Roundup: Media's Take

July 1, 2004

Peggy Noonan: John Kerry's Plan to Return Us to Normalcy Might Win the Election

Peggy Noonan, in the WSJ (July 1, 2004):... Hand it to Mr. Bush: He's got guts. And whatever happens in the coming election, his administration will be remembered as one of the most consequential in modern political history. He did things, and they were all big and meaningful, and they will have implications for decades. But let me share a thought I've been having t

June 30, 2004

Would the Founding Fathers Be Pleased with America this July 4th?

Maureen Farrell, in Buzzflash.com (June 29, 2004):"The American system is the most ingenious system of control in world history," Howard Zinn once wrote. And, while one of the best ways to prove Zinn’s point is to quote him in the first place (Trust me. Someone is bound to protest), if recent history is any indication, many Americans would not only gladly give up freedoms guaranteed under the

June 30, 2004

The Nixonian Roots of Bush's Torture Memo

Bruce Shapiro, in the Nation (June 25, 2004): It is April of 1970. President Richard Nixon, frustrated with the Vietnam War, orders tens of thousands of US and South Vietnamese troops to invade neutral Cambodia. He launches his new war--and widens his bombing campaign--without consulting an outraged Congress. Demonstrations engulf campuses and cities. Aides to National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger

June 29, 2004

Charles Krauthammer: Bill Clinton's Memoirs Reveal Him as He Was as President ... Small

Charles Krauthammer, in frontpagemag.com (June 29, 2004): Since 1960 we have had only two politically successful presidents -- reaffirmed and re-elected, dominating their decades: Reagan and Clinton. (Except for Kennedy, whose presidency was cut short, the others -- Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Bush [41] -- were repudiated.) Clinton's autobiography, appearing as it does in such close conjunction to the n

June 29, 2004

Torture Was Used in the Philippines, too

Renato Redentor Constantino, a writer and painter based in the Philippines, in TomDispatch (June 22, 2004): Coincidence, pattern, and memory. Tricky things these three. One ghastly day in May, at close to three in the morning, a US helicopter fires its missiles at the village of Mukaradeeb in western Iraq."Coalition forces came under hostile fire and close air support was provided," the Pentagon explains late

June 29, 2004

Al Gore: The Founding Fathers Would Be Appalled at the Constraints on Civil Liberties

Al Gore, in a speech at the Georgetown University Law Center (June 24, 2004): ...When we Americans first began, our biggest danger was clearly in view: we knew from the bitter experience with King George III that the most serious threat to democracy is usually the accumulation of too much power in the hands of an Executive, whether he be a King or a president. Our ingrained American distrust of concentrated power has

June 29, 2004

War Atrocities From Manchuria to Abu Ghraib: A Japanese Veteran Remembers

Kogure Satoko, in Japan Times (reprinted in Japan Focus) (June 15, 2004): "I do understand why that girl could do such a brutal thing, because I myself treated people cruelly during World War II, without any hesitation," says 82-year-old Nishiguchi Masaichi, a former military policeman (MP) in the Japanese Army.When Nishiguchi first saw the news about U.S. soldiers abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, memories from over 60 years ago flash backed to

June 29, 2004

Is Cheney the First One to Curse on the Senate Floor?

Ann Gerhart, in the Wash Post (June 26, 2004): Curses! The days of calumny and bellicosity remain a cherished tradition in the United States Senate. By historical standards, Vice President Cheney's grunted command this week on the floor of the Senate for Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to contort himself into an impossible sexual position was most

June 25, 2004

Clinton's Legacy More Divisive Than Reagan's

Howard Kurtz, in the Washington Post (June 21 2004): Bill Clinton, having delivered a command performance in launching his book blitz with Dan Rather last night, is in no danger of getting the Ronald Reagan treatment. Liberal commentators, some swallowing hard, may have hailed the 93-year-old Gipper as he passed from the scene. But there is no cultural cease-fire for the 57-year-old Dem

June 25, 2004

David Horowitz Assails David Brock’s History of ‘The Republican Noise Machine’

David Horowitz, in Frontpagemag.com (June 25 2004): David Brock has written a new book called The Republican Noise Machine: How It Corrupts Our Democracy. In it, he purports to expose the vast right-wing media conspiracy, a menace Brock claims to know first-hand as someone who was once a cog in its malignant machine. First-hand knowledge is an important claim for Brock because, as a famous self-confessed

June 24, 2004

Clinton's Memoirs Not Unlike Other Presidential Apologias

From USA Today (June 23 2004): Bill Clinton bounded back into the nation's consciousness this week, hawking his memoirs, sharing his"demons" and seeking to reclaim his place on the national political stage. Yet after more than three years, a $10-million advance and 957 pages to reflect on his life, Clinton remains the flawed figure who left the White House in 2001. If My Life is the 42

June 24, 2004

Did the Clinton Administration Also Prepare for an Iraq War?

Daniel McKivergan, in the Weekly Standard (June 23 2004): FORMER VICE PRESIDENT Al Gore recently told an audience that"the [Bush] administration did not hesitate to heighten and distort public fear of terrorism after September 11th, to create a political case for attacking Iraq." With this in mind, I would to like draw your attention to a Project brief entitled, The Clinton Administration's

June 24, 2004

Stephanopoulos, Tapper and Beschloss on Bush’s First Reaction to 9/11

From ABC’s ‘Good Morning America” (June 22 2004): DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS But first we turn to something else that a ... CHARLES GIBSON, ABC NEWS (Off Camera) Is it a mask? DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) ... lot of people are talking about. You've probably all heard about the polarizing new movie by Michael Moore. It is called"Fahrenheit 911." And, depending who you talk to, it is either a devastating attack on the president, or a completely unfair polemic at

June 24, 2004

Richard Cohen: Clinton Memoir of Little Value to Historians

Richard Cohen, in the Washington Post (June 24 2004): The good news for Bill Clinton is that his book,"My Life," sold about 100,000 copies at Barnes & Noble stores the first day it was on sale, a record for the chain. The bad news for Bill Clinton is that the book sold about 100,000 copies at Barnes & Noble stores, a record for the chain. The book may make Clinton rich. It will not rehabilitate him.

June 24, 2004

Clinton Memoir Falls Short

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (June 24 2004): Bill Clinton is not the first husband to find himself sleeping alone on a sofa, but he's the first president to ever admit it. "Whatever the motives of my adversaries, it became clear on those solitary nights in my upstairs office that if I wanted compassion from others, I needed to show it, even to those who didn't respond in kind. Besides, what did I have to complain about? I would never be a perfect person, but Hillary was laug

June 22, 2004

Christopher Hitchens: On Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11'

Christopher Hitchens, in Frontpagemag.com (June 22 2004): One of the many problems with the American left, and indeed of the American left, has been its image and self-image as something rather too solemn, mirthless, herbivorous, dull, monochrome, righteous, and boring. How many times, in my old days at The Nation magazine, did I hear wistful and semienvious ruminations? Where was the radical Firing Lin

June 22, 2004

Clinton's Worst Legacy: A Thin Record

From the Wall Street Journal (June 22 2004): This is Bill Clinton week, as the former President and CBS launch his $10 million memoirs. Though some people seem eager to refight the ethics wars of the 1990s, it strikes us that the news is how much smaller his Presidency looms in historical terms a mere three years after it ended. The early reviewers report that the bulk of Mr. Clinton's 957-page tome is personal, and perhaps that's of necessity. Even during the 1990s, questions

June 22, 2004

Reagan's Greatest Legacy: He Took Charge

Claudia Winkler, in the Weekly Standard (June 22 2004): EVEN AS THE LAST OF THE TRIBUTES to Ronald Reagan straggle out, there's an elementary fact about his presidency that anyone who didn't live through it might not have picked up from the coverage. It's the fact that, after years and years of frightening drift, suddenly you could tell that someone in Washington was steering the ship.

June 21, 2004

Bush's Possession of Saddam's Gun Both Freudian and Traditional

From the New York Times (June 21 2004:) The story of how President Bush ended up with Saddam Hussein's pistol mounted in his private study off the Oval Office has dribbled out in the last few weeks, and it is a good one. As first reported in Time magazine, the soldiers who captured Mr. Hussein in December presented the mounted sidearm as a gift to Mr. Bush in a visit to the White House. They were members of

June 21, 2004

Terry Eastland: Reagan and Roosevelt Were Alike in Appointing Judiciary

Terry Eastland, in the Weekly Standard (June 15 2004): IN THE FALL of 1981, Ronald Reagan placed a phone call from the Oval Office to a lawyer named Jesse Eschbach. Reagan had decided to nominate Eschbach to the federal bench and was calling to ask him to serve. Would he serve! Of course! Judge Eschbach later wrote Reagan to express"my deep appreciation for your kindness and consideration