Wednesday, November 10, 2004

 
Was the previous post a little over the top? As noted in an email sent earlier and elsewhere, "I haven't exactly followed the advice given today on the Corner regarding deleting clever lines, being more like F.E. Smith(except for the "brilliant" part), cited by Owen Harries in his classic, "A Primer for Polemicists": "It was said of the brilliant English politician, F. E. Smith, in explanation of his failure to get to the very top rather than of his success in getting as far as he did, that "he could as soon hold a hot coal in his moth as hold back a witticism" - a serious deficiency in a polemicist."
But even those who don't agree with the sentiments of said post, might admit that Bush's "hand" might be strengthened or that he would be better able to play the "good cop" in a deadly game of "good cop bad cop" with our enemies if something like its language was heard in the halls of Congress. -Better that than some of the gems spouted by some Senator-elect Republicans and lampooned on the Daily Show calling for the banishment of gays from teaching and asserting that lesbianism is so rampant in some high schools that girls are not allowed to use restrooms in groups greater than one.