July 2000

"Renewing America's Purpose. Together."

Saginaw, Michigan

Los Angeles

I am now officially a hypocrite. I've probably been an unofficial hypocrite for many years -- who among us hasn't? -- but now my hypocrisy has become so blatant that I am uncomfortably aware of it, and feel the need to confess my transgression against the ideological purity I find wanting in other…

THE SCRAPBOOK, along with the rest of THE WEEKLY STANDARD staff, will be at the Republican Convention next week. Visit our website, www.weeklystandard.com, to read our daily dispatches.

The Land Was Everything

Say this for Al Gore: He is the most relentlessly logical of presidential candidates we've seen in years. Once upon a time he was an opponent of legalized abortion, but sometime in the 1980s he realized that his viability in the Democratic party depended upon his support for Roe v. Wade. Now lots…

HELPING THE POOR is a worthy goal. But in countries with corrupt bureaucracies, it can be difficult to do. Aid destined for the needy often goes to buy limousines for the ruling class. Instead of giving money to third world politicians, why not give their people the right to use intellectual…

IN THE EARLY EVENING of June 16, the dead body of 17-year-old Raynard Johnson was found hanging from a pecan tree in front of his family home in the little town of Kokomo, Mississippi. An autopsy established that Johnson had killed himself: There were no marks or bruises on him, no signs of a…

There is a case to be made that the Uncle Abner stories -- the twenty-two tales of the Virginia hills written by Melville Davisson Post from 1911 to 1928 -- are among the finest mysteries ever written.

Detroit

The Warren Court and American Politics

"I read THE WEEKLY STANDARD," Ralph Nader confesses, leaning across the table with that deadly serious look of his. "You guys need to think bigger."

THE SCRAPBOOK, as a general rule, disapproves of quoting oneself, but sometimes it can't be helped. Right about this time four years ago, after three stupefying days at the Republican National Convention in San Diego, we editorialized that the convention had been Bill Clinton's "ultimate triumph."…

A senator's work is a never-ending series of committee hearings, caucus meetings, floor votes, flights, fund-raisers, and constituent service. It is, in many ways, a dreadful job that inevitably produces burnout. Yet Paul Coverdell, who died suddenly and much too young last week at the age of 61,…

Kansas City, Kansas

Did Hillary Clinton, in a moment of rage, once call someone a "f -- ing Jew bastard"? So a new book about the Clinton marriage, State of a Union, alleges. Mrs. Clinton, seconded by the usual crew of mudslinging bootlickers, denies it.

The Eternal Pity

Remember the magnum opus that Bill Clinton was going to pen about race relations, the greatest domestic policy question of them all? Even though it isn't really part of the president's "day job," a White House spokesman recently explained, the book nevertheless remains every bit as super important…

Almost four decades ago, in the aftermath of the Belgian Congo crisis, the pseudonymous Peter Simple of the London Daily Telegraph published a parody of the United Nations. Simple transformed New York's U.N. headquarters into the "Bar of Public Opinion," an East Side "rum joint" run by "a gloomy…

Speaking of journalistic malpractice: The New York Times's Fox Butterfield has long been a favorite SCRAPBOOK whipping boy. Butterfield, who covers the criminal justice beat, writes a numbskull story once a year in which he notes declining crime rates and wonders, "Why is the number of inmates in…

"Personnel is policy," goes the old adage, and congressional Republicans tend to believe it. That's why many of them are so steamed over the decision by House speaker Denny Hastert to hire as his new senior adviser for foreign policy and defense someone whose last job was as a registered foreign…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has an immediate opening for a staff accountant/bookkeeper with 2-3 years experience. Please send or fax resume to: Business Manager, THE WEEKLY STANDARD, 1150 17th Street, NW, Suite 505, Washington, DC 20036. Fax: (202) 293-4901.

Music and drink have long been companions; some awfully good tunes have celebrated the pleasures of getting gloriously hammered. The title character of Mozart's Don Giovanni announces himself ready to go all night in his champagne aria, "Finch'an dal vino," which tears along like a raging erotic…

I love food. Not in a philosophical way, like M. F. K. Fisher, or in a sensual way, like the French. I love food the way a plumber from Pittsburgh loves football. I love bad food. This affinity for butter and eggs and anything with cheese is something I share in spirit with none other than the King…

The horror parody Scary Movie has proved a staggering box-office success, grossing $ 42 million in its first weekend. That's more than twice what it cost to make, and this box-office bonanza makes it certain we are in for a dozen movies like it over the next two years -- which is to say,…

BY THE TIME Mexican voters ejected the PRI from power on July 2, it had racked up a record of 71 continuous years in power. Only two other 20th-century political entities have endured so long: One was the Communist party of the Soviet Union, which also died at age 71; the other is the Liberal party…

Timothy Joe Emerson is a Texas physician who lawfully bought a pistol in 1997. About a year later, Emerson's wife filed for divorce and sought a temporary injunction containing 29 separate prohibitions, most of them aimed at protecting Mrs. Emerson's financial interests. The proposed order also…

When the Boston Globe's award-winning conservative columnist Jeff Jacoby sat down to write an inspirational Fourth of July column on the fates suffered by many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence (not good, it turns out), he made much mention of sacrifice and poverty, persecution, and…

PETER JENNINGS on ABC's World News Tonight calls missile defense a system "that has never been proven to work and may never work." The Los Angeles Times suggests missile defense will put the country at "greater risk of attack." ABC's Ted Koppel says support for missile defense is a "very hard-line…

Earlier this month, on July 4 and July 6, two great men died. Both were survivors. Both lived through some of the worst tragedies of the twentieth century, yet neither lost his humanity in the process. Both bore witness to those catastrophes, using clear, lucid prose, yet neither was prone to…

With a jumble of controversial rulings at the end of June, the Supreme Court offered its last pronouncements of the Clinton era. By the time the Court hands down any major new rulings, a new president will be in office. Perhaps the timing encouraged the justices to let themselves go. Taken…

It's hard to say exactly what prompted Al Gore's tenant, Tracy Mayberry, to pack her belongings and vacate the dilapidated sinkhole that "slumlord" Gore promised to fix after she went public with her grievances in June. Mayberry revealed that her house, which sits a mere 150 yards away from the…

IN Earth in the Balance, Al Gore warns that we are approaching "ecological catastrophe." In a report issued in June, the Clinton administration tells us what it will look like. Blistering heat. Rising seas. Endless rains. Drought. This catalog of horrors, outlined in a report called "Climate Change…

Because this is a story about the national media, none of the standards reporters use to judge other institutions can be applied. The following must be stipulated: There are no hidden personal agendas. There are no hidden corporate agendas. There are no conflicts of interest. There are no…

During congressional debates about China trade legislation, it always used to be that doubters' complaints -- about China's horrific human rights record, for example -- were soothingly dismissed as side issues. We're only doing trade right now, the Chinophiles insisted. Wanna do something about our…

All the leaves were brown and the sky was gray, the day we left Washington for California. Well, actually, it was July, so all the leaves were a sodden, wilting green, and the sky was that sullen, half-hazed blue you get in a smogged-over city with 90 percent humidity during the summer. But I was…

Pitching Around Fidel

THE FALL OF THE Institutional Revolutionary Party in Mexico's July 2 elections is a Latin equivalent to the end of the Soviet empire -- or even more. As one campaign adviser to the victorious Vicente Fox put it, "This is our first constitutional transition of power since the Aztecs." The PRI ruled…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has an immediate opening for a staff accountant/bookkeeper. Please send or fax resume to: Business Manager, THE WEEKLY STANDARD, 1150 17th Street, NW, Suite 505, Washington, DC 20036. Fax: (202) 293-4901.

Warsaw

While the rest of the Washington press corps focuses obsessively on his upcoming wedding, Newt Gingrich took time out not long ago to compile a reading list for summer interns at conservative think tanks. As speaker of the House, of course, Gingrich became notorious for compiling reading lists --…

In the 1984 movie Red Dawn, a group of high school students defend American soil against a Communist invasion. Courageous and innovative, the kids wage a desperate fight against Cuban and Russian professionals -- but they are inspired by no knowledge of what they are fighting for, and therefore by…

ON THE FACE OF IT, representative Tom Coburn and New York assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn are mirror opposites: He's a staunch Republican, she's a fiery Democrat; he's pro-life, she's pro-choice; he's socially conservative, she's a booster of gay rights; he's a fundamentalist Christian, she's…

On June 28, the Supreme Court resolved two important abortion cases.

RECENTLY, Vice President Gore announced a 10-year $ 25 billion mass transit proposal intended to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. A principal initiative would be to build additional miles of subways and light rail lines. In announcing the program, Gore said, "You should . . . have the…

Of Two Minds

MEN ARE overwhelmingly for George W. Bush for president, especially married men. Married voters in general favor Bush, particularly baby boomer men with kids. He's running even among women, a relatively weak constituency for Republicans in recent years. The elderly, once reliably Democratic, are…

Good news for school-choice supporters. Ted Forstmann, founder of the Children's Scholarship Fund, is launching the Campaign for America's Children, a $ 20 million national ad campaign focusing attention on "the need to put parents in charge of their children's education," meaning a boost to…

Some time ago, I had a dream: that the pro-life wing of the Republican party would become just a little less rigid, and seek common ground with the pro-choice wing of the party. Now that seems to have happened, and I have a new dream: that GOP pro-choicers will reciprocate.

Boston

Al Gore and George W. Bush would lead this country in different directions. The two candidates disagree about Social Security, income tax policy, environmental protection, and national missile defense, for example. Those are important issues, especially the last one, and the distinctions between…

LATE IN THE EVENING of June 14, Tony Coelho called Al Gore at the Sheraton Towers in Manhattan and told him that owing to health problems he'd be unable to continue as chairman of Gore's campaign. The first people Gore told were his wife, Tipper, and his brother-in-law, Frank Hunger, who were with…

THE SCRAPBOOK is now reachable 24/7. To paraphrase Alice Roosevelt Longworth, if you don't have anything nice to say, e-mail it to Scrapbook@weeklystandard.com.

I could be wrong about this, but I'm guessing that not many readers of this magazine know who Chad Muska is. Let me quickly break the tension by reporting that Chad Muska is a big name in skate boarding -- a kid of 22, long turned professional -- and, yo, I'm wearing the dude's shoes. Not his…

IT SEEMED LIKE a pretty big deal at the time, the impeachment and acquittal of President Clinton. And so it was, as political spectacle, as a search in the U.S. Constitution for its fundamental meaning, as the climax of a long-running clash between a Republican Congress and a Democratic president.…

"Live Your Best Life! Start right here, right now," trumpeted the cover of the first issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. One of the purposes of life, the magazine's eponymous "founder and editorial director" wrote, is "not to be good, but to continuously get better, to constantly move forward, creating…

Since time immemorial, cultures have attempted to euphemistically gussy up the profession most of us simply know as "prostitution." Castro's Cuba has its "tourism consultants"; World War II-era Japanese soldiers had their Korean "comfort women"; Ukraine has its "entertainers." And now the U.S.…

My Love Affair with America

It is a familiar, American image, that painting of a lanky, aging painter painting himself with photographic precision. Seated with his back to us, he looks at himself in a mirror, pipe dangling from his mouth, eyeglasses comically opaque. The gilded mirror-frame is crowned by an eagle with the…

America's Forgotten Majority

THERE ARE a number of Americans who shouldn't vote. The number is 57 percent, to judge by the combined total of Clinton and Perot ballots in the 1996 presidential election. Or maybe the number is 65 percent, that being the ABC News poll tally of Americans who supported the forced removal of Elian…

June 16 brought news, in the form of a press release from the Republican National Committee, of the "J. C. Watts Civic Achievement Scholarship Program." That would be Oklahoma's Republican congressman J. C. Watts, who is black. The scholarship, an annual affair, will pay for "our outstanding…

Nick Park is one of the greatest filmmakers in motion-picture history -- and chances are that, until this week, you'd never heard of him or his movies. Park has made five films. Four of them are short subjects -- the longest of which runs thirty minutes, the briefest a mere five. Three of those…

In keeping with the Clinton administration's rigorously non-judgmental foreign policy, the State Department announced last week that it was retiring the term "rouge states" as an official designation for such behaviorally challenged nations as Iraq, Libya, and North Korea. Like, who's to say who's…

The SCRAPBOOK is no great fan of secretary of energy Bill Richardson, who probably deserves everything he got last week when he was keel-hauled by the Senate Armed Services Committee. But was that outburst by Robert Byrd really necessary?