THE FOUNDATION: POLITICAL LEADERS

“[A] man whose political principles have any decided character and who has energy enough to give them effect must always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse principles.” —Thomas Jefferson

INSIGHT

“No free Government can stand without virtue in the people, and a lofty spirit of patriotism; and if the sordid feelings of mere selfishness shall usurp the place which ought to be filled by public spirit, the legislation of Congress will soon be converted into a scramble for personal and sectional advantages.” —President Andrew Jackson

POLITICAL FUTURES

“What do GOP voters want? What they want, I suspect, is not so much Mr. Right as a clearer understanding than they’ve got now of what it means to be a Republican… After the Bush presidency—the good, the bad and the endless—what Republicans most want to do is simply reboot themselves and their party. What do I stand for now? What do I want to achieve in the next election? Do I just want my party to win, philosophy be damned, or do I mainly want my ideas elevated and argued? Or, ne plus ultra (translation: after this I can die), do I simply want ‘her’ candidacy defeated?… The idea that some monolith called ‘the Republicans’ wants one perfectly programmed candidate is preposterous. More ‘data’ will emerge this year as voters rotate these candidates into focus. And notwithstanding the distance most Americans put between themselves and the daily political fish market, numerous studies of political opinion formation have shown that most people trudge through these campaigns with ‘core’ personal beliefs, which they eventually deploy to fix their opinion of John, Rudy, Mitt, Fred, Newt, Hillary, Barack and the others. Out of this cloud descends a president.” —Daniel Henninger

FOR THE RECORD

“The most powerful case for the war was made at the 2004 Republican convention by John McCain in a speech that was resolutely ‘realist.’ On the Democratic side, every presidential candidate running today who was in the Senate when the motion to authorize the use of force came up—Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd—voted yes. Outside of government, the case for war was made not just by the neoconservative Weekly Standard but—to select almost randomly—the traditionally conservative National Review, the liberal New Republic and the center-right Economist. Of course, most neoconservatives supported the war, the case for which was also being made by journalists and scholars from every point on the political spectrum… [Perhaps] the most influential tome on behalf of war was written not by any conservative, let alone neoconservative, but by Kenneth Pollack, Clinton’s top Near East official on the National Security Council. The title: ‘The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq.’ Everyone has the right to renounce past views. But not to make up that past. It is beyond brazen to think that one can get away with inventing not ancient history but what everyone saw and read with their own eyes just a few years ago. And yet sometimes brazenness works.” —Charles Krauthammer

LIBERTY

“Eight years ago, America opened its arms to tens of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo. The first planeload landed at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Military leaders worked day and night to turn the base into a child-friendly village. They coordinated medical and security checkups, mental health and trauma counseling and ethnic food preparations… In addition to food and shelter, we provided translators, welfare consultants and Muslim chaplains. The base constructed prayer rooms and handed out Muslim ‘sensitivity’ cards to the troops… Fast-forward from 1999 to [last week’s] headline news: ‘Fort Dix Plot Aimed At Soldiers; Authorities Say 6 Islamic Militants Arrested, Were Plotting Attack At N.J. Base.’ Three of the alleged plotters were illegal alien brothers from the former Yugoslavia. Another was a legal permanent resident from the former Yugoslavia. Another hailed from Jordan, and the sixth was a naturalized American citizen originally from Turkey… According to the criminal complaint against Dritan Duka, one of the illegal alien brothers accused of knowingly and willfully conspiring with the jihadi gang to kill U.S. soldiers, the plotters have schemed for more than a year to murder our troops… You think all our hospitality and charity bred good will in these young men—all in their 20s and enjoying the fruits of the American Dream? Forget about it.” —Michelle Malkin

OPINION IN BRIEF

“No Western nation has done more than the France of retiring President Jacques Chirac to undermine our foreign policy. But anti-Americanism in France, like anti-Americanism in America, largely is confined to a privileged elite… His win is the most significant because it was the most decisive; it came in the country where official anti-American sentiment was greatest, and because France has a seat on the UN Security Council. What this could mean is that the diplomatic cooperation we didn’t get from Europe with regard to Iraq may be forthcoming in confrontations with Iran and Syria. The (long) odds that their rogue behavior can be reined in without war have gone up. However heartened we are by the warm applause Mr. Sarkozy’s pro American sentiments received, we must assume he was elected more in spite of them than because of them. Sarko won because a solid majority of Frenchmen are disgusted with the sclerotic economy French socialism has produced, and are frightened and angered by a rising crime rate, especially in the Muslim-dominated suburbs. He will succeed or fail depending on how he does domestically… In the meantime, we have a friend in the Elysee Palace for the first time in a very, very long time. That’s something to toast with French champagne.” —Jack Kelly

FAMILY

“Bowing to reality, Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) ended a bitter battle with the state legislature… by allowing the bill that overrides his executive order on the HPV [human papillomavirus] vaccine to become law. In a scathing press conference in Austin, the governor unleashed his fury on lawmakers who reversed his policy. How ironic. Perry didn’t appreciate being forced to assent to something against his will any more than the state’s parents did. The governor, who neither vetoed nor signed the proposal, faulted lawmakers for allowing women to die of a preventable disease… His statements didn’t sit well with state leaders who support the vaccine but believe Texas is overstepping its bounds by mandating it for young girls. Several officials, including Perry’s own Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, put the blame on Perry’s insistence on acting unilaterally. All the governor would have had to do is talk to us, and he would have seen that we would have embraced a program where there was an opt-in instead of an opt-out.” —Tony Perkins

CULTURE

“Many minimum wage supporters, like [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi], are hypocrites, but most supporters are decent people with an honest concern for the well-being of their fellow man. True compassion for our fellow man requires that we examine not the intentions behind public policy but the effects of that policy. There’s no question that Congress can mandate the minimum wage at which a person is hired, but Congress hasn’t found a way to mandate that a person have a level of productivity commensurate with the wage. Moreover, Congress hasn’t chosen to mandate that an employer hire a person whose productivity is less than the minimum wage. This means higher minimum wages cause unemployment for the least-skilled workers.” —Walter Williams

GOVERNMENT

“Government has no wealth of its own. Before it gives anything to anyone, it must take from those who produced it. But the taking could discourage future production, leaving less to be distributed by the politicians. Productive Americans have forged ahead despite a constellation of transfer programs, but how long will they continue to do so? The European welfare states are learning that producers don’t leave themselves available for milking forever. Their economies are sluggish, and unemployment is high. Government promises exceed resources, and citizens who were guaranteed lifelong security find their benefits shrinking. Yet this doesn’t deter our champions of big government. Even the coming Social Security and Medicare train wrecks don’t faze them. So don’t expect government to stop growing… Thomas Jefferson said, ‘The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.’ It’s sad that that’s no myth.” —John Stossel

RE: THE LEFT

“People on the leftward side of the political spectrum say they want to ‘keep government out of your bedroom,’ by which they usually mean they oppose restrictions on abortion. This is a bit of a non sequitur, since few abortionists make house calls. But you can see the logic: Restrictions on abortion may inhibit sexual behavior; hence they are a government intrusion ‘into the bedroom.’ But it’s an oddity of today’s politics that abortion proponents tend to be allied with environmentalists, and environmentalists want government in every room in your house, from the bathroom (mandatory low-flow toilets) to the kitchen (energy saving appliances) to the garage (fuel-economy standards) to—well, any room with artificial lighting (the bulbs had better be the compact fluorescent variety). So it turns out the only room in the house these characters want to keep the government out of is the bedroom, and only when the lights are off.” —James Taranto

SELECT READER COMMENTS

(Our servers automatically delete “Reply” messages to this e-mail. To submit comments for publication or to view reader comments, link to http://PatriotPost.US/comments.asp Join the debate at the Patriot Blog.)

“I enjoyed your informative article, ‘The Leftmedia middle?.’ You say ‘The media are, by and large, creatures of the Left’ —my, isn’t THAT an understatement! I am curious, however, as to why the media are so overwhelmingly liberal. Is it part of the DNA makeup of people going into journalism or are they contaminated at some point in their development?” —E. Fallowfield, Pennsylvania

“The so-called ‘political center,’ according to the media and most politicians of both parties, is the same thing as socialism. It standards include Socialist Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Department of Education and erosion of free enterprise by oppressive government.” —Maitland, Florida

“Just because a bunch of people favor their more or less socialist position doesn’t make it ‘mainstream.’ Indeed, the further left you get, the less constitutional you get, and therefore, according to my logic, the less American you get.” —Aurora, Colorado

“I was sent your piece on the murders in January in Knoxville. I have called it to the attention of a number of people as an example of a certain bias existing in the media when it comes to the reporting of black-on-white and white-on-black crime. Even my beloved New York Times has dodged this one. I ordinarily wouldn’t contact a publication that mentions a link to Ann Coulter and L. Brent Bozell, but this case puts such obstacles on the side. Just think about it—this case has not been so much as a blip on the national news front and Imus gets chased out of town for his offensive words! PETA members don’t usually say this, but capital punishment would be too good for these five. Keep running this one up the pole. These kids’ deaths should not go unnoticed like this.” —Albany, New York

THE GIPPER

“[L]et us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them… ‘I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.’ Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their value [valor], and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.” —Ronald Reagan

THE LAST WORD

“Dear American Soldier in Iraq: There are a few things you should know about how tens of millions of us back home feel about you and the fight you are waging. These things need to be said… What has happened is that many Americans, for all sorts of reasons—some out of simple fatigue, some because they do not believe that war solves anything, some out of deep loathing for the present administration—do not believe that what you are doing is worth doing. You know that what you are doing is worth continuing… You know that you are fighting the most vicious and primitive ideology in the world today. It is the belief that one’s God wants his followers to maim, torture and murder in order to spread a system of laws that sends societies back to a moral and intellectual state that is pre-civilization. You know that the war you wage against these people and their totalitarian ideology is also necessary because a society unwilling to fight for its values does not have values worth sustaining… We see you as the best and brightest of our society. Even The New York Times, one of the mainstream media publications that do not understand the epic battle you are waging, acknowledged in an article by one of its embedded correspondents that few Americans of your age can come close to you in maturity, wisdom or leadership abilities. It is unfortunate that the battle for moral clarity and moral courage in America is as divisive as the battle for freedom is in Iraq. But that is the nature of the world we live in. And it has ever been so… You probably knew all this. But you need to hear it anyway. That, and thank you. Thank you very much.” —Dennis Prager

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.)