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Offshore Drilling a Practical Matter for Obama
Tweet Share on Facebook March 31, 2010 Comment (12)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Today's news, that President Obama wants to open up some of America's vast offshore oil and gas fields for exploration and drilling, will no doubt disappoint conservationists, and beachgoers who like their sand spotless and not freckled with tar.
But it confirms Obama's status as a pragmatist who does not deserve the portrait of an ideological zealot that has been painted by the Right.
Indeed, this is a president who seems likely to go down in history as a great, practical Fix-It Man.
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Catholics, Police Must Act to Stop Sexual Abuse in the Church
Tweet Share on Facebook March 30, 2010 Comment (26)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
One can argue, in the abstract, that it is admirable for the members of the Catholic clergy to renounce their sexuality.
It is an impressive sacrifice, and daily proof of their faith in God and Eternal Bliss, for priests and nuns to deny their body's most compelling urge; to forswear the love and companionship of a spouse, and forever forfeit the special joy of a home and children.
And who is to say that, should the pope make celibacy a voluntary choice for some or all orders of the clergy, that the church would not merely substitute one form of scandal for another? The current shame may only be replaced by accounts of divorce or adultery.
Yet the horror of the latest revelations of perversion and child abuse, and institutional cover-ups, should add to the weight of the evidence that something is horribly wrong in Peter's church, and must be changed.
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Frum’s Right About Beck, the GOP, But Did AEI Purge Him For It?
Tweet Share on Facebook March 26, 2010 Comment (27)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I have eaten many a breakfast bagel at the American Enterprise Institute while listening to its experts expound. And though the Washington think tank promotes some truly partisan conservatives, like Dick Cheney and Newt Gingrich and Richard Perle, and has a foreign policy team that marches in lockstep to neocon dogma, I have always believed that “scholars” there deserve the appellation.
The international relations fellows may be frozen in a Cold War perspective, like flies stuck in Baltic amber, but no one knows Congress better (or analyzes American politics with greater wit) than the liberal-leaning Norm Ornstein. And Karlyn Bowman is my go-to gal when I want a read on polls and public opinion that is free of partisan cant. Down all the days, AEI fellows like Michael Barone (a former U.S. Newser), Ben Wattenberg, and Bill Schneider have demonstrated that they know their stuff.
AEI has generally been different from the other conservative think tanks in town. It conducts joint projects with the liberal Brookings Institution. Liberal scholars may be outnumbered on AEI panels, but there is often a token Lefty who gets his or her say. And it was AEI that, in a series of conferences on the changing demographics of the American people, predicted the formation of the multifaceted coalition of voters that elected Barack Obama as the nation’s first African-American president.
So, not knowing all the circumstances behind David Frum’s sudden departure from AEI yesterday, I am baffled this morning. The timing is certainly suggestive: It looks like an ideological purge. A few days after warning his fellow Republicans that their party was indeed becoming the Party of No and an instrument of Rupert Murdoch’s avidity--and had met a “Waterloo” with the passage of the healthcare bill--Frum went to lunch with his boss and was told that his services were no longer needed, or at least no longer worth a paycheck. He could stay on as a volunteer if he wanted. Now, I do some volunteer work. It fulfills the soul, but does not feed the children. And so Frum left.
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Evolving American Support for Israel
Tweet Share on Facebook March 24, 2010 Comment (36)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
The American spat with Israel seems notable for, as Sherlock Holmes once said, the dog that did not bark.
The United States has been fighting two wars, trying to rebuild a frayed economy, and staging a major debate over the size and content of the social safety net. Whatever room was left on the news last winter was dominated by blizzards and Afghanistan, Scott Brown, and the advent of the iPad.
In the lives of most Americans, Israel is on such a back burner as to seem irrelevant.
More stubbornness from Binyamin Netanyahu? More settlements, demanded by Israel's religious zealots? Another round of American diplomacy, met by Israeli intransigence? Anguished and angry Palestinians?
Been there, done that. It's a narrative that is decades old. Tell me something new.
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Healthcare Reform Helps Obama as Republicans Hurt Themselves
Tweet Share on Facebook March 22, 2010 Comment (35)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
As the great debate raged on Capitol Hill over the weekend, I happened to run into Norm Ornstein, the American Enterprise Institute scholar. It was a happy encounter, since I needed an expert to validate a notion that was rattling around in my brain, about the political winners and losers in the healthcare debate.
Ornstein confirmed something I had read, or been told, once upon a time: that in predicting the outcome of an off-year election, no indicator is more reliable than a president's popularity.
Voters may be upset about the lagging economy, or generally disgusted with Congress and its ways, but if Barack Obama has a relatively healthy approval rating in November, the Democrats won't lose as many seats as the GOP prognosticators say.
Here is a chart, compiled by a Republican political consulting group, that Reuters has used to illustrate the trend.
A midyear election is generally a referendum on the president. And I have to think, with my friend Rob, that Obama is going to get beaucoup credit from American voters for shepherding the healthcare bill through Congress. In doing so, he proved himself what we hire presidents to be: leaders with conviction, resolve, and skill.
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The Obama Healthcare Bill Explained: Why the Doctors Like It
Tweet Share on Facebook March 22, 2010 Comment (120)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Americans are media-savvy. We recognize that stirring fear is a great way for news outlets to boost ratings, and politicians to corral votes. But healthcare is a very personal subject. And there have been enough twists and turns in the last 14 months that the question, “What does it mean for me and my family?” may still need an answer. So let’s start today with a particularly succinct appraisal of the legislation that passed Congress last night. It is from the nation’s doctors--the guys and gals you trust, in the most vulnerable and nerve-wracking moments of your life, to give it to you straight; the moments that this great debate was all about.
“By extending health coverage to tens of millions of uninsured, improving competition and choice in the insurance marketplace, promoting prevention and wellness, reducing administrative burdens, and promoting clinical comparative effectiveness research, this bill will help patients and the physicians who care for them.”
And if you are in one of those millions of American families who already have healthcare insurance?
“Those who have insurance will see improvements right away: lifetime caps on coverage end; children can stay on parents’ policies until age 26, and insurance companies can’t cancel coverage except in the case of fraud.”
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Why Republicans Fear Obama's Healthcare Reform
Tweet Share on Facebook March 19, 2010 Comment (112)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
It appears that the Democratic Party is on the brink of passing its healthcare reform legislation, and the prevailing wisdom here in Washington, based on polls and the results of the off-year elections in New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts, is that this will be a Pyrrhic victory.
The populace hates Obamacare so much, the Republicans and their sheep in the media contend, that the Democrats will lose control of the House and maybe even the Senate in November. And then, the Republicans promise, they will immediately repeal this abomination, to thunderous applause.
So the devil's advocate in me asks: If this bill is such a political loser for the Democratic Party, why have the Republicans fought so hard to defeat it? Their earnestness and ferocity have been admirable. Aside from one little nudge by Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, not one Republican legislator has been caught "helping" the Democrats to their inevitable destruction.
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Glenn Beck vs. Doctors on Healthcare Reform
Tweet Share on Facebook March 18, 2010 Comment (34)Who you gonna believe? Sister Mary Catherine--who taught you how to spell and made you jelly sandwiches when you forgot your lunch? Doctor Bennett, who came to your bedside when you had the mumps, and had a Silver Star from World War II that he would let you see if you didn't cry when he gave you a shot? The kindly staff at your neighborhood hospital, who made you smile, despite the pain, as they put a cast on the ankle you broke in gym?
Or Glenn Beck?
Yes, as surprising as it sounds, given all the mud that Beck and his type have tossed on President Obama's healthcare bill, the folks in our communities who have devoted their lives to caring for us--doctors and nuns and hospital workers--have endorsed the legislation.
They don't spend their time drawing elaborate conspiracy theories on blackboards. They spend it helping you and me. And they think it's a good deal that kids can stay on their parents' policies for a few years longer; that you won't be turned down for health insurance if you have a pre-existing medical condition, and that we will no longer have to choose between draining our life savings or saving our lives when it comes our turn to face catastrophic illness.
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Ask McDonnell and Obama: Governing Is Hard
Tweet Share on Facebook March 18, 2010 Comment (4)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
After eight long years of the other party's rule, his election seemed to promise, well, change we could believe in.
Robert McDonnell became an instant Republican hero when he won election as governor of Virginia last fall. And why not? He promised miraculous things: to end the legislative deadlock in Richmond and solve the state's transportation and education crises--all without raising taxes.
The GOP was so happy, it chose McDonnell to give the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address.
So, how has Gov. McDonnell done, now that his first session of the Virginia General Assembly has gone into the books? Ehhh. Not so good.
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Tiger Woods May Come Back, But He Won’t Win the Masters
Tweet Share on Facebook March 16, 2010 Comment (20)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Tiger Woods has made a shrewd call, deciding to return to competitive golf at the Masters in April.
It is, first of all, a major tournament on a course Woods knows well and that--especially with the length that has been added to August National in recent years--suits his game. I have worked for the Masters tournament, and can attest that its fans are knowledgeable and polite, and venerate tradition. The Masters press corps is restricted, and elite, and respectful.
The doesn't mean that Tiger won't face tough questions about his six-month leave of absence and the mysteries that surround it--or that some good ol' boy won't howl a salacious insult at Woods, or that the tabloids won't be in full hunt, outside the gates. There will be plenty of distractions. But, more than any other golf tournament, the Masters will offer Tiger a controlled environment for his return.
That said, I doubt he will add another green jacket to his wardrobe. Not this year, maybe never. His winless record in last year's majors (and especially his loss at the PGA) shows where his head was at, even before the trauma of last fall and winter.
