"Tribal justice"

Back when Pat Buchanan was using his endowed chair on MSNBC to attack the Bush administration on Iraq, it was tempting to forget that he's super-duper racist.

Pat Buchanan's 1992 RNC speech

I was reading a Slate article that tries to establish where McCain's use of "my friends" ranks as a rhetorical tic in American political history, and it makes a reference to Pat Buchanan's convention speech at the 1992 RNC. It had 6 instances of "my friends," but is pretty interesting for other reasons as well.

As someone who finds himself agreeing with a lot of what Buchanan says on MSNBC, I sometimes let myself forget that he's the same Pat Buchanan who was too hot for the Republican party in the mid-90s. This is right after the Democrats nominated Bill Clinton. Stirring stuff:

"Like many of you last month, I watched that giant masquerade ball at Madison Square Garden--where 20,000 radicals and liberals came dressed up as moderates and centrists--in the greatest single exhibition of cross-dressing in American political history."

"And what does Hillary believe? Well, Hillary believes that 12-year-olds should have a right to sue their parents, and she has compared marriage as an institution to slavery--and life on an Indian reservation. Well, speak for yourself, Hillary."

and my favorite:

"In New York, Mr Gore made a startling declaration. Henceforth, he said, the 'central organizing principle' of all governments must be: the environment. Wrong, Albert!"