Over the past few months, I have heaped tons of criticism on the president for his decision to invade Iraq. And those criticisms stand. But this does not mean I think the President of the United States is always wrong.
True: he is wrong with a frightening regularity. And there are times when he can be so far wrong the mind has to stop and take a breather before attempting to comprehend the error of the moment. But when Tom Brokaw asked the president about the scathing comment thrown out by Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks last month, he said the following: \They shouldn't have their feelings hurt just because some people don't want to buy their records when they speak out. You know, freedom is a two-way street."" And he was right.
An individual can choose to not buy a Dixie Chicks' recording for any number of reasons. Some people may disagree with Maines's politics. Some people may not particularly care for their style of country music. Hell, there might be a guy out there who believes that his dog told him not to purchase Home. Whatever. If someone decides that the value of hearing the Dixie Chicks perform is outweighed by the fact that their frontwoman had the temerity to express disappointment in the president, so be it.
But, before the Republican Party of Wisconsin tries to pull an old Hollywood trick by pulling a quote out of the surrounding context and slipping it into a glowing advertisement-as in, ""Tom Soule of The Daily Cardinal says: 'The president is right!'""-it should be said that the president did oversimplify things a bit. And that might not have been an accident (as it usually is).
To show the oversimplification, please consider a parallel event: the cancellation of the National Baseball Hall of Fame's celebration of the 15th anniversary of ""Bull Durham."" Dale Petroskey, the Hall's president, called off the event because two of the movie's stars, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, have been particularly vocal opponents of the president's foreign policy. In an April 11 letter to Robbins, Petroskey said, ""We believe your very public criticism of President Bush at this important-and sensitive-time in our nation's history helps undermine the U.S. position, which ultimately could put our troops in even more danger.""
Petroskey, like anyone else, can say and do whatever he likes. The Hall is his house, and he can make the rules. But it should be pointed out that the right to have and to constructively act upon an opinion carries with it the possibility that your opinion, your action or both could be horrendously asinine.
Let us start with the basics. The Hall of Fame is a museum-with plaques, statues, exhibits, memorabilia and a television in the foyer that airs a recording of ""Who's On First?"" on a continuous loop. In short, it is not the Cooperstown office of the American Enterprise Institute, but rather a place open to all baseball fans-regardless of political persuasion-who want to come to learn about and celebrate the national game in its ancestral home.
Now then, ""Bull Durham"" is neither left, right, nor center. It is simply a paean to baseball that-just like the writings of George Will and films like ""The Natural"" and ""Field of Dreams""-beautifully describes this nation's love affair with the game. Yet the film cannot be celebrated for the wonderful thing that it is-because this is a ""sensitive time in our nation's history.""
To be sure, Maines violated the brand-new ""sensitive times"" rule of public discourse when she expressed disappointment in the president. And the patriotism police-represented in this case by the nation's most obnoxious media conglomerate, Clear Channel-went after her. Program directors at Clear Channel outlets nationwide saw the Dixie Chicks disappear from their playlists-playlists that, contrary to Clear Channel's claims, are strictly dictated by centrally controlled radio programmers. Some stations even went so far as to organize pro-war rallies, complete with the ritual destruction of anything Chicks-related. And so the anti-Chicks movement blossomed and grew-all with the tacit approval, or at the outright direction, of Clear Channel's corporate headquarters.
Now, here is the odd thing: the president has close professional and financial links to the Clear Channel's senior management. To be specific, while the president was Governor of Texas, Clear Channel vice chairman Tom Hicks ""managed"" the University of Texas' endowment. Hicks ceded control of large portions of that endowment to companies that were connected to either the Bush family or the Republican Party. Meanwhile, Hicks also bought out the president's share of the Texas Rangers back in 1998. And it gets better. In a previous life, Dale Petroskey-the Hall of Fame chief-was a spokesperson at various levels of the Reagan Administration.
Regardless, the president was right. It is too bad that he was being duplicitous at the time. But you take what you can get.
