Good buzz for God

She Who Sighs on Tony Snow and Tim Russert. I look forward to meeting them in their new location too.

But in the meantime, I thank God for them, and for leading me to a wife who fits this description.

This isn't the Ron Fournier blog, but ...

Ron might need a press agent after this latest dustup courtest of liberal-leaning TPMMuckraker.

So Ron's getting lots of grief from the liberals, piling on from previous stories where he suggested Barack Obama was "bordering on arrogance."

Then, earlier Ron made conservative James Taranto mad for what the Wall Street Journal columnist thinks is evidence of liberal bias.

Perhaps they're both wrong. I think Ron probably regrets telling Karl Rove to "keep up the fight," but as his friend and an observer of the allergy many reporters have to faith, I am sure proud that he can openly talk about the Lord in ANY e-mail to ANYONE.

AP's Ron Fournier and former boss battle it out

Acting AP Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier is a friend, and I know he is widely respected by people on BOTH sides of the aisle. But he's certainly not finding it easy in his new mantle. His former boss, Sandy Johnson, goes on the attack.

“The only thing he ever managed is a startup that he ran into the ground,” cracked Johnson when asked how her former protégé would handle overseeing the Washington bureau.

That's disappointing and a bit of a cheap shot. Sandy Johnson is within her rights to question Ron's management experience is limited, but she could have been more gracious. And since as far as I know she's never managed a startup company, maybe she could set aside the personal attacks.

The bigger question, actually, is whether what Ron wants to do is really what AP's consumers will buy. And because it's the AP, the membership newspapers are the consumers as much or more important than the average reader out here in the Internets.

Check it out and decide for yourself.


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Uncle Charlie

At first I thought maybe old friend Tim Kelly was writing about William Demarest, the guy who played Uncle Charley in "My Three Sons."

But Tim writes instead more importantly about the death of his own uncle, a World War II vet who sounds like he was one heck of a guy to be around. RIP, Uncle Charlie. Despite your introduction of the humbling game of golf to your newphew, your nation still says thank you for your service to your country and your family.

Postscript: Uncle Charlie died in a veteran's nursing home named for Richard Campbell, the brother of the late Gov. Carroll Campbell, who died as a young man serving his country in Vietnam. I remember tears coming to Gov. Campbell's eyes when he was asked one time about his brother.

Jesse Helms and Alex Castellanos

The death of Sen. Jesse Helms on July 4 opened up lots of ideological brickbats in the blogosphere, but to me none more objectionable than Andrew Sullivan's here.

Sullivan draws the conclusion that because Alex Castellanos was the architect behind the famous "hands" ad, he is therefore a racist. He also says "no one" ever calls Castellanos on it.

Well. Interestingly, Sullivan actually is on the same side as Alex Castellanos when it comes to affirmative action. It's not hard to find this out, such as here, where Sullivan actually links affirmative action to "racial discrimination." And if affirmative action is "racial discrimination," isn't racial quotas (the subject of the "hands" ad) an even worse manifestation of said discrimination?

Of course the ad isn't the only reflection of Sen. Helms' views on racial matters. In fact, there is much to lament about his views on civil rights.

But just as Andrew Sullivan's views on affirmative action do not make him a racist, neither does the "hands" ad and its tough portrayal of racial quotas make a racist of Alex Castellanos, a man whose father came to this country from Cuba with his wife and two children and just $11 in his pocket.

I used to work for Alex. I didn't do any political ad work for him, and what I did do wasn't all that great obviously because I wasn't there very long. Maybe this makes me somewhat objective. I can say for certain two things about what Sullivan wrote: Perhaps least importantly, he's wrong that Alex is never questioned about the ad. To paraphrase John McCain, if Sullivan would just do "a Google," he probably find plenty of efforts to force Alex to defend his ad. Here's one. Here's another that criticizes the ad. Alex will always have to deal with this ad.

But more importantly, Alex Castellanos is no racist. When you oppose a candidate whose campaign is a historic achievement (Harvey Ganntt,Barack Obama), your odds of being called a racist go up dramatically, regardless of the facts. And I was just talking about that earlier.

RNC takes on tough task, but has the right guy to do it.

It won't be easy to target Barack Obama. He has a virtual halo around him. The national media is likely to overreact to any tough ad, something they won't do when the DNC and Sen. Obama go after McCain. But the RNC's tapping of Brad Todd (disclosure: friend and former co-worker) is the right move. Brad has the right touch for this assignment Witness his ads for Michael Steele two years ago in Maryland:





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People are good at heart, and there's a reason why.

A Fairfax County couple is trying to find the owner of a missing diamond ring. They could use the $40,000, but they don't want it, and they didn't even want publicity for it. Do people naturally make these choices? I think yes, if they listen to what is imprinted already in their hearts.

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