From the give credit where credit is due file: The Washington Post editorializes today on the damning Inter-American Commission on Human Rights report on Venezuela that was issued last week. The evisceration of Venezuela’s democracy is laid out in dispassionate detail–the judicial and media crackdowns, the elimination of the private sector and the targeted use of violence against any and all opposition. Our tendency has been to dismiss Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez as a minor annoyance–a buffoon who bumbled his way into power and would bumble out again at some point, or, worse, to embrace him as a modern day Che Guevara who channels low-cost heating oil through the kindly auspices of Joe Kennedy and Bill Delahunt to underprivileged Americans. But this report paints a very different and ugly picture of a canny, ruthless manipulator who has over the last decade effectively consolidated power the power of this once-vibrant democracy into his despotic hands.

The response so far has been a resounding so what? Why should we care, and even if we could summon the energy to care, what can we do about it? Unfortunately, the answers to these questions are now we should care very much and there is precious little we can do–although if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would read this report it would be a start.

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Thank you all very much.  It’s a pleasure to be here, and especially to receive the Keeper of the Flame Award in the company of so many good friends.  

I’m told that among those you’ve recognized before me was my friend Don Rumsfeld.  I don’t mind that a bit.  It fits something of a pattern.  In a career that includes being chief of staff, congressman, and secretary of defense, I haven’t had much that Don didn’t get first.  But truth be told, any award once conferred on Donald Rumsfeld carries extra luster, and I am very proud to see my name added to such a distinguished list.  

To Frank Gaffney and all the supporters of Center for Security Policy, I thank you for this honor.  And I thank you for the great energy and high intelligence you bring to as vital a cause as there is – the advance of freedom and the uncompromising defense of the United States.

Most anyone who is given responsibility in matters of national security quickly comes to appreciate the commitments and structures put in place by others who came before.  You deploy a military force that was planned and funded by your predecessors.  You inherit relationships with partners and obligations to allies that were first undertaken years and even generations earlier.  With the authority you hold for a little while, you have great freedom of action.  And whatever course you follow, the essential thing is always to keep commitments, and to leave no doubts about the credibility of your country’s word.

So among my other concerns about the drift of events under the present administration, I consider the abandonment of missile defense in Eastern Europe to be a strategic blunder and a breach of good faith.  

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Bill Safire died today.  As self-styled wordsmiths, opinionators and pundits we are all the poorer for his passing. Safire could be a maddening soul–he was not a party man but rather the creature of his own principles, civil liberties first and foremost among them.  As such, he could not be depended upon by left or right to deploy his elegant prose on demand.  He followed his own star.

I had the good fortune to get to know Mr. Safire a little over the past few years, and am personally feeling a little short-changed this evening.  I had hoped for more.  He was, as you might imagine, not a warm and fuzzy type.  You needed to bring your A game to any encounter with him, or risk him shooting you a look and saying, “That’s enough time”–in other words, it’s time for you to leave.  But he was also insightful and witty and generous.  Conversations could be like seminars, not only on events but also on the proper way to describe them.

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As part of part of Hillsdale
College’s DC-based Kirby Center for the Constitution and Citizenship
“First Principles on First Fridays” lecture series, John Bolton spoke at the Heritage Foundation today.  9/11 is of course a somber anniversary for our country, and a fitting moment to reflect on how how American foreign policy is being shaped in the post-George W. Bush era.

In Ambassador Bolton’s view, it is not a pretty picture.  He graded President Obama’s performance as ”absent.”  As Bolton pointed out in his remarks, the administration is pursuing a course of “Neo-Isolationism,” the point of which appears to be withdrawing American forces and refraining from using American influence around the world because such actions might be objectionable to the global community.  Ambassador Bolton noted that while President Obama has declared he believes in “American exceptionalism ,” the President followed up that assertion by saying he believed in it just as he suspects “that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”  By this logic all countries are exceptional in their own view–which should make everyone feel good–but the problem is that then no country is truly exceptional, including America.  This approach, Bolton surmised, has been the guiding principle that unites the President’s repeated offers to negotiate directly with Iran, enabling of the dog-and-pony show that was former President Clinton’s visit to North Korean, and eagerness to cede power to the International Criminal Court–while presiding over the evisceration of the Defense budget.  Ambassador Bolton was particularly outspoken on the current situation in Honduras, in which the administration is siding with Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega and Fidel Castro and against Honduras’ constitutional process.  He gave that situation “an F.  No question about it.  This is a disgrace.”

After the lecture, Ambassador Bolton graciously granted Redstate an exclusive interview to follow up on the formation (or lack thereof) of foreign policy by President Obama’s national security team, Hugo Chavez’ mischief-making around the globe, and the ramifications of the Obama administration’s policy towards Israel.  Click here to listen to the full podcast.

I had the pleasure of speaking recently with Paul Rahe, who is the author of Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocquville and the Modern Prospect (Yale University Press: 2009).

Professor Rahe’s book is the first of three that I will be recommending for summer reading in preparation for the RedState get-together in Atlanta on August 1st. Judging from the covers, this trio might not seem the lightest of reading but fortunately all three authors prove in their own styles that substantive reading doesn’t have to be a long, hard slog. And all three of them have important lessons for us in this lazy, off-election-cycle summer.

Over the months since the 2008 election, conservatives of all stripes have searched their souls and wrung their hands and gnashed their teeth over the apparent demise of our movement. Various proposals to reinvent, repackage and/or rebrand conservatism have been widely offered. My thought is that we might productively, with the assistance of these three excellent books, strive for another “r” word—renaissance.

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Caption this.

I know it’s not a “scientific” poll but the numbers at the poll regarding the recent award to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) by outgoing Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter earlier this month are nothing short of gobsmacking.  Vote now to see for yourself.  And if that feels pretty good, there’s a petition you can sign, too.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in a Hudson Institute/RedState sponsored “New Media Forum” with John Walters, who served as President Bush’s “drug czar” from 2001-09.  As we all know, the escalating drug war in Mexico threatens to violently destabilize the nation and so create a serious problem for the neighboring United States.  The crisis appears intractable–indeed there are some in the US who have speculated that Mexico is on the brink of being a “failed state.”  The Obama administration response appears to be one of manning the ramparts rather than attempting to find a solution.  You might expect Mr. Walters to consequently offer a grim prognosis.  The surprising thing is that he did no such thing–he sounded a note of optimism and described the current situation in Mexico as an opportunity for, rather than a threat to, the United States.

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Earlier this year, Redstate lost Mark Kilmer to cancer.  Our community is not alone–cancer touches almost all of us either directly or through one that we love.  And while treatments have certainly been progressing, the battle seems an uphill one.

Today, however, there is some good news.

“Big Pharm” poster child Pfizer announced it is halting the phase three trial of its new pancreatic drug Sutent. 

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When I read about the airstrike in Pakistan that killed 18 (including “five foreign militants,” AKA “terrorists”, and I suppose 13 “others”), I thought oh no, something is wrong.  With Obama as our President no “others” are supposed to be killed in these episodes.  How could this happen?

Then I had another thought, which is that with the successful airstrikes over the past few months, we must be getting much better target-identifying intelligence in the region.  And how many of these targets can there be?  After yesterday’s successful mission, can the eliminaiton of Usama bin Laden be far behind?

Now I would be delighted to see Usama captured and another blow struck to al Qaida.  But wouldn’t that be a stick in the eye of Mr. Bush, and a huge coup for President Obama?  Wouldn’t it vindicate the softer, gentler action against terrorism that he has proposed?

Based on this line of reasoning, I will venture a prediction:  UBL will be eliminated or captured within six weeks.

Come up with your own predictions and consider this an open thread.

Eight years ago, on inauguration day, I watched the festivities in my office as I tried out a new exercise bike. We had considered going to Washington for the ceremony as I had worked on the campaign, but my husband had a business trip to Chile and I didn’t want to go alone. So there I was riding that bike. I wasn’t in great shape but even so it seemed I was getting very tired very quickly. I remember thinking that it must be a combination of the grueling campaign and the even more exhausting recount–and I thought that now, with the inauguration, I might get some more sleep.

Ha. Famous last words. It turned out I was just pregnant with our first child.

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No, not David Vetter–Barack Obama. 

Apparently the President Elect is chafing at the bonds of his new position that brings with it, among other things like the awesome responsibility of leading the free world, 24/7 security and press coverage.  The press, in particular, rankles as they note down mundane details like what he eats for lunch and snap innumerable pictures of him at work and play.  Now Mr. Obama knows that these idiots have their uses–after all, they do tend to push the most flattering pictures of him to the fore, and even his mundane details have a certain glamour (he orders his sandwiches on 12-grain bread!).  But can’t they understand that while tracking his every move may be their bread and butter, they shouldn’t be so, well, so very eager?  Can’t they operate with the same insucient, effortless cool that Mr. Obama effects and observe the delicate rules of just-so-far-and-no-farther?

It seems they cannot.  I fear that when Mr. Obama discovers that, even for him, the real news is made when he stumbles rather than glides, it may be something of a shock to his system.

Bizarro Update (with thanks to Adamsweb): So Mr. Obama understands that pictures of him golfing in paradise might be a little grating to many Americans these days, but his solution is not to, you know, not play golf.  His solution is to try to get the press corps drunk so they’ll stop taking the pictures.  Charming.

I hate to go all Grinchy the day after Christmas, but can anyone tell me why is it okay for Barack Obama to spend Christmas during the worst economic downturn in decades in the course of which thousands of Americans face losing their homes in Hawaii in a 9 million dollar house body surfing and playing golf when it is not okay for the leader of the free world who has been presiding over two wars for several years to clear brush at the rather modest ranch he owns in Texas during hurricane season?

Or, along the same lines, why is it so terrible for harried executives to save time–and quite frankly in the grand scheme of things not spend that much money compared to what we really face–by travelling by private aviation when the man elected to preside over this mess frolics in the lap of luxury?

Now I know that Mr. Obama hails from Hawaii and no one blames him for going home for the holidays.  But does he have to revel in such such a luxurious rented mansion and be photographed participating in such elitist sports?  Was there no lesser house on offer? 

I suppose that his apologists will now argue that it’s not Mr. Obama’s fault that he now needs to travel with security and support staff that make a more modest dwelling impractical, but when did these same commenters, wearing their critic’s hats, ever extend such understanding to President Bush?

I have to wonder, when even Paul Krugman is raising a bushy eyebrow and scolding that “symbolism matters,” just how in touch this future President is with the terrible financial challenges that will bedevil our nation next year?

Actor Gary Sinise received the Presidential Citizens Medal last week.  It was a well-deserved honor as Mr. Sinise has done more than any other celebrity in recent memory to support our men and women in uniform.   In a quiet, persistent campaign that could do him significant professional harm, he doesn’t just pay lip service to “supporting the troops” (while denigrating their missions)–he does what he can to help them win.  To this end, he has founded “Operation Iraqi Children,” a non-profit organization that distributes school supplies to Iraqi children.  The theory is that this work is good for the Iraqis as it improves education and so quality of life, and that it is good for the Americans as it helps them win those crucial but elusive “hearts and minds” we hear so much about.

I know charitable donation dollars are in short supply this season, but if you have $5 or more to share this is a great cause to support–and if you’re so inclined, you can put together school-supply packages with your children.  I can’t think of anything activity more truly in the spirit of Christmas.  If you can make a donation, I suggest you make it in honor of Mr. Sinise’s Medal.  Thank goodness America still has her heroes.

There are some interesting regional elections going on in Venezuela today, which, following on the failed Constitutional referendum of last year, could spell serious trouble for Hugo Chavez. Daniel at Venezuela News and Views is live-blogging the day.

The Carter Center could not be reached for comment.

Some bold and stirring words from the President.

The President-Elect could not be reached for comment.

There is an unsubstantiated rumor floating around Washington today that last night, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) called President-Elect Barack Obama and asked that Obama appoint Senator John Kerry (D-EU) Secretary of State so that Governor Deval Patrick could appoint former Congressman Joe Kennedy (D-Venezuela) to Kerry’s seat. The assumption is that then Senator Kennedy’s wife, Victoria Reggie, would be appointed to his seat should he be forced to step down due to ill health.

It is in a way refreshing to see the Kennedys dispense with that boring and pointless exercise called “elections” in their fiefdom of Massachusetts. But if this is true, it would be too bad that Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has to follow in the footsteps of the many women shoved to the side in the name of the Kennedy family’s entitlement to do whatever they want.

Let me be clear, I have no idea how you become Chair of the Republican National Committee. I don’t know if you write a letter or let certain people behind the scenes know you could be tempted or send up smoke signals. But it seems logical to me that one thing you might do is write a detailed proposal of how the party can come back from the devastating losses of 2006 and 2008.

Karl Rove has done this. (in the issue of Newsweek that also features Redstate,yeah!). I find myself pretty much in agreement with his points, and thinking that I preferred 2000, 2002 and 2004 to the last two rounds. I know everything ever associate with the current President is supposed to be anathema, but I have to wonder if we have anyone better at managing and organizing and motivating at the grass-roots level.

What do you all think?

Way to go Phillies. Underdogs take heart.

As some of you may have heard, David Brooks referred to Sarah Palin as a “cancer” on conservatism at a party in honor of the redesigned *Atlantic *magazine. Victor Davis Hanson has penned a far more thoughtful response than Brooks’ startlingly cliched and shallow comments deserve, but since VDH’s point about the nature of Sarah Palin’s conservatism and how it contrasts with Obama and Biden’s liberalism is broader than Brooks’ sniping, it deserves a careful read on its own terms.