Day: June 7, 2008

Change we can expect

Big O. has himself a major-league fixer as a v.p.-candidate selector:

Eric Holder, recently appointed by Barack Obama to his vice presidential search committee, played a leading role in one of the most infamous events of a presidency filled with infamy: the pardon of billionaire fugitive Marc Rich.

So what if he’s got an important role for Obama?  Well, because

the mind reels as to why this person, who participated in a notorious Clinton scandal and himself seemed so oblivious to his own conflict of interest, would be selected to find and vet a VP for Obama. Is this the new politics? Or is it a throwback to the Clinton years, the very years Obama is attempting to turn the page on, to put behind us all?

And now a bit of context for other stuff that’s been hitting the fan in recent months:

Certainly “judgment” is a key consideration for voters in selecting their president. When one looks to the people Obama in turn has selected as mentors (e.g., Reverend Wright, Father Michael Pfleger), friends (e.g., Tony Rezko), and now key advisors (e.g., Eric Holder), voters may begin to question whether Obama possesses the judgment necessary to run an effective and scandal-free administration. If Holder is emblematic of Obama’s personnel decisions and an example of what is to come, the answer is “no.”

Unfortunately.

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Ex-Catholic finds a friend in Rome

Rome kicks butt in Europe, says ex-RC atheist.

What other religion is taking on calmly, intelligently and courageously the scourge of militant secularism afflicting modern Europe?

asks Ruth Dudley Edwards, who “abandoned” Catholicism at 16 “and disliked [it] intensely for decades because of old grievances, but for which [she now has] respect and gratitude.”

It’s happening this way.

in England — a country where the bulk of the established church is in a moral funk — I am thrilled to see Cardinal Murphy O’Connor and his Scottish counterpart, Keith O’Brien, taking on the British secular Establishment on such huge ethical issues as abortion, stem cell research and the right of children to have fathers.

“[T]he belt of a couple of croziers” (I love it)

caused three Catholic Cabinet ministers (Des Browne, Ruth Kelly and Paul Murphy) to put their religious scruples before their ambition and force Gordon Brown to allow a free vote on contentious clauses in the abhorrent Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

Read on in this amazingly sprightly account of Catholics actually in there pitching on moral issues, and as yourself on what meat these British Catholics feed that they should be so great at holding the line.

And get this breath of fresh air from the tight little isle:

As a nation, we’ve been morally dodgy about violent nationalism, but at least, so far, we’ve been protective of the unborn. Well done, Your Holiness. Keep up the good work. The religion-friendly atheists are marching alongside, cheering you on. And those who fear that the vacuum that is rootless secularism will cause Europe to cave into violent Islamism are keeping them company.

Hip, hip hooray.

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Book editors have principles too, you know

Mainstreamers would rather not do this book on Iraq war planning by one who was there — Douglas Feith’s War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism — notes Christopher Hitchens.

As I write this on the first day of June, about a book that was published in the first week of April, the books pages of the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe have not seen fit to give Feith a review.

Yes, they’re busy, not least of all with McClellan’s tell-all, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception, which appeals them more.  Fits their narrative, you know.

Not only book pages and sections have been missing in action surrounding Feith’s book, but news pages too: NY Times spiked a James Risen story about it.

“This all might seem less questionable if it were not for the still-ballooning acreage awarded to Scott McClellan,” says Hitchens.

Reader M. heard Feith on Hugh Hewitt, says he sounded “very balanced for a major player,” comments:

The MSM is doing a complete black-out on his book, print, TV, radio. I surmise one will only find it buried behind a copy of “How to parse intransitive verbs” in Border’s, as well. Amazon gives it 3 1/2 stars; Scott McClellan’s book 4 stars. Go figure.

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