FINDING GEORGE WILL
Dean is Dumb... Where are you Bill Bradley?

A side benefit of blogging has been the expansion and broadening of my weekly reading. For the past several years, I've been immersed in business and technology journals and equity research reports, so I haven't kept up with policy journals, political magazines, and leisure reading. Also without easy access to U.S. magazines, I've been missing the writing of some of my favorite columnists, such as George Will. I love his prose and wit.

Anyway, here's his recent commentary on campaign finance reform (Candor and Campaign Finance, Nov. 23, 2003), which I thought would be interesting since I mentioned this topic a few days ago on Dec. 19th.

And another great commentary on Howard Dean's intellectual capacity (The Dean of Shallow Thought, Dec. 7, 2003). Excerpt:

Appearing on "Hardball" with the human Gatling gun, Chris Matthews, Dean said that in terms of legal rights there is no practical difference between same-sex civil unions and marriages. Matthews: "So why are we quibbling over a name?" Dean: "Because marriage is very important to a lot of people who are pretty religious."

So, the argument about the public meaning of marriage is merely a semantic quibble important only to the "pretty religious"? Dean has said of his faith that "I don't think it informs my politics," and that he became a Congregationalist "because I had a big fight with a local Episcopal church about 25 years ago over a bike path." Fine.

Wow. If Dean isn't "pretty religious" then he's pretty petty in leaving a church over a fight about a bike path.