Editorials/Swaggart's Sweat/Carter and Iran-Contra
Tyrrell, R. Emmett Jr.
EDITORIALS SWAGGART'S SWEAT T hose of us who have turned our 1 televisions to the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart and admired his prodigious capacity to sweat have further grounds for admiration, for we have...
...12-15 million deal for hostages...
...Yet, notwithstanding my admiration for his art, I will not classify the Rev...
...If you think with questions—repetitive questions, I Sick's revelation erroneous let me direct might add—as to when he knew of the you to the horse's mouth, as the phrase arms-for-hostages deal with Iran and has it...
...That is to say, Iran, a chronicle of the Carter Admini- military equipment...
...During his recent apologies for that mysterious scortatory adventure that brought him down his tear ducts produced a steady flow sufficient to soak his face, his shirt, and his clip-on tie...
...There don I chanced upon a television inter-the critics will discover something they view of Jimmy Carter by David Frost, all apparently have forgotten...
...Perhaps it is time for Bush to put questions to those who question him...
...Then they gotthemselves martyred...
...Presently the Rev...
...There is a recklessness and a low-down meanness about the Rev and some of his associates that is best kept out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue...
...the pretensions of the political divine would be intolerable...
...As Irving Kristol pointed out a decade ago, the American system has made good on its promises of material plenty and political freedom...
...Swaggart will return as a supeAdapted from RET's weekly Washington Post column syndicated by King Features...
...We can believe or disbelieve Bush's oft-repeated explanation of the meeting, but have the media come up with anything new here...
...After all, most of these critics are advocates of negotiating with any tyrant facing the United States under almost any circumstance...
...T will be persuaded by the Rev...
...Surely there must be some kids in the audience who note that their celebrated guest would be washing dishes for a living were it not for his adventures in sordidness...
...The pretensions of ordinary politicians are oppressive enough...
...Americans are especially given to inviting these reformed rascals into the classroom to pontificate to the young, most frequently on what is now called substance abuse...
...Conservatives in Washington such as Richard Viguerie are now welcoming the Rev...
...The Biblical story of the prodigal son is well known, and we all are obliged to forgive repentant sinners...
...Of the media, particularly Dan Rather, he might ask: Why do they keep bringing up as hot news Bush's meeting in Jerusalem with Amiram Nir...
...Rather it is a new phase in his charlatanry, a phase of phoniness that is increasingly prevalent, to wit: the rascal reformed and converted into a moral colossus...
...rior authority on vices that many of his paying customers have always been too principled or too intelligent to commit...
...All these questions could have been asked, and some were, during the investigations...
...Well, boys, in the words of the poet S. Goldwyn, "include me out...
...Moreover, he has answered that though slow to hear of it he "supported" the President's decision...
...Yet, as all the enrages of our various liberation movements make clear, America has not been able to provide its citizenry with a sense of by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr...
...A role model who always had the strength to reject the allures of vice is almost certainly a safer bet to persuade the young against folly than the reformed rascal with his lurid past...
...stration's dealings with Iran by a for- What induced me to look all this up mer National Security Council member was that last November while in Lon-responsible for those dealings...
...The sanctimony 8 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1988 of that answer inspired me to inspect the historic record, and, lo, the gods put into my soft, scholarly hands Sick's useful book...
...Jimmy Swaggart and admired his prodigious capacity to sweat have further grounds for admiration, for we have now seen him bawl...
...The early apostles impoverished themselves by preaching the gospel...
...Swaggart's performance as an act of contrition...
...Why educators favor this tactic I cannot fathom...
...Robertson deserve so little encouragement...
...The Iranians did not re-been hectoring candidate George Bush spond to this ransom...
...Swaggart's tears of repentance if he does the decent thing and retires from public life completely...
...but only in modern America does the repentant sinner promptly hang out a shingle, becoming a consultant on human frailty based on his own history of deviancy...
...Why, if Hamilton is "unclear" about Bush's role, was he not asking about it months ago...
...The meeting was revealed last spring in the Tower Commission report...
...Politics and religion are provinces abounding with frauds...
...V- et now Iran-contra is again in the 1. news, though it is not Ronald Reagan who is being hectored but George Bush...
...During his October 28 presidenwhether he approved of it, I have a sug- tial debate President Carter stated, "If gestion...
...That is the business of religion and philosophy...
...Perhaps the reason the Iran-contraversy has never engaged more than the mild interest of the American people is that they smell the hypocrisy of the Administration's critics...
...That strikes me as curious...
...Carter diswarriors in return for the American paraged the Reagan Administration's hostages imprisoned in our Embassy...
...Swaggart has always been a dubious defender of virtue...
...For the answer to this question, consult the calendar...
...Take a break from the inquisi- the hostages are released safely . . . we tion and read Gary Sick's All Fall would make delivery on those items Down: America's Tragic Encounter with which Iran owns...
...Though uneasy about allowing Israel "operational control" of it, he openly shared the President's responsibility for not recognizing that the deal was becoming an arms for hostages deal...
...He and the other poseurs to virtue who have recently been exposed have given religion enough embarrassing moments and in a time when the only untried emollient for the American spirit seems to be a dignified resort to things spiritual...
...moral satisfaction...
...Why the brouhaha now...
...It is explained in Looking Forward, Bush's autobiography published in September...
...The caucuses and primaries have begun, and it is open season on the front-runner...
...Bush might ask Representative Lee Hamilton, chairman of the House Iran-contra committee: If Bush's role in Iran-contra was so critical, why was this not brought up during the investigations or in his Majority Report...
...Bush might ask Senator Robert Dole: If, as he says, "serious questions" remain about Iran-contra, why does not he, as the most powerful Senate Republican, take those questions to the President...
...Robertson as the conservative leader of the future, the next Ronald Reagan...
...Swaggart got himself a $2.4 million bungalow, limousines, and a private jet...
...We red-blooded Americans know that the Reagan Administration made a mistake, but we recognize it as being precisely the same policy mistake that many of his critics champion...
...The Vice President was not pursued by burning questions months ago when various investigative reports regarding Iran-contra came out, but he is now...
...The Rev...
...CARTER AND IRAN-CONTRA rr o those critics and illustrious various types of aircraft in the Iranian 1 members of the media who have inventory...
...It is an absolutely capital idea to infuse ethics into our politics, but it is an even better idea to keep religion out...
...The Rev...
...All this he acquired by swiveling his hips while reading Scripture and denouncing other Bible-pounding humbugs as "pret-ty lit-tle boys with their hair done and their nails done, who called themselves preachers...
...This goes too far...
...Jackson and the Rev...
...The republic abounds with reformed rascals who have transformed past errancies into lucrative careers, for instance: the ex-drug addict, now lecturing others on the evils of addiction, or the ex-Watergate conspirator, now a specialist on the presidency...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1988 9...
...He The package included "approximately pointblank denied that he would ever $100 million worth of spare parts for have made such a deal...
...In fact, it is the same mistake Jimmy Cartercommitted in October 1980, though less expensive by $135 million...
...This is why the political campaigns of the Rev...
...The fraud who might prevail in both provinces will be an unsurpassed menace to freedom and to much else, for he will be claiming the sanctions of God and sanctions of Caesar...
...and there in London former President On October 11, 1980, Jimmy Carter Carter once again defied custom: for-approved shipment of a $150-million mer Presidents do not speak ill of in-military package to the Ayatollah's holy cumbents from foreign soil...
Vol. 21 • April 1988 • No. 4
