THE WANDERER, AUGUST 17, 2006
JOSEPH SOBRAN'S
WASHINGTON WATCH
The Bush Democrat
If he runs as a third-party candidate in November,
Joe Lieberman may yet keep his Connecticut Senate seat,
despite his thumping in the closely watched August 8
primary; but he has lost his party.
An incumbent's defeat for his own party's
nomination, however narrow, is a bad sign. Only six years
after he ran for vice president, Lieberman has
dramatically lost his mojo. Now he has been defeated by a
rich upstart, Ned Lamont, and other Democrats are
rallying unsentimentally to the victor.
At times democracy does have its vindictive
satisfactions, and Lieberman's desperate attempt to claw
his way back into his party's favor during this campaign
offered some grim amusement. His theme, after five years
of cheering on President Bush's war amounted to "I am too
a Democrat!"
You almost have to pity him. It's not as if the
other Democrats had opposed the war from the start. Only
two years ago, John Kerry could offer only "nuanced"
reservations about Bush's conduct of it, "nuance" being a
favorite word in the blue states for any subtle
distinction without a practical difference. Lately
Lieberman has been stressing lots of nuances between
himself and Bush.
It didn't help him that his most vocal supporters
were Republicans, the drive-by conservatives of talk
radio, who love him precisely because he favors Bush's
war even more than the president's party does. As
Lieberman insisted that he is no Bush lackey, these
blowhards exalted him for being, in effect, a Bush lackey
at a time when Bush lackeys are a vanishing species.
Politicians of both parties are distancing
themselves from Bush. The Republicans seeking reelection
this year avoid mentioning his name; the Democrats are
banking on fury at him. Lieberman is the only Democrat
who had to try to deflect that fury from himself. Deny it
as he may, he has been Bush's Democrat.
It's tough enough being a Bush Republican. Strange
to recall that even this year Fred Barnes of THE WEEKLY
STANDARD could publish a book praising Bush as
"rebel-in-chief" and hailing his "strong-government
conservatism" as the wave of the future.
Whatever else Lieberman's defeat means, it can only
be a dreadful omen for the Republicans this fall.
Democrats, independents, and many Republicans agree, with
varying degrees of passion, that this presidency ranks
among the most unfortunate in American history. With
every passing week it looks further beyond any hope of
recovery.
Condi Agonistes
The administration is still insisting that what's
going on in Iraq isn't yet a civil war, appearances to
the contrary, as Condoleezza Rice struggles to arrest the
spreading disaster in Lebanon. Once again the
administration finds itself in an impossible situation it
wasn't prepared for.
With her indefeasible optimism, Rice chooses to
describe that situation as "the birth pangs of a new
Mideast." Just be patient, everybody; democracy is on the
march!
What a curious figure she is. As a diplomat, she
forgoes dignity for glamour, wearing dominatrix boots to
show off her legs like some fashion model. What a
contrast with her predecessors, Colin Powell and
Madeleine Albright. Going further back in history, I
don't recall Dean Rusk dressing like that -- nobody ever
called him funky -- and even the spruce Dean Acheson
settled for pin-striped trousers.
Her approach to the new Lebanon horrors is
characteristically moralistic, deploring the violence
while siding entirely with the Israelis. The inevitable
result, with every new Israeli bomb, has been to isolate
America further against the Muslim world and to increase
Hezbollah's popularity (and Iran's influence) in the
region.
The Israelis, understandably and predictably, don't
feel that America's worries are their concern; for them
the only issue, as always, is their own survival. If this
leaves Rice and her boss holding the bag, too bad.
The Gibson Case (Continued)
Given all the other things claiming our attention,
the Mel Gibson furor has been of surprising intensity.
Only Gibson himself has noticed the primary fact:
that he was fortunately arrested before his drunken
driving killed somebody. If a terrible accident had
resulted, it could hardly have caused more indignation
than his remark about Jews causing wars.
You wonder if his detractors have ever met a drunk
in full cry. I have, alas, and I wouldn't be amazed if
you have too. Most of them say things which, if coherent
at all, make Gibson sound like a suave diplomat.
Anyway, he wasn't addressing the public; he was
speaking to the police, including a Jewish officer -- the
only one, after all, to whom he owed an apology for his
offensive words, even if his many enemies seized the
occasion to act injured.
Moreover, there are a number of odd features and
questions about this case. Was Gibson followed? Or under
surveillance? Why was such a detailed (six-page) report
written about what was apparently, after all, a routine
drunk driving arrest, and how did it reach the media? Was
it Gibson who initiated the conversation? How well did he
himself recall the exchange?
We may never know, and the official story may be
quite accurate. But in these cases there is nearly always
more than meets the eye.
The Future of Fidel
Nearly overlooked amid all the week's uproars was
the continuing mysterious infirmity of Fidel Castro,
pushing 80. Only exiled Cubans seem to remember what a
nasty ruler he has been. Exiles, in fact, have always
been Communism's chief export.
For decades Fidel was Communism's Boy Wonder,
charming journalists and impressing Hollywood, while
Communism has lately been upstaged by terrorism as the
focus of American foreign policy. He has also been lucky;
after the collapse of his Soviet patrons, he has found a
new sugar daddy in Venezuela's oil-rich Hugo Chavez.
Suddenly he is a frail greybeard.
It isn't too early to address the practical question
of how Castro should be memorialized. How about a
Lenin-style mausoleum, preserving his remains under glass
for the veneration of posterity? Plenty of the world's
progressives, including Americans, would flock to Havana
to pay their respects to this hero of the Revolution.
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