Washington Awash With Conservative Hubris
January 28, 2005
"Washington Awash With
Conservative Hubris"
"The Bush family omert demands silence and loyalty from all the president's
retinue, so Mrs. Whitman's decision to speak out is in itself an outrage.The
bitterness of the reaction is all the more surprising because Mrs. Whitman's
book, like her public record, performs some astounding contortions to avoid
criticizing the president himself. Mr. Bush's decision to break his campaign
promise to curb carbon emissions from power plants? A reasonable choice, Mrs.
Whitman argues, marred by poor public relations. She asserts, without irony,
that Mr. Bush is a closet environmentalist, forced to hide his inner tree hugger
for fear of riling Republican extremists.What Mrs. Whitman will find out in the
coming months is this: With Republicans ascendant, and Washington awash with
conservative hubris, is anyone in power willing to listen?"
- From a January 26 profile of "moderate" Republican Christie Whitman,
whose new book "It's My Party, Too" is critical of conservative Republicans.
Blaming Bush for What He Doesnt
Say
"President Bush's opening statement at his news conference on Wednesday was
striking for what it left out: any mention of the 31 Americans who died
overnight in the crash of a Marine helicopter in Iraq, the largest number of
American deaths in a single incident since the war began.More recently the
president was criticized for not publicly speaking out about the tsunami victims
in southeast Asia and for being slow to pledge aid."
- White House reporter Elisabeth Bumiller, January 27.
"Far-Right" Scholarship
"It is tempting to dismiss the book as fringe scholarship, not worth worrying
about, but the numbers say otherwise. It is being snapped up on college campuses
and, helped along by plugs from Fox News and other conservative media, it
recently soared to No. 8 on the New York Times paperback best-seller list. It is
part of a boomlet in far-right attacks on mainstream history that includes books
like Jim Powell's 'FDR's Folly,' which argues that Franklin Roosevelt made the
Depression worse, and Michelle Malkin's 'In Defense of Internment,' a warm look
back on the mass internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.The book
reads less like history than a call to action, since so many of its historical
arguments track the current political agenda of the far right."
- Editorial board member Adam Cohen's description of "The Politically
Incorrect Guide to American History," January 26.
Are Iraqis Really Reluctant to
Vote?
"Iraqis Abroad Seem Reluctant To Vote, Too, Sign-Up Shows."
- Headline to a January 26 story from Hassan Fattah.
Reality Check:
A recent
survey of Iraqis in 16 of the country's 18 provinces by the National Endowment
for Democracy found "over 80 percent stating that they are very likely or
somewhat likely to vote on Jan. 30."
The GOP: Losing Through Winning
"President Bush begins his second term with the Republican Party in its
strongest position in over 50 years, but his clout is already being tested by
Republican doubts about his domestic agenda, rising national unease about Iraq
and the threat of second-term overreaching, officials in both parties say.The
critical question for Mr. Bush, his advisers and Democrats say, is the success
or failure of his agenda, both in terms of getting it through Congress and
winning support for it from the public. Recent polls show apprehension about
important aspects of his Social Security plan, and an overwhelming sentiment
that Mr. Bush does not know how to end the war in Iraq, which is increasingly
unpopular."
- From a January 24 story by Adam Nagourney and Richard Stevenson.
More of The "Looted Museum" Myth
"This was, after all, the museum from which an estimated 14,000 objects were
looted following the American invasion of Iraq."
- Fred Bernstein on the refurbished Iraq Museum in Baghdad, in the January
23 Arts section.
Reality Check:
"A
different picture is emerging of the looting of the National Museum in Baghdad.
Only a few dozen significant pieces, not thousands as originally reported, were
stolen. And many, a new investigation has found, may have gone missing long
before the Americans arrived in the Iraqi capital. US officials revealed
yesterday that several of the most important pieces that were thought to have
been stolen have now turned up safe.Staff there now say that only 33 major
items and around 2,000 minor works have gone." - From a June 2003 account in
the left-wing British newspaper The Guardian.
Bush Inauguration
"InappropriateEven Unpatriotic"
"To many Democrats, images of Republicans in sequined gowns and designer tuxedos
nibbling roast quail and twirling the Texas two-step in last week's $40
million-plus inaugural extravaganza seemed inappropriate, unseemly, even
unpatriotic, when American soldiers are dying in Iraq."
- James Dao in a January 23 Week in Review story headlined " 'Don't They
Know There's a War On?' "
Warming Up the Image of Dick
Cheney, AKA "Dr. No"
"So is this a new Dick Cheney? Or at least a new Cheney media strategy to warm
up Dr. No?"
- Elisabeth Bumiller's January 24 "White House Letter'" on Dick
Cheney's appearance on the Don Imus radio program.
Republicans Won't "Blindly
Follow" Bush on Social Security
"But over the last few weeks, it has become clear that his party is not going to
blindly follow him on his proposal to overhaul Social Security, and that
Democrats, while trying to regain their footing after their electoral defeat in
November, are inclined to fight rather than compromise on many fronts."
- White House reporters Elisabeth Bumiller and Richard Stevenson, January
21.
More of "Black and White" Bush
"Mr. Bush has seldom shied from seeing the world, or himself, in black and
white. His ways and means are debatable, but his sincerity is hard to doubt."
- Todd Purdum, January 21.
