HRC is Better for Israel than Gen. Jim Jones

November 30, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Israel and Palestinians, Obama administration | Leave a Comment 

The New Republic’s Eli Lake compares Gen. Jim Jones and Sen. Hillary Clinton on Mid-East policy. He first assesses expected National Security Adviser Jim Jones:

In August, Israel’s leading newspaper, Ha’aretz, reported that the draft report challenged Israel’s conception of its security interests in the West Bank as being overly broad, and that the IDF in particular was too dismissive of the Palestinian security services. The newspaper quoted one IDF officer as saying he expected the report would be “very harsh, and make Israel look very bad.” Steve Rosen, the former director of foreign policy for AIPAC who was dismissed from his post after the federal government charged him and a colleague with leaking classified information to the press and a foreign official, told me, “In my experience, when you take a ‘deep dive’ into security issues in the territories, you very quickly come to tradeoffs between Israeli security and Palestinian rights. Successful counter-terror preventive and pre-emptive measures require highly intrusive intelligence collection that is onerous for the population of the area under surveillance. … A third party tries to balance Israeli security and Palestinian rights with a different valence than an Israeli security agency.”

In his interview with Inside the Pentagon, Jones said that the Palestinians should be granted increasing degrees of local sovereignty over the West Bank until an independent state is born–with an emphasis on giving the Palestinians experience with governance. On Sunday, Ha’aretz reported that Jones favors dispatching a NATO force to keep the peace in the interim. That’s a plan that the Israeli government would likely fiercely resist on the grounds that the Jewish state’s defense doctrine has always spurned the presence of foreign troops on its territory and that it could be a reprise of the disasters of the U.N. mission to Lebanon.

Hillary Clinton sees it differently:

Now, consider his potential nemesis, Hillary Clinton. It is true that there is some doubt about where she ultimately lands on the Israel-Palestine question–confusion that followed her famous hug with Suha Arafat. But since becoming senator, she’s been a persistent critic of Palestinian media and schooling, an issue that has traditionally been swept under the rug by the State Department and a central argument the Israeli right has used to warn against the delusions of the Oslo process. Clinton has described the teaching of anti-Israel views in Palestinian textbooks as “child abuse,” and held hearings on the topic in an effort to get the Bush administration to do more on the issue.

By focusing on the underlying tenets of Palestinian culture, Senator Clinton has in a way made common cause with the Bush administration hawks. While General Jones wants to take steps now to empower Abbas and his Fatah party to take over a Palestinian state, Clinton is asking if even the Palestinian moderates are ready to govern. At AIPAC’s annual policy conference in 2005, she said: “How do we expect to have a democratically elected Palestinian government if their textbooks are still preaching such hatred, and this if we allow this dehumanizing rhetoric to go unchallenged? Because what is happening is young minds are being infected with this anti-Semitism, and that is going to run counter to what we hope can happen over the next years as we do work for peace and stability.”

It’s Hard To Place Sanctions On Iran When…

November 30, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Iran | Leave a Comment 

Allies like Germany do business with the Islamic Republic:

As Europe’s largest exporter to Iran, Germany has unique leverage over the regime. But Berlin refuses to use it. German exports to Iran are up 14.1% in the first seven months of this year. The Islamic Republic is so popular in Germany that another group, Management Circle, is planning a two-day crash course next month in Frankfurt. The program lists seven reasons for doing business with Iran, including “traditional good economic and political relations with Germany.”

Readers may recall that Barack Obama assailed President Bush for not doing more diplomatically to contain Iran, including more vigorous sanctions. Job one on that score for Mr. Obama would seem to be persuading his many admirers in Germany. Good luck.

And Who Could Forget Bush’s Africa and Security Policies?

November 30, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Bush Administration | Leave a Comment 

Ron Radosh covers what I neglected to mention in my previous post:

Bush and his defenders have good reason to be angry at Wilentz’s premature verdict. As Fulford points out, the President created the $30 billion Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, and extended it this year with a $48 billion to end the number of people being treated in Africa to three million and to train 140,000 health care workers who specialize in HIV prevention and treatment. Thus Bush changed our nation’s involvement in Africa in a positive fashion. The rock star and activist Bob Geldorf openly acknowledged this, pointing out that Bush “has done more than any other president” for Africa. But yet, as Fulford writes, “it’s unlikely that one in a 100 of [Bush's] fellow Americans know about it.”

Most important of all will be acknowledging Bush’s role in keeping America free of terrorist attacks since 9/11. If we look at what has taken place in Britain, Spain and now India, we must realize that the various terrorist networks have certainly been trying, and had their efforts not been stopped, might have been successful.

Obama Entering Bush’s World

November 30, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Barack Obama, Bush Administration | 2 Comments 

In an ironic set of circumstances, Victor Davis Hanson explains how Pres-elect Obama won by capitalizing on Bush’s rhetorical and his administration’s communicative misfortune, but the conventional wisdom still proves on central issues that 43 was right all along:

we will come, through the Obama prism, to see that Bush’s sins were largely the absence of rhetorical skills, unfortunate shoot ‘em braggadocio in 2003-4, the federal response to Katrina, and a certain administration haughtiness about the problems in Iraq between 2002-6, but not most of his policies that included prescription drugs, No Child Left Behind, AIDs relief in Africa, the removal of two odious regimes, and consensual governments in their places, a framework at home to stop 9/11-type terrorism, and good working partnerships with key allies abroad such as Britain, Germany, France, Italy, India, et al, and a pragmatism in handling rivals like Russia and China.

In short, given all that, Obama’s victory (predicated on painting Bush as a Hoover/Nixon redux), more so even than perhaps a John McCain’s, may do more for Bush’s reputation that anyone ever imagined. And the Mumbai mess (over there, not here) will only empasize all this, as an array of old 9/11-era experts who used to warn us about radical Islam, then, in the subsequent respite at home, screamed that Bush fabricated a war against terror against bogeymen, and now in their third manifestation are paraded once more out to warn us about?—why, yes, radical Islam!

During the campaign, Pres-elect Obama said that he would work to rebuild America’s reputation in the world. Would that course of change differ from Bush’s ability to attain allies in Italy’s Berlusconi, France’s Sarkozy, the U.K.’s Gordon Brown, or Germany’s Angela Merkel? What about Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe or Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai?

What about Pres. Bush’s ability to outplay Russia’s one-two punch with pro-Western democracies in Kosovo, Ukraine, Serbia, and Georgia, and anti-ballistic missile treaties in Poland and the Czech Republic? Can Pres. Obama manage to make similar progress while Russia receives world-wide condemnation when they make their own political and military overtures?

What will Pres.-elect  Obama make of the Wars Afghanistan and Iraq? He appears to be keeping the status-quo policy by retaining Robert Gates at Defense, with General David Petraeus at CENTCOM and General Ray Odierno as Iraq Multinational Forces Commander.

And as I echoed Gregory Mankiw in his response to Paul Krugman yesterday, can Pres-elect Obama really appoint anyone better than the economic minds that made Bush administration policy?

On the heels of the terror attacks in Mumbai I can’t help but think that a Pres. Obama – faced with the same set of circumstances-will be equal or less of a President than George W. Bush.

The Soundtrack Of Our Lives

November 30, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Soundtrack Of Our Lives | Leave a Comment 

Every Sunday The Soundtrack of Our Lives looks back at some of the music that was popular and the performers who were influential forty years ago, around the time Richard Nixon was elected President.

Seventy-two hours later, your Soundtracker is sitting here, intrepid but essentially immobilized, still in an L-tryptophan-induced stupor, still with the remote clutched in his hand, still trying to convince himself that there is, in fact, room for one more piece of pie.

The outcome of that internal debate is uncertain.  What is certain, however, is that The Soundtrack Of Our Lives will be back in this space next Sunday.

In the meantime, as a place holder, here’s a video for Otis Redding’s classic composition “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.”  The song was Number One for a month —16 March-6 April— early in 1968.

The record was issued posthumously: The track had been recorded at the beginning of December 1967, three days before the phenomenally talented twenty-six year old composer-performer, along with his back-up band, died in a plane crash.  

Featured Articles — November 30, 2008

November 30, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles | Leave a Comment 

Interesting Takes from Home and Abroad:

No go for Hugo By Dale McFeatters
Against the odds, the Venezuelan opposition delivered a stiff rebuff in Sunday’s election to hemispheric nuisance Hugo Chavez, whose brand of socialism is as grandiose as it is incompetent.

In Powell and Rice, Bush broke important ground By Cynthia Tucker
Even though Barack Obama received less than 53 percent of the popular vote, his favorable rating stands at 67 percent. It appears that many conservatives who didn’t support him are nevertheless enthusiastic about his presidency and optimistic about his tenure.

This Fire Needs to Be Put Out By Fareed Zakaria
The horrific attacks in Mumbai should be a call to arms for the region.

New New Deal Won’t Help the Economy By George Will
Early in what became the Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes was asked if anything similar had ever happened. "Yes," he replied, "it was called the Dark Ages and it lasted 400 years." It did take 25 years, until November 1954, for the Dow to return to the peak it reached in September 1929. So caution is sensible concerning calls for a new New Deal.

Obama’s Iraq Inheritance By Thomas L. Friedman
Here’s a story you don’t see very often. Iraq’s highest court told the Iraqi Parliament last Monday that it had no right to strip one of its members of immunity so he could be prosecuted for an alleged crime: visiting Israel for a seminar on counterterrorism. The Iraqi justices said the Sunni lawmaker, Mithal al-Alusi, had committed no crime and told the Parliament to back off.

India Is Pointing in the Right Direction By Claus Christian Malzahn
Mumbai a terror zone, and India bitterly points its finger at Pakistan. The unloved neighbor needs all the help the West can offer. Pakistan is nearly a failed state — and a US invasion under President Obama can’t be ruled out.

China: Don’t Isolate, Integrate By Richard N. Haass
The single most important challenge for the new administration—one with the potential to shape the 21st century—is China. As goes China, so go 1.3 billion men, women and children—one out of every five people on the planet.

Turn Up The Forbidden Music And Dance

November 29, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Terrorism | Leave a Comment 

Suketu Mehta weeps for his beloved Mumbai and then tells how to defeat the terrorists:

The terrorists’ message was clear: Stay away from Mumbai or you will get killed. Cricket matches with visiting English and Australian teams have been shelved. Japanese and Western companies have closed their Mumbai offices and prohibited their employees from visiting the city. Tour groups are canceling long-planned trips.

But the best answer to the terrorists is to dream bigger, make even more money, and visit Mumbai more than ever. Dream of making a good home for all Mumbaikars, not just the denizens of $500-a-night hotel rooms. Dream not just of Bollywood stars like Aishwarya Rai or Shah Rukh Khan, but of clean running water, humane mass transit, better toilets, a responsive government. Make a killing not in God’s name but in the stock market, and then turn up the forbidden music and dance; work hard and party harder.

From Henry XIII To Henry K

November 29, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Frost/Nixon, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

In a profile, the Newark Star-Ledger’s Stephen Whitty gets Frank Langella to compare playing RN in “Frost/Nixon” to playing Thomas More in A Man For All Seasons:

“Thomas More was a man fighting for his life,” the actor says, sitting in a Manhattan hotel room just a few hours before curtain time. “And, to a certain degree, Richard Nixon was a man fighting for his life, for respect. What’s important in each case is to bring across a sense of what motivated them to persevere.”

Peter Morgan in Creative Screenwriting Magazine

November 29, 2008 by David Emig | Filed Under Frost/Nixon, Movies | Leave a Comment 

The screenwriter discusses writing the screenplay , that was taken from his play in the latest edition of the magazine.

Latest Major Economic Crisis

November 29, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under News media, economy | Leave a Comment 

Consumers are more optimistic than the media.

Taking Mom And Dad Out Of Christmas — Impossible

November 29, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Movies, Vietnam | Leave a Comment 

“Four Christmases” is great. And there’s a Nixon (or, at least, a Vietnam) angle.

Mankiw Feels Slighted by Krugman

November 29, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Economic issues | 2 Comments 

A respected Harvard Economist himself, N. Gregory Mankiw wants a little respect from the NY Times‘ Paul Krugman who feels the need to delineate between “hacks” and “grownups” when comparing Bushies and Obamans. Mankiw, who was head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers between 2003 and 2005, cites the standard ranking of more than 18,000 economists. With the exception of Larry Summers, all of Pres. Bush’s appointments (including Mankiw) ranked higher than Pres-elect Obama’s:

11. Larry Summers (Obama)
21. Greg Mankiw (Bush)
35. Ben Bernanke (Bush)
99. Eddie Lazear (Bush)
132. Glenn Hubbard (Bush)
249. Harvey Rosen (Bush)
391. Christy Romer (Obama)
653. Austan Goolsbee (Obama)

Peter Morgan’s Not-So-Youthful Perspective

November 29, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Frost/Nixon, Movies, Vietnam, Watergate | Leave a Comment 

In a “Newsweek” column, “Frost/Nixon” playwright and screenwriter Peter Morgan, who won an Oscar for “The Queen,” imagines being at next week’s Washington premiere of Ron Howard’s movie and being asked by the city’s older denizens what business a whippersnapper such as he had writing about Richard Nixon, whose peccadilloes they know far better.

Dramatists love straw characters. Obviously, Washington’s media and political elites won’t act like that. Would anyone with a brain tell an historian, “You weren’t at the Battle of the Wilderness, so keep your opinions to yourself”? They’ll probably jostle one another for photos with Morgan and autographs for their “Queen” DVDs.

Morgan uses the device to explain the advantages for the moviegoer of his gift of a more objective, less emotionally involved perspective:

As a European from a different, younger generation, I wasn’t really gripped by the trauma that was Nixon’s presidency…. The horrors and betrayals that Nixon visited upon his electorate left me comparatively unscathed, though I have clear memories of my late father’s anger and sense of disappointment as the Watergate scandal began to unfold. (He died in December 1972, close to two years before Nixon resigned from office.)

Nor did I set out to write “Frost/Nixon” as a metaphor for the failed imperial presidency and abuses of power of George W. Bush…

Not to minimize the traumas, horrors, and betrayals, but Watergate was a political scandal, not the Siege of Leningrad. I still meet people who loved every minute of it, never missing the Senate hearings and even throwing Watergate parties. So it’s not as though if Morgan were 20 years older and had actually experienced the Ordeal, it would be completely beyond his considerable powers to imagine a Nixon character who was halfway human.

Though not gripped by trauma, Morgan is obviously gripped by a fashionably left-wing perspective on U.S. and British politics. Nothing wrong with that, but since it’s the same perspective most of RN’s critics had during Vietnam and Watergate, his youth doesn’t seem to add much value, notwithstanding his play’s merits. As for an accurate rendition of the era’s real trauma, the war President Nixon inherited and ended, that’s yet to come.

Featured Articles — November 29, 2008

November 29, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles | Leave a Comment 

Interesting Takes from Home and Abroad:

The Krugman Recipe for Depression By Amity Shlaes
Massive government spending is no solution to unemployment.

Thanksgiving Cheer From Obama By Karl Rove
He’s assembled a first-rate economic team.

Irrational Obama Exuberance by John Avlon
For the first time in a long time, Americans are happy about their political leaders. Three reasons why Obamania isn’t just completely ridiculous.

Managing Risk in an Unstable World By Michael Barone
How can we reduce risk for individuals? That’s a natural question when a financial crisis has vaporized trillions of dollars of personal wealth in residential real estate and financial instruments. The problem is, when you try to reduce risk for individuals too much, you end up making things much more risky.

An idea lost on fanatics By Tim Rutten
Those behind the Mumbai attacks will never fathom religious liberty.

Mumbai could happen just about anywhere By Mark Steyn
When terrorists attack, media analysts go into Sherlock Holmes mode, metaphorically prowling the crime scene for footprints, as if the way to solve the mystery is to add up all the clues. The Mumbai gunmen seized British and American tourists. Therefore, it must be an attack on Westerners!

Forgotten Lessons From 9/11 By Anne Applebaum
As I write, the world’s security experts still have no idea which organization carried out this week’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, and I have no idea myself. The Indian government suspects Pakistani groups, but some eyewitnesses have said the gunmen spoke Hindi, which could mean that they were of Indian origin.

India’s Terrorism Dilemma By Hasnain Kazim
India has been rocked by a number of terror attacks in recent years. Still, the country has no over-arching strategy to confront the problem. The reasons are myriad.

Revising jihad By Nathan Field
When the former jihadist Sayyid Imam published his attack on al Qa’eda in 2007, many saw it as a pivotal document. But Imam’s sequel, published in Egypt this week, is just sound and fury, writes Nathan Field.

TNN Weekly Weekend Reward

November 28, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Weekly Weekend Reward | Leave a Comment 

Jackson Browne singing his 1982 hit “Somebody’s Baby.”  The song appeared on the soundtrack of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. 

The Jubilee Train Was A Little Late

November 28, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Economic issues, History, Presidents | Leave a Comment 

Reviewing some recent scholarship about the New Deal, Mona Charen argues that massive federal spending didn’t reduce unemployment. She offers this May 1939 quotation from congressional testimony by FDR’s own Treasury secretary, Henry Morgenthau:

We are spending more money than we have ever spent before and it does not work. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started and an enormous debt to boot.

So Much Blogging, Same Amount Of Time

November 28, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Episconixonian, Technology | Leave a Comment 

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan. Technology becoming a burden? Think of it as walking with hand weights.

Being Puritanical About Palin

November 28, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under American Politics, Sarah Palin | 6 Comments 

Promoting the insights of Garry Trudeau, Andrew Sullivan continues to encourage the idea that Gov. Palin can’t learn and grow as a national political figure in order to make the most of her substantial political capital. How unfortunate when a world view excludes the possibility of redemption!

Besides, the title of Sullivan’s post, “Why Palin Failed,” begs the question: How? She didn’t cost the Republicans the election; the economy did. She had about the same negligible effect as most VP candidates. She certainly failed to be the person Sullivan and others might have wanted her to be. But she’s still going to be a factor in ‘12 and probably ‘16. I’m content to watch and see what she does, to see whether she takes the Reagan or the Nixon way. Whatever happens, it won’t be dull.

The Perils Of The Middle Way

November 28, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under International Affairs, Israel and Palestinians, Terrorism | Leave a Comment 

It’s a classic dynamic: Rivals inch toward understanding, if not yet friendship. Bitter anger gives way first, perhaps, to exhaustion and then the glimmer of a possibility of the hope of peace. Always good news — except for extremists who for whatever reason find the idea of accommodation or compromise intolerable.

In March, teenage seminarians in Jerusalem were the victims of an attack that seemed calculated to destroy any progress being made by Israelis and the Palestinian Authority.

Similarly, the week’s attacks in Mumbai (in which innocent Jews also died) seemed calculated to drive a new wedge between India and Pakistan, who had come to the brink of nuclear war after terrorists attacked the Indian Parliament in December 2001. India had blamed elements of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. Both sides finally backed down. Now prodded by the U.S., which wants him to worry about al-Qaeda instead of India, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has been making determined overtures, mindful of his country’s desperate economic straits as well. Reports the New York Times:

A businessman at heart, Mr. Zardari understands the benefit of strong trade between India and Pakistan. Now on life support from the International Monetary Fund, Pakistan would profit immensely from the normalization of relations.

But some people don’t want normalization. They want their enemies humiliated and killed and their every ambition for revenge and power realized. When India quickly implicated Pakistan in the Mumbai attacks, the cycle seemed bound to recommence.

The on-line Times (its site is mucked up, so I can’t link) now reports that Pakistan’s ISS chief is heading to India to assist in the investigation, an extraordinary, encouraging move. Sometimes extremists make the middle way impossible. But sometimes they fail, and the world gets a little better.

Hillary At State: The Continuing Conundrum

November 28, 2008 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under American Politics, Barack Obama, Bush Administration, Congress, Democratic Party, Domestic issues, Economic issues, International Affairs, National Security, News media, Obama administration, Presidents, Terrorism, War on Terror | Leave a Comment 

In today’s Wall Street Journal the paper’s Washington correspondent Kimberley Strassel devotes her “Potomac Watch” column to the consequences inherent in President-elect Obama’s reported offer of the office of Secretary of State to Sen. Hillary Clinton. 

The column maintains that the main advantage of handing this position to the junior Senator from New York, where Obama is concerned, is that it would oblige her “to dismantle her extensive political operation and end the patronage that has earned her continued loyalty.”

Really?  As I wrote earlier in TNN, a couple of days ago the Washington Post ran an op-ed which raised the prospect of New York Gov. David Paterson appointing ex-President Bill Clinton to the seat if Hillary vacates it, which, of course, would keep her organization more or less entirely intact, and enable the couple to wield almost unimaginable influence in two of the three branches of federal government.

And even if such a scenario didn’t happen, as Strassel points out, a Secretary Clinton would

have plenty of leeway to go rogue. The State Department is traditionally hard to rein in, and Mrs. Clinton has insisted she also be free of traditional constraints. She’s demanded the right to staff her department with her own people. And while national security advisors are often more powerful than secretaries of state, she wants the ability to circumvent that position and go directly to Mr. Obama. This is the stuff ugly internal disputes are made of.

The tragic events of the past 48 hours go a considerable way toward showing how especially undesirable it is, at this time, that Foggy Bottom not be the scene of the kind of infighting and semi-Machiavellian maneuvering that always has accompanied both Clintons wherever they’ve gone, and that the authority of the National Security Council not be vitiated by whatever notions Sen. Clinton might bring to State.  Whoever was behind the thugs that have brought death, injury, arson, and destruction to Mumbai had American casualties planned from the start.  The city was chosen because India’s antiterrorism structure has been weak compared to other nations.  For the safety of its citizens abroad – and those at home, as well – America can’t take the chance of having a State Department that’s dominated by dissension, no matter how expertly and efficiently the Department of Homeland Security and other defense and national-security organizations perform in the next four years.

Strassel also points out that a lot is still unknown about the identity and past of innumerable donors to Bill Clinton’s post-presidential projects, and that the records pertaining to such need to be thoroughly evaluated by Obama’s transition team before the President-elect can be sure that the appointment of Sen. Clinton wouldn’t raise conflict-of-interest issues. 

Elsewhere in today’s WSJ is a somewhat surprising column from the man often regarded as the Richelieu of the Bush White House, Karl Rove.  The veteran policy mastermind discusses Obama’s economic and domestic Cabinet and staff choices, and, for the most part, has high praise for such choices as Timothy Geithnet as Treasury Secretary, Christina Romer as Council of Economic Advisors head, and Peter Orszag as OMB chief. 

Rove states that the “only troubling personnel note” so far has been the selection of Melody Barnes to be Domestic Policy Council director; he points out that putting Ted Kennedy’s onetime staffer in charge of universal-health-care initiatives in that position, on top of former Sen. Tom Daschle’s appointment as Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, “sends a clear signal” that the President-elect is thoroughly committed toward the most expansive (and, for the taxpayers, expensive) health-care initiatives in American history.  He also notes that Obama’s recent statements regarding stimulus packages to lift the nation from recession have been confusing and sometimes contradictory.  But Rove makes it clear that he feels reassured when he looks at the economic brain trust being assembled for the coming administration.

Meanwhile In Minnesota….

November 28, 2008 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under American Politics, Barack Obama, Congress, Democratic Party, Election 2008, Obama administration, Republican Party | Leave a Comment 

….the recount in the contest between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken for the former’s Senate seat continues.  As of 8 pm last night, with a shade over 86% of the ballots counted, Coleman led the former Saturday Night Live cast member by little more than 4000 votes.  Some days ago Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com, who caused a sensation on Election Day when it turned out that his arcane figuring had produced a forecast of Obama’s electoral victory with state-by-state precision, offered his prediction about the results of the recount; he forecasts that Franken will prevail in it by all of twenty-seven votes, a margin that would make Lyndon Johnson’s 87-vote spread against Coke Stevenson in the 1948 Democratic primary for the Senate seat from Texas look like a downright landslide.  (Silver buttresses his argument with calculations that only your neighborhood graduate-school math professor could decipher.)

As spectacularly narrow as that margin would be, it already has been beat a few times during this election season, albeit in local races.  For instance, in a borough council election in New Jersey, Republican Jerry Stevenson defeated his Democratic opponent Dan Dunham by eight votes, out of about 6700 cast.  A recount was requested.  This time, Stevenson won again – by a single vote, thus going a long way – as will the results in Minnesota - to support the old saw that “every vote counts.” 

And should Franken prevail in the land of a thousand lakes, then even if Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss wins the recount in Georgia, Obama could still obtain a filibuster-proof majority of 60 in the upper chamber by naming either of Maine’s two GOP senators, Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins, to the Cabinet, thus enabling the state’s Democratic governor to name a replacement.  It will be an eventful five weeks before the new Congress convenes on January 3.

In Memoriam: Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg

November 28, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Faith, Yorba Linda | Leave a Comment 

The Holtzbergs

News comes this morning of the deaths in a house of God of Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, and three other innocents at the hands of the Mumbai terrorists. Gavriel and Rivka ran Mumbai’s Chabad House, part of the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch movement. Their two-year-old son Moshe and his nanny had escaped earlier in the siege.

TNN’s deepest condolences to our Yorba Linda neighbors the North County Chabad Center.

The Economic Crisis Unfolding in China

November 28, 2008 by Drew Thompson | Filed Under China | Leave a Comment 

The economic crisis is having an increasingly visible impact in China. Reports of factory closings, particularly in export-oriented regions such as southern Guangzhou province is raising concerns about unrest as hundreds of thousands of migrants are laid off and head back to their home towns. It looks like it will get worse before it gets better for Chinese workers.

“This crisis is spreading all over the world and its impact on China’s economy is deepening,” Zhang Ping, chairman of the Cabinet’s National Development and Reform Commission, said at a news conference. He said economic indicators for November were showing an “even faster decline,” though he gave no details.

The World Bank this week announced a growth forecast for China of 7.5% in 2009. This would be the lowest GDP increase in 20 years and it symbolically significant because Chinese leaders believe that annual increases of 8% or more are needed to absorb new graduates and workers laid off from state owned enterprises into the work force. Keeping inflation at bay is the next major priority for economic planners. The leadership is well aware of the role that rapid inflation plays in stoking unrest. Historians recognize that inflation was a contributing factor in the fall of the Kuomingtang in 1949 and the mass demonstrations in 1989. Thankfully, the Chinese leadership is taking some concrete actions in addition to vague announcements about spending plans. Recent interest rate cuts, strengthened price controls and the announced export VAT-rebate taking affect on Monday will help contain some of the fall out from the crisis.

Featured Articles — November 28, 2008

November 28, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles | Leave a Comment 

Interesting Takes from Home and Abroad:

India’s Antiterror Blunders By Sadanand Dhume
Years of appeasing militants has made the problem worse.

Turbulence Ahead By Peggy Noonan
Some things to be thankful for in depressing times.

The Washington Stock Market By Charles Krauthammer
In the old days — from the Venetian Republic to, oh, the Bear Stearns rescue — if you wanted to get rich, you did it the Warren Buffett way: You learned to read balance sheets. Today you learn to read political tea leaves. You don’t anticipate Intel’s third-quarter earnings; instead, you guess what side of the bed Henry Paulson will wake up on tomorrow.

Behind Mumbai by Robert D. Kaplan
Robert D. Kaplan offers insight into the Hindu-Muslim tensions festering within India.

Hillary of State, How much will this cost the Obama administration? By Kimberley Strassel
One rule of employee relations? Never hire someone you can’t afford to fire. Barack Obama’s offer to let Hillary Clinton be secretary of state has already been marked down as a brilliant co-option of his former rival. But nothing comes for free, and the question is just how big a price Mr. Obama will pay in the end.

From TR to BHO by Martin Peretz
Obama, The New Republic, and the presidents we’ve loved.

Putin’s Intentions Debated After Shift on 4-Year Term By Philip P. Pan
Not so long ago, a relatively young, newly elected president of Russia was presented with a proposal to amend the nation’s constitution and extend the four-year term of the presidency.

DC’s Rotten Schools, The Real National Scandal By Jonah Goldberg
HYPOCRISY is an over blown sin. Better to be a hypocrite who occasion ally violates his principles than a villain who never does.

Frank Langella: “I Liked Richard Nixon”

November 27, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Frost/Nixon | 7 Comments 

The Wall Street Journal interviews Frank Langella, whom Roger Elbert favors as winner of the Academy Award for best actor for “Frost/Nixon”:

I liked Richard Nixon and I liked playing him. I don’t think he’ll ever be gone from me, because something about the man is just very powerful. His pain, and the obviousness of his pain, stays with you. It’s not a sentiment that’s new to any of us — you could see it on him at all times, his discomfort in public — but I discovered he could be equally funny and charming. He just wasn’t a relaxed man, and was forever churning away, trying to achieve greatness.

In July 2006, while preparing for the Broadway run of Peter Morgan’s play, the actor visited the Nixon Library, talking to those had know the President and spending a over an hour studying the materials he had used to prepare for the Frost interviews in 1977. (That’s me, showing him the binders.) He cheerfully owned the fashionably anti-Nixon, anti-Vietnam views he’d held in the 1970s. But unlike Sir Anthony Hopkins, who made a half-hearted PR visit to Yorba Linda before appearing in Oliver Stone’s bizarre fantasy “Nixon,” Langella said he was aiming for a fleshed-out, empathetic performance.

Director Ron Howard chose the Library’s White House East Room to film Langella’s performance as RN saying goodbye to his colleagues on August 9, 1974. It was a painful moment for the country as well as the President and his family. My colleagues Kathy O’Connor, Sandy Quinn, and I watched Howard and him film three takes. His performance was dignified and powerful. Afterwards, he left the set and walked toward us, still in character, and gave us a hug. We gulped and called him “Mr. President.”

The Magical Scowcroft Effect

November 27, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Barack Obama, International Affairs, National Security, Nixon Administration figures | Leave a Comment 

Under the tutelage of an acolyte of Henry Kissinger, the foreign policy realists and idealists are switching parties. E. J. Dionne, Jr.:

What’s most striking about Obama’s approach to foreign policy is that he is less an idealist than a realist who would advance American interests by diplomacy, by working to improve the country’s image abroad, and by using military force prudently and cautiously.

This sounds a lot like the foreign policy of George H.W. Bush, and it makes perfect sense that Obama has had conversations with the senior Bush’s closest foreign policy adviser, Brent Scowcroft. Obama has drawn counsel from many in Scowcroft’s circle, and [Defense chief Robert] Gates himself was deputy national security adviser under Scowcroft.

A Domestic Tragedy

November 27, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under International Affairs, Terrorism | Leave a Comment 

Fareed Zakaria says the Mumbai terrorists were probably targeting Indians, not westerners. He doubts an al-Qaeda connection.

Probably Not The Right Evening To Post This

November 27, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Culture | Leave a Comment 

During a visit to Florida, “Spectator” columnist Hugo Rifkind, who also writes for the London Times, observes, Tocquevillelike, that we are a large and expansive people:

I can see many from the window of my hotel room, down there on the shore watching the startlingly noisy, don’t-book-a-room-next-door, annual Key West World Championship Power Boat race. Arse fat, neck fat, hip fat, thigh fat. There’s also the proper, terrifying Star Wars villain fat: arms unable to descend below an obtuse isosceles triangle sort of thing, but that’s actually fairly rare. I can only see two of them, rippling slightly as the boats roar past. Most common is what you’d have to call skinny fat: slender arms, slender legs, but with a bulge in the front of their polo-shirt, like they’ve been out shoplifting soft furnishings. My doctor tells me I’m a touch overweight, but I could be a whole different species.

The Deaths Of Journalism

November 27, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Book Review, News media, Presidents, Russia | Leave a Comment 

Mary Cassatt’s Children Playing on the Beach, or a painting much like it, stars in Daniel Silva’s riveting thriller Moscow Rules, about a Russian oligarch whose promiscuous weapons sales put him in bed with al-Qaeda. The deal with the devil is uncover by a brave editor in Moscow.

A former UPI foreign correspondent who’s married to NBC’s Jamie Gangel, Silva, in extensive author’s notes, reminds us that while journalism appears to be dying in the U.S., elsewhere it’s the journalists:

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 47 reporters, editors, cameramen, and photographers have been killed in Russia since 1992, making it the third-deadliest country in the world in which to practice the craft of journalism, after Iraq and Algeria. Fourteen of those deaths occurred during the rule of Russian president [now PM] Vladimir Putin, who undertook a systematic crack-down on press freedom and political dissent after coming to power in 1999. Virtually all the murders were contract killings, and few have been solved or prosecuted.

Silva also thanks Jean Becker, “amazing” chief of staff to former President and Barbara Bush. Hear hear! Jean has also extended many kindnesses to the Nixon family and Foundation over the years.

***

I should have noted that my colleague David Stokes beat me to Silva’s yarn by fourh months. Read his excellent comments here.

“An Uncomfortable Thanksgiving”

November 27, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Domestic issues, Nixon Center | Leave a Comment 

Foreign policy blogger Steve Clemons, the first executive director of The Nixon Center, bridges the personal and geopolitical.

Perfect Songs: “Blowin’ In The Wind” (1963)

November 27, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

Bob Dylan and Joan Baez

An exquisite audio-only recording of a different performance by the two is available here.

Giving Thanks

November 27, 2008 by Jack Pitney | Filed Under Afghanistan, Military, Richard Nixon | 3 Comments 

On November 10, 1969 RN issued a message to the armed forces: “This Thanksgiving Day provides an ideal occasion for all Americans to acknowledge and give thanks for the courage, devotion to duty, and the loyalty you have demonstrated in service to our nation.”

We should indeed be thankful for the men and women of the United States armed forces — and intelligence services. Every day, while we go about our business and fret about our petty concerns, they are risking their lives to keep us safe and free. Over the years, I have had the privilege of teaching a number of students who went on to join their ranks. One of them, Moti Sorkin, is an Army Ranger and was a platoon leader in Afghanistan, where he kept a blog. Here is what he wrote on the anniversary of 9/11:

[U]ltimately, protecting America involves more than just killing bad guys. That means I’ve often got different missions than the ones I envisioned in my sleep-deprived days of Ranger school, where I dreamed of mowing down the Islamist horde with an endless belt of 7.62. Despite what Brian DePalma and his ilk might think, I don’t go around dictating law with the muzzle of my rifle, and neither do my men…Every mission we have is dedicated to helping Afghanistan, and to making this country a better place. For the only way Afghanistan will no longer be a threat to America is if it gets better…

I am thankful that I have gotten to know such people, and I am thankful that our country continues to produce them.

Mr. Conservative And Mr. Democrat?

November 27, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Obama administration, The National Interest | Leave a Comment 

Jacob Heilbrunn:

Maybe not, but what Obama’s [Cabinet and personnel] choices indicate is that his temperament is fundamentally a conservative one—and it’s the reason, after all, that he got elected in the first place. Obama’s statements and choices suggest sobriety rather than risk-taking. Obama, in other words, is the anti-Bush not only in tone, but also in substance. Where Bush was a radical, Obama could be the most conservative president America has had in decades. This, in brief, could be the real change that Obama represents.

Which Puppy? Which Pew? Decisions, Decisions

November 27, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Barack Obama, Episconixonian, Episcopal Church | Leave a Comment 

The Washington Post’s Sally Quinn says the church-shopping Obamas should go Episcopal. Yeah!

Jihading To Conclusions

November 27, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under International Affairs, Terrorism | Leave a Comment 

In India, the magnitude of the attacks, taking of hostages, and targeting of westerners have led to speculation about an al-Qeada link. The “Economist” says not so fast:

Indian officials have so far resisted suggestions that Indian Muslims are being radicalised and joining a global jihad. Many refer approvingly to the observation of George Bush that Muslims from India have not in general turned up to fight the infidels on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. But security analysts have meanwhile despaired at the unpreparedness of India’s security agencies to counter a domestic Islamist threat. Whether or not al-Qaeda was behind the latest attack, that happy complacency must now have ended.

Please Pass the Brisket

November 27, 2008 by David R. Stokes | Filed Under Culture, Faith, History, Religion, U.S. History | 1 Comment 

Ever hear of Gershom Mendes Seixas? Well, he might just be the forgotten hero of Thanksgiving.

Our national Thanksgiving narrative is rich with stories about proclamations, gatherings, meals, traditions, football, and of course, the obligatory pardoning of a turkey by the president of these United States. School children rehearse that day long ago when the Plymouth pilgrims broke bread. We note things Lincoln said (he’s all the rage these days). And doubtless you have heard about what our first president, George Washington, declared while proclaiming the first “official” national day of Thanksgiving in 1789:

I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

We hear much these days about our “Judeo-Christian” heritage and its early and enduring influence on our culture. A look back at the founding era of our nation reminds us, however, that only about 2,500 Jews actually lived in the colonies in 1776. Usually those of us who speak of that early dual influence are referring to the Christian Bible with its Jewish roots.

But pointing this out is not to say that Jews were not active and represented during the colonial and founding periods, quite the contrary – there are some fascinating and often overlooked stories.

Gershom Mendes Seixas is a case in point. He was “American Judaism’s first public figure.” In 1768, he was appointed hazzan of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York – the only synagogue serving the city’s approximately 300 residents. He was only 23 years old at the time and largely self-taught in the Talmud with much help from his devout father, though never actually an “official” rabbi. In fact, it would be several decades before a rabbi was ordained in America.

Seixas was the first Jewish preacher to use the English language in his homilies. He was a gifted teacher and tireless worker. And when it came to the American Revolution, he was a patriot – as demonstrated by his actions while the colonies were struggling to actually realize the independence that had been recently proclaimed.

His synagogue, like the much of the greater public, was somewhat divided on the issue of independence. But Seixas used all of his persuasive skills to convince his congregation that they should cease operations in advance of the approaching British occupation of the city, during the early days of the conflict.

He fled to his wife’s family home in Connecticut, carrying various books and scrolls precious to the synagogue for safekeeping. In 1780, he accepted the leadership role at a synagogue in Philadelphia, where he became an outspoken cultural voice regularly calling on God to watch over General Washington and the great cause.

When the war ended, he was invited back to resume his work with Congregation Shearith Israel in New York. He returned with the books and scrolls to serve from 1784 until his death 32 years later.

When George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States on April 30, 1789, Seixas was asked to participate as one of the presiding clergyman. This was certainly an act of gratitude by Washington for the preacher’s stalwart support during the war. It was also, though, an expression of Washington’s thinking about the importance of religious freedom and diversity in the new nation.

Later that year, as the nation set aside Thursday, the 26th of November, the date so designated by the president for Thanksgiving, Seixas preached a sermon to his New York congregation.

His Thanksgiving Day message was based on a text from the Psalms where it talked about how King David had “made a joyful noise unto the Lord.” Seixas told his listeners that they had much to rejoice about – the new nation, its president, and above all, the new constitution.”

Warming to his theme, he reminded them that they were “equal partakers of every benefit that results from this good government,” and therefore should be good citizens in full support of the government. Beyond that, they were encouraged to conduct themselves as “living evidences of his divine power and unity.” He further admonished them “to live as Jews ought to do in brotherhood and amity, to seek peace and pursue it.”

In my opinion, Gershom Mendes Seixas’ sermon is every bit as relevant to all of us 219 years later.

Happy Thankgiving from TNN

November 27, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Holidays | Leave a Comment 

President Nixon participates in the annual pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey

Featured Articles — November 27, 2008

November 27, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles | Leave a Comment 

Interesting Takes from Home and Abroad:

‘A Day of Thanksgiving’ By Ira Stoll
The national holiday actually began at a dark hour during our war for independence. Here’s the story.

The Mayhem in Mumbai By Fareed Zakaria
Making sense of India’s terrorist attacks

The Hysterical Style By Victor Davis Hanson
Politicians now predict the implosion of the U.S. auto industry. Headlines warn that the entire banking system is on the verge of utter collapse. The all-day/all-night cable news shows and op-ed columnists talk of another Dark Age on the horizon, as each day another corporation lines up for its me-too bailout.

Only a strategic partnership with China will keep this new dawn bright By Timothy Garton Ash
This hard-nosed power does not share the west’s enthusiasms. Deep engagement is the best way to fend off conflict.

Life After Foggy Bottom By David Ignatius
She is immaculately dressed, as always, wearing a gold necklace and a tailored suit in the fashionable color known as “aubergine.”

Giving Thanks to Heroes By Nicholas D. Kristof
This is a column to give thanks to you, the reader. You don’t know it, but some of you are keeping women like Sajida Bibi alive here in this remote Pakistani village. And that is a far grander reason to celebrate Thanksgiving than even the plumpest turkey.

Free Ride for the Campus Left By George Will
In 1892, a Massachusetts court ruled that a policeman’s speech rights had not been violated by a law forbidding certain political activities by officers. State Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: “The petitioner may have a constitutional right to talk politics, but he has no constitutional right to be a policeman.”

No Butz About It

November 26, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Economic issues, Nixon Administration figures, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

Here’s something. At the arch-doctrinaire “National Review,” Reihan Salam offers a partial limited rehab of President Nixon’s anti-inflation policies.

Department Of Wishful Thinking

November 26, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under American Politics, Barack Obama, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

Daniel Frick:

Can Barack Obama succeed in laying Richard Nixon’s ghost to rest? As Obama pledges bipartisanship and reaches across the aisle to John McCain, many of us can’t help but hope that we’ve seen the end of the politics of denigration.

Of course you have!

A Thanksgiving Plea For The Congo

November 26, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under UN | Leave a Comment 

The UN’s World Food Program

It’s Really All About The Shoes

November 26, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Frost/Nixon | Leave a Comment 

And about the hair

If Oscar buzz is evidenced by every little thing about a movie getting ink before it’s even released to the public, then “Frost/Nixon” is a shoe-in. Booth Moore:

In “Frost/Nixon,” [Michael] Sheen plays dandy British talk show host [David] Frost with all the wide ties, and even wider collars to match. His hair is something of a character itself– coiffed into a perfect helmet and worn with deep sideburns and arched eyebrows — a parody of all that TV journalism has become since that moment. Frost, the forerunner of the modern day metrosexual, is too well-dressed in Nixon’s opinion, his horse bit Italian loafers too effeminate. “I think a man should wear shoes with laces,” one of Nixon’s trusty aides says.

The shoes are a defining point of difference between the two men, between Nixon and a generation he never understood. But in the end, it’s those shoes that bring the characters together in what might be the most poignant moment in the film.

It’s fun to relive Los Angeles in the 1970s for a couple of hours, from the glamour of Frost’s Beverly Hilton Hotel suite, to the inside of the hotter-than-hot Ma Maison restaurant, with Frost’s gal Caroline Cushing dressed by costume designer Daniel Orlandi in a liquid jersey a la Halston.

But what was really a hoot was the first class cabin of the plane Frost took across the Atlantic, with its silver tea service and cocktail bar. Can you imagine? Let’s chew on that as we head out of town on the busiest travel day of the year.

Democratic Majorities, Then and Now

November 26, 2008 by Jack Pitney | Filed Under Barack Obama, Congress, Democratic Party, Republican Party, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

The 111th Congress will be more Democratic than the 110th.  By latest count, the Senate will be 58D-40R, with two races (Minnesota and Georgia) undecided.  The House will be 256D-175R, with four races outstanding.  Compare these divisions to those of the 91st Congress (1969-1971), the first of RN’s presidency.  The Senate was 58D-42R and the House was 243D-192R.  The Senate split was about the same.  Though the House was a bit closer than it will be next year, Democrats still had a substantial majority. 

These numbers, however, conceal fundamental changes in the way that Congress works.  During RN’s time, bipartisanship was a necessity.  In both chambers, there were substantial numbers of conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans.  Passing conservative measures required the cooperation of Boll Weevils such as Senator John Stennis.  Passing liberal ones required Frostbelt Republicans such as Senator Jacob Javits.  Today’s Congress is far more polarized: most Republicans are conservative and most Democrats are liberal. 

In the House, with its majoritarian procedures, the Democrats can get their way without any Republican help at all.  In 2007, when reporters asked about GOP support for an Iraq drawdown, Speaker Pelosi said:  “I’m the last person to ask about Republican votes.”  With an enhanced majority in 2009, the speaker will regard House Republicans as nothing more than annoying members of the studio audience.    In the Senate, it takes 60 voters to close a filibuster.  If Democrats win the Georgia runoff and the Minnesota recount, they will have a filibuster-proof majority.  Even if they don’t, they only need a couple of GOP votes to get their way.

At first, these Democratic majorities will move President Obama’s agenda — and move it quickly.  Over time, however, congressional Democrats will pursue an agenda of their own.  President Obama may desire bipartisan cooperation, but Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will push Congress in a tough partisan direction.

 

The Price for Ticking off Devil Dogs

November 26, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Afghanistan, Military, War on Terror | Leave a Comment 

250 Afghan insurgents in their safe-haven of Bala Baluk ambushed 30 U.S. Marines. The insurgents paid a heavy price for messing with our devil-dogs, losing their spirit along the way:

“The biggest thing to take from that day is what Marines can accomplish when they’re given the opportunity to fight,” the sniper said. “A small group of Marines met a numerically superior force and embarrassed them in their own backyard. The insurgents told the townspeople that they were stronger than the Americans, and that day we showed them they were wrong.”

During the battle, the designated marksman single handedly thwarted a company-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate precision fire. He selflessly exposed himself time and again to intense enemy fire during a critical point in the eight-hour battle for Shewan in order to kill any enemy combatants who attempted to engage or maneuver on the Marines in the kill zone. What made his actions even more impressive was the fact that he didn’t miss any shots, despite the enemies’ rounds impacting within a foot of his fighting position.

“I was in my own little world,” the young corporal said. “I wasn’t even aware of a lot of the rounds impacting near my position, because I was concentrating so hard on making sure my rounds were on target.”

After calling for close-air support, the small group of Marines pushed forward and broke the enemies’ spirit as many of them dropped their weapons and fled the battlefield. At the end of the battle, the Marines had reduced an enemy stronghold, killed more than 50 insurgents and wounded several more.

“I didn’t realize how many bad guys there were until we had broken through the enemies’ lines and forced them to retreat. It was roughly 250 insurgents against 30 of us,” the corporal said. “It was a good day for the Marine Corps. We killed a lot of bad guys, and none of our guys were seriously injured.”

(Hat Tip: Powerline)

Newt Laying Groundwork

November 26, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Election 2012 | Leave a Comment 

Kathryn Jean Lopez:

Sean Hannity just had Newt Gingrich on his radio show. He asked Gingrich if the former Speaker will consider running for president in 2012.

“Yes,” Gingrich replied.

It’s not shocking news by any stretch. But it was a refreshingly honest answer. There was no “that’s the last thing on my mind right now” dance. He obviously wants to run and has been laying the groundwork.

I think conservatives are more liable to look toward new blood next time — someone who has been on the national scene, who is working behind the scenes, or at home in his state, or as a “Young Turk” on the Hill in the future. But who knows.

Newt, by the way, also denied reports he is running for the RNC chair job.

Sen. Clinton at State Unconstitutional?

November 26, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Obama administration | 1 Comment 

U.S. Constitution: Article I, section 6:

“No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time.”

Stanford Professor Michael Stokes Paulsen comments:

The Emoluments Clause of Article I, section 6 provides “No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time.” As I understand it, President Bush’s executive order from earlier this year “encreased” the “Emoluments” (salary) of the office of Secretary of State. Last I checked, Hillary Clinton was an elected Senator from New York at the time. Were she to be appointed to the civil Office of Secretary of State, she would be being appointed to an office for which “the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased” during the time for which she was elected to serve as Senator. The plain language of the Emoluments Clause would thus appear to bar her appointment … if the Constitution is taken seriously (which it more than occasionally isn’t on these matters, of course).

Two Flashes Of Light

November 26, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Episconixonian, Episcopal Church, Faith | Leave a Comment 

Reflections on church schisms and the Resurrection.

“Wonderful Combination Of Circumstances”

November 26, 2008 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under American Politics, Barack Obama, Congress, Democratic Party, News media, Obama administration, Presidents, U.S. History | Leave a Comment 

A rather unusual op-ed appears in today’s Washington Post, written by Karl E. Meyer, a longtime writer (and editorial-board member) for both that paper and the New York Times, who recently retired after many years editing World Policy Journal, and his wife Shareen Blair Brysac.

The column argues that, should President-elect Obama confirm his choice of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to be Secretary of State, a “wonderful combination of circumstances” will arise to benefit the nation.  The authors argue that to replace Hillary, New York Governor David Paterson should select, not New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo or Reps. Nita Lowey or Kirsten Gillibrand or Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown or even Robert Kennedy Jr. or Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, but instead a person with more political experience than any of these figures, a man who knows Washington well already….

Bill Clinton.

The suggestion, on its face, sounds bizarre, but than again when Cindy Adams wrote in her column a little over a decade ago that the First Lady was contemplating seeking Daniel P. Moynihan’s Senate seat after he retired, a lot of people had trouble taking that notion seriously.  And this time, the prospect is being suggested by a journalist with somewhat greater gravitas than even the venerable Ms. Adams.

The argument that Meyer and Brysac make cites an historical precedent. In 1830, two years after his defeat by Andrew Jackson, former President John Quincy Adams ran for a seat in the House of Representatives and won.  At the time, some asked what it was appropriate for a onetime occupant of the White House to seek a lesser office.  Adams’s reply was he was honored to serve any office to which the public chose to elect him, even as a county clerk or selectman.  And so for the next 18 years he worked in the House with considerable distinction; among his achievements, as the column notes, was his work, spanning the years 1836 to 1846, to ensure that the $500,000 bequest left to the United States by an Englishman “for an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men” was invested to create the Smithsonian Institution.

Rather interestingly, Meyer and Brysac do not cite the example of the only other former President who returned to serve on Capitol HIll – Andrew Johnson, who also was the only President before Clinton to be impeached.  After avoiding removal from office by one vote and leaving the White House under a cloud, Johnson thirsted for vindication.  In 1872, like Adams, he sought election to the House, but was defeated. Two years later, the Tennessee state legislature elected him to the Senate.  Johnson returned to Washington in 1875 and served just five months before his death, but not before making a speech that earned him a standing ovation from many who had voted for his removal in 1868.

President Clinton is a man with a considerable knowledge of American history, and surely is familiar with Andrew Johnson’s career.  Could it be that the wish to erase the stain of impeachment is encouraging him to think along the lines of a return to politics?

However, if there is a serious effort underway to get Bill Clinton into the Senate in this fashion, I’d say that is one good reason for Obama to let Hillary stay where she is.  Putting her in charge of the State Department, whether or not Dick Holbrooke is present to provide his wealth of expertise as Undersecretary, would in itself create a power center in the executive branch that would challenge Obama’s capacity to use the full authority of his office when it came to foreign policy.  Having Bill Clinton in the Senate at the same time, with an opportunity to second-guess every initiative coming from the Oval Office, would only compound the problem where the domestic front was concerned.

One Clinton in Washington is sufficient for the well-being of the republic; to have two of them making policy would be two too many.  The future may see a situation where it would be fitting for a former President to seek and obtain high office and continue to serve his or her nation, but in this case it’s better for the 42nd Chief Executive to stay in his office in Harlem.

Featured Articles — November 26, 2008

November 26, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles | Leave a Comment 

Interesting Takes from Home and Aboard:

The Battle for Minnesota Is Just Getting Started By John Fund
Al Franken demands to know the identity of every voter whose absentee ballot was rejected.

A Car Wreck Made in Washington By Holman Jenkins
Can Democrats afford to let Detroit succeed?

The Harder They Fall by Alvaro Vargas Llosa
Hugo Chavez’s dream of indefinite rule looks doomed.

Obama’s Foreign Policy: Buying in at the Bottom by Robert D. Kaplan
“George W. Bush … has poised America for a diplomatic rebound, which the next administration will get the credit for carrying out.”

Will Obama Opt For Pragmatism In Energy Policy? By Mort Kondracke
President-elect Barack Obama is proving to be remarkably pragmatic and centrist as he tackles the global economic crisis. Big tests are yet to come on energy, however.

Geithner, Summers And Romer By Brian S. Wesbury and Robert Stein
What does the Obama team have in store for us?

Russia, China, Move In on Latin America By Peter Brookes
Today’s arrival of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on a two-day visit to Venezuela to meet with President Hugo Chavez is a stark reminder that potential problems aren’t always “Over There.”

All Fall Down By Thomas Friedman
I spent Sunday afternoon brooding over a great piece of Times reporting by Eric Dash and Julie Creswell about Citigroup. Maybe brooding isn’t the right word. The front-page article, entitled “Citigroup Pays for a Rush to Risk,” actually left me totally disgusted.

From Expansion To Retraction

November 25, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, International Affairs, Obama administration | Leave a Comment 

President Nixon meets Deng Xiaopeng in the Carter White House

According to the Chinese media, PE Obama is definitely the new Nixon. This unsigned commentary was published by the official Xinhua New Agency, which means it’s either what the government thinks or what the government wants the world to think the government thinks:

I believe that Obama’s government will very likely pursue a strategic retraction, meaning the U.S. will very likely enter a period of strategic adjustment.

The last time the U.S. underwent a strategic retraction was in the early 1970s. The starting signals came in then President Richard Nixon’s address to the nation on the war in Vietnam on Nov 3, 1969 and the annual foreign affairs report his administration submitted to Congress in Feb 1970.

Nixon said back then the U.S. would still honor its obligations spelled out in the treaties it had signed with its allies, but it was impossible for the U.S. to defend all “free countries” in the world and those under security threats should rely on themselves more than on any other nation, because the U.S. would not plunge into another protracted conflict like the Vietnam War ever again.

That is the so-called Nixon Doctrine, of which the gist is to pursue a strategic retraction by reducing the defense obligations the U.S. had to fulfill around the world. Between then and the early 1980s the country basically remained in strategic retraction, mostly because the U.S. was sinking deeper in the swamp of Vietnam War with the society bitterly split.

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