Keep It Pithy Part 15

For me, old friends have made me stronger and happier. In my early years, I had no idea that I would rise so high in my career; nor did my friends. They were betting on the penitentiary. But we didn't base our friendships on the expectation of material success. Some of these guys have been with me in Levittown, at St. Brigid's, through high school and college, at my first journalism job in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and onward through the decades. Never did it matter what my job was or where I lived or how much money I made. It's always been, and still is, about shared experiences and loyalty....

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Summing up, friends don't let friends forget where they came from. Should be a commercial.

CHAPTER TEN

A DECADE'S WORTH OF HEAD SHOTS TO THE RICH AND POWERFUL

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Quite a few of you had never heard of GEORGE SOROS when I wrote about him in Culture Warrior. (So you told me.) But if you were awake during the 2012 election, you must have read or seen reportage about his huge financial support for his favorite left-wing causes.

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Soros is El Jefe of the S-P forces, a man whose vast fortune is directed toward undermining traditional America and replacing it with a so-called Open Society. George Soros is the puppet master, the man with the plan, a ferociously far-left force about whom most Americans know little or nothing.... What kind of man is Soros? Well, he does not believe in G.o.d, his social philosophy is libertarian, and his political outlook is far, far left.... At this point, he is the prime financier of a number of operations that consistently smear conservative and traditional Americans.... To sum up, Soros is a smart, ruthless ideologue who will stop at nothing to advance the secular-progressive offensive. He has no scruples, ethics, or sense of fair play.

On a lighter note, as they say, here's what I wrote once about S-P-leaning actor ALEC BALDWIN.

Alec Baldwin is a first-rate actor who can convincingly bring to life a variety of characters. Check out his performance in Glengarry Glen Ross. It's brilliant. Yet Baldwin has not achieved the leading-man fame that was once predicted for him, and some believe his strident politics (calling d.i.c.k Cheney a madman, generally overreacting to conservative thought) have damaged him in the marketplace because some right-leaning Americans abhor his politics. And it might be true....

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Okay, okay.

You can stop laughing now. He's everywhere in the entertainment marketplace.

Stop it!

I'm the perceptive one, all right. Check this out.

CHARLES RANGEL. The congressman from Harlem may be to the left of Karl Marx, but he will show up anywhere to defend his positions, and he does so with good humor. I always enjoy sparring with him, and I find that he is always worth listening to. Why? Because he is a hardscrabble guy who actually cares about his const.i.tuents. If we had more elected officials like him, from left to center to right of the political spectrum, this would be more like the country designed by our Founding Fathers. There's nothing wrong with having opposite points of view. What's wrong is corruption or incompetence.

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Charlie, I guess we hardly knew ye.

We're all flawed. I say that a lot, always including myself.

But Rangel's apparent ethical "malfunctions" now being investigated are so petty, so stupid, so hurtful to his legacy that I'm flummoxed.

It takes a lot to flummox me. I still believe most of what I wrote above, but how can both Rangels exist in the same man?

If you figure it out, write me.

Somehow, when I talk about others, I often talk about myself as well.

Something wrong with that?

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I am a journalist who insists on honest government; I'm an absolutist (some say fanatic) in that way. Lie, cheat, steal in the public arena-I'm gonna let you have it and I don't care who you are.

DAN RATHER is more of a pragmatist. He indeed has seen it all and is willing to tolerate far more shenanigans than I am. He understands that a certain amount of corruption is built into the system and is willing to play by those rules. I am not.

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Three times I have interviewed GEORGE W. BUSH, and here is my a.s.sessment: I believe he is an honest man. I believe his presidency was challenged by extraordinarily difficult circ.u.mstances that only a few other chief executives have ever faced. The terror attack on September 11 instantly changed the world, introducing a complex set of unique circ.u.mstances to Americans. Understanding that, I do cut President Bush some slack, unlike many in the media.

That being said, President Bush has made some major mistakes, most of which were exacerbated by what I call "the rich-guy syndrome." Let me explain. For people like me, raised in working-cla.s.s homes, disaster is always in play, constantly present on the horizon. As I mentioned, both my mother and father were possessed by a nagging fear that stuff would inevitably go wrong. This is common among everyday folks who have to work hard to get by.

But Americans born into wealth and power usually do not have that fear. That's because things always seem to work out for them. Money buys security from harm and often can mitigate difficult situations. Power, as we've discussed, leads to opportunities. You must accept that truism in order to understand President Bush and his approach to vexing problems.