G
gilliam
Guest
NPR’s Nina Totenberg eats her shoe. Asked on Inside Washington over the weekend if President Bush deserves credit for the democratic movements rising in the Middle East, Totenberg, a critic of Bush’s Iraq policy, replied that “if I had a hat I would have to eat it.” Then, as she briefly brought a shoe to her month, she noted that “I’ve got my shoe here” and conceded that “I really did not think that this election in Iraq would make that much difference and I was wrong.” She quickly added, however, that “it really does help that Arafat died and they had a real election in Palestine.” Totenberg soon returned to her liberal roots, cautioning “that we not engage in a certain level of triumphalism about this.” The Wall Street Journal’s John Harwood went even further in crediting Bush: “George Bush is going to deserve more credit,” for democracy in the Middle East, “than Ronald Reagan did for the demise of the former Soviet Union.”
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Opening the second segment of the panel program produced at, and carried by, Washington, DC's ABC affiliate, WJLA-TV, host Gordon Peterson showed video of protesters in Lebanon and then read from a March 1 New York Times editorial: "The New York Times wrote: 'The Bush administration is entitled to claim a healthy share of the credit for many of these advances. It boldly proclaimed the cause of Middle East democracy at a time when few in the west thought it had a realistic chance.' Is this the Bush doctrine here?"
Totenberg eagerly answered: "Let me say something here. If I had a hat I would have to eat it. [brings shoe to mouth] I've got my shoe here. I really did not think that this election in Iraq would make that much difference and I was wrong. Of course, it really does help that Arafat died and they had a real election in Palestine. That's just not insignificant. But, Charles [Krauthammer], when you were right, you were right."
Peterson soon turned to former Washington Post reporter Eugene Robinson, who is now a columnist: "Can we put it at the foot of the Bush administration?"
Robinson: "Well, you know, yeah, sure. I mean, a stopped clock is right a couple of times a day..."
A bit later, Harwood proposed: "If we continue on this positive track we're on, George Bush is going to deserve more credit for that than Ronald Reagan did for the demise of the former Soviet Union and the felling of the Berlin Wall. When Ronald Reagan took office, a lot of people, including Daniel Patrick Moynihan -- a lot of Republicans' favorite Democrat -- were predicting the collapse of the Soviet Union because of internal strains. What George Bush has set in motion, with the Iraq war and Iraq elections, are something very few people thought were going to happen and it's almost entirely due to what he has done.".
After some comments from columnist Charles Krauthammer, Totenberg cautioned: "I think it's important, Charles, that we not engage in a certain level of triumphalism about this."
Inside Washington, the descendent of the old Agronsky & Company, airs Saturday night at 7pm local time in the Washington, DC area on cable's NewsChannel 8 and again at 11:30am Sunday on WJLA-TV, channel 7.
The Web site for Inside Washington: [www.insidewashington.tv](http://www.insidewashington.tv/)
The show's page on Totenberg: [www.wjla.com](http://www.wjla.com/iw/bio.hrb?i=5)
http://www.mediaresearch.org/stillshots/2005/totenberg030705.jpg
