Words matter

Posted at 06:00 PM

In Section: Fighting Bob Posted By: Fighting Bob

I'm not sure what we would have done had Bill Moyers not returned to PBS, but he did. Thank goodness. Bill had Katherine Hall Jamison, Dean of the Annenberg School of Communications, on his program last Friday, and she will be a frequent guest leading up to the November election.

She and Brooks Jackson, a truly nice guy, have a website, Factcheck.org that you will find useful. On Friday, Jamison pointed to a few words in that awful State of the Union address that make the point that words matter. Bush said the U.S. "may have a protective over watch mission" in Iraq. What does that mean and what, may we ask, is "protective over watch"?

The suspicion is that it is related to John McCain's latest rambling that people don't care how long we stay in Iraq, 100 years if necessary, they care about casualties. Now, what does that mean? Jamison muses it may be a signal that Bush will seek a long-term "treaty" to remain in Iraq, with or without permission, on an "overwatch" mission. Yikes!

Hey, it is Super Tuesday and tonight I'll be on Mitch Henck's program on WIBA with comments from 8-10 p.m. Call and give yours.

Patriots--Lucky they didn't play the Packers. Now that Bobby Knight has retired at Texas Tech rumor (started here) is that Knight and Patriot coach Belichick will form a charm school. Just a thought.

I'm sure my parents voted for FDR, but I recall how upset they were over his attempt to "pack" the Supreme Court by increasing the number from 9 to 15. (FDR announcecd the plan on this day in 1937.) And, if the sitting justices did not retire at 70, they could be replaced. Republicans went wild. The plan died, but the Court changed direction and New Deal legislation suddenly passed constitutional muster.

Who is "packing" Wisconsin's Supreme Court? Yup, the conservatives who condemned FDR to the ashcan of history. WMC will pack our Court in a more insidious way. FDR was transparent. WMC operates in the shadows. He would have done it with legislation; WMC will do it the old-fashioned way--by buying it!