Federal Judiciary

A tragic miscoloring, &c. -- By: Jay Nordlinger

I know that the issue of color-coding the states is over and done with in America: The left-leaning states are the ?blue? states, and the right-leaning ones are the ?red? states. But it still irks me. I mean, how in the heck did the lefties end up blue while the righties ended up red? For ages and ages, the color of conservatism has been blue; and for ages and ages, the color of -- well, I don?t want to sound McCarthyite. But you know what I?m talking about.

I was reminded of all this -- a re-irking took place -- when I was perusing the British press. In The Spectator, Toby Young talked about coming out Conservative: ?By remaining closeted for so long I have been tacitly accepting that society is right to disapprove of people like me. After all, if I didn?t think that being blue was something to be ashamed of, why keep quiet about it?? And in Standpoint, Douglas Murray quoted the phrase ?blue-on-blue fire,? meaning intra-Conservative sniping.

But conservatives here in America are stuck being known as red. The other week, I was interviewing the former governor of Maryland, Bob Ehrlich, who referred to his state as ?the bluest of the blue.? It just seems so wrong. You know that wonderful Gershwin song ?Blue, Blue, Blue??

Last month, President Obama said, ?I do think at a certain point you?ve made enough money.? That was the kind of attitude I grew up with. Actually, Obama put the point pretty mildly. I heard such things as, ?No one should make that much money. It?s obscene.? The underlying assumption was always that, if someone was making a lot of money, it meant that someone else was making less money, as a result. This is kindergarten economics: but it persists in some adults.

At a certain point is your company too big? Do you have too many franchises? Are you making too many widgets? Are you employing too many people? What is ?enough? money: enough to live like the Obamas (I mean, pre-White House, and pre-Senate)? When people start talking about how much money is ?enough? money, watch out -- especially when those people run governments.

Above, I quoted something I often heard: ?No one should make that much money. It?s obscene.? Just so you know, ?obscene? was always the word associated with wealth: ?He?s obscenely rich,? ?He makes so much money, it?s obscene.? If I had a buck for every time I heard someone say that -- I?d be obscenely rich!

Several months ago, a dear friend of National Review in Wisconsin wrote me and said, ?Watch the congressional race in the 7th District. David Obey has been there forever, but he?s beatable. There?s this excellent new Republican named Sean Duffy. He?s a world lumberjack champion. Extremely interesting guy. Weird year. Duffy could win.?

I thought ?Hmmm,? and tucked that note away. (Remember the rap song ?Things That Make You Go ?Hmmm???) And I thought of that note when reading, a couple of weeks ago, that Obey was dropping out of the race. Amazing. To heck with November: I wish the country could vote now.

You know Sen. Bob Bennett, the Utah Republican who has been pushed aside by more sparky conservatives? You know all the good press -- good liberal press -- that Bennett is getting now? About how sensible and decent and patriotic he is? Such an admirable legislator? Do you remember Bennett?s ever getting such press, before he was upended by his fellow conservatives in Utah?

I don?t either.

Rand Paul, the Republican senatorial nominee in Kentucky, is being asked to distance himself from his father Ron, or to disavow some of his father?s views. This reminds me of the election of 2000, particularly the Republican presidential primaries: when Gov. George W. Bush was repeatedly asked, or invited, to put distance between himself and his father, particularly on tax policy. (For example, he was invited to criticize Bush 41?s 1990 budget deal.) W. bristlingly refused to do it. Everyone knew, or most people knew, he was more anti-tax than his father, or regarded the 1990 deal as a mistake. But he was damned if he was going to say so. He would not knock his father for political gain.

Rand Paul, if only as a matter of manners, should not be asked to put distance between himself and his father. You should not really ask a son to do that, is my opinion. (We can all think of exceptions.)

For his first foreign trip, David Cameron went to Paris. I wish he had come to Washington, to America. But then, I?m a special-relationship-ist.

Since the swearing in of the apparently Anglophobic Obama, the special relationship -- I suppose I should use quotes: ?special relationship? -- has been called into question. That?s on both sides of the Atlantic. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, the Miami Republican, sponsored a resolution that passed the House on May 12. It recognized the special relationship and did several other things as well. For example, it expressed appreciation for the enduring influence of Britain on America. And it honored the British fallen in the Afghan and Iraq wars.

On the floor of the House, as in the resolution itself, Diaz-Balart quoted Churchill, who said on becoming an honorary citizen of the U.S., ?In this century of storm and tragedy I contemplate with high satisfaction the constant factor of the interwoven and upward progress of our peoples. Our comradeship and our brotherhood in war were unexampled. We stood together, and because of that fact the free world now stands. Nor has our partnership any exclusive nature: the Atlantic community is a dream that can well be fulfilled to the detriment of none and to the enduring benefit and honour of the great democracies.? Diaz-Balart then said, ?During the most trying times in the history of the United States, we have had no truer friend than the United Kingdom.?

I find it interesting that it took a Cuban-born congressman to hail and affirm the Anglo-Saxon inheritance. If you?d like to see that resolution -- which is worth reading in full, I think -- go here.

So, I saw that Saadi Gadhafi, one of the Libyan dictator?s boys, is big into movies. He is backing some Hollywood project to the tune of $100 million. He can afford it: According to the article I read, he?s a billionaire. How?d he get the money? Did he come up with some kick-a** software? Some sort of miracle diet?

Oh, yeah . . .

By the way, the article I read described the movie mogul?s dad as ?one of the Middle East?s most notorious figures.? ?Notorious,? huh? How should we describe Pol Pot? ?One of Southeast Asia?s most notorious figures?? I?ll say. An old friend and I once described Pol Pot as ?the Wade Boggs of genocidal dictators?: He hit for average. Something like a fifth of the population -- more than Hitler, Stalin, or Mao ever did.

But listen, we must treat Moammar Gadhafi with respect: He has just won a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, you know. The one W. left, and Obama rejoined. Great.

I quote from an Associated Press report:

The youngest climber to reach the peak of Mount Everest hugged his tearful companions and told them he loved them. Then 13-year-old Jordan Romero took the satellite phone and called his mom.

?He says, ?Mom, I?m calling you from the top of the world,?? a giddy Leigh Anne Drake told The Associated Press from California, where she had been watching her son?s progress minute by minute on a GPS tracker online.

?There were lots of tears and ?I love you! I love you!?? Drake said. ?I just told him to get his butt back home.?

I?m touched and all, but I don?t think I really understand today?s phones. This kid can call his mom from the top of Mount Everest? And I can barely hear my mom when I?m in Central Park and she?s in Michigan? Criminy.

Feel like a little language? I?ve written several times about a touchy issue in American politics: ?Democrat? as an adjective. ?Democrat wars,? Bob Dole notoriously said, in his vice-presidential debate with Mondale. GWB uses ?Democrat? as an adjective. So do some Democrats (in the West, I think). And I was quite interested to learn something in the British press: that Nick Clegg talks about ?Liberal Democrat values.?

Hmmm . . .

A little music? For a piece published in (New York?s) City Arts, go here. I cover the farewell recital in Carnegie Hall of Frederica von Stade, the American mezzo-soprano. And an all-Stravinsky concert by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Valery Gergiev.

End with a little reader mail? Okay. Here?s one:

Dear Mr Nordlinger,

I saw the hissing you?ve described a few times for the first time as I was watching C-SPAN recently.  Man, was it was disturbing. There was something really evil about it, I felt. Anyway, where does the phenomenon originate?

Dunno -- Eden?

And I loved a sentence in this letter -- you?ll see:

One of my favorite profs studied at UConn under Herbert Marcuse. Even stormed the Dean?s office. He has mellowed nicely since, and is a great historiographer. (You should have seen his face at the end of our French Revolution seminar, when every single student saw the revolution negatively! One said so eloquently, ?After taking this course, I want to drive to Hilton Head and kiss the Atlantic for keeping that crap away from us.?)

Adore it. Thank you, dear readers!

Full post as published by Bench Memos - National Review Online on May 24, 2010 (boomark / email).