Word: partisans
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...first volume of Schlesinger's memoirs, "A Life in the 20th Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950" (Houghton Mifflin; 557 pages; $28.95), is a rich, spirited performance. Schlesinger moves energetically down the years, meeting everyone worth meeting, dispensing opinions (sometimes brilliant, sometimes merely partisan and captious, sometimes dead wrong, as when, early on, he pronounces Harry Truman to be a corrupt mediocrity). T. S. Eliot wrote, "The trilling wire in the blood sings beneath inveterate scars,/ Appeasing long forgotten wars...
...executions. The reports received increased attention given that Texas Gov. George W. Bush is a candidate for the presidency and an outspoken defender of the death penalty. Yet it is unfortunate that the reports emerged in such a politically charged atmosphere, where they were liable to be interpreted as partisan attacks rather than actual calls for reform. The death penalty system in Texas--and across the nation--is broken, and regardless of the political winds, there is an urgent need to end the assembly line of executions...
...Republicans figure they've got a trump card: Bush. Not only is he apparently a compassionate guy, he's running for president - and, apparently, winning - on the very theme of ending partisan standoffs. So how could one more bickerfest, one that could last right up until the election, hurt the Republicans in November when one of their own is coming right in to soothe the savage beasts? The logic: Those who side with Republicans will turn out to elect them. Those who want to end the strife will turn out for Bush, and vote Republican. How can they lose...
What gives Bush's plea for less partisan bickering its appeal is that the bickering did become personal, thanks to impeachment, and does sound loud, thanks to television. The time when Tip O'Neill argued revenue sharing with Ronald Reagan during the day and drank whiskey with him at night has given way to the city as a sound stage. On cable, every night is fight night where, before you tell the other side your objections to a bill, you're telling Ollie and Geraldo. The camera not only makes it harder to work out the differences, it encourages them...
Bush didn't speak out on partisan bickering during the fiercest, most personal manifestation of it two years ago, but he wants to end it now, when partisan bickering could clarify the issues. In the last debate, Bush took credit for passing a bill allowing patients to sue HMOs, when he actually fought it. But when he's not falsely claiming credit, he is glossing over the details of what it would really take to deliver love--say, in the form of prescription drugs--to ordinary Americans. He seeks refuge in the mantra, "I trust the people, not the government...