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Saturday, October 1, 2005
Sartorial Politics
Posted by on 10.1.05 @ 1:25PM
I met the Duchess of York the other night at a friend's Manhattan residence. She expressed unreserved admiration for my shoes. Frankly, that caught me off guard. But then I realized that though they are old shoes they are English shoes and with English shoes age becomes them.
The sartorial run-in reminded me of my great moment a few years back with the editors of George magazine. That adventure should remind us of the current high seas that the Republicans are supposedly suffering. Only in America's Kultursmog could the various and occasionally bogus stories of the Hon. DeLay, the Hon. Frist, this idiotic Plame woman, Katrina, and the President's polls be agglutinated into Republican Scandal.
In the mid-1990s I got a call from a writer at George notifying me that he and his colleagues had voted me one of the "Best Dressed Men in Washington." He told me not to be surprised. George was "not political." Shortly after his call a photographer came by the office. Then the writer interviewed me about my tailor, my shirtmaker, and my shoes. As this was the height of the Clinton Administration, I was relieved that the writer did not ask about my underwear.
At any rate, he followed up with a few more calls and apprised me that I would be delighted with the forthcoming issue. I was. When it came out there was no mention of me. I remember seeing Jack Valenti and several other Washington notables pictured in their Sunday best; but R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., had been expurgated from the text. I never expected to be exalted in the Kultursmog, and my belief in its utter politicization was merely confirmed once again. Those who write about politics, society, and the arts are -- unless they are forthrightly libertarian-conservative -- Democrats, not even liberals, just Democrats.
Friday, September 30, 2005
Bennett One Last Time
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 6:11PM
Someone needs to be proofing Scott McClellan's cue cards before he reads them aloud in the White House Press Briefing Room.
A Republican White House spokesman with sense -- or at least cojones (as W might say) -- would have simply replied to the reporter who asked about the Bennett kerfluffle, "This is a nonstory as far we are concerned. Why don't you all get a life and a real job instead of parrotting the press releases from the NAACP and the DNC?"
That this White House didn't have the nerve to back Bennett given all of the cover Bennett has given them on the War on Terror and the Iraq War, the fact that he didn't entirely agree with the bloated No Child Left Behind Act, yet didn't go out to make mischief for the new Administration, that he has worked tirelessly on behalf of conservative Republican candidates to make sure President Bush has a controlling majority in Congress, shows how badly disconnected Bush's "B Team" really is.
Rush, DeLay, and Me
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 5:46PM
Rush Limbaugh -- along with lots of readers -- took exception to my column yesterday. Now that Rush's DeLay monologue is featured on RushLimbaugh.com, I'm getting a new wave of hate-mail. A few points:
1. This isn't about whether DeLay is a good guy or not, or the value of loyalty, or whatever. Politics is about winning and losing. I remain completely unpersuaded that sticking by DeLay is a winning move, either for the Republican Party or for sound policy. As John Hawkins of RightWingNews.com puts it, DeLay "is such a spendthrift that he makes Jimmy Carter look like Scrooge McDuck."
2. Several readers insist that Ronnie Earle isn't someone "no one has heard of," at least in Texas. Fair enough, but my point, that Earle's scalp is no big prize, still stands.
3. Rush says that "the Beltway conservatives" -- of which he takes me to be emblematic -- "do like to say and write things that occasionally they think will curry favor with the DC liberals." Come on, Rush. I just tell the truth as I see it. Isn't that what you do?
RE: William Bennett
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 5:11PM
Regarding the criticism of William Bennett for a statement wrenched out of context and then attacked as racist by the leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, let us take note. The NAACP is so dated in its views that it continues to go by a name that in itself is racist. The word colored was dropped years ago, the episodic progressive terms of replacement being Negro, Black, Afro-American, and now triumphantly African-American!
If the NAACP cannot modernize its name to keep up with modern sensibilities its leaders should.... Well I leave it to Bennett to tell its leaders what to do. Though, Bill, in doing so please do not sound as self-serving as your critics now sound. And unlike them do not deny them their First Amendment rights. Were they banned from the airwaves America would be denied many reliable sources of laughter.
Friday Bookshelf
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 3:31PM
The AmSpecBlog is proud to present a new feature, our Friday book highlights. TAS receives dozens of review copies of upcoming books each week. We pull those that catch our collective eye and link to them. Inspirational hat tip to Glenn Reynolds's "In the Mail" feature.
Condi and Hillary together? They joined forces for an AIDS fundraiser Wednesday night, but Dick Morris has them squaring off for the 2008 presidential election in his forthcoming book, Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race.
Remember those reports last year of the apparent casing of a Northwest flight by terrorists? In Terror in the Skies: Why 9/11 Could Happen Again, Flight 327 passenger Annie Jacobsen details the federal government's ineptitude in securing the airlines from terrorism.
In God's Choice, George Weigel gives his account of the election of Pope Benedict XVI, including an assessment of John Paul II's papacy.
Sean Wilentz, New Republic contributing editor, Princeton history professor, and notorious Clinton defender, offers a remarkable tome, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. In the preface, Wilentz argues the story of American democracy was neither inevitable nor unanimous.
In paperback: Mary Eberstadt's Home-Alone America: Why Today's Kids Are Overmedicated, Overweight, and More Troubled Than Ever Before. Eberstadt defends her first edition in a new preface. Missing from the development of feminism, Eberstadt argues, is the "darker side of this massive experiment: namely, the sharp rise in child and adolescent problems that has occurred alongside this increasing adult, and particularly maternal, exodus from home."
Judy Miller Time
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 2:37PM
Being up on the Hill this morning allowed us to trot down to the U.S. Courthouse for the New York Times' Judy Miller's coming out party. Her press conference after her grand jury testimony was revealing.
There has been talk for some time that part of Miller's apparent zeal to uphold journalism's highest ethics was an ongoing review inside the Times of her use of sources and information during the runup to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Word inside the Times is that that report was completed about the time Miller went to jail in Alexandria, and that the report is not kind to Miller. Some have gone so far as to say that prosecutor Pat Fitzgerald saved Miller's job and reputation.
Miller's sourcing on any number of things has never really been in doubt. White House insiders -- at least those who have done time inside the National Security Council -- knew Miller well. According to one former NSC staffer she was a regular visitor to the NSC offices in the Old Executive Office Building, nosing around, asking for various people she apparently spoke to on a regular basis, etc. Everyone knew that a range of NSC and Cheney folks were speaking on background and off the record about Iraq, Saddam, weapons, human rights violations, and the like, not only to Miller, but to much of the major media, both print and broadcast. So it isn't a surprise that "Scooter" Libby was a source for Miller, never mind that Libby himself stepped forward a year ago to confirm it.
What was telling today, and what should make those who supported Miller so blindly nervous, is that clearly it wasn't Libby's supposed clarification of his release to her or prosecutors that allowed her testimony. Rather, it was Fitzgerald's deal with Miller attorney Bob Bennett to limit the scope of the questioning that changed her mind about going before the grand jury.
It will be interesting to see what areas of possible interest were taken off the table. For example, did Fitzgerald agree to not probe conversations Miller might have had with Joseph Wilson or Valerie Plame Wilson prior to Wilson's column appearing in the New York Times? Or were they questions about conversations Miller might have had with New York Times op-ed staff prior to Wilson's column being published?
Miller continues to act like someone who has a greater stake in this story than as just a mere conduit of information and protector of a source. For months, there have been whispers that she may very well have been a nexis of this story, and this latest twist -- narrowed scope of questioning -- once again lends credence to that line of thought.
Profile in Cowardice
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 2:21PM
Though this may interest only insiders, one of the odd things about the Dubya years is the extent to which such a major player as Bill Bennett has been ostracized by the Bush team. To make matters worse, the president's spokesman has found reason to kick and punch at Bennett while Bennett's in the clutches of lefty enforcers and goons. What a profile in courage.
And so much for gratitude. The Bennett caper has given the Bush White House cover. It doesn't have to rush off to name an O'Connor successor just yet. To turn attention away from Tom DeLay and GOP "troubles" and "disarray," all it needed to do was give the hounds a scent of Bennett, whose only sin apparently is that he's not as svelte as the president or as rhetorically inept.
A Lefty Defends Bennett
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 1:42PM
It's worth noting in the Bill Bennett kerfuffle that Matt Yglesias, one of the flagbearers of the left-wing blogosphere, insists Bennett said nothing wrong:
Not only is Bennett clearly not advocating a campaign of genocidal abortion against African-Americans, but the empirical claim here is unambiguously true. Similarly, if you aborted all the male fetuses, all those carried by poor women, or all those carried by Southern women, the crime rate would decline. Or, at least, in light of the fact that southern people, poor people, black people, and male people have a much greater propensity to commit crime than do non-southern, non-black, non-poor, or non-male people that would have to be our best guess. The consequences, clearly, would be far-reaching and unpredictable, but the basic demographic and criminological points here can't be seriously disputed.
Make My Day Go-Ahead
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 1:23PM
A new law in my home state of Florida will take effect tomorrow, Oct. 1, and has received national attention, mostly of the sniffy-snots-in-a-snit Liberal variety. In fact, the Brady Foundation has released a PSA warning people about the new danger to innocent visitors to Florida.
Wherefore the hysteria?
The law provides that if attacked in a life-threatening manner (slashing knife, shooting gun, that sort of thing), one may discharge a firearm in self-defense without being obliged to first investigate the possibility of escape. In other words, a true standard of self-defense: "If you are trying to kill me, I can try to kill you first."
See how we dealt with this back in April when the chair put the bill on the table rather than tabling it... er, I mean when it was the subject of debate and vote.
Jesse Jackson: "Abortion is black genocide"
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 1:16PM
Will any of the what-does-this-say-about-racial-attitudes press accounts to come on the Bennett controversy quote Jesse Jackson from 1977? He said: "Abortion is black genocide...What happens to the mind of a person and the moral fabric of a nation that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience?"
No, reporters won't excavate this quote, because Jackson was talking about the Margaret Sanger left that advanced abortion as a tool of eugenics -- and liberals don't want to be reminded of that.Â
A Time For Nominating
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 1:15PM
Breath easy. The White House is broadcasting that we won't see a Supreme Court nomination today.
-The White House appears to be moving carefully on this, emphasizing today the consultations with over 80 senators.
-Latest names in this dispatch: Gonzales, Thompson, Miers, Batchelder, Karen Williams, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan, and Washington attorney Maureen Mahoney. Who's to say how much of this is misdirection and how much is serious consideration?
RE: Vacation Overtime
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 12:32PM
Don't the Dems Support Black Abortions?
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 12:22PM
The difference between the Democrats and Bill Bennett is that they actually support black abortions. Didn't Jesse Jackson in an impolitic moment once call abortion a form of genocide? Perhaps in the fatuous game of apology-extraction that now constitutes a good 50 percent of our politics, some Republican will call on the Democrats to apologize for supporting and financing the practice of aborting black unborn children.
Nanny Goat
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 11:48AM
It's by now a truism that on judicial appointments Senate Democrats are tools of such groups as People for the American Way and the Alliance for Justice. But it should also be remembered that such organs as the New York Times are willing tools of these groups as well.
Who does the Times give the last word to in its writeup today of the Roberts swearing in? To Nan Aron, president of Alliance for Justice. Calling the day disappointing, she closes the Times story with this warning: "He's been sworn in; he's chief justice. We have a period of calm before the next storm."
Meaning, watch out!
Separately, the Times will no doubt blame the rising incidence of storms in our public life to the Bush Administration's failure to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol.
Bill Bennett
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 11:31AM
Between Bill Frist's perfectly reasonable explanation about the sale of his stock, the seemingly standard fundraising process of TRMPAC and Rep. Tom DeLay allies, and absolute weirdness of Judith Miller's sudden decision, there has to be something in the water that liberals and Democratic hacks are drinking. How else to explain the Bill Bennett dust up?
Summing up, here is what played out on Bennett's excellent morning radio show, "Morning in America." Bennett was speaking with a caller who claimed there were statistics that showed that were abortion still illegal, the U.S. population would be large enough to cover the Boomer Generation's Social Security tab.
Bennett disagreed. And went on to point out that this line of statistical extrapolation was a tricky thing. This was a reference to the book, Freakanomics, which built its arguments around such extrapolations, and which posited that the 30-year-low in crime today was the result of abortions in the inner cities.
Bennett pointed to these statistics, and said, "But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."
Bennett then said, very clearly and insistently, that such an approach was "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky."
You would have to be either extremely dim or extremely bent on creating trouble for Bennett to take his conversation any other way than what he intended: abortion under any circumstance is bad.
Bennett is one of conservatism's staunchest leaders. He's a good man, a great thinker, and one of our stronger polemicists on issues from Iraq to terrorism to life issues. We cannot and must not allow him to be marginalized by the crowd that is now attempting to do just that.
(UPDATE, 12:31 p.m. Rush Limbaugh has rushed in to fight off Bennett's hack distorters. Tune in or read the transcript tonight at rushlimbaugh.com)
Fox News Convenes Its Crack Legal Team...
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 10:50AM
...To reveal that if Roe v. Wade were overturned, abortion might still be legal! It shows just how far this debate has been skewed that this fact requires a lengthy news story. Roe usurped legislatures throughout the country, and so returning to that status quo would mean state legislatures or Congress would take it up.
Rumbling on the Right
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 10:27AM
It warms my heart a little to see conservatives doing what conservatives are supposed to do. The Bush administration and the GOP leadership have gone astray on so many fundamental issues, that it is simply time to start calling them on it with the hope that they will change their ways and govern in the way they were elected to govern -- it's not too late. Check out Derb (scroll down to 'He Lost Me'), Coulter, and the very thoughtful Tony Snow for a sampling.
Of course, Congressman Mike Pence's recent speech, Another Time For Choosing, is a must-read. At least that's what I think.
Vacation Overtime
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 10:24AM
No, not for us, but for Congress. Consider that they just came off their month-long August vacation. They put in a tough three weeks of work, and now they are off again, starting today. We're up here in Dirksen -- great Wi-Fi connection, by the way -- and all is quiet, except for staffers putting the final touches on their weekend plans. Both the House and the Senate are out until next Friday, when they return for one -- that's right, one -- day of work. Then both bodies are out again for another week's worth of recess.
That should take us up to the time for the Halloween recess, which certainly takes us to the Thanksgiving recess, which dovetails nicely into the Christmas break. Somewhere in there, we may actually get a Supreme Court confirmation, and perhaps a spending reduction bill. Or not.
SCOTUS Announcement Today?
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 10:20AM
I've eschewed playing this parlor game up until now -- because frankly I find it kind of boring and speculative -- but alas, I just heard from a trusted source that there will be an announcement at 12:00 noon today that the choice has been made and the president will introduce that choice at 4:00 p.m. Stay tuned.
Payback Time
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 10:19AM
Lost amid the Roberts confirmation, hurricanes and how to pay for them, and other political shennanigans is a piece of legislation that is moving quickly through Congress that may have a huge effect on big businesses in the coming months.
In both the House and the Senate, committees are quickly moving bills through on pension reform that would accomplish a number of things, not the least of which is requiring companies to fully fund their pension accounts for retirees. This is a good thing, particularly if you are a legislator with a large district full of, oh, say, automotive or airline employees.
But critical for big businesses is the catch-up period Congress may set to get their funds 100 percent funded. Originally, there was a three-year funding requirement. Now, the Senate is considering 90 days, a huge difference, particularly if you are looking at an 80% funded pension account in the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. That's a lot of money to come up with, even if you're a company looking at making up a two or three percent shortfall.
Things appear to be in flux, but consider that yesterday the Senate attempted to jump this pension bill over a Defense reconciliation bill for possible consideration on the floor. That was blocked, but the speed at which this legislation is moving has the whiff of something moving too fast to be good for anyone.
What matters most
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 10:16AM
John Roberts gets confirmed. Judy Miller gets sprung. Scooter Libby is brewing coffee for the media horde camped out in his front yard. Tom DeLay, Learlike, is watching his children fight over his kingdom (does that make Roy Blunt Regan or Cordelia?). POTUS may toss another nominee into the mix this afternoon (note to conservatives: Larry Thompson would be a fantastic choice).
None of this matters.
Yankees. Red Sox. Fenway for 3 with a potential (and maybe gut wrenchingly inevitable?) tie-breaker at the Stadium on Monday.
Pass the anti-anxiety meds. My children are already gearing up for another round of "Daddy, you're scaring us."
Game on! Go Yanks.
Women in Harm's Way
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 9:44AM
The Washington Post reports today that women in the National Guard and Reserves suffer sexual assault or harassment in disproportionate numbers -- we're talking 60% versus 27%. And 11% of women have been victims of rape or attempted rape, versus 1.2% for men. These statistics are the product of a report requested by Congress in 1999, completed in 2003, and withheld until now. It also found that these rates of sexual assault are similar in active duty forces.
Through all the solutions of better counseling and health care, the author doesn't ask the most obvious question: why are we placing these women in harm's way? If you've followed her work in the last year, Post reporter Ann Scott Tyson seems to be the in-house women-in-combat booster. Questioning women's new role in the military is verboten. And the Bush administration seems similiarly unwilling to address these emerging problems, George Neumayr explained in the spring.
Stalinists For Peace
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 9:14AM
Charles Krauthammer builds on the devastating case against last weekend's protests in his column today:
You don't build a mass movement on that. Nor on antiwar rallies like the one last weekend in Washington, organized and run by a front group for the Workers World Party. The WWP is descended from Cold War Stalinists who found other communists insufficiently rigorous for refusing to support the Soviet invasion of Hungary. Thus a rally ostensibly against war is run by a group that supported the Soviet invasions of Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, the massacre in Tiananmen Square, and a litany of the very worst mass murderers of our time, including Slobodan Milosevic, Hussein and Kim Jong Il. You don't seize the moral high ground in America with fellow travelers such as these.
Add that to Christopher Hitchens's brilliant dissection of the anti-war organizers (and marchers, who declined to carry signs condemning jihad or supporting women in Afghanistan), and it's hard to separate the supposedly good hearted protesters from the Stalinists. A lefty friend of mine tried to do just that, saying that the presence of a few rotten apples doesn't condemn the whole bunch. When those few nuts are the organizers, the others implicitly subscribe to their beliefs. For more, see J. Peter Freire's "Morons on Message."
On the Air Today
Posted by on 9.30.05 @ 8:22AM
You gotta listen to today’s Hugh Hewitt Show (Salem Radio Network, ). I’ll be subbing for Hugh, and we’ve got a dynamite show lined up to talk about the Supreme Court,
I promise to be entirely envigorated by showtime.I’m spending the day at Quantico shooting machine guns with some pals and pols, under the supervision of two of my most amazing friends, ex-SEALs Al Clark and Dale McClellan. There are few things that raise my morale as quickly as firing automatic weapons.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
A Farewell to Arms
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 6:44PM
The relationship between the U.S. and the Republic of China on Taiwan is truly something to behold. The U.S. Congress, via the surprisingly large and bipartisan House and Senate Taiwan Caucuses, deserves an enormous amount of credit for keeping that relationship strong and -- yes -- exhibiting bold and consistent leadership on the issue despite constant pressure from Communist China. That leadership has allowed Taiwan to prosper, and to evolve into not only an economic powerhouse but a free and highly modern society. Taiwan is a model, and we've done well by them.
Thus, I am alarmed to see that political gamesmanship within the legislative Yuan may be threatening to put a strain on this relationship. Apparently, the opposition party is holding up the release of funds earmarked for purchase of military equipment and hardware which the U.S. is ready to sell them and which they need in order to deter aggression from and perhaps invasion by the Communists. Hello? It's not about money -- anyone who follows Taiwan knows the government there is swimming in it -- it's about politics. The security of Taiwan is in constant peril. Hence, these legislators are playing an extremely dangerous game.
Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), a founding Co-Chairman of the House Taiwan Caucus, apparently threw down a pretty big gauntlet the other day at the Heritage Foundation, God bless him. Taipei Times has this and more.
Teasing, Teasing...
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 5:42PM
Was POTUS having some fun with all of us today mentioning two highly rumored SCOTUS names in his speech during the swearing-in ceremony of Chief Justice John Roberts? Perhaps Rehnquist's spirit -- "That's for me to know, and you to find out" -- was in the room.
POTUS: I appreciate the Vice President being here, Attorney General Al Gonzales. I thank Harriet Miers, Counsel to the President, and members of my administration who worked on the nomination and confirmation. I particularly want to thank former Senator Fred Thompson for his leadership.
A red herring? Or a sign that in fact the nominee will be the beloved Fred Thompson?
Op Offset Lives!
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 5:28PM
Earlier this week, the WaPo reported that Indiana Congressman Mike Pence had been beaten up so badly by the House leadership that he would be backing off his "Operation Offset campaign to cut some of the fat in the federal budget to help fund disaster relief.
But -- as shocking as it may be -- WaPo got it wrong. Pence isn't backing off anything. I just interviewed him briefly about the WaPo story. Here's what he said:
"I would say that the reports of my demise or the demise of Operation Offset in the Washington Post this week were greatly exaggerated.
"House conservatives this week have redoubled our efforts to ensure that as we deal with the catastrophe of nature that we make the tough fiscal choices necessary to ensure that it will not become a catastrophe of debt for our children and grandchildren. Operation Offset, I believe, has commenced an important national debate both within the corridors of the Congress and the White House but also around a lot of kitchen tables all across America...
"Thanks to the efforts of dozens of House conservatives last week and throughout this week Congress and the White House, I think, are beginning an earnest and sincere effort to find the cuts that are necessary to offset the extraordinary costs of Hurricane Katrina.
"I spoke at the Young America’s Foundation on Monday and the title of my speech was, 'Another Time for Choosing,' and I drew the title of my speech from Ronald Reagan’s famous 1964 address entitled 'A Time for Choosing' and I said then, and believe, that the time in which we live today is very similar to the time in 1964 when Ronald Reagan spoke. We find ourselves at a crossroads in America in the conservative movement. Whether we will renew our commitment to limited government and traditional moral values or we will heed the siren song of the central planner who says big government is good government if it’s our government. Ronald Reagan challenged that boldly, on a small stage in the midst of the Goldwater campaign in 1964. I believe in the wake of the first entitlement in forty years, in the wake of a 'No Child Left Behind' bill that expanded the federal Department of Education by 52%, and in the wake of Katrina relief measure where Congress spent $60 billion without even discussing budget cuts to offset the cost that there is a renewal in the conservative movement around America to return to those first principles that we all know to be true: that the government is too big and spends too much, that the government that governs least governs best and that a society is judged by how it deals with the most vulnerable in its midst, from the unborn to the elderly to the disabled to the mentally infirm. As we go through that renewal and return to those core principles I think we’ll find our way forward."
Looking down from Heaven, the Gipper must be smiling. I am.
Uncircling the Wagons
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 4:14PM
Are conservative Republicans little more than fair-weathered friends? Or are they confident enough about what they stand for that they aren't easily cowed into displays of self-destructive blind loyalty?
We see it now in the case of Tom DeLay. Is the politically ginned up campaign to destroy him, as reprehensible as it may be, reason enough for the right to fear that the conservative movement is the real target of the attack? Or is it instead simply a good time to return to conservative principles that DeLay somehow had lost sight of?
Something similar happened during the ouster of Trent Lott. The left jumped on him for a P.C. crime. Instead of defending him, many on the right exploited Lott's troubles to have him replaced with the more conservatively programmed Bill Frist. Perhaps Frist hasn't lived up to expectations, but no one is preparing to "frist" him. He's conservative enough to deserve defending. No revolving-door Jack Abramoffs in his closet.
Welfare Alert
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 2:27PM
The Food Research and Action Center is concerned that not all those eligible for government handouts are taking them. An enormous problem indeed. Besides reasons like pride, why wouldn't folks show up for their food stamps?
There are many reasons why people who qualify don't get food stamps, the report said.
Many immigrants are eligible but face language or cultural barriers or are unaware they qualify, the group said.
Eureka! Let's create a government program to raise awareness of another government program.
Turtle Bay Ethics Exam
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 2:25PM
The CanWest news service of Toronto reports that UN employees are being asked to take a multiple-guess ethics exam, and those who do well are rewarded with prints "certificates featuring images of African Masai tribesmen."
According to the story, questions include toughies such as, "All staff _____ share the same United Nations' core values," with the possible answers being given as: "a) may b) must c) used to d) do not have to," and another asks whether the UN practices "zero tolerance" against discrimination, or whether it was a place where workers enjoy an "ostentatious lifestyle and an inflated sense of personal importance."
The CanWest report does not suggest what action may be taken with regard to employees who fail the test, or whether they will have to retake the exam after their promotions and pay raises take effect.
How Can This Be at All Productive?
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 2:22PM
"Federal judge orders the release of all Abu Ghraib photos": We know what went on there, we have the facts. This ACLU lawsuit can only embarrass the U.S.
Your Favorite Judge
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 12:27PM
Now that Roberts is in, kill time while you wait to find out who the next SCOTUS nominee is by taking this short quiz to determine who your favorite pick should be, at least according to the quiz author. I got Priscilla Owen.
Talk About a Downer ...
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 11:56AM
Don't mean to minimize this, but does someone think that this kind of warning will actually encourage people to use the drug?
The Wall Street Journal reports: "Eli Lilly & Co. said it will update the product label globally for its attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder medication, Strattera, after finding a small risk of suicidal thoughts among children and adolescents taking the drug."
Any way we can get a similar warning label stamped on Sen. Hillary Clinton's forehead?
Roberts Vote: 78-22
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 11:56AM
Democrats voting no:
Akaka, Bayh, Biden, Boxer, Cantwell, Clinton, Corzine, Dayton,
Durbin, Feinstein, Harkin, Inouye, Kennedy, Kerry, Lautenberg,
Mikulski, Obama, Reed, Reid, Sarbanes, Schumer, Stabenow.
All red state Democrats up for reelection in 2006 voting yes.
Reality Bites
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 11:36AM
Rick Brookhiser has an excellent column in the New York Observer about how hard it's been for American Jews to come to terms with the fact that the main nexus of anti-Semitism is now on the left. On the Internet, it's right in your face: Just the other day other day I got a comment on my own blog denouncing "evangelical Christian cultists," the NRA, and Israel, "a land of angry cultist jews with pigtails." Charming, isn't it?
Just a Gut Feeling
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 11:34AM
It's going to be interesting to watch how the whole DeLay thing shakes out, particularly with Blunt now sitting in his chair.
Over in the Senate, however, things seem quite different. Everything I've seen leads me to think that Bill Frist's problems are overblown, that he followed the rules, and that he will likely be fine in the end. As Greg Pierce reports, his colleagues seem to think so too.
Senate Policy Shapers
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 11:05AM
Bob Novak here talks about the spread of "Operation Offset" mania, this time in the Senate. It's about time Sen. Lindsey Graham came back to the Mother Ship.
Over at RedState, the thinking is that the Senate needs something akin to the House Republican Study Committee. Actually, the Senate already has one: the Senate Republican Policy Committee. Now chaired by Sen. Jon Kyl, the SRPC was at one time the policy shop that drove the conservative issues. Kyl has been bringing it back up to speed, and should focus on the fiscal issues once again.
That said, what is Kyl waiting for? Conservatives have been hoping he would step up his profile in pusuit of a leadership position. Yet in the past few months he's been almost invisible. We'd say he's been working behind the scenes, but it doesn't appear he's been doing even that.
Can Rather Sit On The Travis County Jury?
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 10:59AM
Travis County has never been far from the news during the Bush presidency. Chroniclers of it may have to mark it down as one of the percolating centers of left-wing stunts. Dan Rather made Travis County famous long before Ronnie Earle, raising $20,000 for its Democratic Party in 2001. His daughter Robin, a prominent liberal Texas environmentalist, thought her Dad would be a reliable draw for Democrats, though Rather claimed later that his fabled ear-to-the-ground reporting had simply failed him -- that he had no idea his daughter was asking him to speak at a Dem fundraiser. Forgery conduit Bill Burkett hired a lawyer who was once chairman of the Travis County Democrats. None of this, of course, influenced Rather's confidence in Burkett as an unimpeachable source. Ronnie Earle's case against Delay doesn't exactly look airtight, but then again he could always hit Kinko's and cobble together some impressive evidence. Â
'Pretty Conservative' Republicans
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 10:35AM
There is an old saying among conservatives that when we send our people to Washington, they're not our people anymore. Ronald Reagan was the exception that proved the rule, and it is a rule that conservatives have been living with since conservatives first emerged from the shadows in the 1950s. Conservatives often become disillusioned in election campaigns that a politician who is "pretty conservative" will be, well, "pretty conservative" after he gets elected. It didn't work with Eisenhower, it didn't work with Nixon, it didn't work with George H.W. Bush, and it isn't working with George W.
The conservative's job is not to be a good Republican, but to keep Republicans honest, to hold their feet to the fire. So what is going on now is exactly what should be going on -- conservatives telling the congressional leaders and the President that being "pretty conservative" (and you have to wonder what "pretty" means sometimes) isn't good enough. If it means losing an election or two, that is the price we need to pay.
Do you miss Ronald Reagan as much as I do?
A Townhall of a Different Color
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 10:24AM
In case you hadn't heard, Townhall.com went independent of the Heritage Foundation earlier this year. Since then, a friend on staff there has related stories of a small, energized staff, 16-hour days, and so on. It's a veritable start-up.
For all that hard work, they have something to show for it: a re-launched Townhall.com debuts today. As before, it's a prime destination for conservative commentary. With another blog in addition to the C-Log, Townhall is well positioned to wage battle for conservative causes and candidates.
'Don' Fehr
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 9:51AM
The MLB players union used to have underdog status in the perennial battles with the owners (just uttering the word "owners" used to bring refrains the "Evil Empire" theme from Star Wars to mind). Steroids have changed that dynamic for the foreseeable future.
In case players union boss Don Fehr hasn't noticed, John McCain gets even more popular the angrier he gets. Hall of famers Hank Aaron, Robin Roberts, Lou Brock, Ryne Sandberg and Phil Neikro just underlined McCain's sincerity and determination to clean up baseball. Meanwhile, Fehr sounded more like a mouthpiece for the mob.
Most baseball fans would rather see MLB put its house in order rather than have Congress step in. But most baseball fans would also rather have a steroid free game. Fehr really doesn't get it.
Message to Fehr: Junior Gotti is about to be retried. He'd probably appreciate your counsel. And with your first name being Don, you'd fit right in.
By the way -- YANKEES by 1.
A Rising, Swelling Tide
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 9:41AM
Some of the headlines I've seen:
For Republicans, a Swelling Sea of Troubles. Prosecutor Takes Attacks in Stride, Mostly. (Called a zealot, the district attorney points back at the source.) For G.O.P., A Rising Tide of Troubles. Troubled Year Gets Worse fo the GOP. With Woes Mounting , GOP Is Tumbling Toward 2006 Vote. Earle Has Prosecuted Many Democrats.
And that's just from my two favorite papers.
Perfect Storm?
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 9:33AM
People like to talk about the convergence of events creating the kind of atmosphere that can transform the political landscape in the same terms as really bad weather. Not sure after Katrina and Rita that is necessary, but ...
Katrina and Rita, combined with the political hatchet job Texas legal beagle Ronnie Earle is doing on Rep. Tom DeLay, may do the GOP more good than anyone realizes right now. Last night we spoke with a couple of members of the Republican Study Committee who helped shape "Operation Offset," the group's recommedations to trim more than $900 billion in excess spending from the books.
They were happy with the elevation of Rep. Roy Blunt to leader, as temporary as that may be. They felt that Blunt had been far more receptive to cutting back than DeLay, and that under the circumstances, Blunt would feel the political heat was on to give the base what it needed right now: a strong victory in an area where conservative Republicans usually reign: budget and tax cuts.
The trimming of billions from those bloated transportation and energy bills, combined with a strong Supreme Court nomination, would again place momentum back with the Republicans.
McCain Again
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 9:25AM
Apparently Sen. John McCain is happy with the way his re-emergence as a Senate leader is working out. Over the past three weeks he has made a series of high-profile public appearances, including the AmSpec's Saturday Evening Club Dinner last week Now he's moving to Stage 2.
Word is that he is looking at his leadership Political Action Committee and how best to leverage that over the next year or so heading into his decisions after the 2006 election cycle. Lobbyists and supporters are getting the full court press to max out now. That is giving some long-time allies the impression that McCain is once again fully engaged and ready to start pulling the tarp off of the Straight Talk Express.
The Bubble Campaign
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 7:52AM
Via Commonwealth Conservative, be sure to catch the preview clips of Inside the Bubble, a documentary of the Kerry campaign by Democrat Steve Rosenbaum.
Between the Law and the Hype
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 7:36AM
With one GOP Congressional leader on the legal ropes, the suspicions around the Senate Majority Leader, the good Dr. Frist, deserve a closer look. It just so happens that a leading blogger on the right is also a UCLA law professor specializing in corporate law, Stephen Bainbridge:
If some SEC enforcement lawyer in fact were to start looking into this, the first question will be whether Frist had material nonpublic information about HCA at the time he ordered the sale. If he had the common sense God gave gravel, the answer to that will be a resounding no. For somebody in his position to retain access to such information would exacerbate the inherent conflict of interest that arises when he deals with health care issues, as well as potentially exposing him to insider trading liability.
Bainbridge goes on to explain, from his law book on the subject, that in light of the case law and the SEC rule, if Frist can convince a court that he was trading to clear a conflict of interest even if he possessed insider info, he's free and clear.
Dreier Diplomacy
Posted by on 9.29.05 @ 1:47AM
Rep. David Dreier, whatever leadership position he ends up in after Tom DeLay's stepping down, is an affable team player with wider interests than one might suspect. Recently Dreier wrote the foreword to the new book The Next Superpower? The Rise of Europe and Its Challenge to the United States (Rowman & Littlefield) by Rockwell A. Schnabel, a longtime friend and fellow Californian who's just finished serving as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union. (The book's coauthor is Francis X. Rocca, a longtime friend of mine living in Rome who among many fine things is a Yale Ph.D. and a former editor at The American Spectator.)
When Dreier was first elected to Congress in 1980 -- the same year Ronald Reagan was elected president -- the idea of a European Union, he writes, was far-fetched. Since then, especially after the fall of Communism, "European nations have formed a true single market in goods and labor and have removed many internal European barriers to trade in capital and services." Music to our ears. Dreier is especially pleased that Amb. Schnabel, who represented U.S. interests with distinction in Europe between 2001 and 2005, has now gone on to explain the EU to Americans.
The book is important: the U.S. has no more vital a political and economic relationship than with the European Union. It's good that Dreier's horizons are broader than your typical Washingtonian's.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Blunt Talk
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 6:13PM
If temporarily deposed House Republican Leader Tom DeLay didn't like "Operation Offset" and its creators at the Republican Study Committee, led by Rep. Mike Pence, he surely hates it now.
That's because Pence and his budget-cutting plan probably helped propel Republican whip Rep. Roy Blunt into the temporary party leader post late today.
DeLay in meeting earlier in the day with Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, had asked that Rep. David Dreier be elevated to the leadership post. But instead, during a late afternoon caucus meeting, it was determined by Republicans that Blunt would take the post.
There is bad blood between DeLay and Blunt, in part due to sheer power politics, and an attempt by DeLay loyalists to embarrass Blunt last year by airing dirty laundry from Blunt's personal life to reporters at the Washington Post. The reason insiders gave then was that DeLay felt Blunt was getting too big for his britches as whip and needed to be brought down a few notches.
So how does "Operation Offset" come into play here? Yesterday, Blunt and other party leaders met with Pence to discuss how best to implement some of the Republican Study Committee's spending cut recommendations. Blunt has previously helped Pence and his fiscal conservatives beat back budget appropriations issues earlier this year, a victory that burned DeLay.
Right now up on Capitol Hill, fiscal conservatives are feeling pretty good about their chances of getting their cuts at least considered by the full House with Blunt in the leadership chair.
And Blunt ought to be feeling pretty good, too. "If Roy actually gets something done that brings these spending bills pulled back a bit, it isn't far-fetched that we won't see support for him growing even if Tom comes back free and clear of his problems," says an RSC member.
Blunt in the Lead
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 6:06PM
It looks like Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, formerly the House Majority Whip, has been elected the new Majority Leader by House Republicans. Reports earlier today had suggested that David Dreier would lead in assuming leadership responsibilities, but the latest reports say he'll share them with Blunt in this "interim arrangement."
No Pitch Too Low
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 6:02PM
The Democratic Party couldn't wait one night before it began fundraising on Tom DeLay's indictment. Tom McMahon, executive director of the DNC, just sent a fundraising email to supporters:
People ask what the difference is between the two parties, and this indictment gives one clear answer.
Republicans are committed to pushing the legal limits to collect checks from special interests who want to use government for their own narrow purposes. Democrats are committed to funding our party with contributions from ordinary Americans so that when we take power, the government will represent the people.
You can make your personal commitment to changing the culture of corruption by getting your Democracy Bond -- a monthly commitment to contribute to the Democratic Party.
Teresa Heinz Kerry, call your office.
Twilight Zone Radio
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 5:00PM
It's hard to tell who is more radicalized: National Public Radio or Al-Jazeera, the all-jihad all the time television network. I spent a half hour on NPR early this afternoon talking about the recent "Human Rights Watch" report that -- based on three anonymous soldiers' statements -- republishes the libel that our people in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Cuba are routinely torturing detainees. The report, of course, made the Al-Jazeera front page.
It's the usual: a compendium of anonymous allegations ("Sgt. A," "Sgt. B," "Officer C") passed off as proof that we can't trust the miltary and need more legislation and an "independent" -- i.e., partisan and political -- commission to investigate the military.
The only interesting thing the Human Rights Watch rep said through the whole thing was that he was glad it was picked up by Al-Jazeera. I can't forgive people such as the HRW crew. They are making the world more dangerous for the young men and women we send in harm's way. And for us.
DeLay
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 3:47PM
Less than 2 weeks ago, Tom DeLay said there was no more room for cuts in the budget. This brought howls from the right - particularly on talk radio. Today, faced with a partisan investigation that led to an incredibly weak grand jury indictment, DeLay may be wishing he had held his tongue on the inability to make further budget cuts. He'll need the conservative base to rally to him. Telling the base there's no more room for cuts may keep some mum.
Having lived through a little turmoil in the House (Gingrich/Livingston1998), I would say DeLay's decision to step down pending the outcome of the investigation has the scent of political death about it. DeLay, more than most, deserves a vigorous defense from the right. But that's just not the way the Republican party works -- just ask Trent Lott. Internal power struggles will take some toll on DeLay's ability to maintain enough loyalty in the caucus for a return to the Leader's post when he beats the rap.
But more damaging will be the realization by House Republicans that Tom DeLay, though a fantastic leader, is not irreplaceable. In fact, they may well decide that the distraction of his return to power during an election cycle is not worth it.
Politics, being the ultimate "what have you done for me lately" game, favors the guy in power. Right now, that guy is one David Dreier. Roy Blunt is hovering, as is John Boehner. Long, drawn-out public corruption investigations -- even baseless ones such as this -- don't favor the target. Stay tuned.
Maybe It Was a Catholic Public School?
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 3:31PM
NYC mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer is having some difficulty remembering basic personal bio bullets. He apparently wrote on his campaign website that he "attended public schools for most of my education" when he is a product of Catholic schools. Tack this onto his claim that his daughter graduated from public school while she actually is an alum of Cardinal Spellman High School.
These lapses can't be helpful. Bill Donahue, Catholic League president, quickly weighed in today with an email release: "This is not the first time that Freddy-the-Faker-Ferrer has turned his back on Catholics. In 1996-97, when Mayor Rudy Giuliani floated the idea that one way to stem overcrowding in the public schools was to send students to Catholic schools, the Faker went mad." More here.
DeLay Indicted
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 2:07PM
Most people on Capitol Hill understand that the Ronnie Earle-fueled indictment of Republican Leader Tom DeLay is all about political gamesmanship.
But the DeLay indictment should also serve as a broader wake-up call to the Republican leadership in both the House and the Senate, as well as their network of folks on K Street: It's time for Republicans to start putting their house in order.
A smart politician like DeLay should never have allowed himself to get in the position that he now finds himself. Five years ago, he would not have. But power and influence and a watering down of talent surrounding him on staff opened him and his organization up to missteps. There is a real sense among many conservatives that the Republican Party has achieved in little more than 10 years of power what Democrats created over 40 and which led to their demise in 1994.
Republicans will stand by DeLay and fight for him. They should, and they should fight hard. But look for conservative Republicans to take this opportunity to align the party with a more 1994 approach to governing. The question now is whether Hastert and company are up to the job.
Alien Thoughts
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 1:21PM
Spotted: A rare Republican who is not afraid to remain the pro-immigration Reaganite most of us were in the Reagan years. A Washington Post Metro section profile of Linda Chavez today has her saying some useful things (though why does she allow the canard "screaming, ego-based" commentary to be used against her talk radio confrere Rush Limbaugh?), particularly with regard to the Herndon, Virginia situation that has become a microcosm of America's growing frustration with out-of-control illegal immigration.
"We have a need for labor. We have very low unemployment in Northern Virginia," Chavez said. "It's not as if we have huge numbers of unemployed people that would be taking these jobs."
So far, no one has noticed the irony that the Herndon showdown over illegal labor is occurring in a right-to-work state par excellence. Go to the Northern Virginia-based National Right to Work Foundation's website and you'll find nothing on the subject. How come?
Dreier as Pseudo-Leader
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 1:19PM
The AP reports Rep. David Dreier, of California, will step into Tom DeLay's leader duties tomorrow. His official bio is here, and the Wikipedia bio offers a more comprehensive look.
DeLay Indicted
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 1:01PM
So the rumors are correct. According to the Travis County Clerks office:
One count of criminal conspiracy.
Not clear on what the actual charge is.
Two other associates of DeLay face more charges.
Re: Wild Pitch
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 1:00PM
Even with the Yanks' big loss last night, they're still tied for first in the AL East. With the adopted hometown Nats officially out of the running, my loyalties return to the BB's and I look forward to a New York-Boston rematch this year. Paybacks are said to be hell. Here's to another 86 winless years for the boys from Beantown.
So Friday's the Day?
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 12:46PM
While some folks are looking for a SCOTUS nominee annoucement tomorrow afternoon following the Roberts vote, the smart money could be on Friday. That's when Congressional Republicans expect a White House annoucement, the Washington Times reports today.
Re: Right Reminders
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 11:50AM
Speaking of Reagan, his old gang yesterday, the Board of Directors of the American Conservative Union, unanimously passed a resolution supporting the valiant efforts of Rep. Mike Pence and the Republican Study Committee to cut spending through "Operation Offset." It's a real shot in the arm for Pence and his fellows, and a much-needed shot across the bow of the GOP leadership. The 32-member ACU Board is made up of the likes of David Keene, Grover Norquist, Wayne LaPierre, and Steve Moore -- the leadership would be wise to pay attention.
This is a happy development. For the base has been incredibly patient with this Congress and indeed the Bush administration. A little public cage-rattling is very much in order -- perhaps overdue.
Wild Pitch
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 11:35AM
I'm a little late getting to the Sports page this morning, but I notice the Yankees got clobbered last night by the lowly Angelos Orioles, 17-9. How many times this year have the Bronx Bombers been bombed in such runfests? Here it is, the final showdown week of the season, the fall air couldn't be crispier, and the world's number one franchise has pitching as porous as a New Orleans levee. Maybe some of that $200 billion in relief could be funneled to George Steinbrenner to shore up his leaky first responders. Only problem: the Red Sox would want in on the action.
Our Carter Complex
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 11:20AM
At cocktails yesterday a leading Republican strategist offered this take on the state of the GOP: "It feels like 1979 -- but unfortunately, we're on the wrong side."
Right Reminders
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 11:11AM
House leaders Hastert, DeLay, and Blunt must have used LBJ tactics with Mike Pence if the Washington Post is correct that Pence is backing down from his criticism of the uncontrolled spending being thrown at the Gulf states. I hope that the Post is wrong or that Pence has figured how to outsmart the leadership. Whatever the case, Hastert, DeLay, and Blunt have forgotten their conservative constituencies and their conservative roots and are acting like Democrats who see their majority in jeopardy and are trying to buy their way out of trouble. My old friend Dave Keene usually gets it right, as he does in his latest Hill column:
Years ago, management guru Tom Peters suggested the slogan of many U.S. corporations might as well be "We're no worse than anybody else." It didn't work for those businesses in a competitive world, and DeLay's new slogan for the House Republicans, which might as well be "We're not quite as bad as the Democrats," isn't going to be much more effective for his party. Washington Republicans may not care much about limiting spending or restraining the growth of government, but the people who hired them and sent them here do.Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 because he believed in people rather than government. While he didn't always succeed, he fought for eight years in Washington to deliver on his promises to those who elected him. Today's Republicans ape the Reagan rhetoric, but if their actions mean much they are as different from Reagan as the Republican liberals he vanquished in the early '80s.
Don't you miss Ronald Reagan as much as I do?
Ray Nagin, Retirement Speaker
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 11:05AM
Scrambling for something to say after his police chief Eddie Compass abruptly announced that he will be walking off the job too, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin said, "He decided to retire on top."
Vote Now: GOP '08
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 9:50AM
Be sure to vote for your favorite Republican presidential candidate over at Patrick Ruffini's monthly straw poll.
Rudy Giuliani won last month with 29.5%, followed by George Allen with 19.8% and Newt Gingrich with 13.9%. Mr. Buzz of the Moment, John McCain, finished in fifth place with 7.9%. I would guess he'll see a better showing this month.
Fiscal Hurdles
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 8:23AM
If you're optimistic about meaningful spending cuts this fall, especially to offset relief spending on Hurricane Katrina, read this AP dispatch and think again. Fiscal year 2006 begins this weekend and only two of 11 spending bills are complete and signed. Passing these appropriations bills will be battle enough, but as the article lets on, Congressional leaders will likely tout a few cuts that are little more than budget gimmicks.
On the positive side, if you haven't checked out the blogosphere's heroic efforts in this area, be sure to visit Porkbusters at The Truth Laid Bear.
High SCOTUS Stakes
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 1:12AM
As pundits ponder and conservatives speculate who the next Supreme Court nominee might be, let's bear in mind the cases the Court is considering this coming term. Among them, a case considering Vermont's strict campaign finance regulations. If Bush succeeds in seeing a conservative justice confirmed in Justice O'Connor's stead, that new justice could reverse the 5-4 margin in McConnell v. U.S., in which O'Connor was in the majority.
UPDATE (9:38 a.m.): The one-man free speech shop, Bob Bauer, is surprised that the Court will hear these cases.
Weasel's Words
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 1:04AM
During my many years of living in Indiana, I always regarded the harmless, cuddly woodchuck as the state's unofficial animal. But now after Sen. Evan Bayh's cowardly coming out against fellow Hoosier John Roberts, Indiana may have to adopt the weasel as its native rodent.
Bayh was supposed to be the moderate, sane hope of his party. Instead, he betrays someone who's a feather in ever Hoosier's cap in order to please the MoveOn-ers who make the most noise in his party. Even the Indiana University student paper, the Indiana Daily Student (back in my day often called the "Indiana Daily Stupid," for all the usual adolescent reasons), has expressed disappointment at Bayh's decision.
In his curt (270-word) introduction of Roberts on day one of the nominee's confirmation hearings, Bayh expressed guarded pride "that someone from our state would be so talented and so successful to be considered for a position on the highest court of our land." In a tortured 750-word press release last Friday, Bayh goes through all the mealy-mouthed arguments the Hillary's and Teddy's have already made in explaining their opposition to Roberts. "I cannot vote to confirm," he squirms, "not because I oppose John Roberts..." Since when is a no vote not a vote in opposition?
Jimmy Bush
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 12:17AM
Bush White House spokesman Scott McClellan warms Jimmy Carter's heart:
MR. McCLELLAN: Yes. You can look back at some of the steps that we were taking to promote energy efficiency and conserve energy. And some steps that we're already taking, since yesterday, in terms of the White House, the President has directed the staff to take steps to increase the thermostats, scale back non-essential travel, to look at other ways that we can conserve energy, as well.The White House has been looking at additional ways that we can conserve energy. We'll also be sending out notices to staff about -- reminding them to turn off lights and printers and copiers and computers when they leave the office. We'll continue to move forward on more e-government, paperless systems that would reduce the use of faxes and copiers and printers and things of that nature, encouraging all government vehicles to try to consume less. That would include by people sharing rides in government vehicles, not letting cars idle, which wastes gas. We'll be sending out notices to staff to promote mass transit options, as well, letting them know about Metro stops and encouraging ride sharing, telling them where pick-up and drop-off points are at the White House, or reminding them of that, and just scrutinizing staff travel even more, so that people can videoconference where they can versus actually traveling, and things of that nature.
So, again, these actions that we are taking build upon steps that we've already taken. And other areas -- the President did want everybody to look at the motorcade, too, to see what could be scaled back there, as well. So I think today we probably have a couple less vans than we normally would.
Vive Le Subway
Posted by on 9.28.05 @ 12:15AM
The folks at Miquelon.org, France's Maginot Line on the web, are trying to start a protest campaign against the Subway sandwich chain. Subway's offense? Its new Chicken Cordon Bleu sandwich, the ad for which, complains the Miqueloniers' editorial -- the site's full name is MIQUELON.ORG - THE VIEW FROM FRANCE - STOP FRANCE BASHING -- says, "France and Chicken. Somehow it just goes together." I, too, am appalled by that sentence. It should read, "France and Chicken. Somehow they just go together."
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Breitbart.com ...
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 7:12PM
is posting an AP story that cites outside sources with ties to the White House saying that former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson and current White House counsel Harriet Miers are on the short list for the O'C seat.
Miers is a name that came into play late in the process last go-round. By anyone's estimation, she would possess almost no paper trail for the Judiciary Committee or outside groups to work with.
Thompson's name has been out there for some time, and is considered by some Washington insiders to be a strong candidate. He and the President hit it off during Thompson's time directing the President's Corporate Fraud Task Force. He probably doesn't possess much more of a paper trail than Miers.
Perhaps there is no point in trying to keep up with these stories, but the fact that so much is now swirling about would indicate that a choice is all but certain in the coming days.
Plans remain for a vote on Roberts on Thursday. That or Friday remains the target date for a new announcement.
Doctor Dayton
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 5:10PM
"My principal concerns are not about John Roberts's mind, but about his heart." So says Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.) on C-Span 2 now. If Judge Roberts offered Senate Democrats a group hug, would they all vote to confirm?
Byrd Says Sure
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 4:49PM
At age 87, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) is tossing his hat into the ring for a ninth senate term. Though he won by 57% margin in 2000, many keen watchers are saying this go-round isn't a fait accompli.
Larry Sabato, UVA political guru and perhaps the most quoted man in journalism, has this race leaning toward Byrd, "but this is not the West Virginia he has been elected to represent so many times before. The state has rather rapidly moved into the Republican column, at least presidentially, and this is having an effect on the potential lineup for 2006." And a quick comparison between the 2000 and 2004 election tallies shows Bush widening his margin of victory from 6% to 13%.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee smells blood in the water. Spokesman Brian Nick told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review earlier this month, " This is one of the most winnable races in the country." The same article reported that polls by both committees found Byrd up by 10 points over his most likely opponent, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito.
Look for the angry left to rally around Byrd, in addition to the more than $800,000 raised by MoveOn for him this spring. They'll remember his support during the filibuster battles and will be glad to provide ample funding.
Rumor, Rumors Everywhere
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 4:36PM
And not a fact in sight.
Busy day in SCOTUS-land. Not for soon-to-be-Chief Justice Roberts, but the person whose fanny will fill the O'C seat.
Here's what we're hearing. Gonzales is still very much in play. As reported here earlier today, he was in Florida yesterday for a speech before police chiefs. During a Q and A session that followed, his comments about his admiration for Chief Justice Rehnquist could be perceived as either pandering of the first order, or generous humility. People we speak to, who work and have worked for Gonzales, say he really has no burning desire to be on the court, not in the same way others have. But if asked, he probably wouldn't turn it down.
In that regard, one White House source says that one of the arguments put forward for Gonzales as a nominee is that people who really know him (the President, Karl Rove), know him to be a reliable conservative, who would be less likely to go wobbly in the crunch. That sounds fine, but who knows? Certainly not the base.
As for other nominees, the list appears to be dwindling. According to Capitol Hill sources, a list of potential nominees that was floated late last week had five names: Edith Hollan Jones, Emilio Garza, Alice Batchelder, Karen Williams, and Michael Luttig.
The name to focus on is Williams, who currently sits on the 4th District bench. In the past 24 hours, her name appears to have taken on the same kind of airborne quality as that of Larry Thompson's two weeks ago. It may be lifting off because of real momentum or just hot air.
Williams is known to be reliably grounded, bright and talented.
Either way, this is the parlor game of the moment in Washington, and it's one we political junkies love to play.
After Life
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 4:10PM
The hit of the fall book season is bound to be Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, a chronicle of her grief and shock after the sudden death of her husband John Gregory Dunne in late 2003. The New York Times Magazine ran an irresistible excerpt last Sunday.
Now everyone knows the team of Didion-Dunne was quintessentially liberal-literary. But Tom Mallon has also called Didion, "arguably, a great American writer," which is good enough for me. She writes with a directness that is disarming. It's good to learn that she had poured her husband a second scotch just before he fell dead from a massive heart attack. It's amusing to read how important it was to her that the Los Angeles Times not learn about Dunne's death from a New York Times obituary. It's instructive to observe how hard the couple worked at being who they were.
Even at a restaurant they would take notes. One of his last, which he said she could use for her own book on sports, complained, "Coaches used to go out after a game and say, 'You played great.' Now they go out with the state police, as if this were a war and they the military. The militarization of sports." Huh? For as long as I can remember, college coaches, especially in what have become the red states, have been escorted by state troopers on leaving the field. Militarization has nothing to do with it. Important coaches are bigger than important political figures. Police protection is nothing more than the homage a perk plays to status. I think the Dunnes would have enjoyed that insight.
AG Wanderlust
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 12:55PM
AG Gonzales was down in Florida yesterday for a speech, and what he said during and after in a question and answer session may shed some additional light on both his thinking and that of the White House's vis a vis the SCOTUS nomination.
Gonzales had some very nice things to say about Chief Justice William Rehnquist, his judicial philosophy and tenure on the court. One couldn't help get the sense that Gonzales was in a bit of campaign mode. Keep in mind that Gonzales remains a key adviser on the SCOTUS nomination, particularly because he knows as much if not more about the talent out there, particularly on Bush judges at the Federal level.
More on the Gonzales speech should start popping up around the Net later today or tomorrow as word begins to spread.
No Consultation? Not So Fast
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 12:24PM
Democrats around Washington are already claiming that a Bush nomination to fill the O'C seat this week precludes the appropriate length of consultation with Senators.
What's so hard about giving a Senator three names and asking them for feedback and to prioritize by level of support? It's not difficult, but Democrats want to turn it into a kumbaya moment.
The fact is the White House has been consulting with both Republicans and Democrats for several weeks now on this pick. There have been a series of meetings up on Capitol Hill, and Arlen Specter has had breakfast with the President within the last couple of days. Part of the motivation for that meeting, according to White House sources, was to thank Specter for his handling of the Roberts nomination process, but to also consult on possible new picks, as well.
According to some Democrats on the Hill, Harry Reid has been consulted too, though his input was said to be ... big surprise ... negative.
Re: Dem Dems
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 11:59AM
While Dodd may not be showing signs of agitation, The Hill reports today that Pat Leahy was none too happy about Leader Reid announcing his opposition to Roberts before notifying the caucus of his decision.
Dem Dems
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 11:44AM
We'll probably do a bit more on this for tomorrow morning's Prowler, but there continues to be talk of Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid losing support in his caucus. The problem is, it's just not clear that he really is. While Reid wasn't a unanimous choice to lead his party in the Senate, there isn't a standout alternative to him. Some folks think the anti-Reid movement is coming from Sen. Chris Dodd, who seems to think a nice head of hair and a proven record of matching Ted Kennedy Glenlivet shot for Glenlivet shot qualifies him to lead the caucus. Dodd definitely made a play for Reid's slot after the 2004 election, but we're not so sure he's the one agitating for changes at the top this time around.
Rather's Typewriter Search
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 11:21AM
Still emotionally raw, Dan Rather called his National Guard story "accurate" during a media forum aired on C-SPAN last night. He said that "nobody" has proven the obviously doctored Killian letter to be a forgery. Asked if CBS showed courage, his favorite trait, during the debacle, he grew silent. He relied on the Dick Thornburgh white-wash CBS commissioned to dispute charges of bias. That report, by the way, blamed "haste" for the botched story. Haste? Over a year later, Rather still regards the story as true and would do it again if he could get away with it.Â
No Inside Dope
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 11:19AM
Erick over at RedState has consistently had great inside information on the SCOTUS nomination process (almost as good as us, heh!). Take a look.
Sorry Kids, You Can't Be on the Supreme Court
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 10:54AM
At least Richard Cohen is an honest liberal -- meaning he does not hide his condescension, arrogance, and willingness to play the class/race card whenever convenient. According to Cohen in today's Washington Post ("An Easy Life With Easy Answers"), John Roberts, though eminently qualified to be Chief Justice on the merits of his intellect and experience as both lawyer and jurist, is ultimately unqualified because he grew up in comfy, mid-western, middle class ease. Says Cohen: "There is almost nothing in Roberts' record or life story that he has any idea of what it is like to be the underdog."
We don't even have to extrapolate Cohen's absurd premise to come to its logical conclusion (rich white people are unqualified to serve on the High Court). He states it plainly: "Nothing about the man suggests he knows what it is like to have a cop test your reflexes with a billy club or to be faced, down and out, with a calamitous pregnancy."
Having grown up without the silver spoon, I have always admired the boot-strappers, the self-made, and the underdogs. But having achieved some small measure of financial comfort, I am fairly well adamant that my three children have the advantages that come with being thrice removed generationally from
But this afternoon when they return from school, I'll have to hand them their first bit of truly bad news: according to Richard Cohen, they are already unqualified for the Supreme Court. The two girls may be devastated, though I'm sure the boy will bounce back as he had his eyes set a little higher: shortstop for the New York Yankees.
Meanwhile, someone quickly phone the President. It seems that Mike Tyson is available and interested in the O'Connor slot.
Cleaning House
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 9:55AM
From the Chicago Tribune: "In the final resolution of cases that made headlines at the height of the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal, Cardinal Francis George has permanently removed 11 priests from public ministry because of sexual misconduct with children."
SCOTUS Update
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 9:49AM
Word out of the White House is that the President may make his Supreme Court nomination as early as Thursday evening if the Senate finishes up with the John Roberts vote.
That would give the new nominee at least 4 days of press coverage before the Senate returns in the middle of next week.
Woodshedded?
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 9:40AM
Is Mike Pence's hard run at fiscal conservatism over already? If this report, "Deep Pockets, Small Government and the Man in the Middle," in the WaPo is correct, Pence's "Operation Offset" is toast.
Worth a Gorelick
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 9:20AM
Very briefly during the 9/11 Commission hearings, focus was turned to the role of Commission member Jamie Gorelick, who in the Clinton Administration served as the co-chair of the Advisory Committee of the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, Deputy Attorney General, and General Counsel of the Department of Defense. The hearings brouhaha arose over Gorelick's role in strengthening and building higher the "wall" that separated evidence and information gathered during intelligence operations from being shared with criminal prosecutions.
But now, Gorelick's name is popping up in the "Able Danger" investigations that are sprouting up across the media and on Capitol Hill. Able Danger has become the short-hand for charges made by military intelligence personnel that 9/11 terrorist Mohammad Atta had been identified as a potential threat during the Clinton Administration, and nothing was done about it.
In the past few days, it has come to light that a number of documents related to Able Danger and the Mohammad Atta connection were destroyed. Although her stint at DoD does not track with the approval to destroy those Able Danger documents, Gorelick has again become a point of interest by reporters wanting to advance the story. According to Capitol Hill sources, there is talk that Gorelick's role on the 9/11 Commission had a very real effect of tamping down enthusiasm to pursue the Able Danger angles, just as her presence on the Commission served to tamp down enthusiasm to look into Clinton administration policy decisions that hindered the fight against terrorism.
A Bad Idea
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 8:54AM
Okay, so we're about to go through another round of Congressional "reforms" of the disaster relief biz. The (Homer) Simpsonian D'OHS is badly in need of reform, and that's just how it'll be done: badly. Now, the prez is talking about handing the whole mess over to DoD. Bad idea, as follows:
1. The states shouldn't be shoved out of the picture because the feds will always -- inevitably -- be the second response. The Posse Comitatus Act -- which prevents, in almost all circumstances, the use of federal troops to perform law enforcement tasks, was meant to preserve states' authority over their own citizenry. Let's not throw the federalist baby out with the Rita floodwaters. Repealing or mangling the PCA could give the Feds more power than the founders ever intended. We don't want military government of states and cities. We want responsible (i.e., un-Louisianan) local governments to function quickly and effectively to provide primary police and national guard assets;
2. The money isn't there. The Defense budget is about 3.2% of GNP, lower than it was in the Cold War. We're barely -- and I do mean barely -- managing the war as is, getting along on the "supplemental appropriations" passed every year. The DOHS gets many billions to protect and manage the homeland. If DoD is tasked to do that job, it those billions will have to be given to the Pentagon. There ain't no peace dividend in time of war.
3. DOHS -- which is still a cluster@#*^ -- has spent billions on elaborate plans to prevent and manage terror, and all they have to show for it is a lot of expensive studies. They control everything from some intel functions to immigration. Better to fix DOHS and make FEMA better than to lay this on DoD.
4. Soldiers are meant to kill people and break things. I don't want them cross-trained as homebuilders, plumbers, and baby sitters.
5. DoD can -- and should -- provide massive logistical support in any big disaster. Any more direct role is inconsistent with its mission and prone to abuse of federal power.
Nuff said, for now.
Revising Katrina's Mayhem
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 7:43AM
The Los Angeles Times today challenges the tales of murder, rape, and destruction at the Superdome that were widely reported in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina.
With *only* ten bodies found in the Superdome and four in the convention center, among whom was one gunshot victim, the authors cast aside reports of the post-Katrina mayhem as myths.
Yet with the key fourth paragraph, "His assessment is one of several in recent days to conclude that newspapers and television exaggerated criminal behavior in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, particularly at the overcrowded Superdome and Convention Center."
Is the Times overreaching here? The article only addresses crimes at the Superdome and Convention Center. The looting still stands.
For a small sample of the breakdown of law in New Orleans after Katrina, peruse a day or two of the New Orleans Times-Picayune's blog style reporting. Without much searching, you'll read about a dead body abandoned (at the Convention Center), residents arming themselves against trespassers, and looters spreading thin police resources.
Not all reports of lawlessness from New Orleans were hype.
A Last Harrumph
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 12:28AM
It's very sad. Howard Kurtz yesterday confirmed the demise of Ted Koppel's version of "Nightline." Poor Ted never quite reached the stature of the late Big Three of Jennings, Brokaw, and Rather, though in his mind no doubt he surpassed all three combined. I'll remember him in a number of ways -- and he'll certain be missed by comparison with the dumbed-down entertainment version of "Nightline" that will succeed him -- but in particular for the haughtiness of his most recent performances.
At the recent memorial for Peter Jennings he weirdly obsessed over Jennings's attractiveness to women. The night of President Bush's New Orleans primetime speech he tried unsuccessfully to orchestrate anti-Bush reactions. But the best moment was his clueless extension that night of condolences to Jefferson Parish president Aaron Broussard over the death of his mother in a flooded nursing home. The gaffe went uncommented, so just listen for yourself, while we still have Ted to kick around:
TED KOPPEL: "You suffered a grievous loss. Your mother died in one of the nursing homes, and I understand that nothing the president could possibly have said can compensate you for your loss. But are you able to listen to that speech tonight and say, finally I think the Federal government is where we need it to be?"
AARON BROUSSARD: "Sir, the mother that died was the mother of my manager of my EOC and it was a grievous loss. It certainly is that. He's very close to all of us. He managed 500,000 people to recovery but he couldn't save his mother."
TED KOPPEL: "Thank you for correcting me."
On Sunday, Tim Russert of "Meet the Press" again ended up with egg on his face in trying to deal with the viperous Broussard. (Broussard is the kind of Southern pol who makes Bill Clinton look like a Boy Scout.)
But in Koppel's case, the egg throwing was self-inflicted. For once in his life, Broussard was a complete innocent.
Hasn't Blown Over
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 12:19AM
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita failed to make much of a dent on Florida in the past six weeks, but Hurricane Katherine continues to wreak political havoc in the Sunshine State.
Katherine Harris, who is an announced candidate to challenge Sen. Bill Nelson, was not the first pick of the White House or the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She refused to listen to requests that she hold off in running for the Senate seat after serving only her second term in Congress. Harris also refused to listen to entreaties from one of her staunchest state allies, Gov. Jeb Bush, who was lining up potentially stronger candidates to challenge Nelson.
But Harris wouldn't hear of it. Now it appears her independent streak is coming back to bite her. Reports out of Florida and Washington paint a Harris for Senate campaign that is rife with trouble, and that there may be wholesale changes made to the campaign team before the campaign has even gotten off the ground.
Mixed Signals
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 12:15AM
The White House is sending mixed signals on its next Supreme Court nominee. According to staff of Republican Judiciary members who have been briefed by the White House, they were encouraged by the message. "We weren't hearing any names, but were told that we'd be happy with the pick, that it would be someone we could easily rally behind," says a Republican staffer of a Judiciary committee member.
But that isn't the only story coming off Capitol Hill. According to Senate leadership sources present at a meeting last Thursday between White House staff involved in the Supreme Court nomination process and senior Senate staff, the message was quite different. "We were told that regardless of the pick, it was important for us to get behind him or her," says someone who attended the meeting. "It wasn't stated, but the message we got was that there is a very good chance this is not going to be a pick that we particularly like."
According to White House sources, several more names will be floated in the press in the next couple of days, and there is an expectation that a nominee will be brought forward sooner rather than later.
Toy Store
Posted by on 9.27.05 @ 12:10AM
Here we go. We got a new toy for Christmas, a blog of our own. Everyone will want to play with it. Like good liberals, we promise to share.
Actually, the most generous person I know is Ben Stein. Time after time he sends us gems. The latest is posted for Tuesday -- part of Ben's ongoing campaign to help America recover from the rampaging media and political looters set in motion by Hurricane Katrina. As anyone who has gauged Reader Mail reactions to his previous two offerings has sensed, Ben's "Get Off His Back" and "More on Katrina," have swept the Internet. We're still receiving reactions to them. By my estimation, they've been the most widely read web columns in the U.S. this year, maybe even in Beverly Hills and Malibu.
