Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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The Bitter Past, More Welcome is the Sweet

Friday, April 13, 2001

The guy who piloted the plane, Lt. Shane Osborn, is going to be one of the heroes of this piece. He safely landed a plane with a nose which looked like Lee Marvin playing Tim Strawn; apparently kept the crew focused and together while they were in China; and was a half second from losing it during his remarks at the Welcome Home Ceremony in Hawaii yesterday.

The most disappointed man in America is Jesse Jackson who was just getting revved up in his attempt to get the national spotlight focused directly on him when the Chinese decided to blink.

Maybe there's the making of a "Bush Doctrine" here: You take an American hostage, we'll send Jesse. If THAT doesn't make a foreign government re-think its plans I don't know what will.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin is now in Cuba to see just how well the Workers' Paradise is doing. Maybe Jackson can go down there. And rescue Elian.

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz had an excellent column rounding up coverage of the China situation, especially President Bush's role in it.

According to one paper, the self-same Washington Post, Dana Wilbank and Dan Balz write, "As the details of Bush's activities over the last 10 days trickled out, his advisers painted a picture of a president whose behind-the-scenes activity was more vigorous than the public perception of him often suggests."

This is not a surprise to those of us who watched Governor Bush operate in Austin. It should also not come as a surprise to those who listened to him on the campaign trail.

Coverage of the President's activities points to a series of "redlines" he drew within which the negotiators were to operate. The two major points were putting arms sales to Taiwan on the table and not allowing the Chinese to use this as an excuse to get us to commit to changing the nature or frequency of surveillance flights.

Kurtz' piece points out that the Dallas Morning News decided it was a good idea to get Gary Bauer on the record reminding us the Chinese have not paid a price for keeping the plane.

Um, Gary? (A) You got about 16 votes TOTAL during the primaries; and (B) Is it your position, given your vast experience in the area of foreign relations, that we should have left the crew there until the plane is fixed? IT DOESN'T HAVE A NOSE! (See the Cat Ballou reference above).

According to the China Daily, Premier Zhu Rongji, told the local press that China does not consider the incident closed, saying "China demands that the US side understand clearly the seriousness of the incident and provide convincing explanations to the Chinese people."

Dear Premier Zhu:

Mullings respectfully suggests you continue your negotiations with a man who has the full confidence of, and is fully qualified to speak for, the American people: Almost-President Gary Bauer.

Might we also suggest you hold these talks in China, that you take as much time as you need, and that you invite America's foremost figure on ethics and moral principles, Jesse Jackson, to mediate.

The "US side" is paralyzed awaiting the form and nature of the "convincing explanations" which will be the result of these talks. Please let us know how it comes out.

On a completely separate subject, does China have reciprocity on missed child support payments?

Sincerely,

Mullings

The final winner of this year's Survivor ordeal is unknown to the cast, the votes having been sealed. CBS has announced that the winner will be revealed during a two-hour live special which will be followed by a one-hour "Survivor Reunion" special hosted by � this is almost too good � Bryant Gumbal.

Voted off the island? Bryant Gumbal is in the running to be the first man voted off the planet!

Lead o' the Week. This is from a Reuters piece by Will Dunham: "Chemically blocking receptors in the brain that respond to a key compound in marijuana squelches the ''high'' caused by the drug, scientists said on Thursday in a finding that could lead to treatment for marijuana abuse and perhaps even for obesity."

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