The Horror! The Horror!

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by hilzoy

It’s very, very strange: now that the Harriet Miers nomination has set conservatives free to criticize the President, I sometimes find myself agreeing with, well, the Corner. Here, for instance:

“Item: On Brit Hume’s show last night, Fred Barnes announced that Miers might have trouble during her hearings, but only if senators set out to embarrass her by asking her about “the third amendment,” “the seventh amendment,” and other, lesser-known aspects of the Constitution. Think about that for a moment. I mean, really. Just think about it. The third and seventh amendment are parts of the Bill of Rights. Asking Ms. Miers to demonstrate at least rudimentary knowledge of the Bill of Rights would represent an unfair and hostile action? This is what the Miers nomination is doing to us. “

That’s OK. I don’t mind agreeing with the Corner at all. I wish it happened more often. But this comment is more than I can take:

“FOR THE RECORD [Jonah Goldberg]

I am a third amendment enthusiast. I’ve simply been waiting (and waiting, and waiting) to be single issue voter on the subject.”

NO!!!! That’s my joke! Not that I mind other people coming up with my jokes, normally; but when Mr. Gelatinous Wiggliness does it, it’s just too much to bear.

Consider this an open thread.

20 thoughts on “The Horror! The Horror!”

  1. One of those books of humorous definitions that one finds kicking around people’s houses was kicking around my house as a child, and defined “Regatta” with reference to the criminal career of one Jimmy ‘the Fid’ Regatta, a notorious ‘Lobster Mobster’ known for extorting money with such threats as “Nice lookin’ yach-it you got theyah. Sure would be a shame if a drawbridge closed on it.” A later event in his fictional career was his testimony before a Congressional committee, during which he took the Third, refusing to answer “on the grounds dat soldiers may not be quartered in my house in times of peace widout my consent.”
    At the time, I thought this was the funniest thing I had ever read.

  5. Seventh Amendment’s a big big deal. I wish all of you more use of it than 4th or 8th. Questions about the Third should give rise to an interesting discussion, since I’d like to know what she thinks “time of war” means. Or, if she’s really from the Holy Writ school of interpretation, what she thinks those words meant in 1791. And how that meaning does or does not apply to 2005.

  6. Seventh Amendment’s a big big deal. I wish all of you more use of it than 4th or 8th. Questions about the Third should give rise to an interesting discussion, since I’d like to know what she thinks “time of war” means. Or, if she’s really from the Holy Writ school of interpretation, what she thinks those words meant in 1791. And how that meaning does or does not apply to 2005.

  8. Man, a page of open threads. I may lose control.
    War for Health Care
    This just floored me. In traveling the blogosphere and trying to develop a strategy for expanding the Democratic base, I have been advocating a militaristic progressivism as a trade-off for retaining the social liberalism and economic redistributive parts of the agenda. “War for Health Care” is exactly the kind of argument I have been making, in MY’s comment section among other places.
    Now I have been surprised by strength of the pacifism and anti-militarism I have encountered on the left. But “Satan’s domestic program” still surprised me. Matt initially supported the war, and I thought he turned against it on strategic calculations, but now I wonder if his first view of what war means has unbalanced him.
    I need to think; talk; write.

  10. Ezra Klein
    For those who have any interest in this argument, Ezra weighs in, and I in comments go berserk and make a fool of myself.
    I did the same at Matt’s. Sometimes I think Matt reads my comments and determines the best policy by assuming I am wrong. But those comments are not fit for a bipartisan blog, so I won’t even link them. Someone will come along and say:”See what Bob said.”
    Well, yeah, I say bad things about Republicans on other boards without posting rules.

  11. I think that progressives can get a lot of Republicans to peel off on health care. If the system is simple, say single payer, and has low administration costs, such as the VA has, we can get the conservatives who really care about the poor and families to sign off on it, while also getting small business to see that the current system is biased toward insurers and big business.
    Pro-reform groups can also blame Ted Kennedy for the current pseudo-HMO mess. That never hurts when trying to get Republicans to consider something new and workable.

  12. I tried to post this earlier but failed. Bob, if it brings you any satisfaction, I nominated you for best commentor in last year’s Koufax; if such accolades make you unhappy, please to ignore.
    Your comments were interesting at Ezra’s, and I couldn’t find you at Matt’s (so cunning!).
    To sum up: I am pro-Bob McManus.

  13. So the only time you agree with the Cornerites is when they cross sides.
    Thus demonstrating your intractable ideological rigidity and their lack of same.
    Mark this day.

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