The American Spectator

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Coming Attractions

4.28.04 @ 12:01AM

JUNE SWOON
Re: The Washington Prowler's A Clinton Quickie:

The only reason Bill is releasing his book in June is to pave the way for Hillary to run as "savior of the party" in '04 after Kerry implodes. It's always about Bill and Hillary.
-- Judith
New York, New York

Per my previous note, I continue my wager (box of money, youth pills, cosmetic surgery to look like Clint Eastwood at 45....for me and only if I win) that John F. Kerry will not make it past the Democratic Convention. Increasingly, his candidacy causes viewers to remind themselves that this is not the highly talented Darrell Hammond of Saturday Night Live doing the bloviating gigolo John F. Kerry. That magnificently deadpan self-parodist out there actually is John F. Kerry. Moreover, as events unfold, Bush and the Republicans may be moving toward their most vulnerable. It is now or never for Hillary Clinton. She and her husband own both the Democratic Party and much of the media. Imagine the bonanza for the latter if a really good cat fight began to develop, say, after Memorial Day. A "concerned" editorial here. A "pertinent" story placed there. A "pregnant"....whoops, sorry, old boy.....I mean a "thoughtful" profile someplace else, and suddenly it's lock-box time for John Boy.
-- Gene Wright
Laguna Niguel, California

BUSH OR TOOMEY?
Re: John Tabin's Why Bush Backs Specter:

"But Specter in the Senate and Bush in the White House are just as surely preferable to Hoeffel and Kerry."

Not so surely if you focus on what they do and not on what they say. A few examples: Was it John Kerry or George Bush who asked Brahimi to come to Iraq to instruct us on the finer points of democratic republicanism? Is it John Kerry or George Bush who has called cease-fires in Iraq, giving the enemy time to regroup, resulting in the death of more American soldiers? Is it John Kerry or George Bush who refuses to expand our military in a time of war? Is it John Kerry or George Bush that refuses to close our borders to illegal immigration? Is it John Kerry or George Bush that has refused to veto one over-spending bill? Is it John Kerry or George Bush who continues to enforce unconstitutional Supreme Court decisions? The list grows daily.

Bush or Toomey? The real question is which candidate's election would be more important to the Conservative cause. I say surely it is Toomey's. The real irony is that with the coming of George Bush, Conservatives like Toomey are becoming RINOs, Republicans in Name Only.
-- Mike Rizzo

Tabin is going wobbly with his Specter strategy. Afraid of motivating the liberals to vote? I guess a vigorous, energetic campaign based on ideas and issues of importance to constituents is a lousy game plan? The assumption that Bush might not win without Specter in November sounds like conventional wisdom. Sooner or later Republicans will need to own up to conservatism or else they too will eventually stand for everything and nothing. How stupid does "Toomey is too conservative for Pa" sound coming from a very conservative Senator? And then on top of that, Specter goes to an event and pimps his NRA endorsement? I did not know that abortion ceased to be an important issue to the base. I can understand that Toomey might be running an inept campaign and the party strategy is to stay with the incumbent. But what good is the incumbent when he votes against his party on critical issues? It's time to make a stand and serve up an example to other party pretenders that it's not better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven.
-- Diamon Sforza
San Diego, California

Must we always bow at the altar of political expediency? I am very concerned about the anti-conservative posturings of the Bush Administration's first term. If the first term is any guidepost, I fear a second term. Bush II will enjoy his lame duck status for four years. We now have the biggest real estate, stock, and debt bubble in history. We and our government owe the world almost 40 trillion dollars. I suspect the bubble will pop some time in the next four years. Bush II may turn out to be Harding/Hoover all over again. Be careful what you pray for. The support of Specter is just one more Bush compromise on the road to perdition.
-- Fr. John Westcott
Anglican Priest
Bloomfield, Connecticut

ETERNAL FRANCE
Re: Jed Babbin's Once More Into the Screech:

Congratulations to Jed Babbin. In one sentence he has told the truth about the U.N. to wit, "It is a mechanism to constrain America, not to cooperate with it in defense of freedom." The majority of the general membership of the U.N, consisting as it does of Middle-eastern Thugocracies, African dictatorships, Asian dictatorships, South American Drug-lord-ocracies and effete West European has-been Socialist hell holes, not only is not interested in defending freedom, it is scared to death of it! Thus, rather than making any attempt to make their own failed systems of "government," or to be honest, "oppression," they attack the United States, and any other free society they can find. Alas, there are not too many of those. I agree whole-heartedly that the best thing we could do with that assembly of asses at Turtle Bay, would be to tell them that, as most of them profess to hate the United States more than they can express coherently, we are not going to force them to remain in our country any longer. Give them a month to pack their things, and they can relocate their circle of hatred to some other country. Perhaps Lesotho, Colombia, Iran, or China would welcome them. Or, here is an interesting thought, they could relocate the U.N. in, Tibet. We should bid them farewell with the words of Queen Agravaine, "Goodbye, Good luck, and Get out!"
-- W. B. Heffernan, Jr.

I found the paper more amusing than French bashing usually is. Thank you for maintaining a kind of humor in this long love-hate type of text !

French people are very thankful of the sacrifice of so many GI who helped us to get rid of the Nazis, when Hitler declared war on the United States (and not the contrary) after so many years when France was left alone in front of the mightiest army ever assembled. We did pay our share in 1940 with 100,000 men killed in one month (we somehow managed to kill 30,000 Germans during
the same time, as history recognizes) and another 50,000 killed in the resistance or the Free French Army . Unfortunately, we could not retreat 1,000 miles as the Soviets did when facing the same onslaught.

As the U.S. did not feel necessary to help France against England during the Napoleonic wars, we did not feel it necessary to enter into a war with Iraq, a sovereign nation with absolutely no links with Al Qaeda terrorism. More than that, we had already said that this action will only create a new area of instability where terrorism will develop, as verified since. An avalanche of anti-French rhetoric (and some anti-American also) followed our decision and the most ignorant part of the French and Americans took it very seriously.

Most of the French, however, like myself, had no grudge against the U.S. and did not get xenophobic for so little. History told us that we may always need a friend either smaller than us or more powerful (see the story of the rat and the lion taken in the net). Maybe a good thing to remember for an isolationist like you. I sincerely wish you to get out of Iraq with the minimum loss of lives and honor (not as in Vietnam where we French lost also 50,000 men but kept half of it at least).

Letter to the Editor

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