Thursday's links and comments

The terrorists in Iraq made a big mistake when they killed four Russian diplomats. Russians believe strongly in the concept of revenge. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered special services to "find and destroy" the killers of four Russian diplomats taken hostage in Iraq. In contrast, look at the muted response to the brutal mutilation and killing of two U.S. soldiers recently.

Scapegoating Guantanamo by Victor Davis Hanson is well worth reading.

I often mention Democrat nuttiness, well for a little balance here is an article on Michael Steele's Republican primary opponent, Daniel "The Wig Man" Vovak. This character (who I'm sad to admit grew up in the Cleveland suburbs) claims to have had his campaign manager place a curse on Steele.

"If Michael Steele withdraws from the Republican Primary, I will remove the curse my psychic campaign manager placed on him," said Vovak, a ghostwriter of movies and books. "Steele's curse will become stronger as the primary approaches. Life is not going to be pleasant for the self-described Man of Steele."

Peggy Noonan's columns are usually a good read and today is no exception. Like William F. Buckley, she will occasionally sneak a work into her column that I need to look up. Today she did so with a word to describe Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton. Media people keep saying, as Hillary gears up for her presidential bid, that her big challenge in 2008 will be to prove that she is as tough as a man. That she could order troops to war. That she's not girly and soft.

This is the exact opposite of the truth. Hillary doesn't have to prove her guy chops. She doesn't have to prove she's a man, she has to prove she's a woman. No one in America thinks she's a woman. They think she's a tough little termagant in a pantsuit. They think she's something between an android and a female impersonator. She is not perceived as a big warm mommy trying to resist her constant impulse to sneak you candy. They think she has to resist her constant impulse to hit you with a bat. She lacks a deep (as opposed to quick) warmth, a genuine and almost phenomenological sense of rightness in her own skin. She seems like someone who might calculatedly go to war, or not, based on how she wanted to be perceived and look and do. She does not seem like someone who would anguish and weep over sending men into harm's way.

Termagant? What does that mean? Ans: n : a scolding nagging bad-tempered woman. Okay, can't argue with that.

Bush's Decency Highlights Democrats Incivility by Seth Swirsky. Though I often wish President Bush would fight back against the scurrilous attacks from the left, in the end I am proud to see him stay above the fray.