Peggy Noonan casts her perceptive eye towards the presidential campaigns and she has some thoughts about what the media are up to.
The media this year are to an unusual degree--even for them--keen to give Mr. Bush a hard time and Mr. Kerry a boost. The daily anti-GOP pounding is taking a toll.We all know the reasons the press is doing what it's doing--its biases, its need for a horse race. But this year the press is also taking it on itself to make up for the disparity in war chests. They don't think Mr. Kerry is going to catch up with the president in terms of money, and they're trying to even the score.
She has some tactical advice for both John Kerry and President Bush. She also has a few words for the missing-in-action Republican Party.
Mr. Bush needs backup. Hello congressional surrogates, that would be you. I heard a rumor the other day that Republicans are in control of the Senate and House. Could this be true? I ask because every day on the news Teddy Kennedy is at a hearing toasting the posties of some Republican or administration figure. Yesterday it was George Tenet. Mr. Kennedy was, as usual these days, hostile, provocative and showily contemptuous. Cable and the networks are loving it. Thursday it was Joe Biden yelling at steroid-using athletes for being the kind of people who used to knock him down.Posted by Alan at March 11, 2004 05:51 AMCould a Republican please say something interesting?
President Bush needs his team to be alive and awake and hold its own hearings on issues that are important to Republicans on the ground.
GOP senators and congressmen seem to me to be acting not like they're excited by this moment in history but intimidated by it. As if they're thinking, "Oh no, we're in charge now and everyone will blame us when things go wrong!" They need a little spirit of 1994: "We'll make the very dome of this Capitol vibrate with our energy."
Guys: wake up. There's a battle outside.