Arianna Huffington and Harry Shearer
Entry 42:
Wait a minute. I thought George Bush just gave a speech supporting Clinton's China policy. I thought Bill Safire just wrote in today's Times that Nixon's proudest achievement was the opening to China. What kind of Republican are you, anyway, inveighing against corporate lackeyhood? That's always been the touchstone of "responsible" Republicanism, i.e., the kind that doesn't want American schools turned into branch offices of the Creationism Society. I do think it's entirely possible that Indian paranoia about Pakistan didn't need a nudge from Chinese munitions piling. It's also entirely possible that, as usual, our trying to be nuanced and subtle in a Kissingerian way (like our serial tilting first to Iran, then Iraq, then Iran again) merely succeeds in mucking up another corner of the world. Let's face it: Americans don't do diplomacy well. Maybe we should stop trying, and let the Brits take over again.
Arianna Huffington is a nationally syndicated columnist. Harry Shearer is host of radio's Le Show, a screenwriter, an actor, and provider of several voices on The Simpsons.