Robert Pear Overdoses On Conservatives - September 18, 2003
Times Watch for September 18, 2003
Robert Pear Overdoses On Conservatives
Thirteen House Republicans
sent a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert insisting on cost controls for any
new Medicare drug benefits, giving Robert Pear another opportunity Thursday to
overdose on the conservative label. Pear uses the term conservative seven
times in his 742-word dispatch (its in the headline as well).
Meanwhile, Times Watchs
old friend
makes an appearance: Sen. Ted Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts. While Pear
finds no fewer than 13 conservative Republicans in the House, neither Kennedy
nor Democratic Rep. Pete Stark of California are labeled as liberal. Yet Rep.
Stark has a
lifetime rating of 4 from the American Conservative Union (out of 100),
while
Sen. Kennedys comes in with a 3.
Pear even lets Kennedy
characterize the House Republican letter-writers as the extremists: Senator
Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, said, President Bush has to
decide whether he's willing to say no to his right-wing House supporters.
For more of Pears story on the conservative
Medicare manifesto,
click here.
Drugs
|
Sen. Ted Kennedy
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Labeling Bias
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Medicare
|
Robert Pear
Libeskinds
Designs on Democracy
Thursdays essay by architecture critic Herbert
Muschamp, A Design Rethought, With Judgment Deferred, again squeezes politics
out of concrete and steel. Muschamp apparently doesnt approve of Ground Zero
architect Daniel Libeskinds proposed designs to replace the Twin Towers (though
Muschamps slippery, art-mag style of criticism makes it hard to discern what he
dislikes about Libeskinds aesthetic choices).
Muschamp is clearer on
politics. He sees the proposed design as a
potential danger
to free speech: Conceptually, the design remains more than latently political.
In his presentation, Mr. Libeskind protested that ideas like Freedom Tower and
the Park of Heroes are not just rhetoric. Perhaps not just, but they are
rhetorical, nonetheless, whatever else they may be, and it is contrary for a
place dedicated to democracy to start telling people what to think. Thats the
Times job.
For the rest of Herbert Muschamps story on the WTC
project,
click here.
Arts
|
Daniel Libeskind
|
Herbert Muschamp
|
World Trade Center
Bush
Chided for Spending Too Much, Not Enough
President Bush asks Congress for $87 billion to
rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, setting off criticism from Democrats (and a
Republican) that reporter David Firestone helpfully passes on in his Thursday
story, Afghanistan And Iraq Tab Of $87 Billion Is Submitted.
After relaying
criticism from fiscally conservative Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio,
Firestone said: His comments echoed those of Democrats, who accused the
administration of being stingy at home and generous abroad. Representative David
R. Obey of Wisconsin, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations
Committee, said the request would mean spending $255 for each Iraqi on electric
improvements, while the administration plans to spend 71 cents a person on power
improvements at home. Of course, Manhattan has a bit of a head start over Mosul
in the infrastructure department.
After passing on
Democratic criticisms that Bush is spending too little, Firestone then passes on
criticism that Bush is spending too much. Firestone writes: The entire proposed
spending would be added to next year's record-setting deficit, and today the
head of the General Accounting Office, in a blistering speech, warned that
federal budget problems are far deeper and more entrenched than either the
official numbers or the bulge in war costs suggests. David Walker, the
comptroller general and head of the nonpartisan General Accounting Office, said
the government would probably have to cut spending and raise taxes in coming
years as baby boomers begin to retire.
Firestone tries to link
Walkers speech to general criticism of the war costs. Yet Walkers speech
mostly focuses not on the war costs but on structural deficits due to the
retirement of the Baby Boomers. Walker himself (in an excerpt not noted by
Firestone) says Iraq and the terror war arent the major budgetary issues: The
current and projected deficits far exceed the costs associated with Iraq, the
global war on terrorism and any incremental homeland security costs.
For the rest of David Firestones report on Bushs
war-spending request,
click here.
George W. Bush
|
Deficits
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David Firestone
|
Iraq War
