GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

House resolution sails, Senate resolution sinks

Liberals looking to embarrass the President on the world stage achieved a mixed victory Friday and Saturday of last week. The House voted 246-182 for a resolution denouncing President Bush’s 21,000-troop increase in Iraq while offering backhanded support to the troops currently fighting our Jihadi enemies. All but two Democrats were able to lure 17 Republicans to pass the measure, which came after 44 hours of floor discussion. We won’t use the term “debate” here, because there was no debate to speak of. Speaker San Fran Nan Pelosi refused to allow Republicans the option of offering a competing measure and, recognizing she had a slam dunk with her own resolution, moved things along with a few moments dedicated to supreme political grandstanding.

For those of you keeping score, and we hope you all are, here are the names of those 17 Republicans: Mike Castle (DE), Howard Coble (NC), Tom Davis (VA), John Duncan (TN), Phil English (PA), Wayne Gilchrest (MD), Bob Inglis (SC), Tim Johnson (IL), Walter Jones (NC), Ric Keller (FL), Mark Kirk (IL), Steve LaTourette (OH), Ron Paul (TX), Tom Petri (WI), Jim Ramstad (MN), Fred Upton (MI), James Walsh (NY). (It should be noted that only two of these 17, Reps. Duncan and Paul, voted against the original war resolution in 2002.)

Pelosi proudly stated that the resolution “will signal a change in direction in Iraq.” It most certainly will do that. As Deputy Minority Whip Eric Cantor noted, our enemies “will have received all the political rhetoric they require to convince their followers that complete victory is at hand.”

Inspired by their victory, which received much more coverage in the media than any previous non-binding, purely symbolic resolution ever has, Democrats turned to focus on the funding battles that will soon follow. Look for John Murtha to begin actions to strip funding from our troops, starting with the $93-billion package to be considered in March.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s attempts to hand a second defeat to the president did not go as well. Republicans, smartly led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, were able to keep a similar resolution from reaching a vote. Democrats and their friends in the Leftmedia accused the GOP of using parliamentary tricks to prevent the vote from taking place. The larger story that will not be reported widely is that McConnell was merely reacting to Reid’s refusal to allow a full vote on competing Republican measures. Given the stalemate, Reid will not be bringing up the resolution for a third time.

Seven Republicans voted with Democrats to allow the measure to proceed to a vote: Sens. John W. Warner (VA), Chuck Hagel (NE), Gordon Smith (OR), Norm Coleman (MN), Arlen Specter (PA), Olympia Snowe (ME) and Susan Collins (ME). Of this group, all but Specter and Snowe are up for re-election in 2008.

This week’s ‘Braying Jenny’ award

“You cannot say as the President of the United States, ‘I welcome disagreement in a time of war,’ and then have the Vice President of the United States go out of the country and mischaracterize a position of the speaker of the House and in a manner that says that person in that position of authority is acting against the national security of our country.” —Nancy Pelosi, responding to Vice President Cheney’s remark, that, “I think, in fact, if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we’ll do is validate the al-Qa’ida strategy. The al-Qa’ida strategy is to break the will of the American people.”

Memo to Speaker Pelosi: The al-Qa’ida strategy is to weaken American resolve at home so as to cause our withdrawal from Iraq. What, exactly, is your beef with the Vice President’s remark?

Obama & Clinton go to the mat

Uber-Leftist editorialist Maureen Dowd’s Wednesday column in the New York Times shows that even “useful idiots” can have their uses. Dowd quotes music mogul and one-time Clintonista David Geffen, who told her, “Everybody in politics lies, but they [the Clintons] do it with such ease, it’s troubling.”

One of Bill Clinton’s biggest presidential fundraisers, Geffen is now a major backer of Barack Obama. Predictably, his comments have set off an entertaining firestorm between Obama and Hillary.

First, Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson fired back at Geffen: “While Senator Obama was denouncing slash-and-burn politics yesterday, his campaign’s finance chair was viciously and personally attacking Senator Clinton and her husband. If Senator Obama is indeed sincere about his repeated claims to change the tone of our politics, he should immediately denounce these remarks, remove Mr. Geffen from his campaign and return his money.”

Then Obama’s campaign fired back, with communications director Robert Gibbs saying, “It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when he was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom. It is also ironic that Senator Clinton lavished praise on Monday and is fully willing to accept today the support of South Carolina State Sen. Robert Ford, who said if Barack Obama were to win the nomination, he would drag down the rest of the Democratic Party because he’s black.”

For the record, Geffen bedded down in the Lincoln bedroom on two occasions, and Geffen is not Obama’s finance chair. In fact, Geffen says his only role in the Obama campaign is as co-sponsor of the candidate’s Hollywood fundraiser this week, but that doesn’t seem to matter. As we should know by now, the Left has a nasty habit of eating its own—and the feasting has just begun.

Libby case goes to the jury

After five weeks and a slate of witnesses that included a who’s-who of Washington media and political insiders, a jury will now decide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s fate. The prosecution and defense gave their closing arguments this week, with Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald taking one last opportunity to claim that Libby lied to the FBI regarding his knowledge about the identity of desk set CIA analyst Valerie Plame, and leaked this non-classified information to the media.

Libby’s lead defense attorney, Theodore Wells, noted that Libby had a faulty memory, nothing more. Last week, six major Washington reporters all testified that they heard about Plame from sources other than Libby. Oddly enough, Fitzgerald is pursuing none of these sources for breaking the law. It seems clear now that he was lured by the Left into a political dispute in which no crime had been committed, and he now hitches his years-long investigation on a man who’s notorious in DC circles for having a bad memory.

Editor’s Note: Next Thursday, 1 March, Mark Alexander will be joining Michelle Malkin for an Accuracy in Media reception, where Mr. Alexander will be receiving, on behalf of The Patriot, the AIM Award for Grassroots Journalism. Ms. Malkin will be receiving AIM’s Award for Investigative Journalism. The event coincides with CPAC 2007, the 34th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference, and Mr. Alexander would be honored to meet any of our readers in attendance. The reception is scheduled for 5:30 pm in the Diplomat Room of the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington DC.

NATIONAL SECURITY

Iran defies UN deadline, enrichment reconfirmed

The 21 February deadline imposed by UN Security Council Resolution 1737 came and went this week. As expected, Iran remained defiant all the way to the end, repeating for what seems the bazillionth time Wednesday that “nuclear technology is the Iranian nation’s right.” Also as expected, early leaked portions of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) report on Iranian compliance with 1737 stated: “Iran has not suspended its enrichment-related activities. It has also continued with the construction of the (underground) Fuel Enrichment Plant, including installation of cascades, and has transferred uranium hexafluoride (UF6) to the plant.” The only encouraging part of the report was that samples taken at various facilities showed a maximum enrichment level of 4.2 percent, sufficient for reactor fuel but far below the level required for nuclear weapons.

The next step in this nearly four-year kabuki dance is the 5 March meeting of the IAEA’s Board of Governors in Vienna, where the IAEA report will be discussed. While the Board’s ensuing report to the UN Security Council is likely to suffer some highly political lack of unanimity (members include Belarus, Cuba and Syria among others), it will be little more than a formality as the Security Council prepares for follow-on sanctions against Iran. Given Iran’s dismissive response to UNSCR 1737 (see Patriot Digest 07-01), the UN Security Council must impose tougher sanctions or lose whatever shred of credibility it still has as an international organization. Fortunately, it should not take the Security Council more than a few months before passing new sanctions, perhaps by the end of May, as the Council is now well beyond its usual can’t-we-all-just-get-along stage with respect to Iran.

Adm. McConnell sworn in as DNI

Retired Vice Adm. John McConnell was sworn in as the nation’s second Director of National Intelligence this week, a position left vacant since former DNI John Negroponte’s move back to the State Department last year. As DNI, McConnell will head the 16 agencies and 100,000 people that make up the U.S. intelligence community. Speaking of the threats facing the nation, Adm. McConnell emphasized the need for new technologies and capabilities “because today’s threats move at increasing speeds.”

“The time needed to develop a terrorist plot, communicate it around the globe and put it into motion has been drastically reduced,” McConnell said at the ceremony, which included President Bush. “The timeline is no longer a calendar—it is a watch.”

Adm. McConnell is correct: The nature of the terrorist threat has quickened the pace of the game. Technology is indeed critical, but more is needed to address the asymmetric threats of the 21st century. Language and cultural skills, as well as geographic and issue specialization, deserve at least as much attention.

We wish Adm. McConnell well in his new job. It won’t be an easy one. While the effort to unify the intelligence community is a worthy goal, the Office of the DNI has, in reality, added another layer of bureaucracy between intelligence gatherers and decision makers. Negroponte’s abdication is evidence of that fact. Only time will tell if the DNI can improve communication and intelligence sharing within the community. Yet even if he succeeds, the often troubled, conflicting relationship between the intelligence community and their counterparts in law enforcement and security, particularly the FBI, is likely to remain unchanged. The policymakers who erected the inter-agency roadblocks in the first place, not the appointees charged to work with them, will have to solve that problem themselves.

The elephant in Pakistan’s living room

The New York Times reports that al-Qa’ida has made significant gains toward restoring an effective terror network. The report is based on information leaked by “intelligence and counterterrorism officials [who] would discuss the classified intelligence only on the condition of anonymity.” Another leak from the pages of the Times—who would have thought it possible? Apart from the Times’ compulsion for leaking classified information, the reason behind it may be the means through which al-Qa’ida has become rejuvenated, namely, Pakistan’s safe harboring of al-Qa’ida leadership.

Prior to September 11th, Pakistan had been a staunch al-Qa’ida supporter. Subsequently, characteristic of the realpolitik that permeates the region, President General Pervez Musharraf placed his money on a different horse. An uneasy tension has pervaded the nuclear-armed nation’s populace since this abrupt about-face by its president.

Musharraf’s alignment with the U.S. was clearly an act of self-preservation to prevent Pakistan itself—a country with the world’s second largest Shi’a population—from being a target of U.S. vengeance. Lately, however, attacks by al-Qa’ida have become more coordinated and sophisticated, indicating a revitalized operation. As long as al-Qa’ida’s leaders have a place to hide, the terror network will continue to regain strength.

Having slipped from seven to 17 on Parade’s list of “World’s Worst Dictators” this year, perhaps Musharraf is just trying to show al-Qa’ida, “He’s still one of us, after all.” This “leak” may be a subtle hint by the U.S. to President Musharraf that sustained support and safe haven for America’s most bloodthirsty foe may very well garner Pakistan a new enemy: America.

Bureaucracy at Walter Reed

The Washington Post published a two-part special report Sunday and Monday on abysmal conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in DC. Almost immediately, the White House, Congress and the Army were scrambling to make changes and effect some damage control. The Post’s story recounted how the sluggish bureaucracy running Walter Reed had left rooms in dilapidated condition with mold on walls, soiled carpets, and mice and cockroach infestation. (Most of the facility problems are in Building 18, a former hotel now used to house 76 recovering soldiers.) Patients are in charge of other patients. Those hoping to go home or return to active duty must deal with lost paperwork and minimal or no guidance.

By Tuesday, top Army officials had toured the Center, workers were tearing out carpet and scraping mold off of walls, an elevator was fixed and platoon sergeants were going room to room with inspection reports. Army Secretary Francis Harvey said the problems were a “failure… in the garrison leadership… that should have never happened, and we are quickly going to rectify that situation.” Walter Reed is scheduled to close entirely in 2011, but Harvey is correct: Current conditions are “inexcusable.” Said Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army vice chief of staff, “We own that building, and we’re going to take charge of it. The senior Army leadership takes full responsibility for the lack of quality of life at Building 18, and we’re going to fix it.” Here’s hoping Army red tape is met with a wrecking ball.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Inching toward government health care

The Wall Street Journal noted this week that the federal government currently covers 45 percent of the nation’s healthcare tab, and it will be covering fully half within ten years. This is good news for liberals who believe universal healthcare is the answer to our problems, even though it will lead to poor quality of care and crushing taxes. A study released by the agency that runs Medicare predicted that, by 2016, health spending would reach $4.1 trillion dollars, or 20 percent of GDP.

The expanding health needs of the Baby Boomer generation will drive spending for decades to come, and the Medicare prescription-drug benefit, which accounts for 22 percent of all drug spending, has greatly increased the government’s role. According to the study, as Medicare costs grow, health-insurance coverage will move away from the employer-based system toward greater state and federal government-provided healthcare.

Policy analysts are urging that a consensus be reached by government, public and private payers, employers and workers in order to stave off a crisis that will surely come if no reform is enacted.

Joe Kennedy: Hugo’s useful idiot

A short time back, Hugo Chavez put in place a program to offer discounted home-heating oil to impoverished urban Americans through Venezuela’s state-owned Citgo oil company. Playing his role as champion of the poor, Chavez’s real intentions were to drive a wedge between America’s poor and the Bush administration by proving that the U.S. government didn’t care enough about its less fortunate citizens. After all, class warfare is a specialty of the communists. Chavez couldn’t make the program work alone. Who in this country would believe that a Latin American dictator was offering cheap oil to American city dwellers? Enter Joe Kennedy.

Former congressman Kennedy has been appearing in television commercials touting “our friends in Venezuela at Citgo” as he gleefully pumps oil into the homes of the elderly. His group, Citizens Energy, is basically a front for Chavez, and Kennedy arrogantly defends his involvement in this enterprise. Never mind that the profits that allow Chavez to engage in this program come from his nationalization of businesses and his government’s unchecked corruption. And forget that Chavez is a cold-blooded dictator with designs on swinging all of Latin America into his camp by any means necessary. Kennedy thinks Chavez is a good man. With that kind of judgment, we can at least be glad that Kennedy is a private citizen again.

Net neutrality resurfaces

So-called “net neutrality” is not exactly a water-cooler topic at the office, but it could become a pet issue for Democrats in the ‘08 elections. To make a long story short, Congress would prevent Internet and phone-service providers from charging higher rates to content providers (i.e. Google and Yahoo) for priority service. It is essentially a way for the regulatory commissars to “fix” a problem that doesn’t exist, all while interfering with the free market. Oh, and by the way, MoveOn.org supports it.

Yet, as the Cato Institute notes, all of this may not really matter economically. In essence, Congress is aiming to determine who pays the bill for premium service: Internet service providers or content providers (read: You or you). In other words, the bandwidth required to watch videos on YouTube is greater than that required for checking e-mail. You’ll eventually pay for the privilege, though the bill will either come from the content provider (without “net neutrality”) or from the ISP. Ultimately, as Cato’s managing editor, Tom Firey, notes, “Politicians don’t have a strong reputation for enhancing efficiency and consumer welfare when they intervene in the marketplace.” He continues, “I’d argue that Congress’ interest in net neutrality is prima facie evidence that neutrality would not be efficient or welfare-enhancing.”

CULTURE

The Anglican future

Last week we reported on the Anglican primates’ meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Church leaders are now discussing options for the future after, at least temporarily, preventing schism over the U.S. Episcopal Church’s departure from Scripture and Church tradition. A joint communiqué was issued giving the U.S. church a deadline of 30 September to clarify its position more satisfactorily regarding homosexuals in the church. Possible expulsion from the communion looms if Episcopals do not respond adequately.

Anglican leaders also instituted an unprecedented separate council and an elected “primatial vicar” to mediate for conservative American dioceses that dissent from the leadership of presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. While Bishop Schori agreed to the deal, it is a check on her authority.

Meanwhile, senior bishops of the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church have drafted a proposal to reunite the denominations under the leadership of the pope. However, this reunion seems doomed if conservative and liberal Anglicans manage to stay together. Catholic policy is conservative in regards to the ordination of women and homosexuals. This will be interesting to watch.

Cross, no; prostitutes, yes

The College of William & Mary is in the news again, though this time for being a bit too permissive. The College made the news last year for removing the cross from the altar of the famous Wren Chapel so as not to “offend” anyone, despite the fact that it is a Christian chapel. Recently, the College permitted the “Sex Workers’ Art Show” to stop there on its national tour. The show featured male and female strippers, prostitutes and escorts, all scantily clad and expressing themselves. “I don’t like this kind of show, and I don’t like having it here,” said College President Gene Nichol. “But it is not the practice and province of universities to censor or cancel performances because they are controversial.” No, censorship is apparently reserved for the Christian cross. We don’t have to wonder what alumni George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler would say.

Presidents’ Day no more?

Our nation’s capital bears his name, but our national calendar has virtually forgotten him. Now Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) has introduced the Washington-Lincoln Recognition Act to re-christen the federal holiday celebrated on the third Monday of February as “Washington’s Birthday” and mandate that all federal agencies refer to it as such.

While George Washington’s February 22nd birthday appeared as a national holiday in 1880, the 1968 Monday Holiday Law transplanted the date to “the third Monday in February.” During the legislative clamor, Rep. Robert McClory (R-IL) recommended changing the name of the holiday to “Presidents’ Day.” McClory’s proposal failed, but “Presidents’ Day” became so accepted that few Americans realize that no such holiday exists. According to Bartlett, such generic celebration “diminishes the accomplishments of America’s greatest Presidents… while rewarding the mediocrity of others.”

We applaud Bartlett’s legislation and urge Congress to restore the Father of our Country to his rightful place of honor in America’s memory. Bartlett’s bill, however, would also call on the President to issue a yearly proclamation commemorating Abraham Lincoln’s February 12th birthday. For this measure, we are decidedly less enthusiastic—partly because of Washington’s transcendent greatness, and partly because of Lincoln’s disregard for our nation’s Constitution.

And last…

Once again, the French are weighing terms of surrender—this time to invaders from the Far East. Asian Hornets, which entered France via Chinese pottery in 2004, have already wreaked havoc on the native-bee population. Indeed, France now imports 25,000 tons of honey annually. Entomologist Jean Haxaire originally identified the warlike wasps and says, “Their spread across French territory has been like lightning” —an unfortunate use of simile, given that the German word for lightning is “blitz.” And so, not only have les frelons marched through Paris and brought the country to its knees, we’re told by “experts” that global warming is making the European climate more hospitable to these hordes. Here in our humble editorial shop, we’re reminded of Deuteronomy 7:20: “[T]he LORD your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed.”

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