Intimations of the Triple Nothing Burger
Issue 1 is Janet Reno's admission of the use of government pyrotechnics at
Waco. A distant second is abortion and the GOP.
Despite Reno's assertion that the pyrotechnics almost certainly did not
cause the Waco fire, the commentariat thinks her admission hurts the
government's credibility and demonstrates that Reno is honest but clueless,
bordering on incompetent (Steve Roberts and Susan Page, of CNN's Late
Edition ; Mark Shields and Margaret Carlson, of CNN's Capitol
Gang ; and Fox News
Sunday's Brit Hume). Capitol
Gang's Robert Novak and Kate O'Beirne think Reno's revelation proves
that continued interest in Waco is not just the occupation of lunatic
right-wingers. A few dissenters--such as Fox's Juan Williams--argue
that Waco's importance is overblown.
Several shows react to the recent abortion fudges by John McCain and George
W. Bush--in which both candidates assert their pro-life bona fides while
downplaying the importance of the issue. Tucker Carlson ( Late Edition )
and O'Beirne think McCain's and Bush's balancing acts show that the pro-life
movement is still to be reckoned with. Others, like Novak and Margaret Carlson,
think that GOP elites have shifted abortion rhetoric away from the hard-line
stances taken by past Republican leaders and still followed by grassroots
Christians.
ABC's This Week spends most of its round-table discussing a focus
group it conducted of conservative New Hampshire Republicans. Among the
findings: The voters approve of George W.'s equivocations on the cocaine
question--largely because they resent the perceived arrogance of the media;
they cannot agree what the correct GOP stance on abortion and gun control
should be; and they now hate Newt Gingrich and love Bush the Elder, whom they
regret abandoning in '92. All the pundits on This Week agree that the
focus group's warm fuzzies for both Bushes underscore the GOP's shift away from
the fiery, Reagan-invoking rhetoric of the 1995 House. Ideological purity among
the GOP is now "as antique as the free coinage of silver," says George F.
Will.
A Carlson Chronicle
Several weeks ago, Tucker Carlson told his fellow Late Edition
panelists that the Kansas Board of Education's decision to not mandate the
teaching of evolution was sensible because it allowed for a "diversity of
views" in the classroom. Fair enough. This week, Wolf Blitzer asks Carlson what
he makes of Al Gore's refusal to come out in favor of the mandatory teaching of
evolution. You'd think Carlson would applaud Gore's hesitancy to impose his own
views on others. Instead, Carlson answers: "So [Gore]'s sort of a cool,
rational techie on one side and kind of a snake-handling fundie on the other? I
mean, this is politics. I mean, this is what I guess Gore feels like he has to
do. I mean, it's another sign of the fact that his campaign is thrashing about
a bit."
The Second Coming of John McLaughlin John McLaughlin is
both celebrated and notorious for ignoring the week's Top Washington Issues and
instead discussing his own idiosyncratic topics. He devoted this week's show
entirely to the social, political, and economic direction of the new
millennium. (He even assembled a panel of three academic "experts" on
millennial issues.) This is a fine subject to discuss, but it renders his
"Predicting the Future in 10 Words or Less" format a bit ridiculous. Typical
queries from this week's show: "Over the upcoming millennium, will science and
religion converge, or will they annihilate one another--and if so, which one
will survive? Jerome?"; "Will the next millennium improve life for mankind--as
the current millennium has done--or will it end progress and impose restraints?
Richard?"
John McLaughlin on Post- Fin de Siècle
Alienation
If McLaughlin's maverick tendencies occasionally produce madness, they can also
produce genius (at least as far as chat TV goes). Take this piece of
oratory--from a McLaughlin voice-over--delivered in his trademark stentorian
slur: "When Jan. 1 rolls around, revelers will find that their lives, their
loves, are no different--after all this expense--than they were the day before.
In fact, some people will see all those zeroes behind the 2 in 2000 as a
Triple Nothing Burger . So, beware the post-partum millennial
blues."
