“We ask for miracles in regard to the Supreme Court…One justice is 83-years-old, another has cancer and another has a heart condition. Would it not be possible for God to put it in the minds of these three judges that the time has come to retire?” Pat Robertson calls on God to put a hit out on three Supreme Court justices following Lawrence v. Texas. Well, while we’re praying for people’s “removal”…
Category: GOP
Out the Door.
Speaking of liars, it’s been real, been fun, hasn’t been real fun. Ari Fleischer prevaricates his way through one last White House press briefing. He will not be missed.
Bring the Pain.
Perhaps taking a page from the Governor of Vermont (whom he declined to attack), Kerry turns up the heat on Dubya and Weaponsgate, as do the Congressional Dems. Good…the pressure from now herein should be furious and unrelenting. And under no circumstances should the Bushies be allowed to get away with lying to America by pinning it on John Bull.
Fratboy Kissinger, Dean Acheson?
What happened to free trade under Dubya? According to this article, it appears Bush prefers the frat trade approach — help your buddies, stiff everyone else. Also in TNR, political scientist Daniel Drezner examines Dean’s foreign policy, and finds more rigorous thinking than critics have given him credit for.
Rage against the Machine.
Campaign finance reformers, among them McCain, Feingold, Shays, and Meehan, set their sights on the FEC. If nothing else, a commission with an even-number of members seems designed to benefit the status quo.
Resurgent Left Flank.
The Washington Post surveys the revival of the Left. No new ground is broken in this article, and as I’ve said numerous times before, progressives and liberals are not the same creature (Pt. II), but it’s nice to see lefties back in the Democratic equation for the time being…let’s hope it lasts beyond the primaries. The protective camouflage Republican-lite strategy of the DLC may seem like a good battle plan at first, until one realizes that, by embracing the tenets of the right — even as diluted Third Way “centrism” — the Democratic party will be forever fighting on the GOP’s turf.
Moreover, what the DLC consistently fails to understand is that swing voters care more about vision and integrity than they do about the left-right axis…hence McCain’s “Straight Talk” popularity last Presidential cycle. Many voters perceived in 2000 that Gore didn’t stand for much of anything (particularly after his schizophrenic debate performances), and soured on him – Thus, what should have been a Democratic cakewalk instead became close enough to create the conditions for the Bush-Harris-Scalia junta’s coup.
Many people aren’t flocking to Howard Dean right now because he’s a hardcore lefty, because by his own admission, he’s not. They’re flocking to him because, unlike most other Dems right now, he has a clear, consistent vision, and without vision, the people – and the Democratic Party – perish. Whether it be progressive, liberal, libertarian, communitarian, what have you — the vision animating the Democratic party should come from the left, not from the poisoned well of the bigoted, money-gluttonous right.
In sum, the left should not be browbeaten into right-lite submission by pandering DLC political careerists constantly invoking the spectre of George McGovern and 1972 – it’s time to be the party of Franklin Roosevelt and Robert Kennedy again.
Update: Not two hours after I wrote this post, John Judis compares Dean to McGovern in Salon. I agree that Dean’s got some serious problems in the South, but, c’mon, y’all. It’s getting so that George McGovern has become the new Godwin’s Law among Democratic circles.
Smoking Gun?
As the Bushies finally admit the Iraq-Niger link was bogus, the Dems call for an investigation into what the White House knew and when. I think it might just be independent counsel time.
Paging Judge Danforth.
“Two senators – one a conservative Republican, the other a moderate Democrat – who spoke with Ashcroft…were surprised at his lack of command of the basic issues. Whether it was lack of interest or lack of intellectual firepower, the Attorney General seemed not to appreciate the complexities of the constitutional issues he was dealing with.” Nat Hentoff cites Stephen Brill’s After to depict amateur hour in the Ashcroft Justice Department.
Once and Future King.
Amid all the prophesying about a coming era of Republican dominance, Chris Suellentrop of Slate remembers that we’ve heard this all before.
Paper Cowboy.
A number of other weblogs have already pointed out the sheer idiocy of Dubya’s “Bring Them On” remark to Iraqi belligerents, so I’ll just give an Amen. I highly doubt the men and women on the ground in Baghdad every day share the President’s cavalier attitude about their lives…Amateurish to say the least.