"A SAUDI ARABIAN student attending the University of North Dakota was assaulted in a bar last week, apparently because of his ethnicity. It’s the sort of incident the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights might want to investigate — except that OCR currently has nobody at its helm, because Senate Democrats won’t give a hearing to Gerald Reynolds, President Bush’s nominee for the post," John J. Miller and Ramesh Ponnuru write at www.nationalreview.com.

"Although OCR currently monitors reports of discrimination and tries to carry out its mandate, no organization can work at maximum effectiveness when it lacks a leader. Reports about anti-Arab discrimination in the United States are often overblown, but it’s impossible to deny that many innocent Arab-Americans now face difficulties they did not encounter prior to Sept. 11. OCR has a clear role to play in cases where genuine discrimination exists, and where federal laws covering K-12 schools and college campuses have been violated. Yet it won’t perform its job as well as possible while Reynolds languishes," the writers said.

"When Bush announced his intention to nominate Reynolds, civil rights groups raised objections to him because they can’t tolerate the idea of someone who has criticized racial preferences occupying one of the federal government’s most important civil rights jobs. They also have gone after Reynolds on Title IX grounds, even though Reynolds seems never to have written a word on the subject.

"Almost the entire political class has declared that combating discrimination against Arabs is a national priority. As long as Senate Democrats delay consideration of Reynolds, their words to that effect will ring hollow."

***

Post pumps up the paranoia

THE WASHINGTONIAN has set its sites on the media this month, as it takes a separate pot shot at the Washington Post: "Paranoia strikes deep and into your life it will creep — if you spend too much time reading the Washington Post," it writes.

"Not content to run screaming headlines relaying government warnings about impending terrorist attacks, Post columnists have dished out a steady diet of fear.

"Insecure for the Duration" was the headline on a Richard Cohen column about civil liberties, "We have entered a new and terrifying era," Cohen wrote.

"‘Autumn in Washington had a lot of blue skies, but we were petrified,’ according to the Post. ‘Terrorists seemed to have skulked all over the place, a burst of pins on the national map,’ wrote Linton Weeks, who was pulled off his literary beat to tell us we’re living in fear.

"Below the Weeks article, Joel Achenback covered a swank party on a Capitol Hill rooftop terrace. ‘It’s a lovely evening,’ he wrote, ‘except for the anthrax.’

"Even Marc Fisher, the Post’s strongest Metro columnist, whose tales approach Jimmy Breslin’s gritty reporting, resorted to breathless prose: ‘We seal off mail slots with heavy-duty tape, closing our houses against an invisible delivery of death.’

"We do?" the Washingtonian asks.

"Want true fear?" asks the Washingtonian. "Try living with suicide bombers in Jerusalem or with land mines in Serbia.

"The only relief from the parade of paranoia come from columnist Colby King. One is more likely to die from the flu than from anthrax, he wrote. And, he pointed out, ‘The fact is, we’re safer now than we were on Sept. 11.’"

***

Humm, try the islands

AMERICANS WHO HAD hoped to spend the holidays in Afghanistan might want to consider someplace warmer and closer to water.

The State Department has just gotten around to issuing a new travel advisory, dated Nov. 23, that "strongly warns US citizens against travel to Afghanistan."

"This supersedes the Department of State Travel Warning for Afghanistan issued Dec. 12, 2000, to update the information on the security situation in Afghanistan," the advisory states.

The new warning says "US forces are engaged in military action against the remnants of the Taleban regime and the terrorist Al-Qaeda network. Afghan opponents of the Taleban regime are also engaged in military operations in several parts of the country. Travel in all areas of Afghanistan, including the capital Kabul and all major cities, is unsafe due to military operations, banditry, and the possibility of unrest given the fluid political and military situation."

***

Try a visual tour of

the White House

THE WHITE HOUSE, citing security concerns, has canceled its popular public holiday tours, earning the nickname "Scrooge of the season" from none-too-pleased DC Delegate to Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton.

So, Washington Time’s "Inside the Beltway" decided to lead a special VIP tour of the White House, which shall commence right now: "As you begin your tour, you’ll notice that White House staff and volunteers have been busy in recent weeks creating a wintry forest theme throughout the executive mansion. Please don’t touch.

"Here in the State Dining Room, feast your eyes on a not-so-ordinary gingerbread house — a recreation of the White House as it appeared in 1800.

"Thanks for visiting".