Thursday, January 16, 2003

With His Eye on Two Prizes, the President Picks His Words Carefully. "The modus operandi is to speak centrally and act from the right," Bruce Buchanan, a professor of government at the University of Texas, said tonight. "The conservative constituencies won, because they got exactly what they want. And the minority constituency, who is exactly what the Republican Party is courting, get the soft words." [New York Times] Mr. Bush has become the master of "listen to what I say, not what I do." He's hoping that with a little sleight of hand, we will believe that he really is a compassionate conservative. But if you look at his actions, all I see is conservative, with very little compassion: Opposition to affirmative action, even though the playing field continues to be far from equal for African Americans, Latinos, and other minority groups. Tax breaks which primarily benefit the rich. An environmental policy which can be boiled down to "global warming, schmobal warming, let's drill!" A track record of supporting Big Business (remember Enron?) at the expense of the American people. I could go on, but I'll stop here.   5:57:34 PM

Eric Alterman Happy Birthday, Martin. Your Present: No more affirmative action. Boy, that Karl Rove really is a genius, ain’t he — leaking Bush’s opposition to the continuance of academic affirmative action on Martin Luther King’s birthday. Perhaps there’s hope for the Democrats yet. [MSNBC]   2:24:52 PM