Noonan: A Week of Change (Tom DeLay, Katie Couric, Iraq and Cap Weinberger)

Wall Street Journal ^ | April 6, 2006 | Peggy Noonan

[RWR8189]

It has been a week of movement, of comings and goings that have reminded me of the wisdom of a friend, a businessman. He told me, a decade or so ago, that it is important to remember, especially when you have a problem or a particular challenge, that life is not a painting. Life is not static; it moves. In a painting of a room, say, everything is set in one position forever. But in life the curtains move with the breeze, people enter the room, and leave it. So whatever problem you're facing, realize that life one way or another will change it to one degree or another, and at whatever speed.

This is the kind of advice that goes under the heading, "Man needs more to be reminded than instructed." It reminded me then, and I'm thinking of it this week.

Tom DeLay leaves, and does it in a distinctive and helpful way. He faced the facts--a damaging political controversy would continue as long as he stayed on the scene; he could lose a seat for the party he actually cares about in a bruising battle for re-election--and left. To lose your career and maintain your equanimity--to retain, even, your joy--is most remarkable. By leaving he denies the opposition a rich target. At the same time he leaves the more consequential parts of his legacy--the groundbreaking Republican victory of '94, welfare reform, etc.--intact. Good for him. A year ago no one would have predicted the curtain would move in this way.

Katie Couric leaves the Today show, where she has presided 15 years, to go to the "CBS Evening News." This is leaving something important (the demographic and huge profitability of "Today") for something less important, the fading network evening news shows that used to be appointment television

[kesg]

Reading Peggy Noonan is like watching the Lifetime Channel or going to a chick flick. I can never last more than a few seconds.

[Uncle Hal]

I find it amazing that Lady Thatcher came all the way over from England to attend Weinberger's funeral. That lady has class and is truly a great person.

[NutCrackerBoy]

Network news staffers are about to launch a round of quiet and internal questioning of the media's coverage of the war in Iraq...if they were skeptical enough, tough enough; if they dodged controversy, if they feared too much being called left-wing and antiwar.

I don't doubt it. And though I stared in disbelief at their negativity, their seemingly deliberate creation of conditions for losing, they will never acknowledge the expressions of that horror, they will wait until the Bush Administration echoes 1% of that sentiment and will pounce on the President for "stifling the press."

[CFC__VRWC]

Katie Couric leaves the Today show, where she has presided 15 years, to go to the "CBS Evening News." This is leaving something important (the demographic and huge profitability of "Today") for something less important, the fading network evening news shows that used to be appointment television

Oh please, this has about as much significance as a fart in a whirlwind. Nothing more than a game of musical chairs by the media, where all the players get up and move around, and Bob Schieffer just happens to be the one left standing at the end. We'll be getting the same old tired liberal spin and bias we've been getting all along. The only reason it's a story at all is because the media is so infatuated with itself that it actually thinks we love them as much as they love themselves, even as they circle the drain.

[OldFriend]

Weinberger's funeral was just about ignored by our MSM.

Margaret Thatcher attended but the media didn't bother to let us know.

[beyond the sea]

(CBS) the fading network evening news shows that used to be appointment television

"appointment television" -- I'd rather have an appointment at the dentist.

[beyond the sea]

even as they circle the drain

LOL ........ I love that visual when thinking of the old media.