Mona Charen and I have done a new episode of Need to Know — go here. We range widely in this one, even more widely than usual. Let me count the ways (some of them).
We talk about Steve Scalise and his current trial. We talk about Bob McDonnell and his literal trial. Has he sold out his wife? Has he merely told the truth? Is there a difference?
We talk about Obama and NPR — a match made in heaven (or somewhere). There’s Cuba, and Mario Cuomo, and Jonathan Gruber. Is there anything more to say about Gruber? Oh, yes, there is. Mona has the goods. I hadn’t known.
Do you know that the head ayatollah in Iran tweeted “Black Lives Matter”? He did. In Iran, no lives matter. Do you know that Venezuela’s most famous ice-cream store had to suspend operations? Because there’s no milk? It did. Nice going, chavistas: You’ve deprived your country of so much, and now you’re down to ice cream.
Mona brings up two of the greatest heroes of our time: Valladares and Sharansky. I bring up a hero, whom I’ve nominated for Man of the Year (2015 — I’m done early).
For some reason, we discuss The Merry Widow, at the beginning and the end of the podcast. It was pretty much Adolf Hitler’s favorite work of art. But never mind. Lots of fine, even great, people have loved it too. Our podcast closes with the iconic duet, “Lippen schweigen,” sung by the golden-oldie pair of Rothenberger and Gedda.