The Week - shooting al Los Angeles International Airport; Al Gore as [possible 2004 presidential candidate; Rep. J. C. Watts to retire; other current events

National Review, July 29, 2002

-- Seen in Santa Cruz, Calif.: Professional protesters driving to ananti- logging demonstrations in cars bearing bumper stickers from causes past -- such as, "Split wood, not atoms."

-- Hesham Mohamed Ali Hadayet, the owner of a limousine service, killed twtwo people at the El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport, before Israeli security guards killed him. "It appears he went there with the intention of killing people," said the FBI's spokesman in Los Angeles. Good call: Hadayet was carrying two handguns and a six-inch hunting knife. "Why he did that," the spokesman continued, "we are still trying to determine." The press got a jump on the Bureau, quoting one of Hadayet's former employees as saying that he "had hate for Israel for sure. He told me that the Israelis tried to destroy the Egyptian nation and the Egyptian population by sending prostitutes with AIDS to Egypt" (the poisoned-well theory, with a modern twist). One of Hadayet's neighbors also reported that another neighbor's display of American and Marine Corps flags after Sept. 11 affronted him. Mr. Hadayet sounds like he would have been happier in a country with fewer Israelis, and fewer Jews, and his murders were an act of terrorism. Memo to FBI: You can't make terrorism go away by pretending it doesn't exist.

-- In a speech to an assembly of key potential backers, Al Gore dedeclined to say for sure that he intends to stage a rematch against George W. Bush in 2004. He promised that if he does run, though, he will cast restraint to the winds. No more polls, tactics, and consultants, Gore declared: "If I had it to do all over again, I'd just let it rip." Recalling certain moments from the 2000 campaign, we find the prospect of Al Gore off the leash somewhat alarming. Those jut-jawed invasions of Bush's body space during debates, for example: Can we expect the ex-veep to go further next time, swinging a right hook, perhaps? Will those background sighs now escalate into actual heckling? Worse yet: Remember that swooping, face- sucking embrace of Tipper on the stage of the Democratic convention. What would the unrestrained version of that be like? The mind reels.

-- Rep. J. C. Watts announced that he would retire from the House after fofour terms, and editorials wept crocodile tears over the unrelieved whiteness that would afflict the Republican caucus. It would be too much to ask the Democratic party to forfeit elections when the GOP nominates black candidates. But if the matter is so essential to our civic good health, why don't said editorialists endorse such candidates? Wouldn't John Conyers's district benefit from fresh black GOP blood, instead of the same old cooter? Wouldn't it have been nice if Rep. Gary Franks -- a black Republican from Connecticut -- had been able to withstand the Democrats, who were extra-keen on defeating him? Just a thought.

-- Maybe it was just force of habit. Or maybe it was the recent poll fifinding that 57 percent of California voters think their state is "on the wrong track" -- a poll commissioned by Sacramento Democrats -- that convinced Gov. Gray Davis to take the low road in fighting off Bill Simon's challenge. Both the Democratic poll and a Simon campaign survey have the GOP challenger leading by about 9 points. In a new ad called "Bronze," the Davis campaign touts his military decoration for Vietnam service he performed when Bill Simon was an undergraduate. In a companion comment that might aptly be titled "Brass," Davis campaign adviser Garry South sneered that Simon's "only known brush with military service is as a member of something called the Knights of Malta." Given the thuggish fundraising tactics that Davis and his operatives are famous for, no doubt a Catholic fraternal organization devoted to private charity looks like a bunch of naive chumps to them. The auctioning of state favors for campaign cash has given Davis a huge war chest to use to slam Simon. But with 58 percent of California voters giving the incumbent failing grades on his job performance, even a well-funded low-road campaign might not lead back to Sacramento.

-- When Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, gave an address to the grgroup's annual convention, it was no surprise that he took liberal and partisan stands, and smeared everyone who disagreed with him, especially blacks (e.g., "Con-man Connerly"). Well, Bone-head Bond, his parents called him "Ward," and so can you. Unusual even for Bond, though, was his attack on FBI counter-terrorism measures. "We thought we had put a stop to Hoover's program of spies and lies in the 1970s after its abuses were exposed. Now, under the guise of fighting terrorism, the FBI is going back to spying on law-abiding citizens." No, the FBI is trying to find the conspirators in our midst, even if, like John Walker Lindh, they are white. What will the NAACP feature next year -- Rep. Cynthia McKinney on how the Man knew all about 9/11 beforehand?

-- The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the words "under GoGod" in the Pledge of Allegiance violate the constitutional requirement of neutrality with respect to religion, provoking fulminations in Congress and a bleat of approval from Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Unhappily, in the long run the Schlesingers of the world, allied with the courts, tend to beat Congress. But like a cleaning woman who stuck a wedding dress in the washing machine, the secularists may have gone too far this time. The phrase "under God" was added to the Pledge by Congress in 1954, but it is hardly a Cold War aberration. It echoes Abraham Lincoln ("that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom"). America's greatest statesmen have upheld the free exercise of religion, and rejected a religious establishment. But they have also derived our rights and our blessings from the Almighty, who is not to be confused with the Ninth Circuit. The judges will stay after school, and copy out the Gettysburg Address 50 times.