Churchgoing Hillary "Caricatured" by Conservatives
 

     A recent speech by Hillary Clinton, in which she feinted to the center on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage, has aroused the interest of the Times. On Tuesday Metro reporter Raymond Hernandez scrutinizes New York's junior senator (who many think is preparing to run for president in 2008) in "As Clinton Shifts Themes, Debate Arises On Her Motives."

     Yet Hernandez appears sympathetic with Clinton's plight, painting conservative criticism of her as exaggerated (note the use of the specific term "caricature"): "Conservatives have long caricatured Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York's junior senator, as the sort of Democrat whose positions on social issues are out of step with Americans deeply concerned about religious and moral values. But while Mrs. Clinton has been strongly identified with polarizing issues like abortion rights, the picture that conservative Republicans paint of her is at odds with a side of herself she has lately displayed as she enters a new phase of her public life."

     While Clinton's foes are twice labeled "conservative," Clinton herself never receives the liberal label from Hernandez. Instead, he emphasizes her religiosity, even dragging Bill Clinton's affairs into the picture to strengthen her image: "That faith, they say, has sustained her throughout a public life that has made her an object of painful scrutiny, particularly during her days in the White House dealing with issues like her husband's infidelity. 'I'm sure she got through some of those tough times in her White House years because of her faith,' said Melanne Verveer, the first lady's chief of staff. 'She had little prayer cards she would carry with her and look at on occasion.' A churchgoer for years, Mrs. Clinton also joined a prayer group led by Republicans when she took office in the Senate in 2001, her associates and aides note. Those who know her say one of the most influential figures in her life was Donald Jones, her youth minister in Park Ridge, Ill., who remained so close to her through the years that he sometimes accompanied her on the campaign trail to offer moral support during her 2000 Senate bid in New York."

For the rest of Hernandez's look at religious Hillary, click here:

The NYT Christens Christie Whitman, but Gave Zell Miller Hell
 

     First there was New Jersey Bureau Chief David Kocieniewski's praise-filled "Public Lives" profile of liberal Republican Christie Whitman's stand against "conservative hubris" in the Bush administration. Now comes a signed editorial Tuesday by Robert Semple Jr., "Christie Whitman Rides to the Defense of Her Grand Old Party."

     Semple writes of Whitman (a former member of Bush's cabinet and author of a new book, "It's My Party, Too," which is critical of conservatives): "A product of New Jersey's political aristocracy, and a firm believer in Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment -- 'thou shalt not speak ill of other Republicans' -- she is far is too polite to indulge in settling scores. Besides, she has a larger agenda, which is to deplore the hijacking of her beloved Republican Party….On this score, she is in full cry, laying about her against the 'fundamentalists,' the 'social conservatives' and the 'ideological zealots' whose views on abortion, race and other big social issues she battled tirelessly as governor of New Jersey. This is a call to arms to the remaining moderates of the Eisenhower/Rockefeller school, and a timely reminder in this age of bitter ideological combat that there was once a Republican mainstream, before the mainstream flowed right. Yet she is maddeningly coy about the reactionaries who determined the Bush administration's environmental policies and ultimately did her in."

     Note that the only criticism Semple can muster is that Whitman's not tough enough on Bush and the "reactionary" conservatives surrounding him.

     Contrast that tone to the paper's treatment of another party apostate, this time from the other side of the aisle. Sen. Zell Miller, Democrat of Georgia, broke with his party and delivered the keynote address at the Republican National Convention. Yet instead of being applauded for his independence, instead of being encouraged to be even tougher on the Democrats, the Times let Democrats lambaste Miller as a disgrace and a traitor to the party.

     In a June article, reporter John Files lets a liberal Democrat personally excoriate Miller for planning to speak at the RNC: "Representative John Lewis, also a Democrat and the dean of the Georgia Congressional delegation, called Mr. Miller's decision to appear at the convention on behalf of President Bush 'a shame and a disgrace.'"

     Files quoted Lewis: "This is the same Zell Miller who said 40 years ago that President Lyndon Johnson had sold his soul when he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964." Apparently, the Times could find no Republicans to defend Miller.

     A September 1 profile of Miller by congressional reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg passes along name-calling directed at Miller by fellow Democrats: "Zig Zag Zell, his critics call him. Zellout. A traitor. An elephant in donkey's clothing."

     Back on November 22, 2003, Stolberg also commented on Zell Miller's own book, which was critical of his Democratic party. Stolberg's take on Miller's book isn't nearly as generous to the author as Semple is with Whitman: "Now Mr. Miller is preparing to retire, and has taken his frustrations public. In a blistering parting shot, he has written a book attacking national Democrats as ultraliberal, beholden to special-interest groups and unable to compete in the South. At 71, he has said he will cast his first ballot for a Republican next year, when he votes to re-elect President Bush. Democrats, furious and bewildered, feel betrayed by a man they spent decades working to elect. But in Republican circles, Mr. Miller is a hot property.”

For the rest of Semple's editorial on Whitman, click here:

Bush's Social Security Reform "Chipping Away at Inner Peace" of Americans
 

     A Sunday Week in Review piece by TV beat reporter Alessandra Stanley spots a grim economic message in the latest batch of reality shows: "These days, reality television is instructional in an atavistic way: the focus is less and less on the middle class and more on the wealthiest 1 percent at the top and the masses of striving people at the bottom. It cannot be a good omen for the American economy that the most compelling reality shows echo the class tension and overnight success fantasies of movies produced in, or set in, the Great Depression. But the unquenchable appeal of 'The Apprentice' and 'American Idol' lies at least in part in their poignancy: both series combine the preposterous feel-good optimism of '42nd Street' with the desperation of 'They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'"

     In an awkward attempt at gauging the economic mood of the country, Stanley portrays actions by the Bush administration as sapping America's sense of "inner peace": "The focus on money over grooming makes sense. The economy may be rebounding slightly, but American confidence does not seem to be quite as buoyant -- other factors, like the war, the deficit, and a President intent on altering Social Security, keep chipping away at inner peace. Why else would poker and casino gambling have such explosive appeal right now?"

For the rest of Stanley's piece, click here: