Scrapbook
Scrapbook Six More Years for Jesse Helms? Conservative icon Jesse Helms of North Carolina, the senator who drives liberals nuts, is inching his way toward running for reelection in 2002. Helms,...
...If it didn't make any difference what I did," the senator says, he'd retire to his vacation home at Lake Gaston in his home state "and look at water...
...Said a CBS spokesman: "Our standards don't allow correspondents to appear at political fund-raisers...
...more limited exposure to the great man could be purchased for smaller denominations...
...Helms, by the way, hasn't mellowed in recent years...
...Come hell or high water, the senator says, Bush should give Taiwan all the military assistance it needs...
...Coming as this does from the paranoid Communists of Pyongyang, for whom the Cold War has never ended, we can't think of a higher recommendation...
...Please join us for an Evening with Dan Rather," read the invitation, which was mailed to 1,000 Democrats in the Austin area...
...That's very much in my mind...
...Helms says he won't run again if his wife opposes it...
...Tickets to a private reception beforehand went for $1,000...
...Some of his writings have provoked the Joe Conason Democrats...
...Said Dan himself: "I take full responsibility for it...
...I think too much of this country to play it from a political standpoint," he says...
...The cure for our defense decline will neither be quick nor cheap...
...Rather's "mistake" in Austin was merely that he made it official: His political sympathies are now an indisputable matter of record...
...Now, one of the unusual features of American culture these days is that the moment a public figure announces he's "taken responsibility" for some mistake, he no longer has to take responsibility for it—a trick introduced by Janet Reno after the incineration in Waco and perfected by President Clinton...
...Giving McCain His Due THE SCRAPBOOK has felt compelled to criticize John McCain's ill-advised campaign reform schemes in recent weeks, but our fair and balanced character requires us to offer praise when it is due...
...Otherwise, Bozell said, drawing a particularly unpleasant word picture, "Rather's lips will forever drip with hypocrisy...
...He performed a public service...
...He says the Chinese, by making a stink over the downed surveillance plane, are trying to dissuade President Bush from selling high-tech military equipment to Taiwan...
...has the global responsibilities that come with being the lone superpower...
...Rather Makes It Official Last week the Washington Post revealed (on the front page, no less) that Dan Rather, newsman, had attended a Democratic party fund-raiser in Austin, Texas, as the star attraction...
...The proper solution should not only shore up the services' immediate needs, but should also address the modernization and personnel problems caused by years of chronic under-funding...
...By raising money for the Democrats, in other words, Dan didn't make a mistake...
...The fight for an adequate and responsible level of defense spending is an issue on which conservatives can wish McCain a disproportionate level of success...
...Even the poor flacks at CBS will at last be able to abandon their increasingly embarrassing defenses of his journalistic objectivity...
...He says he'll decide over the summer...
...Helms cites a number of reasons for seeking another term...
...I don't want anything bad to happen to this country because of anything I did or did not do...
...In fact, he told some friends several years ago that was his intention...
...Said a Democratic functionary: "It was a very successful event...
...But our favorite response to his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week was this rant from the North Koreans' official news agency: In his testimony, [Bolton] made arrogant remarks that he would adopt a more realistic and tough policy toward the nuclear weapon and ballistic missile issue of North Korea, thus slandering the political system of [North Korea] and putting pressure upon it...
...Of course, it's hard to know what the appropriate consequence of Rather's particular mistake would be...
...Helms says he doesn't "want to leave the Senate in the lurch," and by the Senate, he means Senate Republicans...
...The appointment of Bolton clearly indicates that the Bush administration's plan to revive the Cold War is taking concrete shape...
...A veteran of both the Reagan and Bush I administrations, Bolton is superbly qualified for the position...
...So we are pleased to highlight McCain's speech on the floor of the Senate last week, during the budget debate, on behalf of the one cause that received perhaps the least atten-tion—the first responsibility of the national government, defense...
...Indefatigable media watchdog Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center piggybacked the Post story with a press release "demanding" that Rather apologize at once, on the air...
...Helms has still another reason for seeking reelection—the patriotic one...
...The two Helms mentions are Paul Wellstone and Teddy Kennedy...
...I don't want to sound pious now...
...On Israel, he wants the administration to support prime minister Ariel Sharon strongly...
...Ellis has already made his advice known...
...Tom, Peter—it's your turn...
...If his seat went Democratic, it might "tip the balance...
...Pyongyang Endorses John Bolton Distinguished foreign policy and election law expert John Bolton, an occasional contributor to these pages, has been nominated by George W. Bush to be undersecretary of state for arms control and international security...
...His remarks prove again that the Bush administration is persistently seeking its criminal aim to escalate the tensions on the Korean peninsula and harass Asia-Pacific peace and stability, pursuant to a more hostile policy toward [North Korea...
...Taking responsibility is the surest way to avoid having to face the consequences of one's mistakes...
...His on-air performances have established an impressively sustained pattern of bias—see the excellent and reliable website www.ratherbiased.com for example after example...
...His wife Dot "likes being here," he says...
...But surely it hasn't escaped the notice of anyone who's watched him over the course of his multi-decade career that Dan Rather prefers Democrats to Republicans...
...Only the U.S...
...But "the huge problem" if he retires is "the 50-50 thing" in the Senate...
...Helms, 79, was once thought certain to retire...
...It's run, Jesse, run...
...A Democrat "might have a good chance" of capturing the seat Helms has held since 1972...
...Our foes can employ asymmetric forces against our weaknesses and achieve a disproportionate level of success...
...I don't want the Senate to fall into the hands of ultraliberals...
...Rising on behalf of an amendment to increase defense spending a modest $100 billion over the next ten years (an amendment that failed, incidentally), McCain said: The imperative for increasing military readiness and reforming our military is . . . strong...
...Helms likes Sharon, but admits, "I'm a Netanyahu man...
...On Cuba, he says the Bush administration "is going to stand with me" against normalization...
...Absent such considerations, Helms says he'd be happy to return to North Carolina full-time...
...Now, after recovering from knee surgery and pneumonia, he's inclined to run again...
...Two important players in Helms's decision are his wife and Tom Ellis, his friend, political adviser, and fellow conservative...
Vol. 6 • April 2001 • No. 30
