-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! * Veritas Vos Liberabit * THE FEDERALIST(r) DIGEST The Conservative e-Journal of Record Date: 05 January 2001 Federalist #01-01.dgst Retrieve today's Digest as HTML printer-friendly text or PDF -- it's much easier reading than e-mail text! Link to: http://www.Federalist.com/current2001.asp Support and sponsor The Federalist! Link to: http://www.Federalist.com/support.asp CONTENTS: The Founders Federalist Perspective Insight Upright Editorial Exegesis Second Opinion Dezinformatsia Village Idiots Short Cuts ______--------********O********--------______ THE FOUNDERS "There never was yet a people who must not have somebody or something to represent the dignity of the state." --John Adams ______--------********O********--------______ FEDERALIST PERSPECTIVE In the news this week, George W. Bush rounded out his cabinet nominees and other major appointments. As it now stands, John Ashcroft is the nominee for Attorney General, Colin Powell for Secretary of State, Donald Rumsfeld for Defense, Don Evans for Commerce, Rod Paige for Education, Tommy Thompson for Health and Human Services, Mel Martinez for Housing and Urban Development, Linda Chavez for Labor, Spencer Abraham for Energy, Norman Mineta for Transportation, Ann Veneman for Agriculture, Gale Norton for Interior, Paul O'Neill for Treasury, Anthony Prinicipi for Veterans Affairs. Mr. Bush has appointed Condoleezza Rice his National Security Adviser, Lawrence Lindsey, the principal architect of his $1.3 trillion tax cut plan, as his chief economics advisor, Christine Todd Whitman to head the EPA, Harrison Schmitt to head NASA, and as for his "Iron Triangle" of Texas advisers, Karl Rove will serve as Mr. Bush's senior White House advisor, Joe Allbaugh will head FEMA, and Karen Hughes will serve as senior White House counsel. Of Mr. Bush's nominees and appointees, David A. Keene, the esteemed chair of the American Conservative Union, concludes: "Conservatives everywhere can be proud of this president-elect, and should unite behind the team he has assembled. Even those Cabinet picks who cannot be described as staunch conservatives will be charged with carrying out the agenda laid out by Governor Bush during the campaign. I believe that they can be counted on to do so. President-elect Bush has given every indication that he has no plans to deviate from the conservative agenda...." Regarding the left's complaints about Mr. Bush's selections, political observer Rich Galen notes: "We got insiders. We got outsiders. We got Blacks. We got Women. We got Arabs, Hispanics, Japanese, Italians, Democrats, Republicans, Conservatives, and Moderates. We got people who have been former federal executive branch officials, Members of Congress, military leaders, Governors, state officials, local officials, and business executives. For all his promises to 'make his Cabinet look like America,' Bill Clinton couldn't do it. George W. did." It is the opinion of the majority of The Federalist Editorial Board that Mr. Bush's nominee and appointee selections reflect the same quality of leadership, which guided his selection of Dick Cheney as his running mate. He is surrounding himself with a competent and capable cabinet. However, rest assured our editors intend to review Mr. Bush's performance -- and that of his Cabinet -- with the same conservative scrutiny applied to Clinton-Gore for their tenure in the White House. We also believe that liberals and conservatives alike are significantly underestimating Mr. Bush's ability to breathe new life into the conservative agenda. But one thing the left is not underestimating is the potential for Mr. Bush to unify the nation around his agenda and win big in 2004. After all, in his first run for Texas governor, he defeated his father's nemesis, Demo-gogue Clintonista Ann Richards, and went on to win a second term in an unprecedented landslide. It should be noted that Mr. Bush will be doing much more than installing new administration faces after January 20th. He will be restoring a few things that have been painfully absent from the presidency for eight long years -- most notably, honor and common decency. For that, all Americans should be thankful. Stay tuned! Quote of the week... "The Clinton paradox is this: Rarely has a president so dominated the public stage and so little affected the public agenda. His central failure lay not in what he did -- which wasn't much -- but in what he deliberately avoided. As the first baby boomer president, he had a historic opportunity to prepare for his own generation's retirement. The task was to redraw the political compact between workers and retirees by modernizing Social Security and Medicare. Clinton didn't try, and worse, he consistently obstructed others in both parties who did. The reason impeachment and Lewinsky loom so large in the Clinton era is that there was so little else. He engaged, entertained and enraged. He was full of himself and full of talk. He had an amazing ability to outmaneuver his adversaries and gain short-term political advantage. But all the noise and action merely highlight the larger contradiction. He was always on the move but rarely going anywhere. He was mostly a do-nothing president." --Robert J. Samuelson The BIG lies... "On January 20...the person standing up before the Capitol taking the oath of office...will be sworn in as my president too. I will spare no efforts in saying to people who supported me, 'let's not have any talk about stealing the election, let's not question the legitimacy of the election'." --Albert Gore "I pledge to President-elect Bush my efforts and the best efforts of every member of our administration a smooth and successful transition." --Bill Clinton And the BIGGEST lie of the year just past... "On the impeachment, let me tell you I am proud of what we did there because I think we saved the Constitution of the United States. I'm not ashamed of the fact that they impeached me. That was their decision, not mine, and it was wrong. ... They never apologized to the country for impeachment, they never apologized for all the things they've done." --Bill Clinton Memo to Independent Counsel Robert Ray: Indict! >From "The most ethical administration"... Bill Clinton issued an executive order revoking his first executive order -- "Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees" -- signed 20 January 1993. The original order claimed to "establish the most stringent ethical requirements of any administration ever," according to Mr. Clinton, by restricting administration officials from lobbying the federal government until five years after they left government employment. In other words, he locked out former Bush administration officials but now that his administration is coming to an end, the revocation opens the door for thousands of Democrats to cash in as lobbyists. News from the Swamp... The 107th Congress convened on Tuesday amid much pomp and circumstance. The House has 221 Republicans, 211 Democrats and two independents. The Senate, for the first time, has 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats. No sooner had the Senate convened than Majority "Leader" Chester Lott attempted to sell out by proposing to split power equally with Democrats on all 19 Senate committees, saying that was the "best deal" he could get from Sociocrat Tom Daschle. (Apparently he forgot that Dick Cheney -- a Republican last time we checked -- is authorized by the Constitution to cast tiebreaker votes in the Senate.) Under the Lott plan, said Sen. Phil Gramm, "Our [committee] chairmen would have the title only. The only thing they'd have the power to do is call a meeting of their committee." The Federalist has repeatedly challenged Chester Lott's poor leadership in the Senate. The time to cast Lott and name new leadership has long since past! (Did someone mention Phil Gramm?) Memo to Chester: See today's Second Opinion commentary, "Good Gridlock." The Senate composition has moved sharply left with the addition of the likes of Ms. Hillary Rodham-Clinton. "There were two women when I came to the Senate," said Ms. Barbara Boxer, as HILLARY! took her oath of office. "Now we have 13, and that's an incredible change. We're on the cutting edge of change." Thirteen is not a lucky number, so the Demos are aggressively courting a 14th -- targeting liberal Maine Republicrat, Olympia Snowe, in an effort to convince her to switch parties. Speaking of HILLARY!, now that she has pocketed her highly unusual $8 million book advance from Simon & Schuster, she and Bill have put their $1.5 million house in Chappaqua, N.Y., up for sale -- the one purchased solely to establish residency for her Senate bid -- and they have purchased a $2.85 million colonial home on Embassy Row in Washington. This is a first for the Clintons, who have spent virtually their entire adult life in government-subsidized housing. Columnist Wes Pruden writes, "Hillary's first dilemma of 2001 is that, having lived on a public dole all her adult life, she has none of the household traps -- dishes, bed linens, pots, pans, bathroom plungers, brooms, mops, dust rags -- that are the due of a virgin bride, or at least a bride rarely touched by human hands." Incidentally, inquiring minds want to know about the legal implications of HILLARY!'s book deal. Not only did she skirt around potential problems with the Senate Ethics Committee, but Anthony Podesta, brother of Bill Clinton's chief of staff, John Podesta, is a lobbyist for Viacom, the parent company of -- you guessed it -- Simon & Schuster. Did someone mention that Newt Gingrich book deal...? Suzanne Fields notes, "Every time I find myself wanting to give Hillary Clinton the benefit of the dubious decision, she makes it impossible. ... She's a lightning rod, like Newt Gingrich. Unlike Newt, she never pays a price. Like Newt, she landed a book contract worth millions. Unlike Newt, she won't have to give it back. Nor do you hear fellow Democrats criticizing her. Surprise. Surprise." Judicial Benchmarks... Now that his protégé Albert Gore will not be making appointments to the next Supreme Court, Bill Clinton quietly signed us up to be subjected to the International Criminal Court -- undermining the sovereignty of the United States. "In signing, we are not abandoning our concerns about significant flaws in the treaty," proclaimed Clinton -- in a fine example of doublespeak. In signing, he did abandon "our concerns about significant flaws." The Federalist has speculated for years that a pathological narcissist like Clinton will not stop until he actually rules the world. Thus, we think he will eventually seek to be crowned the Secretary General of the United Nations -- and gestures like the one above are greasing his skids. Regarding your IRS overpayment... Despite rumblings of economic recession, George Bush says he will still pursue his modest $1.3 trillion tax cut, calling it "an insurance policy" against an economic reversal. "I'm not prepared to compromise," said Mr. Bush. "Dick Cheney and I have said there are some warning signs about our economy. ... I come from the school of thought that says you need to reduce all marginal rates to encourage economic growth." House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt is feigning his conversion to supply-side economics, saying, "I think we need a tax cut. I don't know the exact size. It may be that it has to get bigger because the recession is looming and we've got economic worries out there." >From the department of military readiness... Defense Secretary Cohen and the Joint Chiefs of Staff are hosting an "honors ceremony" at Fort Myer today. DoD spokesman Kenneth Bacon explained, "The secretary and the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are going to give an award to President Clinton and to Senator Clinton for their support of the military over the last eight years." >From the states... Regarding the eight-minute shooting spree by a disgruntled Massachusetts man who killed seven people, it is worth noting that Massachusetts has the most restrictive gun laws in the country. Next door in the People's Republic of Vermont, one of the few remaining conservatives in the state's legislature, Rep. Fred Maslack, has proposed a bill to register individuals who do NOT own a gun, and require them to pay a $500 registration fee. Maslack says that his bill is consistent with Vermont's Constitution, which stipulates that those who don't own a gun "shall be required to pay such equivalent" for the protection from tyranny they enjoy at the expense of those who do own guns. The bill would require adults who choose not to own a firearm to register their name, address, Social Security number, and driver's license number with state officials. "There is a legitimate government interest in knowing who is unprepared to defend the state should they be asked to do so," Maslack says. In economic news... >From the "Too Little Too Late" Files, after an emergency phone conference between Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and members of his rate-setting committee, the Fed cut the U.S. funds rate by 0.5%. The reduction came much earlier than analysts expected, indicating the economy is softening significantly faster than analysts predicted. Greenspan said he took action "in light of further weakening of sales and production and in the context of lower consumer confidence." In other words -- the economy flat-lined while we were at lunch. Can you say, "So long surplus!" Even the best economy can only absorb so much abuse from tax-and-spenders in Washington. Forget cutting interest rates -- cut government spending! The "Dumb and Dumber" Department... PETA would be proud! In Lecco, Italy, a mountain climber fell to his death when trying to rescue a dog stranded on a slope. Three other climbers died in subsequent attempts to rescue the dog. Around the world... >From the "Last Minute Legacy" Department, Clinton is still vying for one last photo op with Palestinian terrorist Yasser Arafat and Israel's Ehud Barak, who are discussing the latest peace proposal. While prospects for the "deal" are good, it should be noted that the half-life of Middle East peace accords is about the same as for a popsicle in August in the Sinai. Of Clinton's legacy-building, columnist William Safire notes, "It is merely unseemly for Clinton, in payback mood as he departs, to appoint midnight judges or change ethics regulations that will enable his aides to profit as lobbyists in a revolving door; those are the last twitches of his permanent campaign. But it's downright dangerous for this president to saddle his successor with a lopsided [Middle East] proposal that voters in Israel are duty bound to reject. In his zeal to be remembered as a peacemaker -- at whatever cost to the security of Israel and the sanctity of its religious identity -- Clinton is raising unfillable Arab hopes and passing on to his successor the increased risk of a Mideast war." And last, editors of the liberal "journal of record," the New York Times, lament that Mr. Bush's cabinet choices "definitely broaden the...ethnic composition. ... What they do not add is significant ideological diversity." We suppose they are referring to the "significant ideological diversity" exemplified by the Clinton-Gore administration.... In other words, Mr. Bush's picks look like America but don't think like wealthy elite Sociocrats in the nation's three largest urban centers. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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