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Times Watch for June 11, 2003

“Compassion,” Conservatism Don’t Mix

“G.O.P. Leader Brushes Off Pressure by Bush on Taxes,” a Wednesday front-page story by David Firestone and Richard Stevenson, lets readers know “compassion” and “conservatism” don’t mix.

Describing President Bush’s push for cash payments to low-income workers, they write: “Winning a quick compromise on the child tax credit, strategists said, would help neutralize Democratic attacks on Republicans as heartless on the issue and give credibility to Mr. Bush's claim to being a ‘compassionate conservative’ willing to depart from conservative orthodoxy.”

Last week, in a nearly unprecedented case, the Times even found a “compassionate” Christian conservative. Not coincidentally, he was quoting the Bible to justify a tax hike. David Halbfinger’s June 4 article quotes Alabama governor Bob Riley: “No one likes to raise taxes, least of all me. On the other hand, the inevitable is here.”

Halbfinger follows up: “That, and a chance to right wrongs. Mr. Riley, a proud product of the Bible Belt who speaks of his goals in moral and religious terms, seems to be emphasizing compassion over conservatism.”

For the rest of David Firestone and Richard Stevenson’s article on the Republican battle over tax credits, click here.

Friedman Pulls A Krugman

Columnist Thomas Friedman ventures into hyperbolic Paul Krugman territory in his Wednesday opinion piece assailing Bush’s tax cuts: “The Democrats, for too long, have allowed the Bush team to name its radical reduction in services, and the huge dependence it is creating on foreign capital, as an innocuous ‘tax cut.’ Balderdash. This new tax cut is a dangerous foray into wretched excess and it will ultimately make our government, ourselves and our children less secure.”

For the rest of Thomas Friedman’s tax cut column, click here.

Israel Targeting of a Terrorist “Damages” Peace Talks

Greg Myre’s Wednesday story, “Israeli Missiles Kill 5 Palestinians in Gaza,” once again puts the entire burden for the success of the Middle East “peace process” on Israel, saying Israel’s retaliation against a terror attack “further damaged an already fragile Middle East peace plan”--while barely addressing what motivated Israel to strike the terror group Hamas in the first place.

Myre laments: “In two airstrikes that further damaged an already fragile Middle East peace plan, Israeli helicopters today rained missiles on cars carrying Hamas militants. Five Palestinians were killed, but the prominent Hamas leader who was the main target survived and vowed revenge from his hospital bed.” Myre is talking about Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who is indeed pictured lying in a hospital bed in an Associated Press photo accompanying Myre’s story.

Myre then buries an important part of the story in the eighth paragraph: “Hamas called off the truce talks last Friday and was one of three groups that participated in shooting attacks on Sunday that killed five Israeli soldiers. The Israeli reprisals today appeared to doom any prospect of a cease-fire in the near future.”

Let’s recap the Times take: Hamas (along with two other terror groups) kill five Israelis, Israel retaliates against a leader of the killers--and it’s Israel’s fault for dooming a non-existent “cease-fire.”

For the rest of Greg Myre’s story on Israel’s retaliation, click here.