The Clintons' New Campaign
Manager: Jean Chrétien
by Michael Moriarty, Actor and Columnist
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When an established political family again seeks power, it needs
someone to play the "pit bull." This creature is basically an attack
dog that will maim the family's opponents before the leader steps in to perform
the coup de grâce. The rituals of bullfighting are the underlying formula.
Someone in the campaign must play the picador before the matador -- the family's
"godfather" -- shows up to push the sword firmly into the heart of
the bull.
Although Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chrétien speaks French, he has
the hidden instincts of a Doberman pincher.
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On
May 27, Chrétien was reportedly "slamming" U.S. President George
W. Bush. This belies the claim that the soon-to-be-retired Chrétien disagreed
with the "moron" pejorative directed at Bush earlier this year by
his former communications director (and future Senator) Francine Ducros. The
PM's remarks on a flight to the G-8 Summit in Athens expanded on the theme that
the President is indeed a moron, a man from the Dark Ages.
Socialism, the religion that both the PM and former U.S. President Bill Clinton
belong to, has built a very tight international family. Its appeal to the so-called
"disenfranchised" -- women, labor, North American minorities and the
entire Third World -- are sermons from the pulpits that encourage the congregation
to scream out the injustices of an "American imperialism."
Bernard Henri Lévy, the brilliant French-Algerian writer, stated quite
simply: "The rise of anti-Americanism is a sure sign of the rise of fascism."
Since socialism is basically a Robin Hood adventure, it is quite clear, from
the history of its achievements, that when a Robin Hood -- such as former Canadian
PM Pierre Trudeau -- becomes King John, his successors evolve into the likes
of Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic, Fidel Castro, Kim
Jong-il and a raft of lesser wannabe dictators all over the socialist world.
Where Chrétien falls into this evolution has yet to be seen. His foreign
and defense policy is clearly presented as Canada's desire to be the Switzerland
of North America.
God bless Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair for not shunning the unsavory
task of playing the Bush-like "tough cop" for the English-speaking
world.
Chrétien, however, has gone beyond playing the "soft cop."
He is literally refusing to jump into the Free World's foxhole, while calling
his Liberal colleagues "nervous Nellies."
We have a bit of a double standard here. This obvious conflict, unfortunately,
will leave Canada in the embarrassing position of having to make reparations,
as the Swiss did, for playing both sides against the middle.
After listing George W.'s mistakes -- a $500-billion deficit, increasing unemployment,
the fall of the American dollar, and so on -- Chrétien conveniently avoids
the "log in his own eye" -- a national health care system that does
not work, a brain drain caused by socialism's triumph of mediocrity, a justice
system that caters to loonie left special interest groups, a nationwide rise
in crime which (per capita) might very well exceed that of New York City, and
a decimated military that Chrétien keeps volunteering for peacekeeping
missions abroad that it cannot handle.
During his "remarkably unguarded" scrum, Chrétien was asked
if he planned to be the next Secretary General of the United Nations. His reply,
with the insouciance of a retired entertainer, was that he had no such ambitions.
He merely wanted to be a columnist and comment upon history and events.
What his plan appears to be, however, is to remain among the wizards of the
UN, the leader of which may still be former President Clinton.
Chrétien waxed nostalgic about his friendship with Clinton.
"We play golf together," he enthused.
I often wonder what their banter goes like in the buoyancy of the 19th hole.
It has been proven, certainly within the last decade, that power overcomes money
every time. Ross Perot's meteoric decline as a credible candidate for President,
albeit with profound help from a liberal press labeling him as "crazy,"
reveals the inadequacy of mere money when it comes to running for office. An
insincere liberal's "good intentions" can win more votes than the
multi-millionaire's seven-digit ads.
After whining about the Canadian press' treatment of him, the PM then went out
on a limb, startling the very press he had chastised. To what purpose? Making
sure that eventually Hillary Clinton will sit in the Oval Office, perhaps with
Janet Reno as her personal assistant.
One can only surmise that Chrétien's main goal is to stay somewhere within
the socialist hierarchy's upper levels. Becoming the Clinton family's campaign
pit bull may be his bid for immortality. Perhaps the soon-to-be-ex-Prime Minister
of Canada should retire in Havana or Moscow or Beijing. He would most certainly
get a hero's welcome there. ***
Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning actor who has appeared in the landmark television series Law and Order, the mini-series Holocaust, and the recent mini-series Taken. In 2002 he won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his work in James Dean.
© 2003 Michael Moriarty
This article originally appeared in Enter Stage Right on June 16, 2003 and in re-run with both Mr. Moriarty's and ESR's permission.
COPYRIGHT © 2003 BY THE AMERICAN PARTISAN. All writers retain rights to their work.
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