My comment was supposed to be a gentle dissent from claims
that out-and-out admirers of Joe McCarthy were rare and hard
to find...
As to what the contemporary Republican Party admires... I
wish I could say that people like **** *** were at the intellectual
center of the Republican Party. But I have had too many close
encounters of the third kind with senior Republican leaders.
Take, for example, soon-to-be-former-Speaker Gingrich last September
19 on international economic policy:
Yesterday -- and I would not have come here to be quite
this direct; I am going to give a speech on foreign policy
in about two weeks -- but yesterday the Secretary of State
said the following, quote: "With the nation looking to
Washington to calm a jittery world economy, it is frankly
hard for me to understand why the leadership of the House
of Representatives, the People's House, would fail to
support IMF funding to the utmost," she said in a speech
to a foreign- policy organization. Well, Secretary Albright,
let me explain it so you can have a better chance to understand
it.
This is the typical liberal foreign policy. If money were
the
answer, Russia would be prosperous. If money were the
answer, public housing projects would be for sale. If
money were the answer, Indonesia would be terrific....
So I would say, Madame Secretary, that if you really cared
about opening up the world market, you and the president
would get us a few Democratic votes next Friday for fast
track, which you used to be for until the unions told you
you weren't allowed to, and you would quit negotiating
for money from the American taxpayer for the IMF because
unless we have serious, deep reforms and accountability,
we're not turning $18 billion over to a French socialist to
throw it away, which is what he's been doing...
It doesn't look very good for anyone who hopes for strong
congressional support for U.S. leadership in global affairs over
the next decade...
Professor
of Economics J. Bradford DeLong, 601 Evans Hall, #3880