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Jimmy Carter Not Gonna Play Sun City

I will never understand why Jimmy Carter is deemed worth listening to on any subject whatsoever, let alone why he's considered a lightning rod for controversy. Former president of the United States? Will such an honorific be accorded equal weight when George W. Bush commands it? Nobel Peace Prize winner? Henry Kissinger tossed that award overboard like the Heart of the Ocean.

Now comes a New York Times piece explaining why Carter's new polemic Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid has got rabbis locked in prayer circles, pro-Israel critics declaiming against the most provocative word in that title, and Abe Foxman quivering with rage (because it's Thursday.)

Who cares? Letting Carter grow moralistic about the conduct of foreign states is like hearing Borat lecture someone about table manners. Camp David doesn't quite undo encouraging Saddam Hussein to invade Iran in 1979 the better to destabilize Khomeini's regime (and which act, you'll notice, is not frequently attributed to the Islamic Republic's present intransigence about bowing before U.S. pressure on denuclearization.) Carter followed up his roadmap for Mesopotamia by penning hot and sanctimonious op-eds in 2003 denouncing even the prospect of Saddam's forcible removal from power.

Only Garry Wills, who likes the face of evangelical stupidity beatific and not smirking, thinks Carter has got the right idea for making the Middle East a more hospitable place.

The rest of us can and should treat this former White House occupant the way we treat most energetic retirees: with condescending silence.

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