A Plague for Both Your Houses

On the Culture War front (and let's not fool ourselves, this is like the second American Civil War, only intellectual, pitting Progress against Congress), the unfortunate suffering of Gulf Coasters caused by Federal lethargy may end up having one beneficial effect. That effect is suggested by Newsweek's recent cover alliteratively declaring the woes of the current administration as "The Crisis of Cronyism and Competence."

No longer content to wear the blinders of his esteemed Ignorance, the President has slowly become aware that the public, and worse, History is starting to look askance at his ideological obduracy. This has resulted in the selections of two Supreme Court replacements who are not, as reasonable Americans have feared for five years, ideological replicas of Scalia and Thomas, but perhaps, more sensible conservatives. That seems likely, at least with John Roberts, a jurist of apparently high intelligence and savvy, with a limited agenda--as perspicacious as Scalia, it seems, but without the shellalagh stuck up his ass.

As for Harriet Miers, well the jury, so to speak, is still out, and Bush can certainly be charged with cronyism, nominating his own lawyer. But there's nothing yet to indicate she is truly a horrendous choice, as he might have foisted on us with someone like Janice Brown, who comes across as a nastier Ann Coulter with power. That Miers has no judicial record or any position worth vetting outside of heading the Texas Lottery Commission is Bush's way of trying to minimize Congressional debate and the discord that could come from a partisan filibuster battle. It is also nicely conciliatory that Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid approves of this choice. Both conservatives and liberals probably wish to fill the blank slate of her future decisions with projections of their own wishes. Still, the only thing we really do know about her is that every night she takes off her face to marinate it in pickle juice. Oh, and that she spells her last name wrong.

Meanwhile the abashed Bush, still smarting from the unpreparedness that led to the New Orleans disaster, is speaking openly and loudly about an incipient threat of an avian flu pandemic. This is actually the most responsible thing he's done in his first five years. After watching a "Nightline" program about the liklihood of a terrible outbreak, I lost a night of sleep and decided that maybe I should spend a little more money on myself before the pestilence descends upon me and my loved ones--and purchase a supply of face masks from the Internet.
Epidemiological experts claim that a new pandemic is as inevitable as a San Andreas earthquake. And the spread of international commerce and travel as potential vectors intensifies the problem. There is good news, that biologists have already devised a serum for the current strain that has killed a handful of Southeast Asians careless enough to handle infected chickens. The bad news is that once the dreaded mutation that will cause easy human-to-human infection has been isolated, it will require our best technology six months to devise, manufacture and disseminate the vaccine. That's an awfully long time to wait, and a lot of Americans will die; by the time the vaccine is available, in fact, the pandemic will almost have run its course.

Bush, as a leader, is in a winnable situation here, as he actually will have the support of both sides of the aisle on this issue, seeing as to how both Frist and Reid are leading the charge in Congress. The question of how to bolster the pre-vaccination effort, including how to isolate the infected, treat them humanely, and of course pay for the whole damn program, is more problematic. As usual, Bush will probably try to lower taxes and defer the balloon payments to the next generation. This is ironic, because if the Avian flu cuts enough of a swath through our population, there will even be less of a future generation to foot the bill.

I hate to say it, but I think it's about time to give up on abolishing the Estate Tax. Somebody at some point has to divvy things up, and it may as well be the Dead.