The Week

National Review, April 17, 2000

Tony Blair may take "paternity leave" when his wife gives birth in May. Good thing he doesn't have an empire to run.

The New York Times spanked George W. Bush for not kowtowing to John McCain in a post-primaries interview. "Bush Rebuffs Bid to Embrace Views Pushed by McCain," ran the scandalized headline. Why Bush, who united his party against McCain's ideas, should now rush to adopt them was left unclear. In different circumstances, what the Times was urging Bush to do would be called a "flip-flop." Which, in any case, is probably the wrong way to woo McCain voters. They do not form a coherent bloc or "movement," and they consistently told pollsters that they were drawn to McCain's personal qualities, principally his willingness to stand up for his beliefs. Bush should stand up for his own, even if "straight talk" is suddenly less popular at the New York Times.

What Hillary Clinton wanted to do with health care in 1993, Al Gore is now proposing for the American system of elections-he wants to socialize it, bringing it under the heel of bureaucrats and government commissions. Gore's plan is a laughably obvious play for the fabled "McCain voters." It shares with McCain's proposals the premise that American politics suffers from too much politics, but takes this idea much closer to its logical conclusion. Gore proposes a $7 billion nonpartisan "Democracy Endowment"-run by presidential appointees approved by the Senate-that would be built with tax-deductible contributions, then divvied up among House and Senate candidates who agree to accept no other funding. The idea is to shield candidates from the influence of political parties, interest groups, and individual donors-in other words, from democratic pressure. This is the liberal regulatory state at its absolute worst.

But Gore does have a sense of humor, or at least some good joke writers. At the recent annual Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, Gore got off some good ones. Referring to his Washington, D.C., upbringing, he said, "I have to admit I feel a little out of my element here, but I suppose it's good for me to get out of Nashville every now and then." On his Buddhist-temple caper: "I remember...admiring the majestic burnt umber robes of the Buddhist monks and saying, 'Hmmmm. Earth tones.'" He mentioned the Gridiron Club's 115-year-old tradition as "one I invented" and said that McCain's "Luke Skywalker" was "loosely based on me." He admitted that his wife Tipper had cautioned him about exaggeration, "five billion times, literally." When he began speaking, he asked for an iced tea, downed the tumbler, and said, "I can't stay long." This guy may be livelier than he looks.

Humanitarianism has not heretofore been one of Patrick Buchanan's major considerations in foreign policy. Yet now he wants to lift the sanctions on Cuba and Iraq because of the suffering they cause. After a decade's evolution in his thinking, Buchanan has now arrived at a position of supporting free trade with our enemies and protectionism for our friends. This is no way to keep America First.

Liberal Republicans often claim that they must vote the way they do because otherwise they would lose their seats to Democrats. Often this is the case. But surprisingly often, these congressmen hold safely Republican seats. The districts of Sherwood Boehlert, Jim Greenwood, John Porter, Marge Roukema, and Fred Upton are not likely to go Democratic anytime soon. In such circumstances, conservatives have every reason to mount primary challenges to the incumbents. The Club for Growth-a new, free-market PAC started by investor Richard Gilder and NR's Dusty Rhodes-is therefore to be commended for backing a challenger to Roukema. The National Republican Campaign Committee has responded by sending more money to Roukema. But Republican donors do not send the NRCC money to fight conservatives. They want to elect Republicans-and if the Club succeeds, they might elect some real ones.

Patrick Dorismond, a 26-year-old security guard, was accidentally killed by New York City police in a fracas following a drug operation (Dorismond had no drugs on him). Mayor Giuliani announced that Dorismond had a history of scuffling and unsealed his juvenile record to prove it. A riot at Dorismond's funeral injured 23 cops, and New York is on edge. The ugly flareup hurts Giuliani's senatorial campaign, which depends on the support of free-floating liberals. More important, the situation reflects the double tragedy of Giuliani's mayoralty. He did one impossible thing by bringing crime rates down. (The number of deaths caused by police gunfire is down, too.) If he had achieved a second impossible thing-cutting the city's taxes and spending-there would be another topic in the conversation. If he knew when not to speak, the conversation might be less rancorous. John Adams ruefully said that George Washington had "the gift of silence." Giuliani has it even less than Adams. New York, city and state, will now suffer as a result.

Dick Gephardt gave a speech attempting to present the Democrats as the party of the New Economy. The speech marked real progress on the Democrats' part. Gephardt announced his support for extending the ban on Internet sales taxes until 2003 and came out for a permanent ban on taxes on Internet access and transmission. But the Democrats are not reliable friends of high technology. Gephardt's speech said nothing about promoting free trade or restraining the trial lawyers. Democrats in the Senate continue to block a bill making it easier to make contracts online. Techies may favor the subsidies Democrats propose to bridge the supposed "digital divide" between rich and poor; but in time they will learn that with subsidies come regulations. Republicans can still make the case that they are better on high-tech issues-and they had better make it.