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March 19, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: The Divine is in the details
JWisdom.com Stewards of sacrifice with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama is waging war on Israel
March 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Israel's New Enemy: America?
JWisdom.com Love me not? with Rabbi David Aaron (5 minutes)
Jonathan Rosenblum: Washington Throws a Tantrum
March 17, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Orwell, Santayana, and Me
Jonathan Tobin: How Many Lives Is Biden's Pride Worth?
March 16, 2010
Steven Emerson: Combating Lawfare
JWisdom.com How to perform a miracle with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair (4 minutes)
Anne Bayefsky: Behind Obama's Dangerous Overreaction on Israel
March 15, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Father's obligations toward minor children
JWisdom.com Moody, Grumpy, Irritable Children with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Judith Graham: Get the whole picture before a CT
March 12, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: You CAN have Heaven on Earth
JWisdom.com Manufacturing mediums with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: The march of the Red-Green brigades
March 11, 2010
Glenn Garvin: Conspiracy theories, why people believe them and how they spread
JWisdom.com For Yourself, Not By Yourself with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer : Turn leftovers into tasty New England hash
Paul Richter: Biden promises 'viable Palestine' is in the offing
March 10, 2010
Paul Greenberg: Death Checks In
JWisdom.com How To Get A (Real) Life with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( EXTENDED EPISODE)
Paul Richter: Israel exerts soverign right to its capital as Biden looks on astounded
Richard A. Serrano: 'Jihad Jane' indictment alleges threat from within U.S.
March 9, 2010
Wesley Pruden: Joe's Israeli adventure
JWisdom.com Free To Be (Responsibly) You and Me! with Rabbi Naftali Brawer ( 8 MINUTES)
David G. Savage: Supreme Court to rule on free speech in case of soldier's funeral
March 8, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Make a fuss about those who cuss?
JWisdom.com Finding or Losing Yourself? Here's How! with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Steven Emerson: America must learn from the UK about the future of Islamist subversion
March 5, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: Golden Calf still with us --- except it has multiplied
JWisdom.com The Limits of Eternity with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Biden's lost cause
March 4, 2010
Alan M. Dershowitz: How About A Real Campaign Against Abuses?
JWisdom.com Using Things, Loving People with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff ( 7 MINUTES)
Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's Everything's Relative
March 3, 2010
JWisdom.com Grasping The Name of Your Life Game with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( 8 MINUTES)
The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta : A cowboy's recipes for really good grub
March 2, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Someone's there
Diane Toroian Keaggy : Have we misunderstood Michelangelo?
March 1, 2010
JWisdom.com Whole in One with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Michael Muskal: Hillary meets with Israeli official, discusses gefilte fish dispute
Feb. 26, 2010
Rabbi Francis Nataf: The Megilla of Spring
JWisdom.com A Biblical Secret for a More Powerful You with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: When rhetoric rules the roost
Feb. 25, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: When walking away from your mortgage is both economically sound and makes ethical sense
JWisdom.com The Second Most Important Question in Your Life with Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh ( 5 MINUTES)
Seema Mehta : U.S.-Israel relations raised in California's Senate race --- by conservatives
Feb. 24, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: The gift of the ‘prayer bomber’
Steven Emerson: Why Religious Freedom Commission is under attack
Feb. 23, 2010
Dennis Prager: Government, Yes! The Divine and Parents, No!
JWisdom.com The Last Laugh of Enlightenment with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair ( 5 MINUTES)
Anne Applebaum: Prepare for war with Iran --- in case Israel strikes
Feb. 22, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Is it not refreshing Tiger Woods' career has crashed and burned so dramatically?
JWisdom.com Esther and the third Truth with Rabbi David Aaron ( 9 MINUTES)
Kelly Brewington: Going smoke-free may raise diabetes risk
Feb. 19, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: Is the Divine beyond us or within us?
JWisdom.com Olympic Faith with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Israel and the West are perpetrators of a myth that endangers the Jewish State
Feb. 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Who is Rashad Hussain?
JWisdom.com A Wedding Disaster to Remember with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein ( 3 MINUTES)
Feb. 17, 2010
JWisdom.com Think your life is messed up? with Rabbi David Aaron ( 11 MINUTES)
Greg Logan: 'Greatest Jewish sporting event of all time since David versus Goliath' may be postponed because of bar mitzvah
Feb. 16, 2010
Anya Martin : Boy's 'cerebral palsy' fixed with diet
JWisdom.com Feet On The Street Spirituality with Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 8 MINUTES)
Marty Peretz: Let Europe Mind Its Own Business. It Brings Nothing To The Table Save For Mischief
Feb. 15, 2010
Herb Geduld: Lincoln and the Jews
JWisdom.com Are Our Children Really Ours? with Rabbi Mordechai Becher ( 5 MINUTES)
Susan King: 'Wolf Man' reflected writer's wartime Jewish experience

Jewish World Review March 31, 2006 / 2 Nissan, 5766

Running on empty

By Rich Lowry


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Vice President Dick Cheney gave assembled reporters at the Radio and TV Correspondents' Dinner a tongue-in-cheek assurance that there is nothing to the idea that White House staffers are tired out — as a slide show that accompanied his talk flashed photos of Bush aides fast asleep on the job.


The crowd guffawed. But it's not physical exhaustion that is hampering the White House so much as the intellectual kind. And that's not so easily cured by the widely anticipated staff "shake-up" that is now under way with White House Chief of Staff Andy Card's replacement by Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten.


Ask GOP strategists what the party needs, and they invariably say something like, "It would help to get a lucky break in Iraq." Indeed, it would, but the standard for what constitutes such a break has been ever-sinking. At this point, it might be avoiding a full-fledged civil war and seeing the Iraqis form a government, any government. Neither can be expected to be a political boon to the president.


President Bush swept into his second term determined not to be overcome by the political lassitude that traditionally drags down second-term presidencies. He had an ambitious reform agenda, and initially the debate among his supporters was over what should come first: Social Security reform or tax reform? Bush went for Social Security reform, and it sank without a trace, with tax reform quickly going the same way.


Thus, Bush lost the fight for the Big Ideas of his second term and has instead been thrown back to trying desperately to keep alive the Big Idea from his first term: democratizing Iraq. Other policy arrows in his quiver have been shot, since the budget deficit makes more tax cuts politically unsalable, and more big-spending measures are out for the same reason. To the extent that Bush's "compassionate conservatism" was ever a coherent approach to governing, it is now spent, and it's not clear that the White House — nor the broader conservative community — has any bright, plausible ideas about what should fill the void.


The one major new initiative Bush has left — a guest-worker program and quasi-amnesty for illegal immigrants — might pass Congress, but it's unpopular with the public. Congressional Republicans have been distancing themselves from Bush, but key GOP senators embraced a version of his approach after massive anti-enforcement protests. It's a sign of the times that Mexican flag-waving immigrants might have as much sway on the Hill as Bush's congressional-relations shop.


After GOP strategists muse about reaping a windfall of good fortune in Iraq, they tend to say that an election isn't a referendum on one party, but a choice: "You can't beat something with nothing." But the truth of that truism depends on how people feel about "something." If it is unpopular enough, they will go elsewhere. At the moment, the most accurate description of the competition between the parties might be Bush's "nothing" — the difficult Iraq War and guest-worker program aside — versus the Democrats' "nothing."


The Democrats are trying to dress theirs up with notionally substantive proposals. They just released a national-security plan, the centerpiece of which is "eliminating" Osama bin Laden. As if somewhere in the bowels of Bush's National Security Council an official is hitting his forehead saying, "I wish we had thought of that!" But Democrats would be foolish to identify themselves with anything more specific than broadly popular bromides, when Bush's and the GOP's poor standing is their best asset.


The GOP still has a few things on its side — time (the public mood could shift before the fall); gerrymandering (so few congressional districts are competitive that it will be difficult for Democrats to find enough to pick off); and events (maybe, just maybe, Bush does get lucky somewhere). But none of this goes to the White House's real vulnerability: Intellectually, it is running on empty, no matter which long-serving Bush loyalist happens to be chief of staff.

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© 2006 King Features Syndicate

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