SEPTEMBER 17, 2018 $5.99 STUNT MAN MATT LABASH on Sabo, right-wing guerrilla street artist WEEKLYSTANDARD.COM Contents September 17, 2018 • Volume 24, Number 2 2 The Scrapbook In praise of NPR (just this once) & more 5 Casual Mark Hemingway on the joys of a cheap amusement park 6 Editorials Activist Senators • Rahm Steps Aside 9 Comment Desperate Democrats BY FRED BARNES The strangest progressive project of all: Elevating John Dean BY PHILIP TERZIAN Harvard admissions on trial—the DoJ joins the game BY TERRY EASTLAND Mailing it in: Say goodbye to the secret ballot BY ERIC FELTEN 6 The spy who drove her: DiFi and Chinese espionage BY ETHAN EPSTEIN Articles 16 The Kavanaugh War BY JOHN MCCORMACK It’s stupider than you can imagine 17 Innocence Presumed BY KC JOHNSON AND STUART TAYLOR JR. Betsy DeVos undoes a major campus injustice 20 Russia’s Hacks BY REUEL MARC GERECHT Exaggerating the threat from Moscow 16 22 Blazing an Early Trail to the White House BY TONY MECIA In Iowa, the presidential campaigns never really stop Features 24 Republican Is the New Punk BY MATT LABASH Street artist Sabo may just be ‘some guy who lives in some dump,’ but he is taking on and taking down the likes of Jimmy Kimmel and Meryl Streep 34 Iran’s Long Game BY BILL ROggIO Tehran’s growing influence in Iraq is no accident, newly declassified interrogation transcripts show 34 Books & Arts 38 Le Grand Charles BY LAWRENCE KLEPP How de Gaulle turned himself into a symbol 40 House Hostility, Senate Smackdowns BY JAMES M. BANNER JR. Violence in the antebellum Congress 43 To Write a Predator BY KATRINA GULLIVER Did a real-life kidnapping case inspire Nabokov’s Lolita? 45 Jack Attack BY NICHOLAS H. LOYA Tom Clancy’s hero returns in a new Amazon series, but with less geeky charm 47 Suburban Style BY CHRISTINE ROSEN High fashion and low blows in a sequel to The Devil Wears Prada 43 48 Parody The Mueller practice session COVER PHOTO BY EDWARD CARREON THE SCRAPBOOK 11, Rounded Up to 240 his spring, not long after the include any number of things—hear- T shooting at Marjory Stoneman ing what sounds like gunfire, rumors Douglas High School in Florida, the of a shooting, a “shooting” involving Department of Education released something other a gun, and so on. a report showing that during the You may laugh, but the New York 2015-2016 school year there were an Times, as THE SCRAPBOOK recorded astounding 240 school shootings. The earlier this year, once included in its figure has been repeated endlessly by own compilation of “school shoot- gun control activists and commenta- ings” a pellet shot at a school bus, tors. The report from which it was shots supposedly fired at a commu- derived, however, got little scrutiny. nity college without injury or suspect, Almost nobody thought to ask why and many other such non-events. the number was so high. Even if we take the report’s methodol- Almost nobody—which is why ogy semi-seriously, however, it means National Public Radio deserves enor- that during the 2015-16 school year, mous credit for doing what other No need—NPR already did. about 1 out of every 10,000 schools media organizations didn’t. After a reported any kind of a “shooting.” In few months of research—the gov- The question asked of each one of other words, shootings are extremely ernment report is a massive docu- the country’s 96,300 schools by the rare phenomena on America’s school- ment—what they found was pretty Department of Education was this: yards and campuses. astounding. Of the 240 school shoot- “Has there been at least one incident Whatever methodology we settle ings reported by the Department of at your school that involved a shoot- on to determine the number of school Education, NPR was able to confirm ing (regardless of whether anyone was shootings in the United States, perhaps that only 11 of them actually occurred. hurt)?” The language is broad to the we can all agree that an event should The problem was bad methodol- point of meaninglessness. “An inci- only be classified a “school shooting” ogy mixed with anti-gun ideology. dent that involved a shooting” could if there was, in fact, a shooting. ♦ Football League and its corporate quarterbacks, and players’ capacities Just Do It Badly leadership, which seems to have a pol- decline. Most move on to coaching olin Kaepernick, the former quar- icy of handling its problems by mak- or commentating. Colin Kaepernick C terback for the San Francisco ing them worse. Still, it’s hard to find moved on to secular sainthood. ♦ 49ers, has signed a deal with Nike in fault with the NFL for the fact that which he will appear in some of the Kaepernick’s playing career petered From Each According company’s “Just Do It” advertise- out. The whole regrettable contro- ments. Kaepernick of course pioneered versy can be best understood, in THE to Her Ability the practice of protest- SCRAPBOOK’s admit- ally Rooney is a young Marxist ing racial injustice tedly fallible view, by Snovelist from Ireland, the author of by kneeling during remembering that he Conversations with Friends, a celebrated the national anthem. failed to become a good debut novel. She has just published The first Nike ad fea- passer. A tendency a second novel, Normal People, and tures Kaepernick’s to throw the football already it’s a bestseller. Both are being face behind the words inaccurately does not adapted for the big screen. Rooney is “Believe in something. lend itself to a long among the most successful millennial Even if it means sacri- career as a starting novelists, and so, the New York Times ficing everything.” NFL quarterback, and explains, her characters “are skeptical This is an advertise- Kaepernick’s ability to of the ability of markets to provide peo- ment, bear in mind, for hit intended receivers ple with a decent life.” They also “view sports apparel. diminished markedly human relationships—especially sex— As to the substance during his last two as deeply political.” Rooney’s parents of Kaepernick’s mes- seasons. It’s a com- were socialists and frequently repeated sage, we make no Oh well—there’s always mon circumstance. Marx’s slogan “from each accord- defense of the National sanctimonious endorsements. Defenses adapt to new ing to his ability, to each according to IMAGES / LIGHTROCKET GETTY / SOPA BERNATE CARLOS TOP: BOTTOM: / GETTY EZRA SHAW 2 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 17, 2018 his needs” (the Times inserts the ungrammati- cal “their” for “his”), and Rooney holds to the dictum still. We’ll take the Times’s word for it that Rooney and her fellow millennials consider sex “deeply political,” but the part about her skepticism of markets Sally Rooney makes us wonder: Will her newfound wealth cause her to reconsider her espousal of Marxism? If not, we assume her agent will get the accustomed 15 per- cent of her book and movie deals— and the rest will go to the poor. ♦ Trump Goes Too Far irginia GOP Senate nominee V Corey Stewart is one of Donald Trump’s most consistent and fervent supporters. The native Minnesotan is known for his sympathy for con- spiracy theories and for his flirtations with the “alt right.” Conservatives in Virginia have watched with amaze- ment as Stewart cheers the 45th president at every turn, declining to criticize even his most craven and outrageous antics. Behold, Stewart has finally found a reason to express apprehen- sion about something Not Corey Stewart. “Federal so many of these moronic spats that Trump did. “I almost employees in Virginia,” he wrote in you may be tempted to despair of West- never differ with an email to supporters, “wake up ern civilization. At Brett Kavanaugh ’s President Trump,” he early, face punishing traffic and work confirmation hearings this week, for explained in a som- hard to serve their nation and support example, a posse of progressive activists ber email to support- their families. These workers need claimed that Zina Bash, a former clerk ers, “but in this case I and deserve a pay raise.” for Kavanaugh, could be seen display- do.” What was the dis- Let it never be said that Corey ing a “white power” sign from where grace that Stewart just Stewart has no principles. He has at she sat in the hearing room. Corey Stewart couldn’t look past? The least one. ♦ THE SCRAPBOOK was not familiar president’s proposal to with this hand signal, and we strongly freeze the pay of federal employees in Some Like It suspect Bash wasn’t familiar with it 2019, which the White House put for- either, inasmuch as her father is Jew- ward as part of its budget negotiations. Room Temperature ish and her mother Mexican. Also, her Whether the administration sticks e live in an age of hyper-trivial grandparents fled Europe in the 1930s to its position is an open question, W faux-controversies, almost all of to escape the Holocaust. Such is the but most conservatives like the idea, them generated (if we speak just a little mass psychosis of left-wing Twitter, believing that the federal workforce uncharitably) by overeducated progres- however, that the image was enough is too large and frequently overpaid, sives and left-wing politicos. If you fol- to make many seemingly functional STEWART: JAHI CHIKWENDIU / WASHINGTON POST / GETTY / WASHINGTON JAHI CHIKWENDIU STEWART: especially in the greater D.C. area. low politics on Twitter, you’ll encounter adults believe the confirmation of LEVENSON / GETTY DAVID ROONEY: SEPTEMBER 17, 2018 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 3 Brett Kava naugh to be offending piece: “Jass and part of a white-suprema- Jassism,” a denunciation cist takeover.