THE WANDERER, JUNE 22, 2006
JOSEPH SOBRAN'S
WASHINGTON WATCH
The Homeless Conservative
I had lunch with Jim Webb about 15 years ago, and he
commanded my immediate trust and respect.
I've never talked with a public figure who seemed
less like a public figure. He was as candid as if he knew
no other way to be. I left that lunch feeling I'd just
met a man you could depend on in any crisis.
He was a Vietnam veteran and acclaimed novelist who
had been secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan, and
he was one of the few prominent Republicans who opposed
the first war with Iraq.
During our meal he spoke highly of Colin Powell, but
with a certain reserve that suggested he thought Powell
would rather stay on the inside and try to make the best
of a bad situation than openly denounce the war. Webb
accepted this as an honorable course, but I sensed it
wasn't a course he could have taken himself.
So I haven't been shocked by either man since.
Powell was in character when he publicly supported the
war on Iraq, and Webb was in character when he switched
to the Democratic Party to challenge George Allen for one
of Virginia's seats in the U.S. Senate.
Webb has now won his new party's nomination to seek
that seat this fall, but voter turnout in Virginia was
very low (3.4%), he calls himself "pro-choice" (though he
doesn't stress it), and Allen is a popular incumbent in a
Republican state, so the challenger seems to face long
odds.
What's more, Allen is a superb campaigner and
fundraiser with an eye on the presidency in 2008.
But as a decorated combat vet, Webb is probably the
best candidate the Democrats can field against Allen in a
year when the Republicans seem to be losing everyone but
their hard core (and even that looks shaky). He is
attractive enough to pull off an upset if the war keeps
going badly.
One hates to see him compromising on abortion, but
thanks to the Republicans the issue has lost its urgency
for the time being. President Bush himself has given
winning his war priority over saving the unborn, so what
else should we expect?
Conservatism may not be dead, but at the moment it
certainly appears comatose. This administration has done
its best to finish it off.
Triumph!
Bush made another surprise visit to Iraq this past
week, hoping to capitalize on the killing of the
terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as yet another turning
point in a war he remains doggedly optimistic about.
He originally allowed that we might never know when
the War on Terror was won, but he has been announcing
that victory is at hand ever since.
No wonder the public is skeptical. The only thing we
have to fear is hope. Before the year is out, it may lead
us to a similar triumph in Iran.
In a speech to the American Enterprise Institute
three years ago, Bush predicted that "regime change" in
Iraq would propel a "global democratic revolution" that
would engulf Iraq, the entire Arab world, and all other
hitherto undemocratic countries.
Democracy, he said confidently, was not merely a
Western institution, but a universal aspiration of
mankind, Christian, Muslim, what-have-you.
Well, it now appears he was misreading someone's
body language. Not everyone seeks felicity in the voting
booth; certainly the founders of the American Republic
didn't, and the great political philosophers were almost
unanimous in their contempt for democracy. Nor do Iraq's
Sunnis, Shi'ites, and Kurds evidently aspire to it.
A workable formula for majority rule is more elusive
than Bush imagined. Iraq's new democratic institutions
may satisfy him, but for everyone else the miracles he
foresaw are running behind schedule.
American presidents since Woodrow Wilson have
loosely equated democracy with freedom. Now freedom
really is a universal aspiration, in some sense, but to
confuse it with democracy is really inexcusable, and the
results of that confusion are always costly.
How much did Bush ask Congress to appropriate for
this war -- $87 billion, was it? Ask John Kerry, who is
still being mocked for reversing himself. Meanwhile, Bush
has largely escaped ridicule for his optimistic estimate
of the tab.
Windfalls
It's an ill wind that blows no man good, they say,
and Hurricane Katrina was no exception. Far be it from me
to shake anyone's faith in government, but I couldn't
have made this stuff up.
If you hadn't already read about it, in fact, I
wouldn't dare describe how the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, FEMA, responded to the crisis.
Who says the government isn't responsive to our
needs? FEMA doled out emergency relief to every con
artist in New Orleans, or even claiming to be in or from
New Orleans (some were actually in prisons elsewhere), no
questions asked.
It paid for Caribbean vacations, a divorce lawyer's
services, pornography and sexual debauches, season's
tickets for football games, champagne, and, according to
one radio report, a sex-change operation.
But that's why we need government, isn't it? The
alternative would have been chaos!
Need I remind you, this is the same U.S. government
that is bringing law and order to Baghdad.
+ + +
"You can always tell when a politician has spoken
from the heart: He has to take it back the next day" --
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--- Joseph Sobran
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