Scrapbook

...This happened because the administration realized, to paraphrase Cheney, that they had been at it for a few weeks, that the Taliban wasn't toppling, the Pashtuns weren't defecting, and, my gosh, the administration strategy up till then had been—well, "just dead wrong...

...The battle is being fought on many fronts...

...you're not doing enough...

...After a five-year lobbying effort by American Muslims, an "Eid stamp"— celebrating the Islamic calendar's two most important festivals, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha—went on sale at post offices across the country on September 1. Unfortunately, ten days later that...

...Rove Grover...

...Foer's reporting suggested that Rove was unhappy with Norquist...

...In fact, the Northern Alliance's string of victories—as they acknowledged—came thanks to the Bush administration's decision to change course in late October, ratchet up the bombing of Taliban front lines, and send in more Special Forces...

...Hat in hand, the postmaster general issued a press release confirming that his agency is "proud to feature the Eid stamp . . . in recognition of the many outstanding contributions of the Muslim community here in the United States and throughout the world...

...So what, really, is the feeling in the White House about that embarrassing post-attack meeting featuring President Bush and leaders of American Muslim groups who, as it turned out, had been less than unequivocal in rejecting terrorism...

...According to UPI, Rove signaled his continued affection for Norquist by "hugging him as they greeted at the pre-dinner cocktail party and singling him out for praise several times during his keynote address...

...Nattering Nabobs of Negativism According to a Gallup poll released last Wednesday, the media are the big losers so far in the war for public approval...

...you've been at it now for three or four weeks, and my gosh, the war is not over yet.'' Those who had raised such concerns, Cheney said, were "just dead wrong...

...And suddenly the big blue stamp with Arabic writing became almost as unpopular with postal customers as leaky envelopes with scary block writing...

...It's the holiday season, after all...

...But last week, a UPI wire story had Rove smacking down such "rumors" when he "appeared to go out of his way to embrace" Norquist at a dinner for the American Alternative Foundation, the former proprietor of the American Spectator...

...26 event for the White House...

...Tom Davis, who has no fewer than six mosques in his Virginia congressional district and who last year, when the Postal Service's Eid stamp was being unveiled, let loose this little beauty of confused ecumenical spirit: "This stamp is an appropriate symbol of the values American Muslims represent...

...The Scrapbook can confirm that Rove did in fact mention Norquist in his speech (though not several times), praising him for years of work advancing conservative ideas...

...When the Postal Service recently distributed advertising posters for its holiday stamps—and the Eid stamp wasn't on them—the AMC flooded USPS headquarters with angry letters...

...In the midst of this tolerance explosion, the American Muslim Council might seem a bit out of place...

...The American Muslim Council, for instance, has bestirred itself to repudiate terrorism only in general terms...

...So the AMC has sent out an action alert to its members urging them to buy extra Eid commemora-tives, since the stamp must be reissued three times in order for it to become a permanent fixture in the United States Holiday Collection...

...Before last week, the AMC had reserved its strongest and most specific words, instead, for Rep...

...Why shouldn't the prophet Muhammad...

...Norquist, who fancies himself a coalition-builder extraordinaire, has long plotted to bring American Muslims into the GOP fold and is widely believed to have helped coordinate the Sept...

...But, hey: That stuff happened, you know, more than two months ago, and perhaps it's time to let bygones be bygones...

...Rove didn't know about the unsavory past of the White House guests, Foer suggested, because Grover Norquist hadn't told him...

...This last, explained AMC executive director Aly Abuzaakouk, was "offensive to some in the Muslim community...

...It's odd to see a general service news source like UPI reporting such intraparty arcana as the current Norquist-ometer reading in West Wing offices...

...By Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby's reckoning, a feeble October 30 statement from the Muslim Public Affairs Council chiding the Taliban for its continued embrace of al Qaeda is the farthest any of the main American Muslim organizations has gone toward denouncing terrorists by name...

...I look forward to buying a whole sheet of them and sending them on my Christmas cards...

...September 11, Abuzaakouk tells the Kansas City Star, with no apparent consciousness of his own vulgarity, "has become a catastrophe for the stamps, too...

...To wit: mau-mauing the U.S...

...Soon enough, the New Republic's Frank Foer was reporting that top Bush adviser Karl Rove, confronted by a conservative activist about the Muslim leaders, had claimed ignorance: "I wish I had known before the event took place," he reportedly said...

...The president's September 26 photo-op became the focus of some discussion after The Scrapbook and others reported that several representatives of the groups present had refused to denounce terrorism, and in some cases, have even embraced it...

...And it worked...

...Postal Service into more vigorously promoting a stamp honoring Islam...

...Perhaps it was the indignity of trailing the Post Office that explains why Dick Cheney, like vice presidents before him, thought it was an opportune moment to go after the 43 percenters—"the Washington press" and "all of the pundits" and "the talking heads in Washington" and these "hand-wringers" who were saying "a week or two ago" that "it's not going to work...

...thing happened...

...It was a good applause line for his Chamber of Commerce audience, but as attacks on the media go, Cheney was dropping dumb bombs...

...Now the AMC has found an even bigger crusade, if you'll pardon the expression...

...Especially open-minded Scrapbook readers may wish to follow the example of Rep...

...About that Parody This week's Parody was first read last week at a roast in honor of a sometime and distinguished contributor to these pages, Robert D. Novak, who, we are pleased to say, received this year's National Press Club Fourth Estate Award for lifetime achievement in journalism...

...Before the organization became the purported moderate face of Islam, its officials were busy—on various undeniable, on-the-record occasions—expressing sympathy for the 1993 World Trade Center bombers and support for terrorist outfits like Hamas and Hezbollah...

...But one would assume wrong...

...Scrapbook Stamp of Approval After 5,000 Americans were killed by Islamic terrorists, one would assume that image-conscious home-front Islamic organizations like the American Muslim Council would find time in their busy schedules to denounce overseas Islamic governments that have abetted terrorism, while policing their own ranks for extremists...

...Kwanzaa and Daffy Duck have commemorative stamps, after all...

...If he is unhappy with Norquist, it looks like Rove isn't going to let on publicly...

...The news media brought up the rear with a 43 percent approval and 54 percent disapproval rating...

...John Cooksey (who indelicately warned airline passengers to be on the lookout for anyone wearing "a diaper on his head") and the nameless Pentagon bureaucrat who proposed naming the Afghanistan campaign "Operation Infinite Justice...

...George W. Bush's approval rating stood at 89 percent, followed by Secretary of State Colin Powell at 87, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at 80, Attorney General John Ashcroft at 77, the United States Postal Service at 77, and Vice President Dick Cheney at 75...