Clicking on banner ads enables JWR to constantly improve
Jewish World Review Nov. 6, 2000 / 8 Mar-Cheshvan, 5761

Ann Coulter

Ann Coulter
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
James Glassman
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Debbie Schlussel
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Roger Simon
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports


Hail Mary past

http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- WHY DOESN'T Al Gore just commit suicide right now? In a desperate Hail Mary pass to save his inert candidacy, his flacks are wildly spreading rumors about some rather mundane infractions George W. Bush committed decades ago.

The media try to make an issue out of it -- without ostensibly making an issue out of it -- by endlessly pondering: "Will this be an issue?" The answer is: yes. Bush may even take the District of Columbia now. Thanks for the little reminder of what lying, hypocritical frauds liberals are.

After living through an administration that produced a cornucopia of misogynist and felonious behavior, the very same people who were defending the felons are now beyond indignation about Bush. In 1976, Bush was arrested for driving (too slowly) under the influence. In college, he stole a wreath from a hotel in a fraternity prank and once got rowdy at a Yale-Princeton football game.

For eight years there was no perfidy, money-whoring felonious fund-raising, or brutality against women that liberals would not defend. Now they jump on a 24-year-old drunk-driving incident and blow it up into a sensational round-the-clock news event on the order of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s death.

Most ludicrous is their pretend-game of invoking the Clinton precedent of holding politicians "responsible" for their actions. Liberals are constantly making these three-step, tour de force, breathtaking leaps of logic. The "privacy" doctrine somehow transmogrified over time from a right for married couples to use contraception to the right to stick a fork in a baby's head. The 1964 Civil Rights Act went from a prohibition of racial discrimination to a mandate for racial discrimination. And now liberal flacks have the cheek to compare misdemeanor fraternity pranks to a president who was a virtual pederast, a probable rapist, a liar and a felon.

Pundits who seriously contended that it was "legally accurate" for Clinton to deny that oral sex constituted "sexual relations" now stonefacedly claim that beer is a "drug" -- and therefore Bush "lied" when he denied ever being arrested for drugs! (And while we're on the charming topic of the Leader of the Free World, despite the media's convenient amnesia on this point, Clinton denied under oath both that he had had sexual relations with Monica and that she had had sexual relations with him.)

Or in the alternative, they say Bush "lied" by not volunteering the incident to the press -- you know the same press complaining that the candidates aren't talking about "issues." Of course he didn't: It's embarrassing and irrelevant. Bush probably hasn't told the press about every time he passes gas in public either. (It's rather pleasant to contemplate the prospect of a president with a gene for embarrassment.)

Oh, but Bush raised the issue of responsibility and integrity, these yapping Chihuahuas say. In point of fact, Bush did take responsibility for his actions. Among other things Bush did not do, he did not bribe witnesses with cushy jobs or contest what the meaning of "is" is. He was polite and contrite, pled guilty to a misdemeanor, and paid his fine.

Politicians who cheat on their wives while asking the public for its trust are fond of saying that all this muckraking into politicians' "private lives" will drive good people from politics. No, it won't. But with any luck, it might drive adulterers from politics. If a man's own wife can't trust him, it's not clear why the public should. (This is a nonexclusive set of Politicians Who Can't Be Trusted -- Gore's in another.)

By contrast, if misdemeanor drinking offenses from 20 years ago are sufficient to raise questions about a man's fitness for office, it's difficult to imagine anyone -- good or bad -- who will be able to seek public office.

Actually, that's not true. One type of political candidate will have no reason for trepidation: the kind who can count on a courtier press. The kind whose drunk driving leads to the death of an innocent girl, but who can depend on prominent reporters for The New York Times like Adam Clymer to write that it was good for the cause that Teddy Kennedy continued with his political career, so screw Mary Jo Kopechne.

If this is the worst the Democrats have been able to unearth about George W. Bush, we may as well admit it: Bush is the closest thing to a living saint Washington will have seen for some time.

Indeed, the only possible explanation for such a nasty and pointless attack on Bush is that it is meant to create a presumption of truth for more vicious charges to come. This one was true but irrelevant. The next one will be relevant, but false.

Look for the media to suddenly "discover" an all-new scurrilous charge against Bush on election eve.


JWR contributor Ann Coulter is the author of High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton. You may visit the Ann Coulter Fan Club by clicking here.


Up

11/02/00: As the nose grows: The scripture according to Gore
10/30/00: Clinton sure can pick 'em
10/26/00: Gore's 'Nam flashbacks
10/23/00: Courting George Orwell
10/20/00: The three faces of Al
10/17/00: Must Christian conservatives be fascists?
10/13/00: Oil good; Dems bad
10/10/00: Al Gore: Serial fibber
10/06/00: Sigh of the crook
10/03/00: So who's the 'dumb guy' now?
09/29/00: Don't do drug legalization
09/26/00: I'd burn down my neighbor's house
09/22/00: Democrats worship the money shot
09/19/00: Other film footage we'd like to see
09/15/00: Bush can name the **^%*
09/12/00: The Supreme Court ratchet
09/08/00: Our mistake -- keep polluting
09/05/00: Bubba protects and serves
09/01/00: AlGore's 'going out of business!' tax plan
08/29/00: Bush's compassionate conservatism
08/25/00: Space alien tells funny jokes in bathtub
08/22/00: Dems view world only in black and white, not in color
08/18/00: Another Damascus Road conversion
08/15/00: The viagra cotillion
08/11/00: The hand-wringing Hamlet from Hartford
08/07/00: The Democratic party's white face
08/04/00: Hillary's potty mouth
08/01/00: The hole in the story
07/28/00: Cheney's detractors can't get their story straight
07/25/00: AlGore: Elmer Blandry
07/21/00: The tyranny of non-objectivity
07/18/00: The state's religion
07/14/00: Reform it back
07/11/00: Keating for veep
07/07/00: Gore invented 'Clueless'
07/04/00: The stupidity litmus test
06/30/00: O.J. was 'proved innocent' too
06/27/00: The last guys 'proved innocent'
06/23/00: Serious Republican candidates don't get serious press
06/19/00: They weren't overzealous this time
06/16/00: Evolution of the strumpet
06/13/00: Actual journalistic malpractice
06/09/00: I did not have sexual
relations with that ... man!
06/06/00: IRS turns Bubba's screw
05/30/00: Too corrupt to be an Arkansas lawyer
05/26/00: Choose liberalism
05/24/00: Violence against coherence
05/22/00: Developmentally disabled Republicans
05/16/00: For womb the bell tolls
05/12/00: Asylum from Georgetown
05/10/00: The truth is out there, even for the clueless
05/08/00: Barbie is a liberal Democrat
05/02/00: Moving the goalpost
04/28/00: The bastardization of justice
04/25/00: How Monica Lewinsky saved the constitution
04/24/00: It's sunny today, so we need gun control
04/19/00: No shadow of a doubt -- liberal women are worthless
04/14/00: It takes a Communist dictator to raise a child
04/11/00: The verdict is in on Hillary
04/07/00: Vast Concoctions III
04/04/00: 'Horrifying' free speech in New York
03/31/00: Check-Off Box For Pimp Suits
03/28/00: All the news that fits -- we print!
03/24/00: Net losses all around
03/20/00: To protect, serve --- and be spat on
03/16/00: Thank Heaven for the consigliere
03/13/00: Vast concoctions II
03/09/00: The bluebloods voted against you
03/07/00: The Tower of Babble
03/03/00: Vast concoction
03/02/00: Hillary's sartorial lies
02/28/00: You have to break a few eggs to make a joke
02/22/00: I've seen enough killing to support abortion
02/18/00: A liberal lynching
02/15/00: McCain and the flag
02/11/00: The Shakedown Express
02/08/00: To mock a mockingbird
02/05/00: Summing up Campaign 2000: 'Oh, puh-leeze!'
02/01/00: A Confederacy of Dunces
01/28/00: Dollar Bill's racist smear
01/24/00: How high is your freedom quotient?
01/21/00: Numismadness
01/18/00: How dare you attack my wife!
01/14/00: The Gore Buggernaut
01/10/00: The paradox of discrimination law

© 2000, UPS