Now that it's clear that John Kerry will be the Democratic nominee for president, the question is how George W. Bush and Karl Rove, his chief political strategist, will attack him. Tom Toles, whose editorial cartoons appear regularly in the centrist WashingtonPost, has a hunch: as an advocate of massive social programs and big federal budgets to pay for them (translation: someone who raises taxes) who is also soft on terrorism.

　　Toles depicts Kerry and an advisor strolling past the White House, atop which workmen are busy covering a billboard with an anti-Kerry ad. The ad says: "Beware the Massalqaeda liborrist." Don't look for the last two words in your dictionary. Toles has concocted them by blending first Massachusetts and al-Qaeda (Usama bin Laden's terrorist organization), second "liberal" and "terrorist". The second blend is reminiscent of the kind of word that President Bush actually does utter when he's not mindful of his speech -- which, it must be said, is a fair amount of the time.

　　A Chinese observer will understand the reference to al-Qaeda and terrorists. Kerry is linked with neither, but he was at best a lukewarm supporter of Bush's invasion of Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein. But what is so politically significant about denouncing Kerry as a "Massachusetts liberal"?

　　Massachusetts, dominated by Boston, with its concentration of elite universities, acquired a reputation in the 20th century as a relatively left-wing US state. Lawmakers there support an extensive and often innovative welfare system -- not on the European scale, but still bigger than in most US states and not cheap. Hence Massachusetts has high taxes; critics deride the state as "Taxachusetts", and occasionally even as the "People's Republic of Massachusetts" because of the warm reception allegedly given to socialist ideas.

　　In America (but not in Europe) "liberals" are people who believe that government regulatory and taxing authority should be used to protect ordinary citizens from the power of big business. They also seek to remedy social inequality through government programs. Having built America's social welfare system, they want to maintain or even extend it. The problem is that many voters see the liberal programs that were put into place in the 1960s and 1970s as wasteful and ineffective, or as examples of wrong-headed social engineering -- the sort of thing Harvard professors and similar overweening boobies would dream up to burden taxpayers with. For these critics, a liberal is bad enough. A "MASSACHUSETTS liberal" is the very worst of a bossy, free-spending, irresponsible tribe.




角逐美国总统 布什会怎样攻击克里?
　　如今事态已经明了，民主党将提名约翰-克里角逐美国总统之位,但问题在于，乔治-布什和他的首席政治战略顾问卡尔-娄福将如何攻击克里。汤姆-托尔斯，其时政漫画定期刊登于中立的《华盛顿邮报》的漫画家，他有一种预感：布什会将克里描绘成极力倡导庞大的社会福利项目，并且要求大笔的联邦预算来支付(也就是说他要提高税收)，同时对恐怖主义也是软弱无力的。

　　在托尔斯的漫画中，克里和一位幕僚正漫步走过白宫，而在白宫顶上两个工人正忙着画完一个写有反对克里标语的宣传牌。标语是：“警惕马萨诸塞州基地组织的自由恐怖主义分子”。请不要到你的字典中去找这句话中的后两个英语单词，因为它们是托尔斯造出来的。托尔斯先是将英文的“马萨诸塞州”和阿拉伯文的“基地组织”(本-拉登的恐怖主义组织)合在一起组成了Massalqaeda，然后将“自由的”和“恐怖分子”合在一起组成了liborrist。而后一个词则让人想起布什总统讲话一不留意就真能说出的那类词--必须说明的是，他的这种不留意可是经常发生的。

　　中国的观察家明白基地组织和恐怖分子指的是谁，克里与它们中的任何一个都毫无瓜葛。但在布什看来，克里充其量只是勉强支持了自己攻占伊拉克推翻萨达姆的政策。但是，将克里斥为“马萨诸塞州自由主义派”又有什么特别的政治意义呢？

　　马萨诸塞州，主要城市是波士顿，该州名校云集，在20世纪获得了左翼州的名声。该州的议员支持大范围的且不断创新的社会福利体系--虽然不如欧洲国家的福利体系规模大，但与美国大多数州相比，其规模还是最大的，且政府支出的费用不菲。因此，马萨诸塞州的税收就很高，批评家将该州戏称为“税收诸塞州”，甚至有时将其称为“马萨诸塞人民共和国”，因为社会主义理念据说在该州受到热烈欢迎。

　　在美国(不是在欧洲)，“自由派”是指这样一些人：他们相信政府的管理和税收当局应该保护普通公民免受大公司权力的侵害；他们还想通过政府实施的各项规划来纠正社会不公。他们虽说已经建立了美国的社会福利体系，但还想完善甚至进一步扩大该体系。而问题在于，许多选民将60年代和70年代建立起来的自由派福利体系项目看作既劳民伤财又不奏效，或将其视为被误导了方向的社会工程的实例--那种由学究气的哈佛教授和类似的傲慢蠢才们才想得出来给纳税人加税的名堂。在这些批评家看来，一个自由派分子是非常坏的，而“马萨诸塞州自由派”则是一帮最坏的专横霸道、花钱无度、不负责任的人。

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