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Howard the Dud

By Julia TurnerUpdated Friday, July 18, 2003, at 3:15 PM ET

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New Republic, July 28 and Aug. 4
Jonathan Chait offers "The Case Against Howard Dean": The candidate is stirring up a "negative kind" of enthusiasm: liberal resentment against centrist elements of the party that will prove unproductive in the general election. Dean's under-the-radar centrism won't help either; his pro-death penalty and pro-gun views won't offset his liberal rep, and his devotion to fiscal responsibility (read: tax hikes) won't galvanize voters. Furthermore, no matter how unpopular the war becomes, Dean's anti-war stance will remain a liability: "The public abhors any politician who smacks of weakness against foreign enemies." … But Jonathan Cohn thinks voters just abhor politicians who smack of weakness, period, and Dean, he argues, does not: "Nobody who has heard or seen him could call him soft." Also on the plus side: Dean raises money directly from voters and "talks like a human being."

Economist, July 18
Was Gulf War II really justified? The magazine—which supported military intervention in Iraq—argues that the answer does not rest on "whether Mr. Bush or Tony Blair may at times have gone too far in turning possibilities raised by their spies into apparent certainties." If it turns out that Bush and Blair lied, it will be devastating for their administrations and their credibility but would not discredit the war: Ousting a dictator who evaded U.N. efforts at containment for 12 years while terrorizing his own people remains a worthwhile goal. If, however, the United States and Britain fail to establish a peaceful, stable Iraq, the war will have been a waste, so the beleaguered leaders should turn their attentions to rebuilding the country.

Washington Monthly, July-August 2003
The Republicans have a problem with data, Nicholas Thompson writes, and not just when it comes to intelligence about unconventional weapons. The Bush administration consistently makes policies that "defy widely accepted scientific opinion." It has dismissed scientific consensus on the number of stem-cell lines currently available for research, the effects of human activities on global warming, and the principle of evolution, and it's all part of a GOP trend. One problem: Scientists are politically left-leaning, but they're not particularly organized, so incurring their wrath has few consequences for Republicans.

Entertainment Weekly, July 18
Moving "Stupid Questions"—a long-running feature in which EW writers pepper B-list celebrities with inane queries—from its hidey-hole among the DVD reviews to prominence on the back page is a very smart decision. EW is rightly known for its pitch-perfect wit, but the back page has long been off-key; for ages, it showcased the uncharacteristically flat "Encore," which dished up blah tidbits from This Week in Entertainment History. Things got worse when "Encore" was briefly replaced by a stint from grating columnist Joel Stein. But "Stupid Questions"—which frequently provokes laughter of the out-loud variety—is a perfect fit. This week Dalton Ross asks Kiss' Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley about the detrimental effects of rocking and rolling all nite while partying every day; the all-time funniest "Stupid Questions" was the interview in which A-Team stalwart Mr. T explained why nobody ever says, "Let's go buy a condo in the valley of the shadow of death!"

New York Times Magazine, July 20
Lynn Hirschberg must be unbelievably disarming. In her absorbing profile of Peter Olson, the business-oriented Random House CEO who took flak for canning revered but profitless editor Ann Godoff, Hirschberg catches American literati saying and doing the darnedest things. Olson walks through an annual trade show, casually pointing out people he's fired; Knopf editor-in-chief Sonny Mehta airily says of Olson, his boss—"Taste is not what Peter is about"; Toni Morrison describes her new novel as "perfect." The cover calls the profile "a corporate thriller," and Olson makes for a menacing figure: He even finds Genghis Khan's Mongol hordes "vicious, but fascinating" and "highly effective." … Tampa Bay Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella admits that it's disheartening to guide such perennial losers, but confesses that his baseline tantrums are sometimes for show: "I'm here to entertain. … So I kick my cap around a little bit." … In the latest indistinguishable installment of the Diagnosis column, a patient is once again sick. Doctors eventually figure out what she has.

Weekly Standard Weekly Standard, July 21
The cover shows a soldier in Iraq and asks, "Are we on track?", answering with an uncharacteristically equivocal "Yes, but …" … Tom Donnelly, chin firmly up, argues that "the thugs are fighting, the troops are tired—but we're winning." True victory will require properly identifying Iraq's baddies, keeping coalition troops and equipment in good repair, and committing sufficient forces and funds; Donnelly chides Bush on this last point, citing a "curious administration hesitancy to commit resources that match [its] rhetoric." … Reuel Marc Gerecht derides media outlets that play up recent problems in Iraq, reserving particular scorn for the BBC. The Iraq situation is "much better than we've heard": Many Shiite clerics think the United States should stay in the country for several years, and violence is confined to Sunni regions. Both points well taken, although the latter one was also reported in this week's Time.

Newsweek and Time Newsweek and Time, July 21
Tenet vs. Bush
Despite the short notice—CIA director George Tenet waited until late Friday evening to take the blame for erroneous intel that made it into the State of the Union—both newsmags play up the story. Time, which fronts the question "How flawed was the case for going to war against Saddam?," archly observes that "the head of the agency that expressed some of the strongest doubts about the charge [that Saddam tried to purchase uranium from Africa] took responsibility." Newsweek contends that the administration likely forced Tenet to take the fall. But the CIA director's admission has not quelled questions about the speech; Time wonders "What else may have been wrong?" in a sidebar that points out three more unproven pieces of intel that made it into the address.

Saddam vs. Bremer
Newsweek leads with last week's revelation that Saddam is apparently alive and well and still in Iraq; the story highlights an unverified "secret document" that suggests the dictator's plan all along was to go underground and then orchestrate looting and guerrilla attacks. Whether or not that's so, the postwar instability seems unlikely to abate any time soon, especially since Bremer disbanded the Iraqi Army and Baath Party, leaving thousands of men unemployed and kicking around the country; though Bremer recently put Iraqi soldiers back on the payroll, the piece notes that Americans soldiers are attacked about 20 times a day, although most resistance is confined to Sunni-dominated areas.

Kerry vs. Dean
Joe Klein writes in Time that Democratic front-runners Howard Dean and John Kerry are out to steal each other's styles—Kerry's working up a bit of colloquial rage about Bush, while Dean is giving gravitas a stab. Klein thinks the strategy is working better for Kerry. Meanwhile, Newsweek's Howard Fineman writes a longer profile of Howard Dean, oddly playing up the fact that the candidate sought grief counseling after his brother died in Laos 30 years ago. Dean, too, sounds defensive about what seems like an utterly understandable step: "I was not hospitalized or any of that crap."