How'm I Doing?
I have a great affection for Ed Koch, the former Mayor of New York City. Growing up in Jersey in the sixties and seventies Koch was a part of my youth. I remember going to a Concert on the Pier, I think partly subsidized by the city, where Koch greeted the crowd with his usual "How'm I doing?" It was King Crimson dude, he was doing great.
In later years, especially after he left the Mayor's office I started to listen to him on the Radio and on various TV programs. I could find little to argue with. The guy had passion, and he cared. He was also not stupid and called things like he saw them, and backed his arguments up. Even now that I'm a partisan Republican, his opinion carries a lot of weight with me, as I'm sure it does with many others.
Which brings me to an article I found through Instapundit this morning.
Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconson… a presidential candidate in 2008… demanded that the President stop referring to those engaged in terrorist attacks against us and others as Islamic fascists. He said, "Fascist ideology...doesn't have anything to do with the way global terrorist networks think or operate, and it doesn't have anything to do with the overwhelming majority of Muslims around the world who practice the peaceful teachings of Islam." But what about the tens of millions who are terrorists and want to kill us? Does he have a description for them? The media rarely call those engaged in acts of terrorism "terrorists," preferring to refer to them simply as "militants."
These are reasonable questions, and as the recent saying goes Koch is no "partisan gunslinger." At least not a Republican one. What is darkly humorous about Feingold's statement is that his base normally accuses the 'President' of being fascist. The President may be wrong in his various descriptions of our enemy, but Feingold is even more wrong by stirring the pot and not offering an alternative. It means he's not even trying. If Feingold were President, who is it that we would be fighting? How would he describe them and how would he deal with Muslims in general?
This problem is not limited to one politician. The United Nations refuses to even offer up a description of 'terrorist.' If one cannot name his enemy, the battle, if not the war, is already lost. Koch gets this simple fact, which is why he's still doing great.
