Plus: White House Silent As Pressure Mounts!

Always announce bad news on Friday: As  foreshadowed with eerie prescience  in kausfiles, Mary Matalin wants to spend more time with her family! ... She spins it to the wall: 1) She'd planned to leave anyway! 2) It's part of the traditional turnover! 3) She was really influential -- (as AP puts it) "a key adviser not only to Cheney but also President Bush ...at the center of most high profile announcements"!... She only left out 4) Bush doesn't like her! ... 1:P.M.

Bush's Lott Shot: Andrew Sullivan  nominates a fairly bland quote from Bush's excellent Lott denunciation  for inclusion in Bartlett's. But isn't this the star sentence --

Every day our nation was segregated was a day that America was unfaithful to our founding ideals.

When it comes to recent Republican presidential egalitarianism, I still prefer Ronald Reagan's far more difficult appeal for social equality (as opposed to mere legal equality or equality of opportunity):

Whether we come from poverty or wealth... we are all equal in the eyes of God. But as Americans that is not enough--we must be equal in the eyes of each other.

P.S.: Bush had to go spoil it all by saying that "welfare policy will not solve the deepest problems of the spirit." ...P.P.S.: The only downside I can see to Lott relinquishing his leadership post is the revival of "blogger triumphalism" that will follow. Though blogs (e.g. Atrios, Josh Marshall, Tim Noah,  Sullivan, and Instapundit) took the lead in blasting Lott -- while the NYT 's Guilty Southern Liberal Howell Raines, hilariously, was asleep at the switch when a real 60's-style civil rights controversy came along -- wouldn't Lott eventually have gotten into big trouble for his remarks even if the Web didn't exist? ... When Raines steps aside, I'll become a triumphalist too. ..Update: John Podhoretz is already boosting the "victory for the blogosphere" meme in what is actually a pretty persuasive column. ....4:10 A.M..

Thursday, December 12, 2002

Still Gaining Acceptance! Columnist Dick Polman joins the Anti-Homeland Resistance  with a widely-syndicated column. He quotes philosopher Michael Walzer, who notes another reason the word is un-American:

"America has always been a nation of nationalities, of immigrants who were attracted to our notions about newness. That was the central American ideal. The homeland was the place you left behind. I define homeland as the ancient territorial base of a people. ...

As everyone said after Sept. 11, 'now we've joined the rest of world.' There's a kind of sadness to that."

Polman's column comes at a time when ... well, it comes at a time when nothing much seems to be happening on the anti-Homeland front, actually. [Can we say "pressure is mounting"?--ed How about "some observers say pressure may be mounting"? Best I can do. "White House Remains Silent As Pressure Mounts." I like it--ed] 2:59 A.M.