Begin with Carter? You know you love Carter, gotta have it/him. Okay: A reader wrote to say, “He reminds me of Ramsey Clark” — the ex-attorney general (LBJ) who goes around befriending and championing the worst (Saddam, Milosevic, etc.).

I say: Not yet, not yet — not that bad. But, if he has another ten years, possibly five: maybe.

‐The relationship between mainstream liberal Democrats and the radical Left is interesting — ought to be a book. Maybe there have been books. Obama is a friend of Billy Ayers, the Weather Underground terrorist. Ayers once said, “Guilty as sin, free as a bird. What a country, America!” During law school, Hillary was a summer associate at the firm of Robert Treuhaft, a Communist, like his famous wife, Jessica Mitford. Treuhaft’s was a hard-Left firm.

Now, people get over their radicalism, or at least many people do. Hell, half the founders of National Review were ex-Communists — and they were invaluable. But Hillary Clinton has clung to her collectivism, no matter what concessions she has had to make, politically. Is there any doubt that she would be known forthrightly as a socialist if she were European? Same with Democrats like her. It’s just that here, in the good ol’ U.S.A., our taxonomy is a little funny. (How can such illiberal people be called “liberals”?)

As you may have heard me say before, I never quite trust people who started out radical unless they pull a full Horowitz, as I call it. (And I’m referring to David, not Vladimir.) (Or Winona, who was born Horowitz, though she later became Ryder.)

(Incidentally, has there ever been a prettier girl?)

‐Okay, I’ll give you some Clinton — some Bill Clinton. You know you gotta have it/him. I was quite interested in an interview he gave, here. I was interested for one reason in particular: He used the phrase “upscale cultural liberals” (as distinct from lunch-bucket types). And, after the interview was over, he swore — he used the S-word (the one that rhymes with “chit”). The mike caught him.

I understand Oliver Stone’s making a movie showing George W. as a fearful cusser, among other things. I bet no president has cussed more fearfully than Clinton — including Truman and Jackson.

‐Have you seen what Zawahiri, the Qaeda No. 2, has called “the mainstay of war”? “Men and money.” Together, they are the mainstay of war, says Zawahiri. And he is disappointed in the Muslim performance: They have not flocked off to Iraq, for example, to prosecute the jihad. Too few people committing suicide attacks.

We often get signals that Qaedism is not exactly hot among Muslims. And that is something to cheer, or at least be glad of.

One more point about Zawahiri’s latest exhortations: He, and other Qaedists, say that the world is at war: radical Islam versus most everything else. Do we, on the most-everything-else side, recognize the same?

‐You know that China is the major backer of Sudan, which is to say, its genocidal regime in Khartoum. But do you know that China is also backing Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe? A Chinese ship recently docked in Durban, creating a controversy. The ship was loaded with weapons for Bob.

Just in case you thought that Sudan was the only African darling of China’s eye . . .

‐Wanted to circulate the name of Normando Hernández González, a Cuban political prisoner to whom horrible things have happened. This bulletin, if you can bear it, is from the Directorio Democrático Cubano in Florida (marvelous group, by the way):

Normando Hernández González, a young political prisoner and prisoner of conscience, was the victim of an attack committed with the complicity of State Security officers at Carlos J. Finlay military hospital. Hernández González has been hospitalized for seven months due to his serious medical conditions. The attack occured on Tuesday afternoon, April 14, 2008.
According to a telephone statement by Yaraí Reyes Marín, Hernández González’s wife, a common prisoner sentenced for having murdered a police officer attempted to strangle the political prisoner in the presence of four guards. A third prisoner unsuccessfully attempted to defend Hernández González. The guards who witnessed the event did not intervene, allowing the attack to take place . . .

Etc. This is just another day in the life of the greater Cuban gulag. But still: A day is sometimes worth looking in on, as we learned from that Solzhenitsyn novella.

‐In his column the other day, Ed Koch said something that arrested me. Maybe it will you too:

Before he was murdered by Islamic terrorists, journalist Daniel Pearl said, “My father is Jewish; my mother is Jewish; I am Jewish.” After he spoke those words, his captors decapitated him.
I believe Pearl’s words should become part of the Jewish prayer book and recited every day by Jews. I am not an observant Jew. But I love God and I believe God loves me. I attend synagogue on special occasions and always on the high holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. I have had Pearl’s last words carved into the tombstone which will adorn my grave upon my death . . .

For the complete column go here.

‐A reader writes,

Mr. Nordlinger,
I was in Philadelphia over the weekend and walked by an Obama supporter going door to door with leaflets which I am sure were promising “Change” and “Hope.” As I walked by the gentleman, I noticed his shoulder bag had Che Guevara’s face and name prominently displayed upon it. It was a Che murse (man-purse), so to speak.
Unfortunately, I appear to be the only person in America who goes through life sans camera phone, so I cannot provide any proof of this encounter. All I can tell you is the look of horror on my girlfriend’s face as I muttered, not so calmly, “Che Guevara?!?! You have got to be kidding me . . .”
I thought the Obama people had learned their lesson with their Che flag in Houston.

Consider this a three-in-one item: It is a Guevara item, an Obama item, and a language item — “murse”!

#JAYBOOK#

‐Do you care for some music? Me too. For a piece on recordings, published in The New Criterion, go here. Under consideration are the pianist Maurizio Pollini; the violinist Janine Jansen; and the cellist Matt Haimovitz.

For a review of the baritone Nathan Gunn in recital, go here. And for a review of the Artemis Quartet in concert, go here. Those reviews were published by the New York Sun.

‐When receiving junk mail — junk e-mail — I’m so happy to have the opportunity to “Unsubscribe.” But I think: “Hang on, I never subscribed in the first place!” I also love “Change your preferences” — like I ever expressed a preference for receiving this sh** (as President Clinton would say) in the first place!

‐Okay, I’m going to leave you with a dose of uplift — a shot of optimism. Needless to say, I didn’t write it. From a reader:

With all the turmoil, I think we are living in happy days. With all the yakking about McCain’s age, we see the arrival of a spectacular pontiff who, I bet, will soon be showing us what a centenarian can do. With all the grousing about Bush’s policy, we now have, with Berlusconi’s victory, a pro-American front across Europe. At home, the Democrats are eating each other. In heaven, WFB and Burke are listening to Haydn or Mozart while conversing about history and politics.

Have a great weekend, y’all.