One Enchanted Evening Celebrating the Bush Inauguration in civilized style
Mitchell, Amy K.
national life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount, the words of the Koran, and the varied faiths of our people." This must be the first time a president has adverted to the words of the...
...Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio's secretary of state who is planning a gubernatorial run in 2006, spoke of the importance of free elections and received a resounding ovation...
...Those Clinton-era balls had special urgency, says one Committee member, given the "real beating" that Western civilization took in those years...
...Chris Shays...
...With the demise of Old Europe, it is up to the United States to preserve the tenets of Western Civilization...
...Among those spotted were Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, former Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson, the Honorable Bob Barr, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, New York Times columnist David Brooks, and media personalities Lawrence Kudlow, John McLaughlin, and Kate O'Beirne...
...Paul did with the pagan Greeks, it's even a way to gain a hearing on Judeo-Christian concepts of liberty," he said...
...There was an echo of 1981 when Judge William P. Clark, who served his old friend Ronald Reagan as Secretary of the Interior and National Security Adviser, appeared in a special video tribute to the 40th President...
...Men dressed in tuxedos and ladies wore dresses of rose, champagne, and classic black, some of whom were admirably adorned in mink...
...The media used to deride George Bush Sr...
...The governor from the Empire State was rumored to have hit more Inaugural balls than President Bush, who only made it to ten...
...They deride George Bush Jr...
...American Spectator publisher Alfred Regnery was Master of Ceremonies and led the evening's long list of distinguished speakers...
...The Founding Fathers, whose first war on foreign soil was to battle African pashas sinking infidel American ships, would probably have been surprised to hear that the words of the Koran supported rather than threatened America's national life...
...Later in the night, New York Governor George Pataki appeared, perhaps to woo backers for a 2008 presidential run...
...This is a wise way for our country to build bridges of understanding to the Islamic world, and like St...
...A bitter former Jimmy Carter aide who said to the New York Times that if his old boss had delivered Bush's address he would "have been torn apart by Republicans for being naive and idealistic" is probably right: it is hard to imagine a liberal getting away with placing the words of the Koran on the same level as the truths of Sinai...
...Held at the former Andrew Carnegie Library in D.C., the ball maintained a tradition begun in 1981 with the first Inauguration of President Ronald Reagan, and which even continued when Bill Clinton was inaugurated and re-inaugurated...
...Tenor and SFC Antonio Giuliano of the United States Army Chorus, who sang a cappella "Amazing Grace" at President Reagan's funeral service in Simi Valley, graced the audience with a solo rendition of "God Bless America...
...Amy K. Mitchell is managing editor of The American Spectator...
...And so a presidential Inauguration that began as an occasion of national unity descended into disunity, as liberals branded the president a fascist even as he spoke more about freedom and democracy than Woodrow Wilson could have ever dreamed...
...This must be the first time a president has adverted to the words of the Koran in an Inaugural address...
...The Committee for Western Civilization is dedicated to establishing a deeper understanding of the ideas that sustain our civilization...
...But apparently Bush is determined to reform Islam through rhetoric—keep calling it peaceful until it becomes so...
...Bush is beating them at their own game and they don't like it...
...Not to mention Bush's gratuitous reference to the baggage of "racism," a politically correct throwaway line if there ever was one...
...George Neumayr is executive editor of The American Spectator...
...The Wall Street Journal called the ball "the place to he...
...The party overflowed the three stories of the library and abounded with American Spectators past and present: Andrew Ferguson, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., George Neumayr, John Fund, Shawn Macomber, Sam Dealey, Richard Miniter, and William McGurn, who is now chief speechwriter to President Bush...
...Rev...
...32 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR March 2005 J The Honorable Bob Barr and R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr...
...Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council and a former board member of the Evangelical Church Alliance, praised the president for being "wise as a serpent," in Jesus Christ's words...
...for a lack of "vision...
...Hank McKinnell, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, recounted a moving story of visiting a colleague at Walter Reed Army Medical Center—a most serious reminder that freedom isn't purchased for free...
...In other words, through events and lectures, the Committee introduces class and civility into society again...
...Western Civilization is under pressure, but it is because of this Committee that it survived the 1990s and that we are celebrating here today," Regnery said...
...This was followed by a moment of silence and a toast...
...Judge Loren Smith and Alfred Regnery ›ce ce 0 0 X LL 0 >cc 7 0 0 0 0. Governor George Pataki and Grover Norquist THE commirrEE for Western Civilization's seventh Inaugural Ball, entitled "Salute to Public Service" and celebrating the second Inauguration of President George W. Bush, was one of the more anticipated events of the Washington season...
...The left, always ready to remake religions and nations themselves according to their own predilections, don't care to see Republican presidents pursue similar ambitions...
...It was one enchanted evening...
...Hank McKinnell, chairman and CEO of Pfizer --44110°' I 41tEjarEPECTATOR 33 Friends of Rep...
...for having a surfeit of one...
...The Koran contains words directly reflecting Biblical material...
...For a press corps so eager to catch Bush out as proselytizer, they haven't yet noticed that Bush is in effect Christianizing Islam through redefinition, reading Christian content into its words so as to change the way in which Muslims understand them...
Vol. 38 • March 2005 • No. 2
