iMPROMPTUS

I saw something that shocked me, from Alan Colmes. You know him: one half of the Hannity-and-Colmes team on Fox. Interviewed by The Hotline (a Washington political sheet), Colmes was asked, "If you could have any other job besides the one you have now, what would it be?" Colmes answered, "I admired William Kunstler. To defend the defenseless, to empower the powerless, to work within the system to change it. Atticus Finch in 'To Kill a Mockingbird.'"

This is a breathtaking statement, if you know the personalities, issues, and facts involved. The late Kunstler was heir to Leonard Boudin. A lot of people called them, simply, "the CP lawyer." What is indisputable is that Kunstler, like Boudin, was a scoundrel of the first order, a defender, not so much of the defenseless, as of the indefensible: Communist and genocidal regimes throughout the world. He was proud of his policy of never uttering a word of criticism about any "socialist country," as he put it, including the Soviet Union, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Mao's China, Castro's Cuba, etc. This was a man who spat on human rights and whose clients were the worst beasts he could find. He did not present them merely as beasts who had a right to counsel, but as heroes.

He bore no relation whatever to Harper Lee's Atticus Finch, a good southern liberal. Finch, unlike Kunstler, believed in real civil rights, and upheld them. Hard leftists like Kunstler had nothing but scorn for liberals like Atticus Finch, thinking them soft, quaint, and in the way.

I'm hoping that Colmes is merely ignorant of Kunstler's career and deeds. Colmes has always struck me as a decent sort, taking guff from the Left for not being hateful enough about the Right. If he cited Kunstler as a hero merely to shore up his left flank . . . well, there is no excuse.

I have written many times, in this column, about the mainstreaming of Al Sharpton. The Democrats have accepted him as a legitimate presidential contender, and now — in what may be the ultimate gesture of affirmation — he is to host Saturday Night Live. This is a man who has steadfastly refused to apologize to Steven Pagones, whose life he all but ruined by accusing him of raping and further brutalizing a girl named Tawana Brawley (who was never assaulted by anybody). This is a man who bears a responsibility for the murders at Freddy's Fashion Mart, after he incited radicals and criminals against "white interlopers" in Harlem.

And now, he will be exuding his special charm on SNL. The likes of Steve Pagones — and me, for that matter — can only shake their heads and sigh.

This same Sharpton said to Howard Dean — regarding the recent Confederate-flag flap — ". . . you appear to be too arrogant to say, 'I'm wrong,' and go on." An interesting assessment, in light of what he has done to Pagones.

On to Rosie O'Donnell: She is the subject of much tabloid coverage here in New York, because she is in court over matters concerning the now-defunct magazine that bore her name. One of the issues that have come up in court is, believe it or not, this: Did Rosie object to a certain proposed cover photo because it made her look like a lesbian (Rosie was not yet "out") or because it made her look fat? Rosie says the latter.

I have a little story that's relevant. Some time ago, I did a piece on Rosie, for which I interviewed her at length. We duly published it, along with an illustration by our principal artist, Roman Genn. Rosie called and left a message on my answering machine: She appreciated the article, which she thought had been fair to her — but said, "That picture was a little gross, wasn't it?" It had made her seem fat. Her face looked a little like a Macy's Thanksgiving Parade object.

And I thought, "Whaddya know? World-famous lesbian or not, she's still a girl — concerned about how she looks, how she's portrayed." And I liked that.

One of the witnesses in this court case had Rosie saying the following: "As a lesbian, I'm uncomfortable being on a magazine cover holding another woman or touching another woman." (This was the photo in dispute — it included, on either side of Rosie, two stars of The Sopranos.) Responding to this allegation, Rosie said, "I have never in my life said, 'As a lesbian, blah, blah, blah.' 'As a lesbian, pass the salt.' 'As a lesbian, give me a Diet Coke.'"

I love that statement — one of the best anti-PC, or anti-something, statements I have heard in a long time. I once knew (or, really, knew of) a woman who prefaced her every utterance with, "As a member of the black community . . ." Look, if you have something to say, get on with it. But . . .

I've been telling you for a while, sports fans: Be fairly afraid of Howard Dean. He may be running as a left wild man in the Democratic primaries — or he had been doing that — but he will not present himself as a left wild man in the general (if he is, indeed, the nominee, which I believe he will be). You could see this in his response to Kerry on guns: He said, essentially, "Look, I'm from a rural state, guns aren't evil, go jump in a lake." And you could see this in his response — at least his initial response — to the hoo-ha over his mention of the Confederate flag: He said, essentially, "I'm not going to be satisfied with being the Democratic nominee — with winning the hearts of the 'Not in Our Name' nutcases. My end goal is to be president of the United States."

He will not pull a McGovern '72. He is a man with a personality, he's not (necessarily) an ideologue, and he has a drive to win. My great hope, as a Bush supporter, is that Karl Rove et al. are taking this fellow very, very, very seriously.

Speaking of McGovern, I see by a New York Times article that the old senator has written a pro-Dean piece for Playboy. Will McGovern's feminist admirers care? I guess not. They didn't care about Bill Clinton.

I have simply one comment to make on the shudder-making poll taken by Gallup in Europe. This is the one showing that 59 percent of Europeans think Israel "presents a danger to peace in the world." Said the report I read in the New York Sun, "The rate was highest among 15 options presented in the poll. America shared with Iran and North Korea the next tier on the list of dangerous states, with 53 percent each, illustrating, perhaps, a European definition of President Bush's famous 'axis.'"

Okay, my point: I tell you again what Sen. Chuck Grassley said in the mid-1980s (and I paraphrase): "If I got my information about Nicaragua from the media, I'd be against contra aid, too." European elites — journalists, teachers, etc. — have done this to European people. And that is why, though we're all responsible for ourselves, these elites are especially guilty. In fact, those elites, who are supposed to lead, have, in characteristic fashion, betrayed the mass of people.

I might quote — for the umpteenth time — the great Oscar Hammerstein II: "You have to be carefully taught."

I was arrested by an article in the New York Post: here. It described the grieving rage of a father whose son had been dispatched as a suicide bomber. Said Kamal Abu Saud, of his son Sabih, "He was just a little boy [ten days past 16], and those who sent him should have left him alone." Yes, why don't they send their own, those leaders? Mrs. Arafat is on record as saying she'd be delighted to sacrifice her own. Okay, where are they?

Friends, I have some news out of Cuba, and I'm afraid that, as usual, it's not good. You know of René Montes de Oca, the incredibly brave and defiant dissident whom I've interviewed a couple of times. He says that, on October 7, his sister was raped, by two men. He blames the crime on "State Security." He says, further, "I am convinced that they want to arrest me again, being that I have openly and publicly proclaimed my ideas." However, "they will never be able to make me give in and make me be quiet." Rape, of course, is a means of torture and oppression employed by many brute regimes, including Saddam Hussein's (d. 2003).

And, according to Ada Kaly Márquez, of the Frank País November 30th Democratic Party,

Political prisoner Arturo Suárez Ramos, being held in Combinado del Este Prison, in Havana, has been on a hunger strike since October 14th, in protest of the search conducted on October 11th in his cell, where he was again threatened with being transferred to another province and locked up with common prisoners, according to information from Isabel Ramos, mother of the prisoner. . . .

In addition, Suárez Ramos wanted it to be public knowledge that the political prisoner Rafael Ibarra Roque, president of the November 30th Democratic Party, and political prisoner Pedro Argüelles Moran had been taken to a section in the prison with common prisoners, where they removed their clothing in protest, and they were beaten by prison authorities and taken to covered punishment cells. . . .

Ibarra Roque and Argüelles Moran are maintaining their stance of defiance of prison authorities in an act of civil disobedience in the form of hunger strikes . . .

Isabel Ramos, faced with this situation, told Rojas, an official with the State Security, that he is responsible for what may happen to her son and the other political prisoners placed together with common prisoners, and in response she was told that if she were to do anything they would take the necessary measures. Let me just add here that Rafael Ibarra Roque is the husband of the magnificent Maritza Lugo, whom I have interviewed and profiled for NR.

In the evening hours of October 20th, Luis Campos Corrales, political prisoner and member of the November 30th party, who is almost blind due to a bacterial infection, was handcuffed and then thrown from the second floor of Combinado del Este in Havana by the officer in charge of the detachment — who goes by the name of Leonel — with the aid of another prison official. . . .

According to information received by correspondents of Lux Info Press in Havana, after this incident with Campos Corrales, officials at Combinado del Este also dragged across the floor of the prison the political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo of the Alternative Republican Movement in Havana and member of the Civic Movement Committee of the Varela Project, who was unjustly sentenced to 18 years in prison in the recent wave of repression that began last March. They left Tamayo's back full of lacerations only for requesting medical attention.

I would like to note with sadness the passing of David Bar-Illan, a man of whom I thought a lot. Who was he? He was a pianist, a journalist, and an Israeli political-intellectual figure. I first knew of him when I was a boy, and owned a recording of his (Chopin, I believe). I was shocked, when I was a teenager, and began to read Commentary magazine, to see Bar-Illan's name there. Could it be the same man? Yes, he was a writer too — and an extremely eloquent one, particularly about matters Middle Eastern. He basically put his musical career aside in order to help his country. He served as editor of the Jerusalem Post, and as spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu, when Netanyahu was prime minister. Said Netanyahu, after Bar-Illan's death, "[He] was an outstanding artist who sacrificed years of wonderful musical creativity to engage in journalistic and public activity to help his land and his people. He was a Renaissance man with an international education, and an amazing writer . . ."

Bar-Illan wrote a piece for NR, on the Netanyahu-Barak election (and the Clinton administration's involvement in it). It was a terrific and attention-getting piece. Bar-Illan was a delight to work with, and I got to know him a little. He sent me a CD. But soon he fell quite ill, and lingered until this week. As I said, I admired him a lot, and feel I can do nothing now, except tip my hat, in this little pocket of the Internet.

Friends, a couple of announcements. It has been a while since I've been able to look at my mail — any of it — and I apologize for that. I may not get to it; but please think not that it has anything to do with desire. Also, there won't be another Impromptus for a while — till the week after next. Other obligations and activities beckon. Be cool (as we said in my glorious junior-high days).

That the pundits are allowing themselves to be ju-jitsued by the Israel-peace poll is disgusting. Wake up, tuna heads!
The all being purpose of civilization is not peace. The internal USSR was a peaceful as the grave.

Freedom is our cause, not serenity. If it is necessary to disrupt the peace to restore freedom, only a fool or a tyrant would protect the peace. The US and Israel are a threat to
peace because we will not tolerate, abide, or enable terrorism. There is plenty of time for peace in death.
I want liberty, prosperity, and to not live in fear, and I want it now. It that requires breaking the peace, then that's what war is for.

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