R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.

TYRRELL: Biden takes on Cheney

This week, the Drudge Report gave emphasis to its lead headline that a CNN poll had found 52 percent of its respondents opposed to the re-election of President Obama by using the boldfaced screamer: "Shock." Who is shocked? The American people are a sensible lot. Frankly, I am not shocked.

February 18, 2010

TYRRELL: Marketing to American men

In recent years when I have heard the ongoing dirge about the deficiencies of America's young men, I have had my doubts. The Army we have sent abroad to confront some of the most barbaric enemies Western civilization has ever faced is superb. Confronting savages, usually on their own soil, our forces have been professional to the utmost - the Wehrmacht but with democratic values. Withal, they are brave, spirited, manly.

February 11, 2010

TYRRELL: Acts of the obnoxious

Irving Kristol, the recently deceased godfather of neoconservatism, once said to me, "Fairness is not a liberal value." I thought about his asseveration while observing the liberals' colossal indignation over conservative activist James O'Keefe's entry under false pretenses into the district offices of Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, Louisiana Democrat. Mr. O'Keefe is the merry prankster who entered the offices of the left-wing Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) under the false pretense of being a pimp. Repeatedly, and in ACORN offices across the country, the ACORNiacs counseled this faux pimp on how to be a successful sex entrepreneur. He taped them. The tapes exposed ACORN for the criminal enterprise it has become. Mr. O'Keefe became a hero to some conservatives but a scoundrel to all liberals.

February 4, 2010

TYRRELL: Savings accounts, not collectivism

Well, you might ask in the aftermath of the Democrats' unseemly frenzy to create a health care reform that restrains expenses and extends health care to those who need or want it, is there an alternative? Through all the Democrats' wheeling, dealing and spilling of red ink, sensible health care innovations have been available. They are modern reforms that have been hammered out in conservative think tanks over the years. Wherever they have been tried, they have shown promise. Yet during the Democrats' Capitol Hill revels, they have hardly been heard of. Allow me to suggest a modest health care alternative to what is commonly called the present Congress' health care monstrosity.

January 28, 2010

TYRRELL: The lost liberals

With Scott Brown's election to the senatorial seat held by Edward M. Kennedy for 47 years, a few things are suddenly clear.

January 22, 2010

TYRRELL: Tiger tanks

When I read the other day that lapsed golfer Tiger Woods' nationwide approval rating had fallen from 87 percent to 33 percent, the only conclusion I could draw was that he had been out campaigning for the Democrats' health care plan. According to an interesting piece on him in the current issue of Vanity Fair, the superb golfer now has a disapproval rating of 57 percent. Is this the consequence of his getting too close to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the glacial-faced Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi? No, apparently it is the consequence not of his associating with politicians, but of his living like one. His sex life has been exposed, and it is comparable to that of a particularly virulent germ.

January 15, 2010

Sanctioning SEALs for Abed cover-up

The editor of the venerable conservative weekly Human Events is causing an admirable ruckus. Jed Babbin, once deputy undersecretary of Defense in the George H.W. Bush administration and now editor of the oldest conservative periodical in the land, is petitioning Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates to dismiss charges against three Navy SEALs for purportedly causing discomfort to one of the most-wanted terrorists in Iraq during his capture in September. Mr. Babbin has more than 90,000 petitioners. Count me in.

December 25, 2009

Expurgating team names

I am rather sorry that Myles Brand has passed on to his reward. Brand is the fellow who as president of Indiana University gained enormous respect among liberals for ruining the basketball program of that basketball-loving university in that basketball-loving state. He fired basketball coach Bob Knight, one of the sport's greatest coaches, for a minor altercation that was an obvious setup.

December 18, 2009

‘Spend out’ of recession

Do my eyes deceive me? Did I really see President Obama this week calling for a vast increase in government spending?

December 11, 2009

Gate-crashing boors

Sidney Blumenthal, the Clinton administration's famed servitor, saw it all coming. He predicted the Obama administration's Carousel of Incompetence, as I like to call it. He was not thinking about the serious botches, the health care monstrosity, the spending spree, the criminal trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed planned for New York, the cap-and-trade extravagance. He probably agrees with these policy lurches.

December 4, 2009

Global Warmists exposed

I assume all readers of this column are aware of polite society's theory of global warming. According to the theory, anthropogenic (once known as "man-made") gases waft into the atmosphere, causing worldwide temperatures to soar and our imminent doom.

November 27, 2009

Obama and Palin gaffes

What would the mainstream media's response be if former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin described China's economic growth to an audience of students in Shanghai as "an accomplishment unparalleled in human history"? That is what the most inexperienced president in modern American history said in Shanghai this week.

November 20, 2009

Anita Dunn is done

Well, that did not take long! Just weeks after initiating a war of words with Fox News and being exposed as an admirer of Chairman Mao Zedong, Anita Dunn, the White House communications director, is stepping down. I intimated as much a couple of weeks back, when I lumped her in with two other Obama administration zanies who were forced to resign: environmental czar Van Jones and National Endowment for the Arts spokesman Yosi Sergant.

November 13, 2009

The politics of the obvious

What strikes me about politics over the last couple of years is how obvious it all has been. In 2008, as the junior senator from Illinois campaigned across the country demonstrating his gifts as a motivational speaker and community organizer, all one had to do was review his recent life to know that he was about to bring down on the country - ever so incompetently - the most left-wing government in American history. And so he has - with the utmost incompetence. Think of the paucity of swine flu vaccine, in large part the consequence of his government's meddling with production.

November 6, 2009

Where the girls are not

These are vexed times. The country is at war on two fronts. Rogue states are edging toward acquiring strategic nuclear weaponry. We have been through a very serious recession from which we may not emerge into the bright morn of economic health for years. The dollar is frail. The future of national health care, finance and corporate governance is in doubt. Yet that is not all.

October 30, 2009

Dangerous zanies

We are at that delicious moment in a modern Democratic presidential administration when the bizarre fantasticos who decorate each chaotic regime make their painful appearance - though this administration is bringing a whiff of the ominous. Let me explain.

October 23, 2009

Another Clinton scandal

I have been defamed by Taylor Branch, and he will not reply to my repeated calls for clarification. The defamation takes place in his new book, "The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President." The defamation he printed comes from the Boy President himself, so perhaps my reputation will emerge immaculate. By now I think it is pretty clear to all Americans that Bill Clinton tells the truth only when he misspeaks.

October 16, 2009

White-collar hero

If you happen to be in Manhattan on Monday, do not miss the Columbus Day Parade gliding up Fifth Avenue. It will be a gaudy, joyful affair as always, but it will feature something especially timely.

October 9, 2009

Freedom from foreign oil

Boone Pickens likes to call it a "game changer," and the game he has in mind is a big one, the game for our global energy security. Boone is the billionaire Texas oilman who years ago warned that the price of oil will continue to go up, price plateau by price plateau - each plateau being higher and more expensive for the American consumer.

October 2, 2009

The next advent

Was I wrong about him? I have voiced a low opinion of Newt Gingrich since the mid-1990s. It was then that I concluded that Newt was the Republican equivalent of Boy Clinton. That is to say, Newt was a 1960s narcissist of the student government variety.

September 25, 2009