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The good and the bad...

web posted January 26, 2004

"Maybe I'm overly pessimistic, but most of Africa is a continent without much hope for its people.... What African countries need, the West cannot give. In a word, what Africans need is personal liberty. That means a political system where there are guarantees of private property rights and rule of law. It's almost a no-brainer." -- Walter Williams

"Historians are not the only ones who bicker endlessly over the achievements of past presidents. At least in the decades immediately following their service, so do partisans. But this isn't simply a matter of hero worship or the advantage of one political party. The ideas and policies of one presidency, and how the impact of those ideas and policies are evaluated, have an unmistakable influence on the future direction of the country. ...It would similarly be a tragedy if the memories of Reagan's accomplishments and values were lost, if the country as a whole had forgotten the lessons of his presidency as thoroughly as his critics. But here there are many people to share these memories with, many who would preserve Reagan's legacy. We remember. And we will not soon forget." -- W. James Antle III

"Democratic governments are not immune from the forces of history that overthrew Soviet tyranny. All governments overreach and no government is permanent. So let us fear government but not exaggerate its powers. It can cause enormous damage and it must always be fought. But in this struggle, we are on the right side of history. The power of human choice, aided by the logic of economics and the laws that operate without any bureaucrat's permission, are our source of hope for the future." -- Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

"Some critics have said our duties in Iraq must be internationalized. This particular criticism is hard to explain to our partners in Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Netherlands, Norway, El Salvador, and the 17 other countries that have committed troops to Iraq." --President George W. Bush, from the State of the Union address

"I'll take Bush's verbal fumbles over the disco-ball of incoherence that is Howard Dean's brain." -- Jonah Goldberg

"I want a 2004 candidate who lets the world see what Al Gore would be like if he were a Yankee." -- Debra Saunders on John Kerry

"So far as we know Walter Mondale, the only major-party candidate in history to lose all 50 states (Minnesota in the 2002 Senate race, the other 49 in 1984) has yet to issue an endorsement. An anxious nation holds its breath." -- James Taranto

"I tell you something fascinating -- John Kerry�s victory over Howard Dean has completely changed the presidential race around. Now instead of the rich white guy from Yale who lives in the White House facing off against the rich white guy from Yale who lives in Vermont, he may have to face the rich white guy from Yale who lives in Massachusetts. It�s a whole different game." -- Jay Leno

"The U.S. Postal Service honored the late Paul Robeson with a stamp Tuesday. The great athlete and singer and movie star tried to convert black Americans to communism in the 1940s and wound up going from Hollywood to New York to Moscow, and he didn't return for years. And now for thirty-seven cents so can your letters." -- Argus Hamilton

"What do Germany, Australia, Sweden, Great Britain, Poland, Hungary and most of Latin America have in common? All have partially privatized their Social Security pension systems. Yes, even Sweden, the ultimate cradle-to-grave welfare state. ... Despite the lessons that could be learned from these countries, Democrats continue to do what they have done for decades -- routinely lie about Social Security. Year after year, election after election, our political 'leaders' scare America's seniors, threatening them with deep cuts in benefits, while the system moves ever closer to insolvency." -- Hugh Newton

web posted January 19, 2004

"We usually look at academics, not the cultural nexus. We have to change that. Cultural diversity, or multiculturalism, in the schools is hip and trendy, but most attitudes are rooted in the home. We won't change them by merely celebrating different food days or holidays." -- Suzanne Fields

"The race is on. Not for the presidency, but for the Jewish presidency, and the Jewish vote. Joe Lieberman aside, we recently heard that Wesley Clark whispered to a supporter concerned about his stance on Israel, 'Did you know my father was Jewish?' Not to be outdone, within days Democratic front-runner Howard Dean made sure we all found out about his devout Jewish wife and Jewish kids. John Kerry, however, had almost a year on either of them, because he found out back in February that his paternal grandfather was Jewish and his grandmother had 'Jewish roots.' But perhaps they are all just following the lead of Hillary Clinton, who in 2000 got a boost to the Senate after the Forward, a Jewish newspaper, reported on her Jewish step-grandmother. 'That's the big thing this season, Jewish ancestry,' Mr. Clark said recently.... So now it's up to Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun to reveal their Jewish roots. In this day and age, it wouldn't be such a stretch. Recall that in 2002 Bill Clinton told a Jewish group in Toronto that if Israel were invaded, 'I would personally grab a rifle, get in a ditch, and fight and die.' So not only was he the first black president; he was also the first Jewish president. Sorry, folks, we already had a Jew in the White House. And it brought us intifada II." -- Julia Gorin

"We cannot stop professional racists from stirring even imaginary pots as they try to keep their jobs, but we should remember that the road to better race relations lies where it always has: Looking at each other as human beings and not as representatives of groups or classes." -- Charley Reese

"The U.S. Postal Service will release a 'Black Heritage' postage stamp on Jan. 20 honoring Paul Robeson, a prominent entertainer and athlete who nonetheless was a longtime member of the Communist Party. He also was an unrepentant Stalinist and was married to another Communist Party activist with whom he had a son and namesake educated in the Soviet Union and in London by the Soviet Embassy. Next time, no doubt, the postal bureaucrats will be honoring Ezra Pound and Leni Riefenstahl." -- Insight

"McGovern was an authentic war hero in World War II. Howard Dean showed up at the Army recruiting office with a note from his doctor and a fake limp to get out of serving in Vietnam -- before repairing to Aspen for several months of skiing. In Dean's defense, I suppose that, technically speaking, 'spinelessness' would be considered a debilitating back condition. [This is not tantamount to] taking off in jets that fly at the speed of sound while training to be a fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard.)" -- Ann Coulter

"...[W]hen democracy gets tidy and sweet through the coercive power of government, it means liberties of the people have been sacrificed." -- Jay Ambrose

"There are many things in America worth conserving. But I am one of those conservatives who believes the most important of those things is liberty. Without liberty, without individual freedom, what is left to conserve isn't worth all that much." -- Lyn Nofziger

"Thus, government is to be a neutral arbiter that protects all men in their enjoyment of God's blessings. It certainly is not to become a tool to rob and oppress, a constant risk in every political system, including American democracy." -- Doug Bandow

"Power tempts even the best of men to take liberties with the truth." -- Joseph Sobran

"Honesty does not require posturing. In fact, the two things are incompatible. Nor does objectivity require neutrality." -- Thomas Sowell

"In place of old rhetoric about democracy, let us opt for a new realism in foreign affairs. Because the overriding objective of any national security policy should be national security." -- Paul Greenberg

"I talked to somebody at the White House today ... about ... the Dean success with the Internet, and they're beginning, they're not having the same kind of success but they're using that as a tool as well. And no, it cannot equate with the fund-raising power of a president of the United States who is a Republican, especially representing the corporate interests. He can go out there, push the button and get a lot of money." -- NBC's Tom Brokaw showing objectivity on the job

"I believe I have more endorsements from both the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus than any other candidate on this stage, and I will take a back seat to no one on my commitment to civil rights." -- Howard Dean

"It seems as though you discovered blacks and browns during this campaign. ...If you want to lecture people on race, you ought to have the background and track record in order to do that. ...You only need co-signers if your credit is bad." -- Al Sharpton taking on Howard Dean's self-congratulatory posturing on race politics, when Dean hired nary a person of color in his Vermont state administration

"Among other things Howard Dean has now become an authority on God. The other day he suggested that since God created homosexuals he could not condemn homosexual behavior. Of course, if one follows that same line of logic, God also cannot condemn murder, adultery, bestiality, lying, cheating and stealing because He created all the creatures who indulge in those sorts of behavior. My goodness, if Dean is right, God can't even condemn politicians and lawyers." -- Lyn Nofziger

"After apparently discovering in his hotel room Gideon Bible that Job is not in the New Testament, but in the Old, Mr. Dean corrected himself. Matthew, Mark, Luke and Job? Sounds right, doesn't it? Hey, we're not talking Dan Quayle and potatoe vs. potato here. Most reporters don't care about religion, especially when a Democrat is theologically off base." -- Cal Thomas

"When they were fund-raising, the Democratic candidates for president all claimed to be Jewish. Now that they are headed for Super Tuesday down South, they've become Jesus freaks." -- Ann Coulter

"Senator Tom Harkin endorsed Howard Dean Friday, calling him the Harry Truman of our time. If you are keeping score at home, Hillary Clinton is telling Gandhi jokes and Howard Dean is being compared to the only president who ever belonged to the Ku Klux Klan. The Democrats aren't giving up the red states without a fight." -- Argus Hamilton

"How are we supposed to find hidden and buried WMDs in Iraq if, wherever one digs there, we just keep finding mass graves?" -- Nelson Ascher

"I have said and strongly believe that the next five years will be crucial for the America my children and grandchildren will inherit. I want a commander in chief like George Bush. I want a man who doesn't suffer from analysis paralysis." -- Dem. Senator Zell Miller, explaining his decision to campaign for U.S. President George W. Bush

"[A]nyone who pledges that, if elected, he will ensure the American people are never exposed to future terrorist incidents -- including ones vastly more destructive than those that befell us 27 months ago -- is sufficiently delusional or dishonest, or both, to be disqualified for the Oval Office." -- Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., on recent assurances made by fired former Supreme Commander of NATO Forces General Wesley Clark

"Governor Dean has made a series of dubious judgments and irresponsible statements in this campaign that together signal that he would in fact take us back to the days when we Democrats were not trusted to defend America's security." -- Joe Lieberman

web posted January 12, 2004

"The real story of this last year is not Saddam, but something deeper, symbolized by the bizarre persistence of the 'antiwar' movement even after the war was over. For a significant chunk of the British establishment and for most of the governing class on the Continent, if it's a choice between an America-led West or no West at all they'll take the latter. That's the trend to watch in the year ahead." -- Mark Steyn

"I believe the game plan is this: The Democrats will spend the next 11 months ruefully admitting that it's going to be a 50-state landslide for Bush. Republicans will engage in their normal partisan cheerleading, and everyone will seem to be agreed that Bush is going to win a 50-state landslide. Then, if the final tally is anything short of that -- if it's a 40-state landslide for Bush -- the New York Times will be able to crow about Bush's poor showing and run headlines like: 'Americans Still Deeply Divided on War.'" -- Ann Coulter

"Democrats are hoping now that 2004 will be a repeat of the election of 1992. But a review of the historical record suggests that the closest parallels to next year's ballot are Richard Nixon's re-election in 1972, when he trounced ultraliberal George McGovern, and Reagan's impressive win over another unabashed liberal, Walter Mondale, in 1984. On both occasions, the country was newly emerged from a recession, and confidence in the economy was growing. ... As the current economic and stock market revival continues to vote for Bush, it seems near certain that he will win in a landslide. Huge progress in the war against terrorism will add to his totals, with the GOP picking up three to four seats in the Senate and 10 to 12 in the House. And Bush will make it seven out of 10 presidents since the end of WWII who rode a good economy back to the Oval Office." -- Larry Kudlow

"[N]egotiations from a position of power are a much sounder foundation for international peace than the power of negotiations. Politicians who refuse to acknowledge this are a danger to the security of the West and thus, in the long run, to international peace as well." -- John O'Sullivan

"Strange, isn't it? While we spend men and money to fight for freedom in other lands, the courts and Congress continue to nibble away at it here at home." -- Lyn Nofziger

"Freedom of political speech in Western democracies is such an integral part of our culture that we seldom think much about it. We also take as a given the right of citizens to speak out about, and try to change, government policies with which they disagree. In China, the government asserts a monopoly in this area." -- Jennifer Chou, director of Radio Free Asia's Mandarin Service

"[T]here's something about President Bush that blows the Democrats' minds. They get so rabid in their dislike that they say things which are absurd." -- Henry Kissinger

"Re-election has become the focus of Republicans in the White House and Congress. And those in power have determined the road to staying in power is paved with government spending." -- Heritage Foundation's Brian Riedl

"One thing is certain: Republicans who support bigger entitlement programs and bigger federal budgets have lost all credibility as advocates for limited government." -- Ron Paul

"It is in destroying jobs that the economy improves and makes it possible for the standard of living of all Americans to increase. This constant churning means that even a "stagnant" American job market is extremely dynamic, and that the ranks of the unemployed are not necessarily the dispossessed of the earth, as Democrats tend to portray them." -- Rich Lowry

"It's uncomfortable to think that even after 9/11, America could conceivably be just as polarized as ever." -- Robert A. George

"Will Howard Dean be able to convince the American people that we are safe, after the largest terrorist target in his state was last in the country in security at ten years that he was governor?" -- Joe Lieberman

"With Dean, it's not the gaffes that are most damning and ridiculous, but what he says every day." -- Rich Lowry

"Dean is God's reward to Mr. Bush for doing the right thing in the war on terror." -- Dick Morris

"A legalized system of migration would allow American producers in important sectors of our economy to hire the workers they need to grow, and it would enhance our national security. It would begin to drain the swamp of smuggling and document fraud that facilitates illegal immigration and would encourage millions of currently undocumented workers to make themselves known to authorities." -- Dan Griswold, associate director of the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies

"The Democrats won't take to it because they want a quicker amnesty, and Republicans are going to be hostile because it's an amnesty after all. I'm not sure what the constituency is for this thing, but the National Restaurant Association probably loves it." -- Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies

"Al Sharpton did a pretty good impression of the 'Godfather of Soul' [on "Saturday Night Live"]. Of course, the rotund reverend has long been the 'Godfather of Con.' He's slick as a peeled onion. In just one short primary season, his timid fellow candidates and the even more timid media have erased the criminal Tawana Brawley shakedown. They've given this trickster who has never been elected dogcatcher a legitimacy he does not deserve: their Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval as a bona fide presidential candidate. So, get ready to start counting Rev. Sharpton's delegates. They will be impossible to ignore on national TV when the Democrats take center stage in Boston. Memo to DNC Chairman Terry McAwful: It's called 'reaping what you sow.' " -- Zell Miller

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