Bush I and Clinton

W has named Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush to lead the effort to solicit private donations for disaster relief for Southeast Asia tsunami victims. This is brilliant politically, because it coopts in Clinton the de facto leader of the Democratic Party (then, now and, I suspect, for as long as he lives), wrapping it up in a neat bow of bipartisanship with his father. It is also a spot-on statement of American values, namely, that other "governments" may give more -- they really won't once you factor in the cost of American military assistance -- but the American people, through private donations to charitable organizations, will once again be the great benefactors of the world's needy. But I hope and believe that it is mostly just W's accurate evaluation that these two Americans are the two individuals most likely to be able to succeed in marshaling large-scale giving from both heavy hitters and the average American.

It is also worth saying that the group that will be responsible for much of the giving will be American Christians, including Catholics, giving to benefit an area of the world where many, many of the victims are Muslim. American Christians (and Catholics) will thus in the past ten years have played a huge role in saving hundreds of thousands of Muslims from genocide in Bosnia, liberating 50 million Muslims from fascist tyranny in Afghanistan and Iraq, and saving tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Muslims from starvation or disease in the aftermath of the tsunami. Great Satan, huh? More like an instrument of God's mercy. Not that this will be reported by our own mainstream media, for whom American Christians are the great unwashed masses.

You can donate to Catholic Relief Services at their webpage.