Some quick attaboys

Sorry to have been absent so much of the week. I've been tied up in marathon meetings -- I'm about to go into another all-day one (administrative ones, related to the newspaper's budget and such) -- and have had to spend breaks and evenings racing to do the basic tasks involved in getting the editorial pages out.

But until I can get freed up a little, here are a couple of quick items for my dear readers to cogitate over and discuss in my absence. I'd like to offer thanks and congratulations to:

1. Sens. Lindsey Graham, John McCain and John Warner for having won an apparent victory in favor of the American Way. Sure, they didn't get every thing, but that's the way compromise works. And they seem to have held their ground as to the principles that mattered most. Thanks to them, the rule of law is finally being established with regard to the treatment of prisoners, and the legislative branch is a little closer to playing its proper role in the War on Terror.
2. Sen. Tommy Moore, for having acted with uncharacteristic boldness to make a couple of important points: First, that candidates for governor should not ally themselves with political actions intended to hurt the state's economy. Second, that the inconsistent and ineffective NAACP boycott accomplishes nothing at all for South Carolina. I would add that it accomplishes nothing but the opposite of its stated purpose. It puts a solution on the Confederate "battle flag" farther away, not closer. And make no mistake. The only solution is to put dead relics of our most tragic past in museums or bronze monuments, not to fly them as though they were alive and had positive relevance to who we are as a people today.

Back to meetings...