Yesterday he dealt away his closer, Jon Rauch, to the Diamondbacks for minor league second-baseman Emilio Bonifacio. Rauch has done very well filling in for the injured Chad Cordero, and before this year was one of the better setup guys in all of baseball.  So it’s strange that the Nats would get so little in return.  Thom Lovarro was trying to push Bonifacio as a grade-A prospect, but his his minor league numbers do not correspond with that analysis.  In reality he’s a middling prospect at best.  The Nats could have done better.

Additionally, the Nats re-signed Christian Guzman to a two-year extension worth $16 million.  This marks the third time inside of a year that Bowden has re-signed players having career years to middling contract extensions instead of dealing them when they have trade value.  Guzman is having a decent year by his standards, but he is a barely average Major League shortsop.  Last year Dmitri Young and Ron Belliard also were signed to contract extensions.  Belliard at least is having a good season as a fill-in middle infielder, but Young has been plagued by weight and health issues, though he has performed well when he has played. 

None of these guys are individually breaking the bank, but their salaries start adding up.  Moreover, the Nats could have gotten some propsects for these players.  Believe me, the Nats could have the worst offense in all of baseball with or without these guys.  Add to that the ludicrous signings of Paul LoDuca and Johnny Estrada in the off-season, and Bowden has weighed his team’s payroll down with a lot of subpar players.  And though the Milledge aquisition has not worked out well, that was a trade done with long-term interests in mind, and so the jury is still out. 

Not all of the Nats’ problems are Bowden’s doing.  It’s not his fault that Wily Mo Pena has dealt with a torn rotator cuff for much of the season, or that Nick Johnson has gone down with a season-ending injury.  Again.  One can, however, question the acquisitions of players like Pena and Elijah Dukes.  And though he was dealt a rough hand to begin with, the time to keep making excuses for this franchise is running out.

The Bush doctrine has been pilloried either for its Wilsonian idealism or its Machiavellian realism. A restatement of the doctrine, authored by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, appears in the current issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. Called “American Realism for the New World,” it admits the seismic shift in U.S. priorities during the Bush administration. “We recognize that democratic state building is now an urgent component of our national interest,” writes Rice. “And in the broader Middle East, we recognize that freedom and democracy are the only ideas that can, over time, lead to just and lasting stability, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

As is well known, the Bush doctrine represents a remarkable about-face for an administration that initially swore off “nation-building.” Its repudiation of decades of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East—stability at the cost of freedom—has been no less astonishing. Nevertheless, despite its candor, the document leaves probing questions about America’s democracy agenda unanswered. Can a self-declared Islamic state, for example, support the political doctrines of equality, pluralism, and individual freedom? How can the United States promote democratic reform in societies that have little or no experience with these ideals?

He goes on to discuss on the connection between virtue and republican self-government, and the Framers’ views on the the matter.  From the start, America has had to deal with the question of how to deal with the reality of human nature in a polity where the citizenry largely controls the form of government.  And now we are confronting this issue in the Middle East.

What she doesn’t say, what the Bush administration has mostly failed to explain to the American people, is the fearsome difficulty—and the terrible frailty—of this task in states ravaged by despotic governments and religious extremism. How many Americans believed in late 2001, after the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan, that the nation today would remain threatened by the forces of tyranny and nihilism? Even now in Iraq, with the latest successes against the cohorts of radicalism, America’s military commanders openly admit that all of their progress is “reversible.” There is nothing—nothing whatsoever—inevitable about democratic development. Neither human nature nor an honest reading of human history allow us the illusion of believing otherwise.

This, in part, is why Machiavelli’s Prince introduced such a shock to the system. He did not describe political leaders as many hoped they might behave under the right circumstances; he described them as they actually do behave much of the time. Machiavelli changed the discussion from whether the prince should obey the moral law to when he should obey it. His answer to the question, “Is it better to be loved or feared?” was always the same. The essence of Machiavellian virtue “is to know which of these paired courses is appropriate to the moment,” Pocock writes. “But other things being equal, the better course is always the more aggressive and dramatic—to be audacious, to act so as to be feared. To be loved takes time.”

In the face of Islamic radicalism, a democracy that seeks to be loved by extremists is a democracy headed for extinction. In this sense, a measure of Machiavellian aggression—or something like it—seems prudent.

Loconte proceeds to caution against overuse of hard tactics.  Since not all (or perhaps most) Muslims are not extremists, some degree of soft power and diplomacy is necessary.  And sometimes we will have to assist non-democratic states such as Saudi Arabia who are otherwise our allies in fighting terrorism. 

Loconte concludes:

Are we faced, then, with a choice between Machiavellian cynicism and democratic idealism? Perhaps what’s needed is a revival of “Christian realism”—a hopefulness about the influence of American democratic values on the world stage, tempered by a severe realism about the moral ambiguity of human nature and human societies. Christian realism came of age in the 1930s, as American theologians such as Reinhold Niebuhr rejected liberal schemes of appeasement in the face of fascist aggression. “Some of the greatest perils to democracy arise from the fanaticism of moral idealists who are not conscious of the corruption of self-interest in their professed ideals,” warned Niebuhr in The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness. “Democracy therefore requires something more than a religious devotion to moral ideals. It requires religious humility.”

It requires, in other words, that democratic leaders maintain a stark view not only about themselves, but also about the limits of their democratic influence. As the Christian realists of an earlier generation understood, barbarism is the easy way. Civil society, human rights, democracy—this is the road less travelled.

It’s a terrible balancing act that requires us, in some ways, to be both Wilsonian and Machiavellian.  (Would that certain commentators and critics of so-called neocons realize that it’s a bit foolish to bemoan the idealism AND Machiavellianism of the neoconservatives, seeing as how the concepts are at odds.)

It seems to me that Loconte’s approach is the most sensible, and not just as it relates to foreign affairs.  We will never cease to be disappointed if we cling to a utopian world view that sees the possibility of near-perfect world.  Yet we can’t let our heard-headedness stand in the way of at least trying to make some progress in the here and now.  Our choices should not be confined to either doing nothing or re-inventing the world.  In general, of course, it is best to remain leery of trying to do too much - it is after the correct, Burkean approach to political affairs. 

As regards to the specific concept of democratic nation-building, the Bush administration’s ideas are acceptable only insofar as they understand the limitations of this approach and are able to communicate to the public that they do not anticipate democracy as being able to cure all for what ails the Middle East.  Even if the administration is fully capable of understanding the limits of democratic nation-building, I wonder if it has been able to demonstrate to the public that it appreciates said limits.  Perhaps what has gotten the Bush administration into trouble is that it built up public anticipation of what a post-Saddam Iraq would look like and did not adequately explain that it would not necessarily look all peachy-keen right from the moment that Hussein was removed from power.  The failure for utopia to break out in Iraq immediately after the invasion has disappointed many who perhaps had unrealistic expectations to begin with.  Even with Iraq now relatively stabalized, the slightest incident will spark renewed doubts about the long-term prospects for Iraq, as though the only proof of success is complete peace and harmony.

Unfortunately, unrealistic idealism is more a part of our national character than we might have ever realized.

Benedict XVI is weaving together a mini-catechesis with a medium nearly any young person can relate to — cell phone text messages.

The Friday morning local time message to Youth Day pilgrims was a call to Christian love. “The spirit impels us 4ward 2wards others; the fire of his love makes us missionaries of God’s charity. See u tomorrow nite - BXVI,” it read.

On Saturday night, there will be a vigil with the Pontiff, followed by an all-night sleep out under the stars leading up to Sunday’s closing Mass.

Before the Pope’s boat-a-cade reached Sydney Harbor Thursday afternoon local time for his official arrival to World Youth Day, the Holy Father sent his third text message. That one said, “The Holy Spirit is the principal agent of salvation history: let him write your life-history 2 - BXVI.”

On Wednesday, after his encounter with typical Australian animals, including a koala bear and a carpet python, the Pontiff sent a text message reading, “The Holy Spirit gave the Apostles & gives u the power boldly 2 proclaim that Christ is risen! - BXVI.”

Pilgrims received their first text message from the Bishop of Rome on Monday. It said, “Young friend, God and his people expect much from u because u have within you the Fathers supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus - BXVI.”

Youth Day participants can receive the messages by texting the word Pope to a special number. Benedict XVI is expected to send a message each day of the event.

The event referred to here was the World Youth Day, which took place this past weekend.

H/t: My friend Aric, who desperately wants to know that this story is not true.

The Daily Star, a British tabloid, is reporting that there is a sex tape featuring Alex Rodriguez and Madonna.

It’s hard to believe this is true: the cameraman is claiming that he obtained the tape through the use of a hidden camera in a friend’s apartment, and he is apparently extorting asking Madonna for “a fortune” for the rights to the video. This would put him in a lot of trouble with the law and likely end up in jail time, and while it’s hard to believe anyone is that foolish, we are talking about a guy who thinks there’s demand for an A-Rod/Madonna sex tape.

I haven’t blogged about Gerald’s, errr, change in behavior, and I really don’t intend to again.  It’s sad to see someone you once respected completely go over the edge. 

I’d take his argument more seriously if it weren’t cloaked in the feel good progressive sentimantality of the left:  “As a firm believer in equality,” “This is America, whose promise has to be renewed generation after generation, and this America promises liberty and justice for all,” and the real kicker:

Mormon and Muslim leaders, and the hierarchy of the Catholic church support taking away the right to marry from our friends and family.

So now the Catholic Church is on the same plan as Islam because we won’t stand up for some pretend institution as gay marriage.  Good to know.

There is no Republican out there more unworthy to play the media bias card than McCain.  As Jay points out, the “maverick” received nothing but adulation from the press for the better part of seven years.  Now he’s experiencing what every other Republican has faced, and he suddenly doesn’t like it.  Welcome to the party, pal.

That said, the sycphantic coverage of Obama is pretty revolting, and it will bite him in the ass in the end.

I guess I should consider myself fortunate to have gone to not just one, but two World Series games in my life.  So in that respect, I am not quite justified in bitching about this game.  But it’s still one of the most painful games I have ever attended.

Of course, I was super-pumped beforehand.  Thanks to family connections - the same one who got me the tix for the Series in 1986 - I skipped that whole waiting on hold fruitlessly with ticketmaster process and got tix.  My best friend - a Yankees fan, God bless him - even flew in from DC to attend.  And so we were among a handful of people fortunate enough to attend who were not Wall Street flakkies just looking to make an appearance to be seen at the Subway Series.

It was the World Series that nobody in America outside of New York cared about, but we didn’t care.  It was the first Subway Series in 44 years, and it was something most of us had waited our whole lives to see.  And I was happy to be there. 

And what better way to start the festivities than a “live” performance by the Baha Men.  Yes, the guys who brought us the classic “Who Let the Dogs Out?” graced the Fall Classic with a performance of their one and only hit.  And I am convinced to this day that the decision to open the game up with that travashammockery jinxed the Mets.

Sure enough, pretty boy Jeter started the game off by belting one out of the park off of Bobby Jones, who, by the way, had no business starting this game.  Yeah, I know he had that near perfect game in game four of the NLDS, but Glendon Rusch should have been the fourth starter that post-season.  I still think the Series would have turned out differently had he been on the hill instead of Jones, and yes, I am still bitter about Valentine’s decision.

Anyway, it didn’t seem as though that the single run was much to be concerned about.  With Denny Neagle taking the mound for the Yankees, surely the Mets would be able to respond.  And sure enough, with Alfonzo on first, Mike Piazza hit a ball about 9,000 feet.  Unfortunately it was foul.  And then he struck out.  End rally.

And then the Yankees added single runs in the 2nd and 3rd innings to take a 3-0 lead.  And the Yankee fans in attendance, including the one sitting to my left, were really starting to piss me off.

Luckily homicide was averted in the bottom of the third inning when once again Mike Piazza drilled one far into the night.  Fortunately this one was fair, and the Mets were suddenly back in the game, down 3-2.

And then things got interesting.  And to those who think Joe Torre deserves no credit for any of the Yankee titles, here’s exhibit A as to why you are wrong.  With two outs in the fifth and none on, Mike Piazza was coming to bat.  Some managers would have let their starter in to earn the victory.  Joe Torre, perhaps with visions of his car window being smashed to bits with the next swing of Piazza’s bat, went to the bullpen.  Enter: David Cone?  Holy crap. No way!  Cone was not the David Cone of old.  Surely Piazza could belt one off of the old man.  Surely he could connect.

Pop up to second.  Inning over.

And somehow I knew at that moment that the game and the series was over.  The Mets just felt finished - as though their only opportunity to get back in the game had come and gone.

Rusch pitched two scoreless innings (of course), but the Mets did nothing against the Yankees bullpen.  Rivera - then in the middle of his post-season scoreless streak - came on in the 8th inning (What a concept!), and got Piazza to ground out in the 8th.

One more chance in the 9th to shup up these insufferable sycophants from the Bronx.  But coming up were Benny Agbayani, Jay Payton, and Matt Franco.  Do you think the Mets rallied against the greatest closer in history with that crew?

To his credit, my friend shut the hell up as we talk the looooong walk back to the car, seeing as he was surrounded by three very large and very passionate Mets fans.  Other Yankee fans, however, were a little less restrained.  Fortunately there were no riots that evening.

I watched game five from a Jeremy’s Ale House over by the Seaport.  I still remember thinking Piazza’s last shot was going over the wall.  But as the ball landed in Bernie Williams and the asshole Yankee fans popped their champagne, I slowly made my way out of the bar.  That truly sucked.

Then I remembered.  A month ago the guys who owned ESPN radio  - and in this town that’s the moron owner of the Redskins, Daniel Snyder - bought out the other sports talker in town - 980 AM.  So now we get to hear Mike and Mike on not one, but TWO AM stations.  Oh joy.  Because I really don’t get enough insipid crap in my day.  And as a special bonus we also get double doses of Colin Cowherd.  Wow, I’m really pumped about this. 

Obviously the Czabe is not happy about his syndicated show not even airing in his home market.  Fortunately it looks like he and Andy Poland are still going to have their afternoon drive show here in DC, though I wonder how long that is going to last.

The funny thing is that when 980 dropped Mike and Mike a couple of years ago I was pissed.  I just didn’t know any better.  It took me a while to appreciate the fact that they were, not to put it too gently, mildly retarded.  The show, like all things ESPN, is a circus sideshow that’s more about dopey entertainment than it is about sports.  For people with attention spans of under five seconds,  ESPN is a marvelous institution.  But for the rest of us, it is becoming harder and harder to put up with.

ESPN has become to sports what MTV is to music.  For every Peter Gammons there is a John Kruk and Steve Phillips polluting the airwaves and showing off their total ignorance of a sport they are supposed to be expert analysts of.  And now sadly they have gained such a monopoly in the sports realm that sports fans are basically asked to endure their putrid product or simply forget about sports talk.

Looks like I’ll be listening to a lot more Bill Bennett now.

1. Civil War
2. Dust N’ Bones
3. Live and Let Die
4. Don’t Cry (Original)
5. Bad Obsession
6. Double Talkin’ Jive
7. November Rain
8. You Could Be Mine
9. 14 Years
10. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
11. Breakdown
12. Locomotive
13. Coma
14. Estranged (thanks to TSL for reminding me)