A 'Nation of Cowards'?
Our nation's first African-American attorney general, Eric Holder, has been getting some flak for his remarks the other day in a speech to employees of the Justice Department: "Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot," he told them, "in things racial we have always been, and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards."
As readers can imagine, many Americans didn't appreciate their country being characterized as "a nation of cowards," especially on the subject of race by a black attorney general appointed by America's first black president, and reacted to Holder's remarks with anger.
THE SCRAPBOOK was a bit angry too: Barack Obama's race was largely incidental in his presidential campaign, and has been a source of national pride, not consternation, since his election; the same could be said, to some lesser degree, about Eric Holder's appointment to the Department of Justice. THE SCRAPBOOK also remembers when Phil Gramm was widely excoriated last year-and forced to quit the McCain campaign-for calling us a "nation of whiners" about the economy.
Is Holder the beneficiary of a double standard? Of course he is.
Here, however, THE SCRAPBOOK will advance a somewhat contrarian view: We think that Holder's point is a fair one, but was poorly expressed. What he probably meant to convey was that Americans, of both races, are reluctant to publicly discuss racial issues in candid terms, which is plausible to some extent. But this is a case of the American people's good manners, or their choosing to avoid unnecessary conflict, not cowardice. Nor does it apply to every American: For example, President Obama's longtime spiritual counselor, the Reverend Jeremiah ("God Damn America!") Wright, can hardly be accused of refraining from discussing race in candid terms.
What really offends THE SCRAPBOOK is less the "nation of cowards" line than the speech itself. Banal, bumptious, meandering, a wearisome parade of hackneyed phrases and meaningless, sometimes incoherent, observations, it leads us to a shocking conclusion: -Holder must have written it himself! Full of mixed metaphors and too many internal contradictions to count, it features such observations as this gem, which will keep students of rhetoric scratching their heads for years to come:
Today the link between the black experience and this country is still evident. While the problems that continue to afflict the black community may be more severe, they are an indication of where the rest of the nation may be if corrective measures are not taken. Our inner cities are still too conversant with crime but the level of fear generated by that crime, now found in once quiet, and now electronically padlocked suburbs, is alarming and further demonstrates that our past, present, and future are linked.
Translation: The problems of the black community are more severe now than in the past because suburbanites are racists and live behind electronically padlocked walls which cause people in the inner city to prey on each other.
Well, at least we know what the nation's top law enforcement officer believes is the cause of black-on-black crime in our nation: gated communities! And if Eric Holder continues to complain about Americans' "cowardice" on the subject of race, THE SCRAPBOOK has a piece of advice for him: The only reason he is attorney general-and delivering offensive orations during Black History Month-is that Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee were too polite to make an issue of his corrupt-and, dare we say, cowardly-advice to Bill Clinton to pardon the international fugitive Marc Rich, and didn't want to obstruct the nomination of our first African-American attorney general.
Once again, Eric Holder is the beneficiary of a double standard.
Need a Pied-à-Terre in D.C.?
In the continuing saga of Iceland's bankruptcy, a new development caught THE SCRAPBOOK's eye this week: An MLS listing for the house, shown below, at 2443 Kalorama Road in Washington. The 10-bedroom, 7-bathroom Tudor mansion on Kalorama has been the residence of Iceland's ambassador to the United States since 1965. In late January, it was put up for sale, with an asking price of $5.65 million. Amenities include a recently remodeled main kitchen, three fireplaces, walk-in cold storage, staff quarters, a heated four-car garage, and a swimming pool.
Olafur Sigurdsson, the deputy chief of mission for the embassy, explains that the move is part of the government's radical attempt to save money. When Iceland's banking system collapsed, the government was left holding $61 billion of bank debt, and the country's Foreign Service was forced to cut its 2009 budget by 20 percent. Iceland plans to buy a smaller residence for the ambassador once the house sells, and other embassy staff will not be affected by the sale. Sigurdsson insists that this isn't a fire sale, saying that the home "will not be sold unless a reasonable price is offered."
We suspect "reasonable" may turn out to be somewhat less than list price.
Sentences We Didn't Finish
"And yet, somehow, this nerd-in-chief has ascended to a level of global cool uninhabited by any of his political forebears. The opening spread of a recent Entertainment Weekly cover story, titled 'President Rock Star,' neatly summarized the situation: 'He's bigger than Brangelina, bigger than Beyoncé . . . "("The Cool Presidency: An Inquiry into Obama's Hipness," Michelle Cottle, New Republic, March 4).
'Obamaweek' Update
Last year THE SCRAPBOOK jokingly suggested that Newsweek was running so many hagiographic covers of Barack Obama, the magazine might as well rebrand itself Obamaweek. Now it looks as if the magazine's marketing department may be thinking along the same lines as THE SCRAPBOOK.
The latest issue (ironically with a rare, non-Obama cover-a collector's item!) contains a full page ad offering a 21-by-17 inch, "framed, matted and ready to hang" reprint of Newsweek's two commemorative inauguration covers. It's dubbed a "one-of-a-kind collectible" which sounds like promotional moonshine, since we're guessing they will print as many hundreds of its kind as the market will bear. Yours for a mere $124.95.
What's that? You say that sounds kind of expensive? Ah-but it's adorned with "a quote from Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham" and his signature! Cheap at the price.