Correspondence
Correspondence IT'S THE REGIME, STUPID THE DISSENT of my colleague William Reinsch from the findings of the U.S.-China Security Review Commission is quoted by Tom Donnelly in "China Without...
...The president went to China and has met with the leadership more than once—is there even one line in the press or other transcripts showing he raised this concern...
...Labash finds that Townsend "is perhaps the nicest person I've ever encountered in her line of work...
...policy...
...Moreover, while the administration claims the moral high ground in defund-ing UNFPA, it cannot cite one instance in which it has raised these concerns with China...
...If Bottum is correct that this is a "matter of principle," the principle guiding the administration's actions is that coercion is acceptable and worthy of U.S...
...There they will find a remarkable collection of letters over Reinsch's signature objecting in various ways to sanctions against Iran, Syria, Sudan, Cuba, North Korea, and others, even including nuclear proliferators...
...TAMARA COFMAN WITTES Director of Programs The Middle East Institute Washington, DC...
...the real story is speculating how much longer a man with Powell's integrity can stomach being front-man to views so at odds with his personal beliefs...
...The caricature needlessly cheapened Matt Labash's fine writing...
...Second, MEI does not lobby...
...RICHARD DURANT Grosse Pointe, MI MORE KENNEDYS MATT LABASH STATES in "The Next Kennedy" (August 5) that Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was the "only Kennedy to lose an election...
...Where he has been forced to articulate issue positions, he has most often taken predictably liberal ones, such as resisting business tax cuts and suggesting the repeal of "portions" of President Bush's tax cuts for individuals...
...We are an American membership organization, founded in 1946 by George Camp Keiser, an architect, and Christian Herter, who went on to become secretary of state...
...It is unfortunate that The Weekly Standard so thoughtlessly printed such a grossly erroneous description of a venerable American institution...
...and Chinese geopolitical interests in the region will diverge regardless of what kind of government China has"—an idea which, unfortunately, has some real currency in Washington...
...All three words of this description are incorrect...
...Every other journalist in the country appears to have seen through Powell's remarkable catharsis...
...Furthermore, he attacked primary opponent Ken Bentsen for pro-free trade positions...
...Did it not occur to Bottum that Powell's abrupt about-face was ordered by the White House...
...UNFPA is defunded because it spends $3.5 million of non-U.S...
...Senate in Texas opposes Priscilla Owen's nomination to the Fifth Circuit ("The Willful Majority," August 5...
...Stands for Unconscionable" (August 5), J. Bottum praises Colin Powell's integrity in eliminating the U.S...
...Do we have to reinvent the wheel every four years...
...RICHARD S. MOSS Portland, OR THE MATT LABASH PIECE on Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was penetrating and extremely informative...
...The total decline in the market correlates with the federal government's growth in number of regulations, in size and in cost...
...Our staff includes WASPs, along with African, Italian, Arab, and Jewish Americans...
...PETER J. PURDY President, U.S...
...Growth of the government has been worsened by the policies of the "compassionate conservatives" in the administration...
...Thanks to them, any attempt to soothe the investor now unsettles him even more...
...First, the institute is not in any sense or manner Saudi...
...His opposition to Owen, however, is perhaps the clearest signal yet of the forces with which Kirk would stand in Washington...
...leave something out...
...Furthermore, suppose for the sake of argument that Reinsch is correct and our strategic interests will "inevitably" diverge...
...So my thanks to Donnelly for italicizing the fundamental fact that when it comes to China, "It's the regime, stupid...
...It was 1968, and Robert Kennedy, just a few days before his assassination in Los Angeles, lost to fellow Democrat Eugene McCarthy...
...Then surely some caution is in order about China's military buildup and our contribution to it...
...Given the current logjam blocking President Bush's appellate nominees, there may be no better example than this race of the principle that elections have consequences...
...WILLIAM FERRILL Carrollton, TX IT'S ALMOST AS IF THE WEEKLY STANDARD held a contest to find the most unflattering cover image of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend—and Zak pullen won (August 5...
...Committee for the U.N...
...JOHN ZINZI Olean, NY NOT A SAUDI FRONT I WRITE TO CORRECT the erroneous characterization of the Middle East Institute found in stephen schwartz's August 5 article, "Held Hostage in Riyadh...
...The worst error in his dissent, I believe, is the view that "U.S...
...But his donor list includes denizens of the liberal establishment such as Ted Kennedy, Tom Daschle, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Al Gore...
...But didn't James K. Glassman and John R. Lott Jr...
...The administration's hand-picked investigation team could find no evidence of UNFPA's involvement in China's coercive practices and recommended a release of the embargoed U.S...
...The administration appears to have fallen under the spell of the GOP's religious zealots, who ironically have no moral qualms about telling lies that cost real lives...
...There must be some politicians out there who do not lie, cheat, and steal by trumping up a race card in order to win an election, as Townsend helped to do against Sauerbrey in 1998 and will potentially do again against Ehrlich this year if the race stays close...
...Population Fund New York, NY REINVENTING THE WHEEL I AM GLAD to see that someone is finally willing to recognize the elephant in the living room ("The Dow of Congress," August 5...
...In an offhand phrase, schwartz refers to the institute as a "saudi lobbying front...
...Bottum continues his review by praising the administration for adhering to the principle that no support should go to an agency implicated in China's coercive population policy...
...No, there is nothing, because rather than raise a sticky issue with the Chinese, it is easier to kick around a third party—at the expense of health service for women all over the world...
...Conservatives across America had better pay attention to and invest in the Texas U.S...
...Happily, history since 1989 has disproved that claim and today's Russia, while not perfect, is certainly a great improvement...
...One might recall the photographs of Robert Kennedy on that fateful trip jogging along the Oregon coast with his dog...
...Let's dwell on this plot twist for a moment...
...surely we could do better...
...Assertions like Reinsch's for China were made regularly about the USSR years ago: that Russia's cultural inheritance somehow gave Moscow no alternative to building missiles, imprisoning dissenters, and maintaining an empire...
...Meanwhile, the administration hands $14 million over to the Ministry of Health, which is directly involved in those same coercive practices...
...We host a 25,000-volume research library and scholars-in-resi-dence, teach Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish to 400 students annually, publish a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, and host lectures and conferences on politics, economics, and social trends in the Middle East from Morocco to Pakistan...
...But even the existence of a UNFPA "slip up" is questionable in this case...
...Our simple aim is to fulfill our mission of improving understanding between all the peoples of the Middle East and the West...
...Indeed, he has raised scads of money from some of the very liberal interest groups who oppose Owen's nomination, such as plaintiffs' lawyers and unions...
...support...
...That nominee, former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk, has kept the race close so far by avoiding issue stands and touting his work on big-ticket civic projects with select members of the Dallas business community...
...Bottum concludes with a swipe at UNFPA itself, suggesting that it may not be "an admirable bureaucracy that just slipped up in China...
...However, a Kennedy did once lose a primary election—in Oregon...
...We enjoy financial and personal support from Americans, Israelis, and Arabs...
...If the Republicans in the White House and in Congress really want to create new jobs they need only end the double taxation on corporate dividends, and then leave the economy alone...
...Senate race to ensure that Terry Eastland does not have to write more editorials excoriating the Judiciary Committee after November...
...If Russia has choices so does China, and being friends with the United States is one of them...
...The bear market didn't just begin in June or July of this year...
...ARTHUR WALDRON Commissioner U.S.-China Security Review Commission Washington, DC MESS WITH TEXAS AN ITEM that should not go unnoticed in Terry Eastland's forceful critique of the Democratic majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee is his note that the Democratic nominee for U.S...
...We are a 501 (c)(3) charitable educational organization...
...Was this principle on vacation one week prior to the UNFPA decision when our Department of Health and Human Services gave $14 million to China's Ministry of Health, the agency actually responsible for implementation of China's coercive practices...
...contribution...
...While calling Reinsch "a principal architect of and apologist for the Clinton administration's China and trade policies" is surely an exaggeration, readers may still find interest in a visit to the website of USA*Engage, a business-funded lobbying group (see www.usaen-gage.org...
...We are multicultural, perhaps, but we are not Saudi...
...It began long before September 11...
...Finally, MEI is a front for no individual, country, or interest...
...funds in China trying to move the country away from coercive population control measures...
...Correspondence IT'S THE REGIME, STUPID THE DISSENT of my colleague William Reinsch from the findings of the U.S.-China Security Review Commission is quoted by Tom Donnelly in "China Without Illusions" (July 29...
...Bottum omits this inconvenient fact...
...One phrase, however, I found somewhat disturbing...
...JOHN SEPEHRI Dallas, TX HITTING BOTTUM IN HIS AUGUST 5 ARTICLE, "U.N...
...contribution to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), notwithstanding the secretary of state's strong prior support...
...Indeed, our charter explicitly forbids us from taking positions on matters of U.S...
...NARAL has promised Kirk aid as well...
Vol. 7 • August 2002 • No. 47
