The good news is that current newsmakers Eason Jordan, Howard Dean, and Condi Rice have virtually nothing in common. Jordan, the CNN news executive who slandered the U.S. military without a shred of evidence to back his claims, should be out of a job. Dean, the heir-apparent to chair the Democratic National Committee, shouldn’t even be considered for that job. And Rice, out barnstorming with the president’s foreign-policy message, should already be lauded for the brilliant job she’s doing as our new secretary of State.
Let’s begin with worst of the lot and work our way to the best.
Jack Kelley, in his column in the Toledo Blade, outlines L’Affaire Jordan very neatly: “Mr. Jordan told a panel that the US military had killed a dozen journalists in Iraq, and that they had been deliberately targeted. When challenged, Mr. Jordan could provide no evidence to support the charge, and subsequently lied about having made it, though the record shows he had made a similar charge a few months before, and also earlier had falsely accused the Israeli military of targeting journalists.”
If the story is correct, CNN should have already fired Jordan. If the story is not true, Jordan or CNN must provide the counter-evidence.
This episode is worse than Rathergate. Dan Rather, Mary Mapes, and others at the CBS Evening News are biased liberal journalists. But I have no reason to believe that Rather is unpatriotic. And yet, Rather & Co. were dismissed. The fact that Jordan still has a job says very bad things about CNN.
Moving from worst to pretty bad, we have the probability that Howard Dean will chair the DNC. Liberal columnist Jonathan Chait calls this “a suicidal selection,” writing that Dean would be a disastrous manager. As the leading anti-war candidate in the Democratic presidential horserace, Dean initially raised an impressive $50 million. Then, after losing the Iowa caucuses to Sen. John Kerry, he went virtually broke as his campaign imploded.
But let me add a more simple reason why Dean should never chair the DNC: He is not from the South and has no pull in the South.
In their White House bids, Al Gore and John Kerry were destroyed in the pro-military, anti-tax, culturally conservative South. Not merely the Deep South, but the border states as well. Meanwhile, Democratic senators, House members, and governors have been crushed in a series of Republican landslides in the Southern states.
The Dems will not reclaim the White House until they start the process of electoral recovery in the South. This has long been former Sen. Zell Miller’s message to his party. At the very least the next DNC chair should be a moderate from the Rocky Mountain West, someone with good communication skills who can reach out to Southern voters. But if Dean, another Northeast liberal, rises to the top, the headline becomes clear: “Dems to South: Drop Dead.”
Thank goodness for Condi, who is brightening up the news these days. Reports of Rice’s recent trips to London, Europe, Turkey, and Israel show clearly that she is promoting President Bush’s vision of freedom, democratization, and liberty. She has chided Russian backsliding; has cited Ukraine, Afghanistan, Georgia, and Iraq as places where we are building the institutions of democracy; and has said that America and Europe should work together in “the great cause of the spread of freedom and liberty.”
Colin Power wasn’t much of a public diplomat. He didn’t travel often and seldom spoke the language of freedom and democracy. But now the nation’s chief diplomat appears to be in full support of presidential policy. Bravo, Ms. Rice!
As we know, Bush singled out Syria as a world-class troublemaker and safe-harborer of terrorists in his inaugural speech. He said the situation is unacceptable, and if it doesn’t change quickly, action will be taken to correct it. What kind of action? The mainstream media is focused on Iran, where military action is not in the short-run cards, according to Rice and others. But no one in officialdom has similarly ruled out retaliation for Syria’s bad behavior.
Which brings us to our bonus newsmaker, General Wayne Downing, U.S. Army (retired) and former commander-in-chief of U.S. Special Ops. Downing asserted last week on CNBC’s Kudlow & Cramer that Syria is clearly a base for insurgent operations. Consequently the U.S. must keep up political pressure. But he also expressed his view that before long we will see cross-border surgical air strikes against bases in the country. He also believes that U.S. troops will be part of the operations.
As far as I know, no other retired four-star has made this forecast. But Gen. Downing is a straight shooter. His views should be taken quite seriously. After all, isn’t this an idea whose time has come?
— Larry Kudlow, NRO’s Economics Editor, is host with Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Kudlow & Cramer and author of the daily web blog, Kudlow’s Money Politic$.