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February 25, 2000 6:05PM
"LOTT OPPOSES LATINO JUDGE"
It was a small item in the Washington Post's "Washington in Brief" column,
but what a contemptible headline. Not "Lott Opposes Clinton Judge" or
"Lott Opposes Liberal Judge." The most important fact about this guy,
according to the Post, is that he's Latino. The story began with, "Senate
Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said yesterday he will oppose the
nomination of a Hispanic judge. . ." No doubt Lott used just those words:
"I will oppose the nomination of this Hispanic judge." The Washington
Times, which is supposed to provide balance to the Post's liberalism, was
no better: "Lott says he won't back Hispanic's nomination" was the
headline it ran over an equally bad Associated Press story.
USA Today played the story right in its own short write-up, mentioning
that Clinton nominee Richard Paez is Hispanic only in the penultimate
paragraph and in the context of the administration's attempt to play the
race card. Since most of the media will irresponsibly play that card
themselves, Lott might be better off declaring his opposition to all of
Clinton's judicial nominees, whatever their race. Such a course would
present new problems of its own, of course, but at least nobody would be
able to suggest that Lott's picking on Hispanics.
DEBT RELIEF THE RIGHT WAY
The strong economy has given Washington an extra $23 billion to play with
in fiscal year 2000. Senator Rod Grams and congressman Pat Toomey have
introduced a bill — they call it "Save Our Surplus," or S.O.S. — to devote
the money to debt reduction rather than see it be spent. The bill includes
exceptions in the unlikely event the money were used for tax relief or
reform of Medicare or Social Security. Debt reduction is a bad idea when
the alternative is a tax cut or increased defense spending. But when, as
here, the alternative is another bloated "emergency supplemental"
appropriations bill, it's a good one.
President Clinton, of course, also wants to spend the money and, of
course, his plan to do so is crafty. Last year, Congress used some
accounting gimmicks to increase spending while balancing the budget on
paper: Some spending was counted against the budget of 2001 instead of
2000. Now that the extra $23 billion has turned up, Clinton wants to undo
those gimmicks — that is, to take $10 billion from the 2000 surplus and
spend it in the 2001 budget. Getting rid of the gimmicks, in other words,
is itself a gimmick to increase spending.
CATCH THE FEVER
"I started thinking about what it must feel like to work in a campaign or
an administration on a victory night. . . . To know that you're going to
get your chance to make history. That must be an awesome feeling. In a
sense, that feeling undergirds life in Washington and makes it more
meaningful than life elsewhere. It touches the people in government
directly, but it touches the rest of us who talk, write, lobby, and
petition."
— David Brooks, senior editor at the Weekly Standard, writing
in Slate.
WINTERING OVER
Tomorrow, the U.S. Virgin Islands holds a GOP primary, and Puerto Rico
follows on Sunday. Wonder which political reporters convinced their bosses
to let them cover those events?
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Updated By:
Ramesh Ponnuru - Senior Editor
John J. Miller - National Political Reporter
Kate Dwyer - Editorial Associate
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