On the evidence of his first column in two months, the time off revived him. Tom Friedman
was back Sunday with a bright thought: “Each time the
Bush team had to choose between doing the right thing in the war on terrorism or siding with its
political base and ideology, it chose its base and ideology.” And he had a clever formulation:
“While the Bush people applied the Powell Doctrine in the Midwest” [‘overwhelming force
without mercy, based on a strategy of shock and awe at the Republican Convention’], they applied
the Rumsfield Doctrine in the Middle East [‘just enough troops to lose’].”
Based on “Hatchet Jobs and Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of Political
Slang,” Tom Kuntz whipped up a terrific little piece, “Slang Only a Velcroid Would
Love.” It begins: “Hey all you twinkies and snollygosters, can the bafflegab,
will ya? Say ‘spin’ or ‘bounce’ or ‘expectations game’ one more time and we’ll sic the barking heads
on you, understand?”
And in case you missed this or this, don’t miss “Just Pet the Goose, Arnold.”
John Broder points out some relevant facts: Besides agreeing to outlaw the force feeding of ducks
and geese for the production of foie gras by 2012, the Culifornia governator signed a bill
“prohibiting the declawing of cats used in entertainment.”
But Ahnold couldn’t find it in his steroid heart to sign a bill providing an “increase in
the state’s minimum wage, saying it would make the state less competitive with its neighbors.” In
addition:
He killed a bill that would have required cities and counties to prepare
economic impact reports on the building of giant Wal-Marts and other superstores. He vetoed
stringent new pollution rules for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, saying they would
slow growth at the nation’s busiest ports. He knocked down labor-backed bills to stop the
outsourcing of jobs and state purchasing. [And] he vetoed a bill to set up a state Web site to help
Californians find cheaper prescription drugs in Canada.
He’s what’s called a liberal Republican.
