Sobran's Washington Watch --- Archive

Joseph Sobran’s
Washington Watch

Joe Sobran began writing his column for The Wanderer in 1986. Beginning with the April 3, 2003, column, the Washington Watch columns are archived on this website and are accessible from every page. His last Wanderer was published in the August 23, 2007 issue.

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2003 Archives 2004 Archives 2005 Archives 2006 Archives		Return to the home page

August 23, 2007	•	The K-Word’s Debut • Paul Is a Four-Letter Word • What Happened to Our Constitution? What do they call those dead things? • Only Ron Paul is raising the most basic question of all. • The key issue
August 16, 2007	•	No column was written for this issue.
August 9, 2007	•	In Defense of Poor Barry • Pardon My Popery • A Deed without a Name • Riddle • Imus A sense of proportion • Getting worked up about religion • Secular Semitism • The ADL Catholic • How fast these moralistic seizures blow over.
August 2, 2007	•	The Paul Blackout • Another Side of Lady Bird? • Good Sports? • In Defense of the Poles What makes Ron Paul so appealing to principled conservatives • Another Side of Lady Bird? • What is inherent to sports and what is merely incidental? • A grossly unfair charge of anti-Semitism
July 26, 2007	•	Thank God for Atheists Is Hitchens’s book really the best case atheism can make?
July 19, 2007	•	Habemus Papam! • The Party from Hell • Dr. Johnson’s Cure A miracle indeed! Can this really be happening? • Who would miss it, other than the Zionists? • What a great Catholic he would have made!
July 12, 2007	•	The Great Uniter • Hillary Pipes Up • The Lesson of JFK • Why St. Paul Wasn’t Rich • Paris An exhausted administration • Is she just utterly shameless? • The adroit use of religion • Possibly a spoof • The one thing available to every poor girl
July 5, 2007	•	No column was written for this issue.
June 28, 2007	•	Memorial and Amnesia • President Who? • Sin of the Times • A Sense of Proportion • The “Right” of Suicide An absurd parallel • Fed up with “Rudy McRomney”? • Self-abnegation • Covering religious news • Unfathomable despair
June 21, 2007	•	President Paul? • Islam at War • The Genius of GKC Even if he lost, he could change the terms in which American politics is discussed. • Controversies about the conduct of war attest to the conscience and civility of these people. • Permanently amazing, even shocking
June 14, 2007	•	No column was written for this issue.
June 7, 2007	•	The Atheist Renaissance • Compulsory Fads The authors appear to be perfect strangers to religious experience. • Liberals tend to think their latest enthusiasms impose moral duties on the rest of us.
May 31, 2007	•	Then ... • ... And Now • Rudy’s Roar • Ecrasez L’Infame A modest role • Endless possibilities • No room for Ron Paul here • A simple liberal morality tale
May 24, 2007	•	Ollie the Revolutionary Feminist • The Future of Ron Paul • My Week Republican partisanship has devoured whatever was left of genuine conservatism. • My dream scenario • A very full week
May 17, 2007	•	Bleak Prospects • The Darwinian Trap George Bush has put his party in an extremely awkward posture. • Everybody “Knows” that Darwinism is true only in the sense that few dare to question it.
May 10, 2007	•	A Slam Dunk — Or Was It? • Democrats on Parade • Piety and Orthography You can only pity men who have to please and placate rulers so dishonest and irrational. • Why did my heart go out to Sen. Joe Biden? • I’ve endured many scoldings from readers on this score.
May 3, 2007	•	Abortion and Evasion • Bravo! A literal and everyday form of violence • No one could accuse him of getting his facts wrong.
April 26, 2007	•	Massacre • Revving Up • Bush and the Catholic Neocons • Patricia Buckley RIP The grief belongs to the victims’ families alone. • His 15 minutes of fame may be over at last. • Can anyone seriously believe that Christ would blame these two Popes for urging peace? • New York won’t be the same now.
April 19, 2007	•	Thought Experiment • Brave Enemies • Hostages, Bombs, et Cetera • Now It Can Be Told A peril the government takes no cognizance of • An inability to imagine the enemy’s point of view is a serious practical handicap in war. • Making myself clear? • Passing up the chance to make national news
April 12, 2007	•	Side by Side • Did Someone Say “Defense”? • Money, Politics, and Honor A perfect anthem for us paleoconservatives • If you’re really prepared for war, you may just get war. • The government seldom leaveth alone.
April 5, 2007	•	Shakespeare for Dummies • Canine Atheism • Right-Wing Blues Bush, with his odious war, has left the old conservative agenda in ruins. • Abysmal ignorance of the most basic cultural facts is among the rotten fruits of secularism. • The meaning of “the Right”
March 29, 2007	•	Please Don’t Surprise Us! • The Anniversary of “No Doubt” • Lincoln and Booth • As the Twig Is Bent ... What the media mean when they say ... • Losses since 2001 • Shakespearean coincidences • Father Damien, Mia Farrow, and Mr. Hyde
March 22, 2007	•	The Libby Case • Republican Winners? • Mrs. Noah Maybe in a year this case will make some sense. • The Bush-Rove-Cheney Republicans didn’t see this coming • Decline? It’s a cultural tailspin.
March 15, 2007	•	The Horror of Hillary? • Naughty Words Can we even be sure which of our two major parties is “likely to do less harm”? • Encouraging fashionable vices
March 8, 2007	•	Tell Truth, and Shame the Neocons • Hollywood Goes to War • Vexations • Persevering in Dark Times • Sad Decline How many high-level conspiracies has Hersh aborted? • Choosing Obama over Clinton. • Tearing out my hair • Even our old allies seem to have other things to do. • Roman numerals
March 1, 2007	•	Birth Pangs • The Magic Presidency • The Future of Ill-Bay • The Edwards Question You could regard civil war, where people kill each other spontaneously, without being ordered to by government, as a form of democracy. • Moral leadership is just busting out all over. • I admit I can hardly believe I'm serious. • What truths is John Edwards willing to affirm?
February 22, 2007	•	Meddling in Iraq • Obama and Honest Abe • Smithology War on Iran and chaos in the Middle East have been the neocons’ ultimate goals for a long time. • Barack Obama needs a history lesson. • She redefined widowhood in our time.
February 15, 2007	•	The Long Race • Thanks, Coach • The Wrong Stuff The anti-war rally and the March for Life — guess which one featured more celebrities. • What matters most about the Super Bowl coaches • Now we can stop blaming President Bush for everything that goes wrong.
February 8, 2007	•	Irony Overload • Don’t Ask Me! • A Quieter Sort of Holocaust The marvel is that Bush and Cheney still expect to be taken seriously. • Washington is full of people who have followed every turn of the “Scooter” Libby story and feel quite passionately about it. • We are being subtly taught to exterminate ourselves.
February 1, 2007	•	Bush at the Stake • Here He Comes! • Here She Comes! His agenda now is survival, even if it means cutting deals with the Democrats. • He still trails Hillary, but his lucky streak hasn’t ended yet. • If she wins, she could return the White House furniture she and Bill made off with six years ago.
January 25, 2007	•	Quicksand • Obama Nation? • Keeping the Dream Alive • Does Anyone Notice? The Democrats aren’t bold enough to cut off funding for the war. • Everyone agrees that he is intelligent and impressive, but nobody can possibly fulfill the messianic hopes he arouses. • Jesus, unlike Castro, managed to serve the poor without firing squads. • Is hiring a stripper to entertain at a party now considered normal behavior for college athletes?
January 18, 2007	•	The Urge to Surge • Say It Again, Sam • Key Words The Democratic Congress’s plan: complain about the war but don’t to do anything about it. • Sam Francis was right early and often. • The Constitution was supposed to be unalterable by the government.
January 11, 2007	•	Death Takes No Holiday • A Ford, Not a Lincoln • The End of Saddam Journalism thrives on celebrity deaths. • Ford was always willing to split differences with liberals, unaware that he might be conceding anything essential. • Was it the place of the United States to overthrow him and ensure his death?
January 4, 2007	•	No column was published in this issue.