2011_12_31_postal_cover61404-postal.qxd 12/13/2011 7:03 PM Page 1 December 31, 2011 $4.99 Christmas!Merry THE EDITORS: AGAINST GINGRICH MARKMARK STEYNSTEYN on His $4.99 Big Government 53 Follies 0 74820 08155 6 www.nationalreview.com base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 12/12/2011 3:55 PM Page 2 D CYAN BLK : 2400 9 45˚ 105˚ 75˚ G base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 12/12/2011 3:55 PM Page 3 Advanced Experimentation Technology Development Rapid Prototyping Next-Generation Systems www.boeing.com/innovation TODAYTOMORROWBEYOND D BLK : 2400 9 105˚ 75˚ G toc_QXP-1127940144.qxp 12/14/2011 2:04 PM Page 4 Contents DECEMBER 31, 2011 | VOLUME LXIII, NO. 24 | www.nationalreview.com COVER STORY Page 26 The Gingrich Gestalt Instead of enabling Americans Matthew Spalding on Obama and TR p. 18 to take risks and push the frontiers, Newt Gingrich’s BOOKS, ARTS proposals incline mostly to & MANNERS the expansion of bureaucracy and an increase in 39 PROPHETIC STRAIN Michael Knox Beran reviews dependency. Mark Steyn George F. Kennan: An American Life, by John Lewis Gaddis. COVER: ROMAN GENN 41 VICTORIAN CREATIONS ARTICLES Elizabeth Powers reviews Charles Dickens: A Life, by Claire Tomalin. 18 THE STRING-PULLERS by Matthew Spalding Channeling TR, President Obama advocates rule-by-elites. 43 ANCIENT ECHOES Charles C. W. Cooke reviews 19 AN UNAVOIDABLE CHALLENGE by John Yoo The End of Sparta: A Novel, Now is the time to make the case for military action against Iran. by Victor Davis Hanson. 21 THE Z-WORD by Jay Nordlinger 44 STREET-CORNER When people say ‘Zionist,’ what do they mean? CONSERVATIVE John R. Coyne Jr. reviews 23 TEBOW’S RELIGION, AND OURS by Daniel Foster Speechwright: An Insider’s Earnest worship versus the worship of cynicism. Take on Political Rhetoric, by William F. Gavin. 24 BEFORE YOU SAY NO . by Aloïse Buckley Heath A correspondence, nonfictional, between a young boy, a housewife, 46 FILM: TINTIN TRIUMPHANT a headmaster, and the young boy’s brother. Ross Douthat reviews The Adventures of Tintin. FEATURES 47 THE STRAGGLER: NATIONS OF THE MIND 26 THE GINGRICH GESTALT by Mark Steyn The Derbyshires discover Moscow. You take a dubious record, you take some wacky ideas, you take a narcissistic personality . 29 HOW SPEAKER NEWT BALANCED THE BUDGET by Kevin D. Williamson SECTIONS And why President Newt would not. 4 Letters to the Editor 31 AMNESTY, AGAIN by Kris W. Kobach 6 The Week Gingrich’s plan would reward criminals and make the law arbitrary. 36 The Bent Pin . Florence King 37 Athwart . James Lileks 33 SOME SHADE OF GREEN by Jonathan H. Adler 38 The Long View . Rob Long The former Speaker has a longstanding love-hate relationship 42 Poetry . Michael Petti with environmental reform. 48 Happy Warrior . Mark Steyn NATIONAl REvIEW (ISSN: 0028-0038) is published bi-weekly, except for the first issue in January, by NATIONAl REvIEW, Inc., at 215 lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. 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Offers are limited to purchases made from Bose and participating authorized dealers. Offers valid 11/20/11-1/2/12. Risk free refers to 30-day trial only, requires product purchase and does not include return shipping. Delivery is subject to product availability. iPad and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Quotes reprinted with permission: Sound & Vision, 3/85; Wayne Thompson, Oregonian, 9/10/96. letters--ready_QXP-1127940387.qxp 12/14/2011 2:03 PM Page 4 Letters Send Drones, Not Soldiers DECEMBER 31 ISSUE; PRINTED DECEMBER 15 Jamie M. Fly’s “Retreat—But Whose?” (December 19) turned me from a sup- EDITOR Richard Lowry porter of the war in Afghanistan to a skeptic. If these are the best arguments for Senior Editors our Afghan campaign, perhaps we should walk away. Richard Brookhiser / Jay Nordlinger Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones The bulk of the article is devoted to three non sequiturs. 1. Our soldiers are Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts heroes who work near-miracles. No one questions this. This is no reason to Literary Editor Michael Potemra Executive Editor Christopher McEvoy deploy them in Afghanistan, instead of on the Mexican border or at home as National Correspondent John J. Miller Political Reporter Robert Costa entrepreneurs and parents. 2. The Pakistanis will consider Americans fickle. How Art Director Luba Kolomytseva many decades will we have to fight in Afghanistan to convince them other wise? Deputy Managing Editors Fred Schwarz / Kevin D. Williamson If we succeed in changing their minds, how will this improve America’s posture Associate Editors Helen Rittelmeyer / Robert VerBruggen in the world? Can’t we achieve the same result with some artfully done drone Research Director Katherine Connell strikes and covert actions against America haters in the Inter-Services Intelli - Executive Secretary Frances Bronson Assistant to the Editor Christeleny Frangos gence agency, at much less cost? 3. The Afghan people can now walk their Contributing Editors streets and go to school. God bless them, but this is not why I pay taxes to Robert H. Bork / Shannen Coffin / John Derbyshire Ross Douthat / Rod Dreher / David Frum support a military. If it is, why not invade Somalia, Mexico, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Roman Genn / Jim Geraghty / Jonah Goldberg Florence King / Lawrence Kudlow / Mark R. Levin and wherever else there is human suffering? This is an argument for globalized Yuval Levin / Rob Long / Jim Manzi progressivism delivered by helicopter gunship.