Leno: Spanish newspapers are reporting that Fidel Castro is in very grave condition, very ill health. In fact, his priest told him yesterday that he will soon be in a better place. And Castro said, ‘I’m going to Miami?’ … It was Castro’s wish to be buried at sea, but, unfortunately, all the rafts are currently in use in Cuba. … Senator Hillary Clinton is on her way back from a fact-finding tour of Iraq. She said although there are many problems in Iraq, she said there are good things about the Iraqi people—like the fact they hang adulterers. … In her first press conference after her trip overseas, Hillary Clinton said she thinks we need to send more men to Afghanistan. The men she wants to send? John Edwards and Barack Obama. … It’s official, Hillary Clinton is running for president of the United States. She said, “I’m in it to win.” That’s what she announced, she’s in it to win. That may seem obvious, but Democrats running for president have lost so many times they have to keep reminding themselves why they are in the race. “Oh yeah, to win.” … Hillary says that she has gotten hundreds of calls telling her to go on the road and campaign for the next two years. That’s just from her husband Bill. … New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is running for president. Which is good because every day we have thousands of new Mexicans who enter the country. … Kansas Senator Sam Brownback says he is running. He said he’s going to follow the yellow brick road to the White House. Just watch out for the Wicked Witch of New York! … John Kerry says that he loves cookies so much that he thinks he is the illegitimate son of Cookie Monster. Really? Looks more like the illegitimate son of Herman Munster.

Veritas vos Liberabit—Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot’s editors and staff. (Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm’s way around the world, and for their families—especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who have died in defense of American liberty, while prosecuting the war with Jihadistan.)