Scrapbook
Scrapbook Me Too, Says Gephardt Al Gore having made the argument that really important issues like war should somehow be above politics, and Tom Daschle having seconded Gore's motion, it was...
...Later in December, Carter was still insisting a battle against Saddam Hussein would be "horrendous...
...Touchy, touchy...
...That, and not the decent respect owed to the civil rights movement, explains his unusual foray into movie criticism...
...was trying cultural criticism, with about as much success...
...A Chip Off the Old Block While Jesse Jackson was trying his hand at movie criticism, his son Rep...
...That would be the one where Eddie the Barber takes jabs at several sacred cows of the civil rights orthodoxy, including Rosa Parks, the NAACP and, yes, Jesse...
...In late 1990, just weeks before the war's air campaign began, Gephardt told CNN that if Bush didn't seek congressional approval, "the Congress has to reach for the only tool left to it, which is to cut off funding for the war...
...And in 1995, when Clinton sent troops into Bosnia—again, without congressional approval!—Gephardt was one of his biggest cheerleaders for an energetic executive branch...
...In fact, the specific complaint of the president that has given rise to so much Democratic heartburn is well worth an argument...
...of course the complete opposite of all these things happened, and the war was "horrendous" only for the swiftly routed Iraqi army...
...We need to take a deep breath...
...But we can assure him that audiences roar with laughter at the line...
...After all, he's hardly the only ex-president desperately seeking attention...
...If his comments ring familiar, that's because they are...
...This is not to say that Gephardt was a consistent noninterventionist...
...was asked about the mugging of Kansas City Royals first base coach Tom Gam-boa by two crazed fans—a father and son who leapt from the stands at Chicago's Comiskey Park and jumped Gam-boa before being gang-tackled by the entire Royals dugout...
...F— Jesse Jackson...
...He also co-sponsored a resolution to block military intervention and stick with sanctions against Saddam Hussein...
...We live in a violence-charged environment where almost all solutions result in some violent act, some desire to go to war, and we are not choosing peaceful resolutions to problems...
...he replies...
...What Gephardt doesn't mention is that he then did his best to make the Gulf War debate as political as possible...
...His career has survived any number of scandals, but laughter might do him in...
...In 1993, under President Clinton, Gephardt enthusiastically supported the president's decision to bomb Baghdad without congressional approval...
...On CNN's Talk Back Live, Jackson Jr...
...Well, why exactly...
...We're Laughing At You, Not With You The surprise movie hit of the fall is Barbershop, a charming, modest, and occasionally hilarious little picture that depicts a day in a (mostly black) hair cuttery on the south side of Chicago...
...More Kibitzing from the Peanut Gallery Perhaps it was unfair of THE SCRAPBOOK to single out Bill Clinton in last week's issue ("The Kibitzer-in-Chief," September 30) for second-guessing the president's Iraq policy...
...In November 1990, Carter stepped up the rhetoric, decrying the potential for a "massive, self-destructive, almost suicidal war" with Iraq...
...These days, Gephardt prefers to whine: "To question people's patriotism for simply raising questions about how a war is to be fought and won—to say that anybody who doesn't support the president's particular policy on national security is against national security—is not only insulting, it's immoral...
...No one has questioned Gephardt's or anyone's patriotism...
...Perhaps the only person who doesn't like the movie is Jesse Jackson, who last week leaned on the producers—unsuc-cessfully it seems—to get the funniest scene deleted...
...Well, we're living in a violence-charged environment from sports, but also from the very top of our administration...
...Jesse Jackson Jr...
...That he's so easily insulted does, however, raise questions about his seriousness...
...There's something a little bit creepy in the demand of leading Democrats that the most interesting and important issues should be ruled out of order until the election is over...
...And there's also more than a little amnesia involved on Gephardt's part...
...Last week at a town hall meeting in Atlanta, the former president said that a war without allies against Iraq would be a "tragic mistake" and "the costs would be enormous...
...Carter was, in fact, among the many prognosticators who opposed the use of force during the Gulf War, while wrongly predicting massive American casualties...
...As Dave Barry would say, we're not making this up...
...Scrapbook Me Too, Says Gephardt Al Gore having made the argument that really important issues like war should somehow be above politics, and Tom Daschle having seconded Gore's motion, it was perhaps inevitable that Dick Gephardt would want to chime in, too...
...The congressman had a theory about the attack—blame the Bush administration...
...That we have the right to attack a nation we believe threatens us...
...Bill Clinton: "Well, I think it depends upon what is defined as belief...
...If America doesn't lead the world," Gephardt declared, "who will...
...He did stress that if the Iraqis invaded Saudi Arabia, then we should take military action...
...He also predicted that oil prices could spike to $75 to $80 a barrel...
...No, actually it sounds like we need Barbershop II: The Next Generation...
...The thing about comedy is that the funniest things of all are the things you're not allowed to laugh at...
...There are actually a lot of national security issues to argue about and debate these days, and argument and debate are the essence of politics...
...That's right, there's also Jimmy Carter...
...Eleven years ago," he writes in the Times, "the Persian Gulf war debate on Iraq took place after an election, which helped keep politics out of it...
...We'll let you know when, if ever, you should start taking Carter's warnings seriously...
...We need to obviously get back to some basic values and try and find alternative dispute resolutions...
...Jackson reportedly hadn't seen the movie when he complained that it "insulted" civil rights leaders and tried "to turn tragedy into comedy...
...Is this not worth at least a few hours of debate by the Senate...
...That's why we need to take a deep breath...
...Jesse Jackson is pretty close to the top of that list, and he knows it...
...Bill Clinton Parodies Himself On second thought, no one will ever outdo Bill Clinton in the annals of ludicrous public performances by an ex-president...
...The following immortal instance of Clintonian self-parody took place Friday September 27, on ABC's Good Morning America (with our thanks to ABC News for the transcript): CHARLES GIBSON: "Do you agree with the administration's contention that we have a right to make pre-emptory attacks—what they're now calling anticipatory self-defense...
...And sure enough, there in Friday's New York Times was a Gephardt op-ed solemnly intoning that "the politicization of national security has to end...
...You better not let Jesse Jackson hear you talk like that," one of the barbershop denizens tells Eddie...
...The homeland security reorganization is being held up by the Senate because Bush wants to loosen civil service requirements so that homeland security workers can be fired more easily than your average public sector union member...
...It would be a mistake at this point, obviously, to deploy any American troops halfway around the world in an area that's totally inaccessible to us," said the ex-president in August 1990 after Iraq occupied Kuwait...
Vol. 8 • October 2002 • No. 4
