Politics

Seeing as I have been told that googlebombing is benign, I have decided to start one of my very own. From now on, Senator Joseph Lieberman will only be spoken of here by me as the Ninja*, mostly because a less Ninja-like person is hard to contemplate. Besides, it’s quirky, not ideological, so maybe people will actually do it or something.

In other news, The New Republic is endorsing the Ninja for President, with a predictable reaction.

UPDATE: Rastenfracken Howard Dean gets into everything. He’s worse than ferrets, let me tell you.

ANOTHER UPDATE: BAH! and FIE! People are linking to this (which, by the way, is my secret weakness), so let it be a night of a million billion Ninja!!!!!

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Matthew Stinson had the unmitigated gall to read my mind about why a Democrat is likely to win the Presidency in 2008 and put it in the comments section of a post not even about said election:

JKC, I think the GOP is likely to run out of steam by 2008 for two reasons: first, there is no heir apparent to Bush in the party. Many of the high-profile GOP governors from last decade wound up taking low-profile cabinet positions in the current Bush administration; once exception would be Jeb Bush but I can’t see the public electing Bushes back-to-back. The second reason I expect a Democratic win in 2008 is the likelihood that the public will have the kind of domestic priorities that favor Democrats by that time — while the war on terror and containment of rogue regimes won’t be over by a long shot, the distance from 9/11 will be sufficiently great that doubts about Democrats and national security will probably be diminished.

I shall thus be forced to instead expound on these two thoughts.

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Now, of course, I would never compare the clever* Katherine to Donald Luskin, obsessed fellow that he is. And I myself find it amusing that Brook’s Op-Ed is guilty of the same mass generalizations that he’s complaining about. But I do want to note something he said that may get lost in the shouting:

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I have to admit, if I were a Democrat and I woke up this morning to discover that a sitting Democratic Senator had written an article for the Wall Street Journal that had the title Memo To Terry McAwful (registration required, but free), I’d be pretty pissed off, too. Miller’s retiring, sure, but that’s still just plain rude (not exactly dignified, either) – especially when the article’s supposedly trying to give advice to Miller’s nominal party. I suspect that it’s going to become a good deal more nominal, assuming that it hasn’t hit negative numbers yet.

Which is a shame, because there was something very interesting (and not particularly offensive) about one of his comments about Dean.

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UPDATE: See also co-blogger Katherine‘s post, below.

Eugene Volohk has an excellent article on the First Amendment over at NROnline. (Also discussed at the Volohk Conspiracy here and here.) Kevin Drum sums up Volohk’s argument, and then adds his own thoughts:

Eugene’s argument about why judges have to interpret the First Amendment — it’s too vague and absolute to make sense in the real world — seems to me to apply to the entire strict construction school of constitutional law. The entire constitution is deliberately vague and assumes a broad societal consensus about its interpretation that the framers felt it was unnecessary to spell out in the document itself. Relying on black letter text just doesn’t work if the text itself has been deliberately left incomplete.

Well, not entirely. It’s true that the language of the U.S. Constitution is deliberately vague in some areas, but, by and large, the Constitution is not as hopelessly indeterminate as Kevin seems to suggest. It’s not all throwing bones and examining entrails, so long as one examines each passage in its historical context. . . .

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Tony Blair wants to reform the House of Lords, but is getting blocked by an unlikely alliance of Tories and Liberal Democrats. My only venture into British politics occurred as a grammer school student in the mid-1980s (conflicted underdog-rooter that I was, I supported the SDP/Liberal Alliance),* so take the following with a grain of salt.

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Kos calls a party foul on General Clark. Why? Clark proclaimed that he is “the only candidate positioned to actually win the election” because he is “the candidate best able to stand up to George W. Bush and win the debate about who will best be able to make our country secure over the next four years.” Dean cannot.

The thing is, Clark is probably right. No special insight is required to see that Dean has not positioned himself well in the debate over security. Indeed, Dean has said so many stupid things on security issues that no mere “Sister Souljah” rebuke can save him — for how one give a Sister Souljah rebuke to oneself?

If the general election turns on security, as it most likely will, Dean becomes the darkest of dark horses. Democrats need to face up to that — and cast their primary votes accordingly.*

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Yeah, I know, half of you probably can’t stand OpinionJournal’s Best of the Web. Alas, I have a considerable fondness for it, and it’s for links like this one: The scam that caused a painful sting in my mailbox.

Oh, dear, that’s not a very good title by Polly Toynbee, is it?

Funny, funny article, though – in that actually, we’re not really laughing with you sense. It seems that our heroine got a letter from a Nigerian schoolgirl asking for money. Seems that said schoolgirl needed 200 pounds to finish school, being an orphan and all, she gave references, which apparently checked out, Toynbee cut a check and – guess what? – yup, the writer’s bank account keeps getting raided for cash.

Big surprise, really. Cold call, no way to really check it out, the girl’s parents were supposedly victims of Ebola, for crying out loud: this is one reason why relief organizations exist (like this one), to make sure that money goes where it should. So, is it Toynbee’s fault?

Naah. Sure, she’s an idiot, but in the end she lays the blame on the good old US of A:

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Priorities and Frivolities points out this:

“I am disappointed but hardly surprised by the latest reports that the Bush Administration has withheld information regarding Senator Carper’s bill,” Dean stated. “What we need is openness in government, not secrecy. But this Administration doesn’t even want us to know who the Vice President met with when he was concocting their drill and burn energy plan.”

(Bold mine)

…in response to Pejman’s pointing out of this:

Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean has demanded release of secret deliberations of Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force. But as Vermont governor, Dean had an energy task force that met in secret and angered state lawmakers.

Dean’s group held one public hearing and after-the-fact volunteered the names of industry executives and liberal advocates it consulted in private, but the Vermont governor refused to open the task force’s closed-door deliberations.

In 1999, Dean offered the same argument the Bush administration uses today for keeping deliberations of a policy task force secret.

“The governor needs to receive advice from time to time in closed session. As every person in government knows, sometimes you get more open discussion when it’s not public,” Dean was quoted as saying. (Again, bold mine)

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I see that John Cole has commented on Kevin Drum’s noticing of a particular line in a Robert Novak article. Kind of cool, huh? – and pretty symbolic of our mutual hobby in general, yes?

Anyway, the sentence:

A footnote: Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, once thought to be in line for the top job at either State or Defense in the second term, is reported to have lost favor at the White House.

has caused Kevin to speculate about why Wolfowitz would be on the outs, his commenters to chime in – and John to snort derisively over how the rumor that Wolfowitz is being passed over for this job is being spun. Tell you truthful, I’m pretty much with John – for a different reason.

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… comes this amusing headline: Dean Seeks Halt to Attack Politics.

Now, note that I do not comment one way or the other about how deserved/undeserved these attacks would be; I merely note that as news goes it’s… well, not really news at all, is it? We already knew that Dean was being the subject of political attacks by fellow Democratic nominees: the fact that he objects to this sort of thing is only slightly more surprising than the revelation that most men quite loathe being kicked in the testicles. If he had said, “Bring it on, kiddies: I eat this stuff up! Without ketchup! It makes me grow chest hair and sweat pure sex-appeal!” – well, that would have been news.

Yes, yes, it’s a slow election news weekend. I grok. Still…

Moe

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I’m starting to get seriously annoyed at Socialism in an Age of Waiting: I keep waiting for them to start saying something, anything, that I can moderately disagree with. But no, it’s all either serious disagreement (for example, that a Marxist state is both unavoidable and desirable*) or no disagreement at all. They’re sound on the UN, sound on the antiwar movement, sound on Jim Treacher, fer crying out loud (needs to be on the blogroll, that one, if only for this post)… I can see why Michael Totten’s half-wondering whether these guys are part of the VRWC after all.

All of this was necessary to give some context to my guarded agreement that Ann Clwyd’s talents are wasted in her present position, although I am not convinced that Foreign Secretary is the natural next step for her. I don’t agree with all of her beliefs, either – but her and Indict’s work is going to be very useful in Saddam’s war crimes trial, and such largely unsung toil should be given its proper due.

Moe

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OK. I’ve generally kept from making posts involving Howard Dean, as it feels to be somehow the ‘turf’ of the actual Dean supporter onsite and I have absolutely no desire to start a fight with Katherine over her candidate’s election prospects. It looks like we’ll find out the answer to that in November ’04.

With all that in mind, I have to ask myself: whatinhell is Jonathan Chait thinking?

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Loyal Reader rilkefan in comments below kindly points out to us a news article about Kean’s recent remarks concerning the preventability of 9/11. The chairman isn’t naming names – yet – but he’s certainly gearing up to start a world-class, Grade-A stink over the entire thing, especially with the public testimony scheduled for next year.

Good. Hammer ’em to the walls, Kean. I always liked you as Governor.

Also, I make several predictions:

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Actually, that’s just a line from – was it Sam Kinnison? Sounds like the sort of thing that he would have blurted out, rest his soul – anyway, that’s private code around Chez Lane for Moe’s About To Start Babbling. Yup, indeed. And what am I going to babble on about?

Why, the United Nations, of course. Hey, I’m a Right-winger: it was inevitable, no?

(pause)

And, yes, that thing that you thought was a hidden pun… is.

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The chances of the Democrats taking back the Senate appear to be getting slimmer. CNN is reporting that John Breaux (D-La) will retire in 2004 rather than seek re-election:

[John Breaux] is the fifth Democrat from a southern state to announce his retirement before the 2004 elections. Others are Zell Miller, Georgia; Bob Graham, Florida; John Edwards, North Carolina; and Fritz Hollings, South Carolina.

Some, undoubtedly, will minimize this loss by pointing out that Breaux was a glad-handling backroom boy, a DINO, and good riddence to him (thank you very much). Sure, he was all of that. But he was also insanely popular in Louisiana, and he faced no serious challenge for re-election in 2004. His departure means that the likelihood of the Democrats recovering the Senate is, well, unlikely.

So, here’re two half-formulated thoughts for you to ponder (or dispute): First, why the heck are the Democrats losing their few remaining Southerners to retirement? We’re past the stage of mere coincidence or unlucky timing — five Democratic Senators from a relatively Democratic-Senator-Free region is more than a lot. I’m tempted to say that it has something to do with Dean’s rise an an anti-war type — but, then, all of my pronouncements on Dean are inherently suspect given my general dislike of the man.

Second, I am not looking forward to what I now believe to be the most likely outcome of the 2004 election cycle: A Republican President, A Republican House, and a Republican Senate. This is because the current Republican agenda appears to be “detax and spend, spend, spend.” Not exactly sound fiscal planning (or conservatism, as traditionally defined).* And, frankly, I’m a little scared about the quality of judicial nominees that have thus far been offered by this administration. A Republican trifecta is hardly likely to provide the needed “Saul on the road to Damascus” moment on either point.

So, bid adieu to Breaux. We’ll sure miss ya.

von

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… or, “So, Why does Moe have Marxists in his blogroll?”

Short answer: Because I feel like it.

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