Ari Berman | The Nation
Why We Fight
The twin headlines on the front page of the Washington Post today, "Gonzales Defends Surveillance," and "Bush's Budget Bolsters Pentagon," made me think of Eugene Jarecki's stirring documentary about the military-industrial complex, Why We Fight.
Jarecki not only provides a historical overview of an arms buildup that dates back to President Eisenhower--who warned of the military establishment's "acquisition of unwarranted influence"--he shows how a lack of opportunities at home helps drive enlistment for foreign interventions abroad. Bush's appalling new budget will only exacerbate this trend by starving domestic programs, cutting taxes and boosting defense spending to a record $439.3 billion at a time of ever-increasing deficits. Defense spending has grown by 45 percent since Bush took office, accounting for more than half of all government programs. And that doesn't include the $120 billion needed this year to pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What has over half a trillion dollars bought in terms of America's security? Shoddy intelligence, quagmire in Iraq and a nucular (née nuclear) Iran? Bin Laden's still alive and Hamas is running Palestine.
Democrats (and a few sensible Republicans) are rightfully incensed about Bush's proposed spending and tax cuts. "More deficits, more debt, and more denial," said John Spratt, ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee. But these criticisms contain nary a peep about the size and scope of America's bloated and wasteful military budgets. Out in Abilene, Kansas, General Eisenhower is rolling over in his grave.
Boehner's Broken Promises
In his victory over Roy Blunt to replace Tom DeLay as House Majority Leader, John Boehner ran as the reformer. This weekend he hit the Sunday talk shows to explain just which reforms he had in mind.
Banning earmarks, as he promised to do during his campaign? "I don't know that it's appropriate to eliminate all of them," he told Tim Russert.
Banning privately-funded travel, as suggested by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert? "I've got my doubts about that."
Curtailing contact between lawmakers and lobbyists? "I've got a very open relationship with lobbyists in town."
Empowering the dormant House Ethics Committee? "I think the Ethics Committee process really, in fact, is back up, it's working. They know what the rules are, they interpret the rules."
Returning money from Jack Abramoff-related Indian tribes? "No. Those tribes gave money to my political action committee. It had nothing to do with Jack Abramoff...Some of his under--underlings worked with some low-level employees in my office."
Regaining the trust of the American people? On Fox News Sunday: "Taking actions to ban this and ban that, when there's no appearance of a problem, there's no foundation of a problem, I think, in fact, does not serve the institution well."
But enough about reform this and reform that. On to the other pressing issues Fox host Chris Wallace quizzed Boehner about:
WALLACE: I do have to ask you the one question that a lot of people asked me this week. How do you keep that tan?
BOEHNER: I was born dark, but I do like to play a little golf, and it's myescape from all of the pressures of my job.
Reformers yell fore!
Your New House Majority Leader
Rep. John Boehner, the Congressman of K Street, Sallie Mae, big tobacco and Jack Abramoff.
In other words, a fitting heir to Tom DeLay.
Buckley Hearts Osama
From the first item of National Review's "The Week" section, 2/13/06:
In Osama's latest tape, he touts an obscure left-wing American book and borrows lines from Michael Moore. We're beginning to think that when we find him, he'll be carrying a Nation tote bag.
Yep, there's no accounting for taste. But when Private Jonah Goldberg enlists for combat and finally nabs Osama, inside that stylish tote bag he'll also find this inspirational quote by none other than National Review patriarch William F. Buckley: "Senator Kerry said, on Sept. 20 [2004], that knowing what we know now, we'd have done better not to have invaded [Iraq]. I think he's right."
Snap!
President Bush's repeated jabs at isolationism in his State of the Union Address may have also been directed at the Buckleyites. "As a boy," writes The New Republic, "Buckley named his first sailboat Sweet Isolation."
Pro-Life Field Trip
There is currently a huge overturn-Roe v. Wade march outside my office on Capitol Hill, culminating at the Supreme Court. What's shocking is not the to-be-expected thousands of demonstrators marking the 33rd anniversary of Roe, nor the predictable signs: "Protect Life," "Abortion is Homicide," "Born and Reborn," yada yada yada. What's shocking is the number of young people in attendance, the new blood of the culture war--college students, teenagers, pre-teens, even six-year-olds holding signs with pictures of aborted fetuses. As a friend who teaches Sunday school to eighth graders said, "To them, this is a field trip." (For background, see our colleague Eyal Press's brilliant dispatch in the New York Times Magazine this week, "My Father's Abortion War.")
Where's Steny?
Notably absent from the Democrats much heralded unveiling of their new ethics and lobbying reform plan this week was Steny Hoyer, the number two House Democrat. Maybe that's because Hoyer's launched his own version of the Republican "K Street Project" so rightfully derided by many Democrats and good government-types. Back in May 2003, Roll Call reported that Hoyer "invited scores of business lobbyists to sit down with him in his Capitol Hill digs to discuss legislation, share information and just get to know him." The second phase of the outreach commenced this winter, when Hoyer and DCCC Chair Rahm Emanuel hit up lobbyists for '06 campaign contributions.
When he's not cozying up to K Street, the House Minority Whip's busy undermining Democratic calls for a speedy withdrawal from Iraq. After Jack Murtha dramatically broke with President Bush's Iraq policy in November, Hoyer issued a press release stating that a "precipitous withdrawal" of troops "could lead to disaster." When Murtha later gave an impassioned speech before the House Democratic Caucus "he was looking right at Hoyer," one Congressional aide told The Hill. The pro-war, pro-lobbyist routine has earned Hoyer plaudits from the likes of conservative columnist Bob Novak. Imitation, after all, is the highest form of flattery.
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