Playing Nice and Sharing
July 29th, 2007Michael Bloomberg is an interesting man and a fair Mayor. As you know, he’s planning to run for President as an Independent and spend up to a billion of his own dollars to win the race. I’ve said before, He can’t win, but if he wages war on behalf of one of the larger issues facing the country today, he will be looked at fondly by historians, like Fighting Bob almost a century ago. If he doesn’t, he’ll be Ross Perot, whose biggest achievement was in creating a myth (that Bush Senior defeats Clinton without Perot, which was and always will be nonsense).
Well, Mike Bloomberg was sued for sexual harassment a few years ago, settled the suit and that was that until documents became available pertaining to the case. And there, my Dear Reader, you have Reason #2 Why if he backs out of the race (Reason #1: “I’m too smart to spend one billion dollars on a losing Presidential campaign”).
I’ve had limited access to the news this weekend but three stories stood out to me when I heard about them from this lovely young lady at Starbucks. First: England refused to share bin Laden’s rumored whereabouts with us in the 1990s because we refused to promise not to torture him: my take — you tell British intelligence, with a wink and a nod, that you won’t torture him; you try not to, and if it doesn’t happen that way, that’s okay, and MI6 won’t ask further questions because they’re MI6 and we’re CIA. Second: Gonzalez is looking at perjury charges from Congress if he doesn’t hurry up and explain the inconsistencies in his testimonies: my take — he is done as soon as Bush finds a presentable replacement (which, word is, he hasn’t been able to find in forever as he’s wanted Alberto Gonzalez gone for good for quite awhile now). Third: Bush is giving around fifty billion dollars to a variety of Arab countries and Israel to counter-act Iranian influence and contain them: my take — good show of united force, and it’s always nice to see efforts at containment rather than pre-emption as Bush knows it.
Maybe he has read books about Harry Truman and Dean Acheson, after all. Doubt it, but it’s encouraging all the same to see him make such a sound, should-be stabilizing move. Of course, people will howl if the Saudi government is overthrown by al-Qaeda and suddenly they have twenty billion dollars worth of American arms, but that’s the risk you take in situations like these. I just wish we’d spend a little more money here at home, too.