Newswatch Thomas Griffith: Leave Off the Label

The first sign that the campaign has warmed up is an outbreak of invidious labeling. The Democrats are calling the Republicans the party of the rich, while Republicans are trying to prove the Democrats are the less godly. George Bush has a label for himself: "A conservative but not a nut." Nowadays newspaper columnists who comment on such matters also wearlabels, which is a bad idea whose time has come.

Blame it on the spectrum theory, which holds that columnists should be picked the way Noah filled his ark, with Irving specimens from every category. On...

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