10/02/2003

The Ambassador’s Wife

The Denial came Monday and that’s really when the dance began.
A Washington scandal never gets its legs until there’s a good denial
out there. White House spokesman Scott McClellan issued The Denial,
which is too bad; it’s best if The Denial comes from the mouth of the
big guy himself.

Monday Mr. McClellan denied Karl Rove had anything to do with
exposing the identity of a covert CIA agent. Five years ago, Bill
Clinton, always ready to give the public want it wanted, delivered The
Denial himself. “I did not have sex with that young woman, Ms.
Lewinsky,” he said. Thirty years ago Watergate denials flew in several
directions, from “It’s just a second-rate burglary” to “I am not a
crook.”
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
09/25/2003

Relative Absolution

Is everything relative or are there absolute truths? It’s a good
question for our presidential pre-season, when we measure how short
each candidate falls from our absolute ideal. Relativity kicks in
during next year’s primaries, when we begin deciding Candidate A is
relatively better than Candidate B.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
09/18/2003

The Fourth Outcome

The scariest thing I heard last week was a radio interview with Princeton economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. Mr. Krugman said the federal deficit is growing so large and so quickly that one of three potential outcomes is nearly inevitable.

Outcome one – higher taxes. It’s fairly certain George W. Bush will not raise taxes, but the deficit may help bounce him out of office and it will fall to his successor to raise taxes, and that tax increase will have to be steep. Not only are there tens of billions in Iraq war debt, but also untold billions in taxes we have not collected from the rich since 2001 (before then, really, but it got much worse in 2001).
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
09/11/2003

Two Years later

Today is the second anniversary of the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center and many Americans will be visited again by the familiar but unwelcome tightness in the stomach, the perceptible acceleration of the pulse. The sound of an airplane passing overhead seems to jump at our ears. People are solemn and subdued.

The world did change two years ago; it has yet to change back. Someday, this phase of history will be over, but we’ll never get back to where we were. Perhaps the most significant thing that happened on September 11th was the creation of the potential for change. Much of the change has been unpleasant. Americans lost a sense of security we had assumed was our birthright; our façade of international omnipotence was shaken, but at the same time, a current of global goodwill surged toward America and Americans.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
09/04/2003

In For a Dime

Here’s more good news for the American taxpayer: Tuesday’s Washington Post reports that not only are foreign nations reluctant to send combat troops to Iraq, they’re now resisting the notion of sending money to help rebuild a nation that becomes more ravaged every day.

Since the bombing of its Baghdad headquarters two weeks ago, the UN has substantially reduced its presence in Iraq and with it, the primary conduit for international aid. European nations could contribute to the American-led reconstruction effort, but why should they?
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
08/28/2003

The Holy Grid

And in those days, a great darkness fell across the land and blackouts were many and the beer in all the taverns did grow warm. The ancient pipeline ruptured and spilled its precious liquid on the sands of the Arizona desert and the lines at gas stations of the southwest grew long and all across the land, the price of petrol spiked and even in faraway Vermont the price shot up by 15 cents a gallon in just two weeks, the steepest increase in memory the town crier said on tee vee.

And the pipeline grid was blamed and the electric grid was blamed and great was the mourning and weeping throughout the land. And the cries of the people were heard in the royal court at Havealot, where Sir Richard of Halliburton was reclining at the Crooked Table and Sir Richard called to his squire, Scooter, and told him to fetch his armor and saddle the steed Abraham.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
08/21/2003

No Way Out

Tuesday was not a good day. The Burlington morning newspaper waved a banner headline announcing IBM, the state’s largest employer, is cutting 500 jobs here. A chart accompanying the story showed IBM Vermont added 2,000 jobs during the eight years of the Clinton administration and every one of those jobs has disappeared in the 30 months George W. Bush has occupied the Oval Office.

Below the fold was a photo of the flag-draped coffin of Private First Class Kyle Gilbert. Kyle was 20 years old, the fourth Vermonter and the 296th American to die in Iraq since March. Like many Vermonters, I shook my head at the news and went to work, happy to have a job but wondering why we are putting young people like Kyle in harm’s way.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)