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...supplies of biological weapons and chemical weapons throughout his country." Rove's busy-beaver oppo researchers should get credit for digging up that one ... except that it was delivered in the midst of a vehement antiwar speech. Gore, in fact, was making a wise argument: war was not justified even if Saddam had WMD. But taking those sort of lines out of context is how you hammer your opponents in political campaigns - and Rove made sure Bush's White House was run as a perpetual political campaign, even when it came to war. This, not dirty tricks...
Rove's defense of Bush is partially successful: the President emerges as a man who put policy above politics. You can disagree with the policies, but not with Bush's sincere belief in them. And even though the war in Iraq remains one of the worst decisions ever made by an American President, the possibility of stability in Iraq, raised again by the recent elections, makes it, potentially, a mitigated disaster. Rove is less successful in defending himself: the crucial revelation here is that when you make a political consultant your senior policy adviser, spin supplants substance, oppo research rules...
...universal suffrage so far hasn't produced a popular backlash, in part because Hong Kongers seem to have faith in a gradualist approach. Although support for democracy hovers around 70%, almost half the elected officials are from pro-Beijing parties that advocate cooperation and incrementalism. Some Hong Kongers even question whether the special administrative region is ready for democracy. A common refrain: If "Long Hair," a Trotskyite pro-democracy legislator known for his long hair and Che T-shirts, can become the second most popular politician in the city, the people aren't ready to pick their own Chief Executive...
...Universal suffrage seems to hover constantly on the Hong Kong horizon, which is why, this time, the pan-democrats have to ask themselves whether even some small reform is better than no reform. Should they strike a compromise or make battle? Five legislators chose to do battle: in January, they resigned in the hope of forcing what they call a "de facto referendum" when they run again for their seats in the resulting by-elections. But the plan is rash and has proved unpopular. The other pan-democrats distanced themselves from the plan, while the pro-Beijing parties threatened...
...several boarding schools. German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger condemned the "wall of silence" within the Catholic hierarchy, accusing the church of hiding behind a 2001 Vatican directive that called for cases of abuse to be investigated internally before going to state authorities. "This directive makes clear that even serious abuse allegations fall under papal confidentiality and thus should not be forwarded on outside the church," she said. (See "The Pope's Sex Abuse Challenge...