Issue 1 is Janet Reno’s admission of the use of government pyrotechnics at Waco. A distant second is abortion and the GOP.
Despite Reno’s assertion that the pyrotechnics almost certainly did not cause the Waco fire, the commentariat thinks her admission hurts the government’s credibility and demonstrates that Reno is honest but clueless, bordering on incompetent (Steve Roberts and Susan Page, of CNN’s Late Edition; Mark Shields and Margaret Carlson, of CNN’s Capitol Gang; and Fox NewsSunday’s Brit Hume). CapitolGang’s Robert Novak and Kate O’Beirne think Reno’s revelation proves that continued interest in Waco is not just the occupation of lunatic right-wingers. A few dissenters–such as Fox’s Juan Williams–argue that Waco’s importance is overblown.
Several shows react to the recent abortion fudges by John McCain and George W. Bush–in which both candidates assert their pro-life bona fides while downplaying the importance of the issue. Tucker Carlson (Late Edition) and O’Beirne think McCain’s and Bush’s balancing acts show that the pro-life movement is still to be reckoned with. Others, like Novak and Margaret Carlson, think that GOP elites have shifted abortion rhetoric away from the hard-line stances taken by past Republican leaders and still followed by grassroots Christians.
ABC’s This Week spends most of its round-table discussing a focus group it conducted of conservative New Hampshire Republicans. Among the findings: The voters approve of George W.’s equivocations on the cocaine question–largely because they resent the perceived arrogance of the media; they cannot agree what the correct GOP stance on abortion and gun control should be; and they now hate Newt Gingrich and love Bush the Elder, whom they regret abandoning in ‘92. All the pundits on This Week agree that the focus group’s warm fuzzies for both Bushes underscore the GOP’s shift away from the fiery, Reagan-invoking rhetoric of the 1995 House. Ideological purity among the GOP is now “as antique as the free coinage of silver,” says George F. Will.
A Carlson Chronicle
Several weeks ago, Tucker Carlson told his fellow Late Edition panelists that the Kansas Board of Education’s decision to not mandate the teaching of evolution was sensible because it allowed for a “diversity of views” in the classroom. Fair enough. This week, Wolf Blitzer asks Carlson what he makes of Al Gore’s refusal to come out in favor of the mandatory teaching of evolution. You’d think Carlson would applaud Gore’s hesitancy to impose his own views on others. Instead, Carlson answers: “So [Gore]’s sort of a cool, rational techie on one side and kind of a snake-handling fundie on the other? I mean, this is politics. I mean, this is what I guess Gore feels like he has to do. I mean, it’s another sign of the fact that his campaign is thrashing about a bit.”
The Second Coming of John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin is both celebrated and notorious for ignoring the week’s Top Washington Issues and instead discussing his own idiosyncratic topics. He devoted this week’s show entirely to the social, political, and economic direction of the new millennium. (He even assembled a panel of three academic “experts” on millennial issues.) This is a fine subject to discuss, but it renders his “Predicting the Future in 10 Words or Less” format a bit ridiculous. Typical queries from this week’s show: “Over the upcoming millennium, will science and religion converge, or will they annihilate one another–and if so, which one will survive? Jerome?”; “Will the next millennium improve life for mankind–as the current millennium has done–or will it end progress and impose restraints? Richard?”
John McLaughlin on Post-Fin de Siècle Alienation
If McLaughlin’s maverick tendencies occasionally produce madness, they can also produce genius (at least as far as chat TV goes). Take this piece of oratory–from a McLaughlin voice-over–delivered in his trademark stentorian slur: “When Jan. 1 rolls around, revelers will find that their lives, their loves, are no different–after all this expense–than they were the day before. In fact, some people will see all those zeroes behind the 2 in 2000 as a Triple Nothing Burger. So, beware the post-partum millennial blues.”
