Sobran's Washington Watch --- Archives, 2004

Joseph Sobran’s
Washington Watch
Archives, 2004

Joe’s Washington Watch columns are posted at this site by special agreement with The Wanderer three weeks after they are published in The Wanderer.

Joe 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.

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December 30, 2004	•	Rumsfeld and American Morale Why do Catholics not speak out against an unholy war?
December 23, 2004	•	Catholic "Leaders" vs. Mel Gibson But a very large problem still exists, and it isn't going away.
December 16, 2004	•	The Real Jesus • Say It Ain’t So, Barry! As opposed to the “historical” Jesus • A permanent stain
December 9, 2004	•	Dutch Treatment All that talk about “grave reasons” and “in certain circumstances” has shown itself to have been a fraud.
December 2, 2004	•	Television and the Soul The whole modern world seems designed to make us forget that our souls are at stake.
November 25, 2004	•	Farewell to Powell • Troubling Prospects • Kinsey’s Legacy He might have retained his prestige if he had resigned earlier. • More trouble, frustration, and bloodshed • More movie hostility to Christianity
November 18, 2004	•	Faith and the Election The Democrats command a large base, but it has reached its ceiling.
November 11, 2004	•	Silver Linings The campaign was fought on Bush’s terms.
November 4, 2004	•	Final Days A photo finish should be thrilling. This one is only nerve-wracking.
October 28, 2004	•	Kerry: Giving Nuance a Bad Name • The Press and the Church You could lose a lot of money betting on a liberal’s conscience. • Why does the press never correct misstatements about Catholic teaching?
October 21, 2004	•	Articles of Faith John Kerry and the faith he professes ... or professes to profess
October 14, 2004	•	Stopping the Bleeding Bush wasn’t able to hold his own; Cheney was.
October 7, 2004	•	The Virtual Kennedy • The Long War Why so joyless a campaign? Can it be a bad conscience? • The Bush/Rather parallels
September 30, 2004	•	The War on Tobacco • Rathergate • Quagmire in the Desert The propositions that should be debated are being ignored. • The big media and big government are essentially a partnership. • It’s less and less clear who the enemy is.
September 23, 2004	•	The Final Stretch • The News Makes News • Whatever Happened to the Third Trimester? Would gridlock work? • What used to sound like partisan whining now appears to have substance. • John Edwards wants it both ways on babies.
September 9, 2004	•	Giuliani in 2008? • Traitors, Large and Small Will the Republicans quietly throw in the towel on abortion by 2008? • The fruits of neocon infiltration.
September 2, 2004	•	Et Tu, Ypsilanti? Petty tyranny spares no one.
August 26, 2004	•	Auld Acquaintance We were lucky kids, luckier than we knew.
August 19, 2004	•	No *Wanderer* column was written for this date.
August 12, 2004	•	The Bullwinkle and Rocky Ticket Kerry’s smile looks as if it hurts his facial muscles, which seem constructed to impart solemnity, and Edwards reminds one of a cheerful cartoon rodent.
August 5, 2004	•	Family Problems in the 21st Century • Terry Kerry • Not So Liberal? Tolstoy never thought of this one. • A feminist with feminity • The Communists come through.
July 29, 2004	•	The Immigrant and the Servile State Can tyranny drive out tyranny?
July 22, 2004	•	A Losing Strategy • Further Confirmation The problem isn’t the personnel and it isn’t the Constitution. • The pressure was in the air.
July 15, 2004	•	Wave of the Future? • The Immigrant Threat? Infirm politicians? • Maybe I’m missing something.
July 8, 2004	•	Exit Buckley • The Limbaugh of the Left A connoisseur of fine ironies • Michael Moore can’t choose between moral indignation and petty snobbery.
July 1, 2004	•	Over His Head • Postwar Visions None of the policies suggests solicitude for defendants, especially the innocent. • The Greeks knew it: even total victory in war may be profoundly different from total success.
June 24, 2004	•	The Ford Brain Trust • Remembering Nixon • Can Bush Win a Majority? How Gerald Ford might have won in 1976 • How strange that any man should have such power! • Bush is running neck-and-neck in the polls with the kind of opponent Reagan would eat for breakfast.
June 17, 2004	•	“My Enemies Will Stop at Nothing!” Ronald Reagan saw that liberalism had failed, that socialism was bound to fail, and he helped discredit both.
June 10, 2004	•	Kerry and the Wall • What’s Wrong with the Neocons The state may unilaterally move the wall any time it sees fit. • It’s got nothing to do with Jewishness.
June 3, 2004	•	The Curious Apologetics of Garry Wills Wills may have his reasons for being a Catholic, but could he give any reasons to someone else to become a Catholic?
May 27, 2004	•	The Conservative Surrender Many Americans imagine the president to be a sort of elected dictator. And most of them see nothing very wrong with this.
May 20, 2004	•	The Growing Scandal Only one country can profit from this scandal; and it isn’t the United States.
May 13, 2004	•	The Ideal America • Kerry’s Compromises The flaws we ourselves see in the American character do not become mere “propaganda” when Muslims too notice them. • A simply inert candidate
May 6, 2004	•	Demonstrating for Death • Was Bush Negligent? • Kerry’s Secret Weapon • “Nothing Wrong with That” What “pro-choice” means • Bush’s countless duties • Kerry has to be careful; his wife may be a real Catholic. • Party loyalty is dearer than life.
April 29, 2004	•	The Kerry Menace Unless commanded otherwise, we have both the right and the duty to act in good conscience to defend the Church against her enemies.
April 22, 2004	•	The President’s Feelings • Islamic Europe George Bush’s stage fright, poor vocabulary, clumsy syntax, and constant reference to his feelings are just a tic. Alas, they capture his foreign policy precisely. • Hilaire Belloc foresaw what seemed impossible at the time: the resurgence of Islam as a threat to the West.
April 15, 2004	•	The News from Fallujah • Fighting Terrorism • Easter Notes Iraqi attitudes are no doubt fluid and volatile. • Recalling two of Lyndon Johnson’s projects. • Three immensely popular works
April 8, 2004	•	The Partisan in the Pulpit • Two Farewells If you’re going to slam another man’s convictions, you’d better have some convictions of your own. • Peter Ustinov and Alistair Cooke were so widely loved that their obituaries read like thank-you notes.
April 1, 2004	•	Is The Pledge Unconstitutional? • The Clarke Revelations • The Lesson That Wasn’t Taught One trembles whenever the Supreme Court gets an opportunity to decide a matter of principle. • Uncle Sam and Yosemite Sam • Just exactly where is this lesson taught?
March 25, 2004	•	Bush’s War and Osama’s While one takes bows, the other watches quietly.
March 18, 2004	•	That Movie Propaganda that insults Jews as well as Christians, and defies common sense
March 11, 2004	•	“Catholic” Politicians Today • The No-Show Christian Bigots Explaining things to Belloc • Calumnies
March 4, 2004	•	The Witness of the Howling Mob • Mock-Marriage and the Constitution The reaction of the critics is telling us what the howling mob at Calvary must have sounded like. • Why Bush is willing to take a firmer stand against mock marriages than against real abortions.
February 26, 2004	•	Do Sodomites Have Duties? The advocates of same-sex “marriage” appear not to be joking.
February 19, 2004	•	Things We Don’t Know And Big Brother means to keep it that way.
February 12, 2004	•	From the World of Entertainment • Missing the Point Who let these kids out without adult supervision? • God’s conclusion to the Crucifixion was a stunner, but Abe Foxman thinks he can top it.
February 5, 2004	•	The Open Conspiracy The transformation that has no name
January 29, 2004	•	Bush and the Warmest Body The elusive target
January 22, 2004	•	Does It Matter? Our opponents may be accidentally right when we are accidentally wrong, and it may take a bit of humility to discern when this is the case.
January 15, 2004	•	Electrifying the Electorate American politics is fast becoming the art of the impossible.
January 8, 2004	•	Fixing the Constitution • Black Power What is being done about the latest judicial outrage? And what about the next outrage? And the one after that? Will each of them require a new amendment too? • Nowadays you can no more discredit an established “conservative spokesman” than you can defrock an Episcopal clergyman.
January 1, 2004 *The Wandererpublished an edited and abridged version of this piece. This is the complete text, reprinted from SOBRAN’S,* December 2003.	•	Taxation through the Ages At what point does taxation become confiscation, theft, and even involuntary servitude?