Maybe CBS should bring back Jimmy the Greek to fill in until Dan Rather recovers his composure.
This week’s populist dreamboat is Richard Gephardt, who has suddenly soared into the lead in the Iowa polls and, like most sudden front-runners, finds he has to start explaining things nobody paid attention to before. For instance, he’s the only Democratic candidate who had the good sense to vote against the last minimum-wage increase, an act he tries to excuse by saying the proposed increase was indexed to the cost of living (it wasn’t) and had a sub-minimum wage for young people (it didn’t). Gephardt also used to vote humanely on abortion: he had solid pro-life support through his first five congressional campaigns. “I strongly oppose abortion,” he wrote to Lifeletter in 1977, because “it constitutes destruction of human life. … I want to reassure you of my unwavering opposition to abortion.” Guess what he came out in favor of in 1986, just before he announced he’d seek the Democratic presidential nomination?
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