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Inside the Beltway
By John McCaslin
Snubbing Bush
As she prepared to deliver Saturday's commencement at Miami Dade College in Florida, first lady Laura Bush tried to recall the advice that her own graduation speaker gave her university class to prepare for the future.
"But I couldn't recall who gave the commencement address at the University of Texas in 1973," Mrs. Bush said. "Maybe because that — and I hate to admit it — I skipped the ceremony.
"But I did look it up and I found out who gave that commencement address. And you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was some guy named George Bush. Four years after that speech, I married his son."
Divided nation
To demonstrate his support for the president of the United States at this time of war — and re-election — David W. Kralik decorated his Arlington block with balloons and Bush/Cheney signs.
Out the door stepped one of Mr. Kralik's equally partisan neighbors, who promptly tore up the Republican campaign signs, deeming them "offensive."
"The balloons were also released into the air — a major faux pas for the Democrat [neighbor], who is an environmentalist," Mr. Kralik notes.
After the last balloon was launched, the president's supporter demanded that his neighbor reimburse him for the cost of the balloons.
The neighbor handed him $3, which Mr. Kralik has contributed to the Bush campaign.
Think about it
Yes, Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, said what we thought she said when addressing last week's pro-choice March for Women's Lives in Washington:
"I have to march because my mother could not have an abortion."
Of Meese and men
You never know what's going to be served at a conservative Heritage Foundation luncheon — like one just held in Chicago, where former top Reaganite Edwin I. Meese III was drafted to run for president on a third-party ticket.
Mr. Meese, who replaced William French Smith as attorney general in the Reagan administration, was in the audience, but did not respond.
Kerry contrary
"Yes, I threw all my medals away!
Yes, I still have them all on display!
How can these two
Contradictions be true?
It depends on the time of day."
— F.R. Duplantier
Stay home
Chance that an American adult believes that politics and government are too complicated to understand: 1 in 3
Chance that an American who was home-schooled feels this way: 1 in 25
— Harper's Index, May 2004
Mailbag
Regarding last Friday's item about a University of Massachusetts student writing in his campus newspaper that Army Ranger Cpl. Pat Tillman, the former NFL star who died recently in Afghanistan, was an "idiot" who "had it coming," Marilyn Jameson of Pittsburgh writes:
"Can anyone explain to me — honesty or common sense need not be applicable with the explanation — why University of Massachusetts graduate student Rene Gonzalez is living in this country?
"I would very much like to know why anyone who detests the U.S., as he does, would ever consider calling it 'home.' This student of higher education comes across as entirely bereft of common sense — but he does mouth the words of his professors like a pro.
"There's a world out there Rene, move on."
We should add that UMass. President Jack M. Wilson has since issued the following strong statement in defense of the late Cpl. Tillman:
"While I recognize Rene Gonzalez's right of free speech, I must also assert my right of free speech to criticize what he said. The comments of Rene Gonzalez in the April 28 Daily Collegian are a disgusting, arrogant and intellectually immature attack on a human being who died in service to his country. We are fortunate that so many people like Pat Tillman have made the sacrifices necessary to protect the free-speech rights of Mr. Gonzalez, myself and our fellow citizens."
• John McCaslin, whose column is nationally syndicated, can be reached at 202/636-3284 or jmccaslin@washingtontimes.com.
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