Okay, This Time It Is

I have always felt uncomfortable with those conservatives who are so quick to cry "creeping socialism," or accuse everyone who supports a government program they don't like as socialist. All societies care for their own in some way, all governments tend to grow and get involved in stuff they shouldn't, and Socialism is usually a pretty complete deal in the countries that use it. Redistributive government probably owes a great deal to socialist theory, and some of the supporters of these programs do indeed look wistfully at more fully socialist states. Still, it always seemed fevered and crying wolf to be finding socialism in every bill.

But this one is the real deal. With worse information here. Senator Rodham-Clinton's proposal to take the profits from oil companies and do something good about alternative energy with it is actually a partial nationalizing of the industry, a la Venezuela or Cuba. She will be backtracking on this over the next few days, and she will do it artfully enough to keep the focus of anger on those evil oil companies and their obscene profits. Her interviewers and questioners will not press her very hard. Her handlers have gotten very good at keeping direct heat off her.

During her husband's impeachment proceedings, all I wanted was for him to be made to stand in the well of the Senate and answer questions. That's all I want for the wife's presidential campaign as well: to be made to answer difficult questions without being rescued. The very few times she has allowed tough questioning, she has been destroyed, and it won't be happening again. Every debate, every interview, will have requirements before each can go forward. Her people will be very skillful at making the other side look like it is making unreasonable demands.

One speculation this week - and I stress that it is no more than that, though it does fit some interesting reasoning - is that the information that Sandy Berger was removing and destroying from highest-clearance files were records that showed Mrs. Clinton to be present at National Security briefings, as she absolutely should not have been. Well, maybe. Some other explanation might also fit the facts. Will she be asked?