Washington — For many otherwise perfectly healthy individuals,
politics becomes a peculiar kind of mental disorder. It is forever
agitating into their conceptions of life. Show them a rerun of the
Kentucky Derby and they will have a political insight. Mention
Mother’s Day, and some otherwise dormant political enthusiasm will
start roaring in the back corridors of their cerebra. The Derby is
the last gasp of Ante-Bellum South and it is prejudicial to
quadrupeds! Mother’s Day is a sop to the womenfolk from patriarchal
America for all those years of American women in chains!
My belief that politics becomes a mental disorder for many poor
souls who think about politics too long and too avidly is confirmed
frequently. Just the other morning while consuming my English
Muffins and tea I was reading Albert R. Hunt’s column, “Politics
& People,” in the venerable Wall Street Journal. Mr.
Hunt is a long-time sufferer of this particular disorder, and
frankly I am at a loss as to what might be prescribed for him. He
suffered through eight years of defending Bill Clinton and never
saw the light. Practically every time a scandal erupted Mr. Hunt
took the Boy President’s side. Practically every time it turned out
that the Boy President was guilty as charged. Yet Mr. Hunt lumbered
on, a loyal donkey in the Clinton Scandals that by now really ought
to be known as the Clinton Exposés, for rarely did a
journalist reveal some unsavory transaction by the Clintons that
was later found to be a fiction.
In the end the Clintons and their most ardent apologists were
left insisting that their critics were accusing them of murder and
drug running. I did not make this up. Bill says it himself from
time to time from a dais, and no one notices the sleight of hand.
To find someone accusing the Clintons of these enormities one has
to take one’s butterfly net to the farthest reaches of politics.
There some glassy-eyed loon may indeed accuse Bill of killing Vince
Foster or poisoning his cat. There are those zanies who insist Bill
was a drug runner, possibly at Mena Airport, possibly in the White
House mess. But no sensible journalist I know of ever made such
charges. The Clintons and their loyal defenders would have you
believe that the charges were common fare among conservatives. Show
me the citations.
Whether Mr. Hunt is so easily addled as to fall into the Clinton
trap of believing that poor Bill was charged with murder and drug
running by the Republican National Committee I cannot recall. He
does get swept into a political sermonics frequently when no
politics need be mentioned. Just the other day in his column, he
was writing about the New York Times’ discovery that 27-year-old
reporter Jayson Blair had plagiarized and fabricated on dozens of
occasions while writing for the Times. Mr. Hunt made a few sensible
points. Young reporters should undergo longer training periods on
the police beat — good point. Few political operators brought into
television journalism have acquired “any sense of journalistic
values” — an equally good point. Blair’s race has no bearing on
his misbehavior — a point one would hope would not have to be made
in a society that has become increasingly characterized by racial
equality.
Yet after all of these sensible observations Mr. Hunt’s disorder
takes hold. In his column’s reflections on journalistic practice he
apparently had gone too long without suffering a political
agitation. He notes that “the Times is a great newspaper whose
reporting in recent years has been as distinguished as ever.” Well,
perhaps, but then he pounces on a hobgoblin that is nowhere in
sight. He adds, “But the Blair crisis is an unfortunate gift to
those ideologically-driven critics who have unfairly attacked the
paper for its war coverage and other issues.”
What does he mean by “ideologically-driven”? Does he mean people
who disagree with the newspaper’s political slant? Or is he saying
it does not have one? More to the point, can Mr. Hunt not write a
few hundred words on a non-political point without bringing
politics, his particular sense of politics into the discussion? Mr.
Hunt is a perfect example of the condition I have in mind. He sees
political bias and activity everywhere, and the politics he sees he
does not like. I guess the condition I am talking about is a kind
of paranoia, but I am not suggesting institutionalization — just a
few therapeutic laughs.
