"But I want to tell you... ladies and gentlemen... that there's not enough troops in the army to force the southern people to break down segregation and admit the nigger race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches."

- Strom Thurmond, speaking from his heart

"This is essentially a double-cross if they are going to block Warren Rudman on the commission. We are not going to put our support behind a commission that is intended, as far as we can tell, to protect the President."

- Stephen Push, whose wife, Lisa Raines, was aboard the jetliner that hit the Pentagon on 9-11

By: Joseph Crespino  

Sound bites pitched toward the racist right have been the dirty little secret of the Republican Party for four decades. How have they gotten away with it? Partly by obscuring the evidence. The Bush administration, for example, has essentially closed access to President Reagan's presidential papers for historical researchers, making it that much harder to examine how race remained a secret part of the American conservative discourse.

Historians can debate just how central Senator Lott's kind of doublespeak has been to Republican success in the South. They can also debate how central the South has been in the Republican Party's success nationally. But the fact that racial appeals have played a role in the success of the modern Republican Party is not under debate. It is irrefutable. As of today, it remains unacknowledged by the party as a whole.

By: Paul Krugman  

So why is Mr. Lott in a position of such power?

The Republican Party's longstanding "Southern Strategy" - which rests on appealing to the minority of voters who do share Mr. Lott's views - is no secret. But because the majority doesn't share those views, the party must present two faces to the nation. And therein lies the clue to Mr. Lott's role.

To win nationally, the leader of the party must pay tribute to the tolerance and open-mindedness of the nation at large. He must celebrate civil rights and sternly condemn the abuses of the past. And that's just what George W. Bush did yesterday, in rebuking Mr. Lott.

Yet at the same time the party must convey to a select group of target voters the message - nudge nudge, wink wink - that it actually doesn't mean any of that nonsense, that it's really on their side. How can it do that? By having men who manifestly don't share the open-mindedness of the nation at large in key, powerful positions. And that's why Mr. Bush's rebuke was not followed by a call for Mr. Lott to step down.

"Obviously, President Bush has interpreted the recent elections as a mandate to pollute, cut and drill."

- Rep. George Miller (D-CA)

By: David B. Caruso

Charities, utilities, and government agencies across the country are reporting a surge in the number of people asking for help paying their heating bills, even as the Bush administration proposes a $300 million cut in the nation's biggest source of home heating aid.

The White House has requested $1.4 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, compared with $1.7 billion last year. Congress hasn't decided whether to adopt the cut, but critics said the proposal comes at the worst possible time.

Cutting the money could affect more than 500,000 people who rely on aid to pay utility bills, according to the National Energy Assistance Director's Association, which represents state officials who administer LIHEAP grants.

By: Arianna Huffington  

Remember how the Bush administration ambled unassumingly into office - downing Texas-sized helpings of humble pie at every meal?

"I hope I'm viewed as a humble person", the President said just before moving into the White House. And on his first day on the job, he counseled his senior staff members to "be an example of humility and decency and fairness". White House chief of staff Andy Card echoed the sentiment, telling would-be staffers: "Be among the most humble people in Washington."

Well, those days are certainly long gone. Forget tiptoeing. Team Bush now stomps down the halls of power like Godzilla trampling the streets of Tokyo. Humble pie is no longer being served at the White House - instead, it's being shoved in our faces.

"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day."

- Theodore Roosevelt

By: Geov Parrish  

I want a list.

I want a full accounting of every weapon in the country. Not Iraq; I don't give a fig about Iraq. It's halfway around the world, it has no means of threatening the United States from its territory, its economy is decimated, it has been disarmed more effectively than any other country in the history of the world, its every move is closely monitored by any number of other agencies and countries, and it knows that any move to threaten any other country would be instantly suicidal. There are plenty of threats to the safety of Americans. Iraq is not one of them. Among all the American-trained dictators plaguing the planet, he's the least of our problems.

I want a list of OUR weapons.

After all, we pay for them - and pay, and pay, and pay...

"Admitting error, it's feared, would risk the public's figuring out that Bush never had anything in mind other than putting money back in the pockets of people like himself: persons determined to reinforce their sense of class superiority regardless of the cost to themselves and everybody else."

- Gene Lyons

By: Molly Ivins  

Good grief. I turn my back for 10 minutes, and they bring back the old War Criminal.

Two generations of Americans have come to adulthood since Henry Kissinger last held political power, so I need to explain that War Criminal is not an affectionate sobriquet: The man is, in fact, a war criminal - wanted for questioning in Chile, Argentina, and France (concerning French citizens who disappeared in Chile). He cannot travel to Britain, Brazil, and many other countries because they cannot guarantee his immunity from legal proceedings.

In addition to his role in the Chilean coup that brought the regime of Gen. Pinochet to power, Kissinger is wanted for questioning about the international terrorist network called Operation Condor, which conducted killings, kidnappings, and bombings in several countries, including this one - the 1976 bombing in Washington, DC, that killed a noted Chilean dissident and his companion.

By: R.E. Crawford  

Classic Rush is Limbaugh's response to a caller who got through the screeners and ambushed him on the air with details of the Limbaugh Chickenhawk Legacy. "The message", Rush says, amid plenty of whining about the personal nature of the attack, "is that unless you've been a member of the military, you have no right to support it".

Of course, that isn't the message at all. A chickenhawk doesn't qualify himself by any combination of "supporting" the military and "not having served" in the military - a chickenhawk qualifies himself by clamoring for war (the possible expenditure of other people's lives) when he himself has studiously avoided participating in war - the possible expenditure of his own life. He polishes his chickenhawk status to a high gloss not by having his own opinions about a prospective war, but by questioning the patriotism, courage, and common decency of those who disagree with him about that war.

The terms are not interchangeable here. "Supporting the military" means - or damned well ought to mean - praying that our military personnel are well cared for and well led; insisting as citizens that our military personnel are asked to expend their lives only when no other options remain, and only when the values involved are worth the expenditure of human life because human life isn't worth living without them; and understanding that in a constitutional democracy, the whole purpose of having a powerful military in the first place is to avoid having to use it.

"Maybe instead of worrying about American children who don't do history lessons, we should worry about American Presidents who don't care about the lessons of history."

- Maureen Dowd

Editorial from:  

On Tuesday we wrote that Sen. Trent Lott's apparent endorsement of segregationist policies presented a test for the Republican Party and its leaders. Mr. Lott is not just a Republican Senator from the Deep South, after all. He is the once and (according to current plan) future majority leader of the U.S. Senate, and thus one of the party's leading national spokesmen. So when he said last week that, if then-Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond had been elected President in 1948, "we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years", it raised a question for other Republican leaders: How do they feel about having Mr. Lott speak for their party?

Just fine, the answer seems to be. "The President has confidence in him as Republican leader, unquestionably", President Bush's spokesman said Tuesday. Rep. J.C. Watts (R-OK), chair of the House GOP conference and the only African American Republican in Congress, defended Mr. Lott. So did such Republican Senators as Mike DeWine (OH), Richard C. Shelby (AL), and John McCain (AZ)...

By: Richard Cohen  

Lott is intellectually stunted by a pernicious and - if the Senate had any sense - politically lethal case of Margaret Mitchell Syndrome. He speaks as a conservative white man and only as a conservative white man. It is his only frame of reference. He does not have the slightest empathy for what it once meant to be black in the Jim Crow South - and how the past is not something we call history but events that shape the present.

The monumentally courageous Hannity, second only to the sainted Rush Limbaugh in audience and influence, accuses the liberal press of making too much of Lott's remark and, worse, of applying a double standard. Hannity told his audience, for instance, that Bill Clinton repeatedly paid homage to the late Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, an erudite man who once supported racial segregation. I suspect we will hear more of this silliness.

Yes, Clinton has praised Fulbright - but never his record on race, which was of its time and place and adopted largely for politically expedient reasons. Lott's praise of Thurmond, on the other hand, was not only explicit but an actionable case of self-plagiarism. "You know, if we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today", he said back in 1980. Decade after decade, this man learns nothing.

By: Bob Herbert  

Mr. Lott got into trouble last week when, at a party for Mr. Thurmond's 100^th birthday, he told the guests with great emphasis: "I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for President, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

That's the Senate leader of the Republican Party speaking. And despite an apology squeezed out of him by the controversy, that's what Trent Lott believes. He made a similar comment in 1980 after Mr. Thurmond had delivered one of his frenzied speeches at a campaign rally for Ronald Reagan. Referring to Mr. Thurmond, Mr. Lott said: "You know, if we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in today."

There are calls now for the ouster of Trent Lott as the Senate Republican leader. I say let him stay. He's a direct descendant of the Dixiecrats and a first-rate example of what much of his party has become.

Keep him in plain sight. His presence is instructive. As long as we keep in mind that it isn't only him.

From:  

The Bush administration plans to propose new regulations Tuesday that would protect employers from age discrimination liability when a company converts its traditional retirement pension benefit to a different arrangement called a "cash balance plan".

Such conversions typically mean less money for workers closer to retirement age. Currently there is a moratorium on government approval of conversions. But that would be lifted if the regulations are approved after a public comment period and an April meeting of the Internal Revenue Service.

Cash balance plans usually consist of a percentage of pay earned by a worker plus interest that can be paid out as a lump sum if the worker leaves the company after working there for a certain period. Unlike a 401(k) plan, employees neither own the accounts or make investment decisions. Unlike a traditional pension plan, the worker isn't guaranteed annual benefits after retiring.

By: Bill Moyers  

Way back in the 1950's when I first tasted politics and journalism, Republicans briefly controlled the White House and Congress. With the exception of Joseph McCarthy and his vicious ilk, they were a reasonable lot, presided over by that giant war hero, Dwight Eisenhower, who was conservative by temperament and moderate in the use of power.

That brand of Republican is gone. And for the first time in the memory of anyone alive, the entire federal government - the Congress, the Executive, the Judiciary - is united behind a right-wing agenda for which George W. Bush believes he now has a mandate.

So it is a heady time in Washington - a heady time for piety, profits, and military power, all joined at the hip by ideology and money.

By: Helen Thomas  

In January Poindexter quietly returned to government, moving into the Pentagon without any fanfare. That's understandable. With his record of deceit, why should he be back in government? Is he the best that this administration has to offer?

Poindexter told the Washington Post that information awareness systems being developed would create a global computer model that could gather data on travel to risky areas, suspicious e-mails, bizarre fund transfers, and unusual medical activities, such as treatments for anthrax-induced sores.

In other words, no closet would be too remote and no skeleton in it too small to escape the eagle eye of the all-knowing global computer system.

Yet isn't it fascinating that in all this personal-information gathering, the records of gun buyers will be off-limits. That's the way the National Rifle Association wants it. And one of the gun lobby's proudest picks for government service, Attorney General John Ashcroft, agrees. The NRA commands, and the Ashcroft Justice Department genuflects.

By: Henry A. Waxman  

Under President Bush and Vice President Cheney, the administration has developed plans to keep secret files on the activities of all Americans. But at the same time, the administration wants to keep everything it does from the public. In fact, under today's court ruling, Americans can't even learn the identity of the energy lobbyists who asked for special favors in the White House energy plan.

This is an ominous decision that defies fundamental and traditional American values of open government.

"The truth is rarely plain, and never simple."

- Oscar Wilde

Bush Threatens Preemptive Use of Nuclear Weapons Against His Enemies

By: Maura Reynolds  

The Bush administration today will spell out a tough new strategy designed to deter terrorists and other enemies from acquiring nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons and using them against the United States and its allies.

The anti-proliferation strategy codifies a national security evolution that began with last year's Sept. 11 attacks, and repeats the administration's threat to use preemptive and overwhelming force - including nuclear weapons - against what it perceives as imminent danger of an attack.

"The distinction between threats abroad and threats to the homeland no longer applies in today's environment, in large part because of weapons of mass destruction and the desire both by rogue states, and terrorists, to gain access to these weapons", said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

By: J.G. Schwam  

George W. Bush, presumed President of the United States, seems unable to learn from his mistakes. Some time ago, Presidents sought to appoint the best and the brightest to key governmental positions. The incumbent GOP has made it obvious that their prime criteria for key governmental posts is the most right wing and the richest.

Political cronyism by our elected officials is not a new scourge just one we must live through. It is fast becoming obvious, if it's not already so, that qualifications, experience in ones field is no longer required to hold high office in our land. Not at least in this administration. Is the GOP incapable of learning from their mistakes? Why should we be willing to assume that one CEO is more qualified to run a cabinet level secretariat than another...

"Somehow, the Democrats believe that they can beat the opposing Republican Party by never criticizing its leader - George W. Bush - America's burgeoning Big Brother whose snooping, liberty-violating, and anti-worker ways are getting a free ride on the backs of our crumbling democracy, while giant corporations are laughing all the way to the bank on the backs of the small taxpayers who are forced to subsidize them."

- Ralph Nader

By: Bryan Zepp Jamieson  

So it should come as no surprise to anyone that George wants the schools to start emphasizing civics in class, and to teach the kids what it means to be a good American citizen.

Now, politicians are always making a suggestion that civics be emphasized in school so the kids understand what this "American" stuff is all about. And, oddly enough, it turns out to be one of those feel-good notions that most people approve of but which never actually gets done, like outlawing spam and telephone solicitation calls, or balancing the budget.

Teaching civics is going to involve a certain amount of controversy, of course. The Constitution , for all its brevity and clarity, leaves a lot of room for debate about what this passage or that passage actually means. There are millions of pages covering thousands of legal cases to show that anyone who claims that any part of the Constitution is clear and straightforward and lends itself to only one interpretation is full of crap.

By: Michael Weisskopf and Viveca Novak  

Few political appointees are as well connected as Janet Rehnquist. A former White House staff member for the first President Bush, she's the daughter of Chief Justice William Rehnquist - whose Supreme Court ensured there would be a second President Bush. No surprise that 16 months ago, she got a job as inspector general at the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department. But her connections may be wearing thin. The General Accounting Office (GAO) began an investigation in October into charges that she has mismanaged the office. Among the allegations: that she forced out a number of senior career staff members, improperly kept a gun in her office and ran up questionable travel bills. She is also under fire for delaying an audit of a Florida pension fund at the request of a top aide to Governor Jeb Bush.

"The economy flourishes when the nation is well-integrated, and all segments perceive correctly that they have a stake in the nation and its economy. The economy stalls when it becomes exploitative, and "class warfare" emerges. To the Democrats, prosperity is a feast, to be shared. To the "conservative" Republicans, the economy is a cash-cow, to be milked for personal advantage."

- Ernest Partridge, in an article posted on Democratic Underground

Site content © 2001-2002 J. Mekus - - except wherein noted.
All rights reserved.