The American Spectator

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Bits and Pieces

12.16.04 @ 12:01AM

BIDEN BITES
Re: The Prowler's Ridiculously Sublime:

Great idea, and I'll be on the lookout for outbreaks of Biden-Foot-In-Mouth Syndrome. Meantime, in case contemporary source material ever runs a little thin (an unlikely occurrence), you can always go back and mine the Biden-related sections of Richard Ben Cramer's book about the 1988 race, What It Takes. I still laugh out loud just thinking about it.
-- Charles R. Vail

Just plain Ridiculous, that's Joe Biden, dumbest man in the Senate. For '08 entertainment Biden/Dean or Dean/Biden, doesn't matter. The ticket to scare the wits out of you, Hillary Clinton/ Barbara Boxer. All Senate leftists.
-- GMS
Media, Pennsylvania

ENOUGH ALREADY
Re: Barbara Bernstein's Letter From Mooreland:

Why do you continue to give attention to this [so and so]? Every time you write of his latest hijinks it only adds more fat to his enormous waistline and inflate his gargantuan ego! We know who and what he is. I don't think anyone could be surprised by the content of his ranting. Stop giving him the attention he seeks, there are far more important subjects to research and report -- such as "What is going on with Sandy Berger?"
-- Peter Amato
Palm Harbor, Florida

RUMMY DEAREST
Re: Jed Babbin's Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels:

I would first note that Mr. Babbin, along with Mr. Neumayr and Mr. Macomber, are the very treasures of my conservative reading each week (with Buckley, of course). However, Babbin is, at best, confusing and at worst, a hack, when he lamely defends Secretary Rumsfeld and his untactful, flatly callous remarks in Iraq last week.

Babbin seems a lot madder that a journalist put the Tennessee soldier up to the "up armor" question than the fact that our troops are resorting to a cross between rag picking and Yankee ingenuity to keep their fannies in one piece. Even the President averred he would ask the same question, Jed.

The fact is that the Secretary shot off his mouth in a rather un-managerial way. His responsibility is to manage his generals, and replace them if they are found untruthful, and to always be close enough to the war to know. He needs the inputs of the guys on the ground; not listening to them is his own folly, not his generals'. Whether his subordinates are trustworthy or not is his job to determine. It is his job to find remedies, or forever forfeit the principle of civilian governance of the military.

In short, Rumsfeld personally owes every soldier in the field his best effort at protecting them, and his failure to do so is unacceptable job performance on his part. Smart-ass, uninformed assessments of American industry's ability to meet this challenge betray an unacceptable detachment from Rumsfeld's trade.

Personally, I find his vision of the high tech, efficient, agile American military a major plus for the coming age of warfare. However, the Secretary's job description also includes having the acute vision to take all measures needed, even if dramatic, to conserve American lives in this conflict. No flip answer will atone for one wasted life of an American son or daughter. Fix the Hummers, Mr. Secretary; hold off on the lame excuses, Mr. Babbin. We go to war with the Army you make.

By the way -- are we sure there is no engineered solution for hardening those Hummers against explosion?
-- Lee Tichenor

JUST DON'T DO IT
Re: James Bowman's Waxman Demeans Abstinence:

It is not difficult to understand Congressman Waxman's rage against sexual abstinence.

One may observe, without being unkind, that Mr. Waxman is not, shall we say, an obvious market leader on the California sex appeal bourse.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Trade, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Television, Business, Social Security, Protestantism, Abortion, Environment, Constitution, Law, Military, Iraq, NATO, Africa