Missing stories department.

• Author: Douglas, Susan
• Position: Overlooked political stories - Column

Instead of "Pundit Watch" this column should be called "Soothsayer Watch." Each week, in the face of some of the most morally bankrupt and socially destructive legislative proposals of the century, the "pundits" look not at current events, but into tea leaves, crystal balls, and their own palms to predict what will happen next summer or next year. The McLaughlin Group couldn't fill more than ten minutes without the relentless discussions focused on predicting the future, especially individual, elite, white men.

This spares them having to confront what Clinton has rightly labeled the Republican war against children. (Fred Barnes's comment on converting the school-lunch program into block grants? After the initial "hysteria," he says, "the public's going to love it.") The two perennial soothsayer favorites are: who will be the Republican nominee? Will he beat Clinton?

These are total time-wasters since no one can answer either question. But at least it relieves the obligation of reflecting on the twenty-five-count perjury indictment against James Watt. It turns out Watt launched a little welfare reform program of his own, allegedly siphoning millions of dollars from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to some needy landlords and developers--you know, people not gripped by the "culture of dependency" afflicting usual HUD beneficiaries. Then Watt allegedly lied to Congress. The Watt scandal is just one of many examples of legal and illegal corporate welfare, but I'm sorry, my dears, we can't discuss that on television. It would foment "class warfare" against the rich.

Another recent McLaughlin Group topic--preferred over, say, the Republican plan to "reform" tort law so it will be harder to sue the purveyors of defective or dangerous products--was whether O.J. will be acquitted or not. Panelists were also asked to foresee what the impact on American politics would be of an O.J. acquittal, and which political party will benefit the most from his getting off, the Republicans or the Democrats. I swear--I am not making this up.

When pundits live in the future, certain present-day grotesqueries can escape notice. Here is one of the headlines we didn't get to see last month: Congressman Jim Bunn Freezes Out Poor People to Build Visitors' Center. (Okay, so I'm no headline writer.) During one of the more infamous budget-cutting sprees by the House Appropriations Committee--the one where they approved cuts in the National Endowment for the...