Politics
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Observation about Clinton
I saw Clinton (Bill) on This Week yesterday. Stephanopolous was giving one of his usual sympathetic interview to his old boss. Clinton said nothing surprising, the only memorable quote was that “we should not allow the enterprise in Iraq to fail”.
The amazing thing though was his ability to turn every question into a discussion revolving around himself. Be it the Tsunami, Katrina, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, it all soon became “What I would do” in such and such situation. Every single topic. Amazing.
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Vile
Amid Katrina Chaos, Congressman Used National Guard to Visit Home
This same guy is under investigation by the FBI as well. The shamelessness of some people is without peer. Makes you wonder how much of the upcoming billions of dollars to be spent on relief is going to swallowed in outright fraud. 30% is always a safe assumption, but in the case of NOLA you have to wonder how high that percentage is going to go.
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Althouse says it better
When did you stop watching “The Daily Show”?
This week’s show, the first post-Katrina coverage, has been just blatantly telegraphing from the very first moment that the whole point of the show is to slam Bush. I’m upset about the hurricane and find it very off-putting to see political ideologues salivating over a chance to get Bush over this. I’m not even sure that’s what the show goes on to do. I just can’t bear to watch it. Instinctively, I don’t want to watch.
I’ve found that I mostly Tivo through most of it to get to some of the interviews and sketches. It’s also a bit strange that they’ve cut down on the sketches (they’ve gone from every episode to less than half) in favor of Stewart holding forth on some topic or another.
To quote Greg Geraldo on the late and lamented Tough Crowd
Most comics, they just go for the laugh, but you, you like to tell a story….
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Thoughts on the current state of the two party system
As I put in my earlier conversation with Eric:
Each party has no fixed position, but two definite constituencies:
- The people who will vote for the party’s candidates
- The people who will contribute money to the party
For the Republicans the ideology of the median contributor is fairly close to the ideology of the median voter. For the Democrats, the median contributor seems to be farther left than the median voter. This pushes the party ever leftwards (and indirectly pushes the Republican’s leftwards as well).
I suppose the question is: Is this an evolutionary stable strategy? Time will tell I suppose.
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Thoughts on the Supreme Court selection
I think it’s tactically brilliant. By nominating a qualified but recordless (where did he find this guy?) judge he puts the Democrats in a very difficult position.
Bush will probably have 3 opportunities to nominate judges. The Democrats have a limited amount of resources to expend fighting the nomination. If they adopt a scorched earth policy on Roberts they will have nothing left PR-wise should Bush nominate a more naturally appealing candidate (i.e. black/female, aka Janice Rodgers Brown) as his next nomination.
Most likely they will play this one very mellow and save all their capital for the next fight.
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Good times a-coming
The more I think about the Wilson Affair the more I like it. Throw in three Supreme Court nominations (possibly four) and the political class will be fully occupied with partisanship and self-absorption, leaving no room for Bold New Ideas.
Which is the way it should be.
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Morning thoughts
So this is what 7:30 looks like!
I wake up to find the Plame affair has gotten much more interesting. It now seems that Robert Novak was the source for Rove! And Wilson says that his wife was not a covert operative at the time of the incident! One more weird fact and we have vaudeville.
I suppose this would explain why the democrats haven’t jumped on this sordid affair as much they could have. At this point, Wilson seems like a bit of a liar and drama queen who does not want a closer look at the facts of his involvement in the early part of this, and if Rove did in fact learn from Novak, then he’s clean on every possible count.
Of course the next obvious question is: Who is Judy Miller’s source in all this? Since she’s in jail now it would seem logical that her source was not Rove, Wilson perhaps?
Vaudeville, Vaudeville I say!
Also, headlines like Muslims are urged to help find the bombers are good to see. HT: Q & O. -
Wednesday rapid fire
- A post well worth reading at Asymetrical Information
- Solar Drone New Endurance Champ
- Orwell on Fascism
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The Karl Rove Quote
Interesting commentary from Instapundit, and I agree with him that this was a very well done political trick, which the dems seem to be buying, hook line and sinker. More commentary at Winds of Change.
Michael Totten brings us the quote of the week with “It’s like watching a leper challenge a hemophiliac to full contact karate.“
Some what prescient is this Andrew Sullivan column about the whole matter. Rove has done a very good job of exploiting the principal-agent problem going on with the Dems right now.
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An interesting blog find
Via Tom Palmer, comes the interesting blog Right Watch, which is dedicated to keeping an eye on the self-styled “Paleo – Libertarian” section of the American political landscape, the Paleo libs being those who identify strongly with the later thought of Murray Rothbard and (improbably) the Confederate States of America. While a small group, they do seem to speak for a somewhat larger group of anti-war right wingers.
I’ve seen these folks in print for a while, and one thing always jumps out at me. For all their pro-CSA rhetoric, they have no visible connection to the actual South. One does not see any mention of a Southern birthplace or education on their bios. Any actual tie to the South, old or new, is conspicuous by it’s absense.