The Week

The announcement on November 5 that Ronald Reagan is mortal is one more example of the Big Lie by Democratic technocrats. It is appropriate that three days later, the electorate repudiated that attempt at mischievous disinformation.

He’s a “bombthrowing-backbencher,” a “legislative bombthrower,” “ruthless,” a “moral authoritarian,” “looking at a more scientific, more civil way of lynching people,” a “carnivore,” “voracious,” “mean,” “mean, mean as hell.” Who—or what—is this? Saddam Hussein, maybe, or one of the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park? No, it’s just Newt Gingrich, symbol of the incoming Republican congressional majority, as he was described in the couple of weeks on either side of the election by such disinterested news sources as Time, the New York Times, and National Public Radio. All in all, analyst L. Brent Bozell III estimates, references to explosives were the most favored cliché among reporters writing on Mr. Gingrich. The media sought desperately for signs of dangerous radicalism to scare the public with. What they came up with, apart from the terrifying adjectives, was typified by an article in the Washington Post, “Speaker-to-Be Lobs a Few More Bombs.” The “bombs” included a remark by Mr. Gingrich that it would be “very, very dumb” of President Clinton to block conservative legislation, since the Senate will “control every [executive] appointment” while the House will “control appropriations.” Mean, ruthless, carnivorous Newt! We see now why the media are so alarmed. If Republicans lead the nation, the media elite, by definition, does not.

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The announcement on November 5 that Ronald Reagan is mortal is one more example of the Big Lie by Democratic technocrats. It is appropriate that three days later, the electorate repudiated that attempt at mischievous disinformation.

He’s a “bombthrowing-backbencher,” a “legislative bombthrower,” “ruthless,” a “moral authoritarian,” “looking at a more scientific, more civil way of lynching people,” a “carnivore,” “voracious,” “mean,” “mean, mean as hell.” Who—or what—is this? Saddam Hussein, maybe, or one of the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park? No, it’s just Newt Gingrich, symbol of the incoming Republican congressional majority, as he was described in the couple of weeks on either side of the election by such disinterested news sources as Time, the New York Times, and National Public Radio. All in all, analyst L. Brent Bozell III estimates, references to explosives were the most favored cliché among reporters writing on Mr. Gingrich. The media sought desperately for signs of dangerous radicalism to scare the public with. What they came up with, apart from the terrifying adjectives, was typified by an article in the Washington Post, “Speaker-to-Be Lobs a Few More Bombs.” The “bombs” included a remark by Mr. Gingrich that it would be “very, very dumb” of President Clinton to block conservative legislation, since the Senate will “control every [executive] appointment” while the House will “control appropriations.” Mean, ruthless, carnivorous Newt! We see now why the media are so alarmed. If Republicans lead the nation, the media elite, by definition, does not.