June 30, 2004

FAT PAT

Tariff junkie Pat Buchanan is supersizing himself:

Is Patrick Buchanan the new Michael Moore? One might wonder, to judge by a letter from the conservative columnist that St. Martin's, the publisher of his upcoming book, is circulating to booksellers this week. Buchanan promises his book will show how, "A cabal of neoconservatives inside and outside the administration hijacked U.S. foreign policy, beat the drums for war in Iraq, and may have ignited a 'war of civilizations' with the Islamic world that could last a generation."

The mostly-ignored isolationist apparently pulled in a half-million dollar advance for his cabal-hyping crank-a-thon. It might be time to introduce Hillary Clinton's anti-wealth strategy:

"Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you," Sen. Clinton said. "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

Posted by Tim Blair at June 30, 2004 06:40 PM
Comments

Hillary, take it all away from me - anything for the common good.

Posted by: Tommy Shanks at June 30, 2004 at 06:58 PM

Patrick Buchanan was fighting the good fight when most of us were in short pants. I'm giving him a free pass, on this one.

Posted by: Byron_the_Aussie at June 30, 2004 at 07:13 PM

"War of Civilizations"?

Seems that war was declared by others.

unless we ignore USS Cole, Bali, 911 etc.

And these boys ain't gonna stop unless
they are stopped.

Personally, I am not in favour of having my
head chopped off to keep the peace.

Posted by: fred at June 30, 2004 at 11:11 PM

Buchanan hasn't been on the right side of any issue since, oh, 1996. At least. He's steadily gone deeper and deeper into his own paranoid fantasies, and his 2000 presidential bid featured a VP candidate that was, I believe, a Marxist.

Posted by: Robert Crawford at June 30, 2004 at 11:25 PM

Buchanan and his misnamed magazine The American Conservate reads as if it was The Nation. Articles praising Norman Mailer, Ralph Nader, Robert Fisk, etc. tells you that Buchanan's anti Semitism (note the use of the words "cabal" and"neo-con") has out weighed his conservatism. He deserves no passes for having fought "the good fight." The same is true for Charley Reese as well who has writtend that he is voting for Kerry.

Posted by: Joel at July 1, 2004 at 12:45 AM

Even if he is correct that we are now in a 'war of civilizations', so what? Whose civilization is stronger? Whose is going to win? His. In any event, Fred is correct, if we are in a 'war of civilizations', we did not start it.

Posted by: Bob at July 1, 2004 at 01:31 AM

Pat Buchanan has been a bad joke in America for decades. Nobody with any smarts at all listens to him.

Hillary, Hillary, Hillary. From each according to his ability to each according to his need? Where have I heard that before? Oh, I know! It was the slogan that made communism so appealing to a generation of suckers!

Posted by: Rebecca at July 1, 2004 at 01:49 AM

Pat B: He's been a bit off his rocker for a while now, so if nothing else, he is a constant.

Hilly C: Would you expect any less? I assume she paid out extra taxes herself, to show she is on-board?

Posted by: Crusader at July 1, 2004 at 02:34 AM

Pat Buchanan hasn't made much sense since at least 1990.

Hillary. You first, please. Gag up the millions and the houses, etc. Also, all Congresscritters and govt employees must get no more than median income and perks. You first.

Posted by: JorgXMcKie at July 1, 2004 at 02:45 AM

I'd be curious to know how Hillary's mostly Democratic audience reacted to the news that their taxes would be raised. The article doesn't say, unfortunately. They're happy enough to call for "higher taxes for the rich", as long as it's implied that "the rich" means those evil Republicans, but I wonder if anyone applauded the news that they personally will have to pay up...

Posted by: PW at July 1, 2004 at 06:12 AM

Liberal Massachusetts (aka Taxachusetts) has a provision that if you really want to, you can pay extra taxes to help fund the worthy purposes of the state government's expenditures. I've read that, in that liberal state, about seven people per year do so.

Posted by: Michael Lonie at July 1, 2004 at 11:30 AM

Where did I read a former writer for Buchanan's magazine who was told it was editorial policy not to criticise Michael Moore?

The link as I see it is in Paleocon Catholicism, the type which believes that 'philosophical anti-Judaism' is a legitimate stance (as opposed to anti-semitism, a crude racial opposition which they reject). But it still comes down to supporting Palestininians over Israelis, and ultimately blaming Jews themselves for all their suffering. ('If they only became Christians they could have avoided it all'. Yeah? Tell that to the converted victims of the Spanish Inquisition!)

Moore's obviously an Irish-American, so likely has Catholic roots (like me! I'm talking from my own Irish Catholic experience here).

Buchanan's and Moore's conspiracy theories are complimentary and both have roots in Catholic ideology.

Time for us Irish-Catholic NeoConservatives to challenge all this.

Posted by: O'Leary at July 1, 2004 at 04:35 PM

Just a thought, but when you find Pat Buchanan under your tent, you're doing something wrong.

Posted by: Sortelli at July 2, 2004 at 11:45 AM