Stop being such a moogle
- Some folks over at DailyKos are hashing out an illuminative discussion on what it is Democrats should stand for. You can sum up the Republican philosophy, the saying goes, in eight words: strong defense, family values, low taxes, small government. What do Democrats stand for? I would argue you can't really say, since the premise of a conservative vs. liberal political system is that one party wants things to stay the same (so they have a static value set) and one party wants things to change, to various extents depending on the person.
In any event, while I enjoy "Not leaving people to die" as a good slogan, the Kossacks seem to be around "Strong Families. Strong Communities. Strong Nation." which I find not as vague as some stuff that's come before, but still pretty nondescript.. It's a work in progress.
- Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado does not have a chance of winning the presidency in 2008, but that won't stop him from running if the other Republican candidates aren't saying enough about illegal immigration. Tancredo is apparently getting terrific reactions to his anti-immigrant stump speech, and he recently challenged another likely 2008 candidate, Bill Richardson, to a debate on immigration. Apparently Richardson's on the other side of the illegal immigrant debate. Whether this turns into a debate or not (i.e. it won't) this issue won't be going away.
- It sounds cool to say it now, but I really don't think recent flavor-of-the-month George Allen is going to make a very good presidential candidate. Whereas Bush talked about compassionate conservativism in a way that revitalized the Republican Party, Allen looks like he's got nothing new to say, and his "common-sense conservativism" doesn't work when you think about it. In other words, isn't "it's common sense" the last stand of a defeated argument? If it's so blatantly obvious, why can't you prove your case another way? Frankly, most of what he says just seems like warmed-over early-'00s conservative mush. You know, the stuff that's been demonstrated not to work?
- If you didn't know it already, his new book should be proof that Al Franken is readying himself for a serious run for the Senate in 2008. Quick refresher: Franken, from Minnesota himself, was a huge fan of Paul Wellstone and devoted the most effective (and most poignant) chapter of his last book towards disproving the notion that Democrats politicized Wellstone's death (and showed just the opposite). So Franken had been rumored to be gunning for that Senate seat (now held by Norm Coleman) for a while, and it looks now like he's going for it. Note first the cover: very serious. That looks like a politician. Then note the title, an attempt to transition seamlessly from bombthrowing pundit to credible visionary. As opposed to Lies (and the lying liars who tell them), we now have The Truth (with jokes). He's still funny. And now he's advocating a positive message. I say that's really smooth.
- Katie Holmes is pregnant. I point you again to the Wikipedia entry on Xenu.
- My favorite political writer is Matt Bai of the New York Times Magazine. He writes really long articles that are unbelievably fascinating, and I eagerly await his book on the state of the Democrats. In last weekend's NYT Magazine he has an article on the present of future in an article he calls "Mrs. Triangulation." (He never explains, though, what triangulation is. Thank goodness for this blog.)
- I don't hate Texans. I really don't, either individually or en masse. Well, maybe one or two Texans. But a lot of Texans seem to have a hard time figuring out why everyone doesn't love them, and I think I found a story that might help explain why.
This is a column from Fox News correspondent Brian Wilson, unfortunately not the former Beach Boys impresario, who wrote, apparently, on the sole topic of how great Texans are, as evidenced by their awesome reaction to Hurricane Rita. Now, see, I would say that the impression I got from most Texans about the hurricane was that we should all be impressed it happened to them, but that's not what Brian Wilson says:
Never ask someone if they are from Texas. Because if a person is from Texas, they will tell you in short order. If they are not from Texas, asking will only make them sad that they had the poor fortune to be born someplace else.
...
Even though I haven't lived in my home state for more than 20 years, this is why I still want to be known as a Texan. The people are just the kindest, friendliest, most decent people you are likely to find anywhere. Sure, as a group, we're a little loud. We love our pickups and our SUVs and, Lord knows, we love to talk trash about how great we are. "You can always tell a Texan," the old saying goes, "but you can't tell 'em much."But in times of trouble or despair — it's the Texans you want standing at your back.
I will assume that last quote is true. But someone do me a favor and clarify something for me. How is the rest of that quote above (especially "we love to talk trash about how great we are") any different, or any better, from that northeastern elitism that supposedly precludes the viability of any of our presidential candidates? Seriously. I want to know what we're doing wrong here. Is calling people elitist snobs nicer than calling Texans cowboys or dumb or right-wing Christians? I really would like to know this. (That said, I can't believe how much Texas-trashing goes on in my Big Apple law school, even in front of proud Texans. I assume none of the reverse happens at schools like Baylor.) - Do you remember currently incarcerated former Congressman Jim Traficant? I don't really either. But this collection of his quotes will make you wish you did. My favorite is this one:
Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, the endangered sucker fish is living up to its reputation, sucking the livelihood from 1,400 farmers in Oregon. That is right. This protected bottom feeder now has more rights than farmers out there. If that is not enough to fry your mackerel, this region has now been without irrigated water since April, turning 200,000 acres of farmland into near desert.
Beam me up. Stop this sucker fish crusade. Free these farmers.
I yield back the fact that this sucker fish sucks.
- I really couldn't tell you whether Paul Hodes is going to beat Charlie Bass in New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district on his second try in 2006, though I suspect the national climate and Hodes' increased experience will help. So I'm not inclined to say it's necessarily bad that he's getting a challenger, but I just don't like the idea of the scion of a prominent New Hampshire Democratic family moving back to the state just to run for Congress. I even understand the idea of people moving somewhere, or moving back home, to run for office, and I certainly understand how people who grew up in politics would be into it. The combination, especially for a seat somebody else in the party is already running for (and has been for two years) is not so cool. I can't say I'm really cool with this. But good scoop by all-star James Pindell, the first reporter I ever went to dinner with.
- The Alabama governor's race next year is shaping up to be about as interesting as it gets. Incumbent Bob Riley, a wicked conservative Republican, got a bit of fame in 2003 for trying to pass an ultimately failed voter referendum on a big tax increase. At the time, he said caring for the poor is the Christian thing to do (which is true) but it failed, and now he's in trouble. There are two interesting Democratic challengers: the lieutenant governor is a woman, and frankly I'm always intrigued when a Democratic woman has a real shot at winning a major statewide office in the deep south. The second Democrat is former Gov. Don Siegelman, who some say was robbed of an election victory in 2002, and Riley's not even a legitimate governor at all.
Now, for a political dork like me, that would suffice for a good race: see who wins a neat past-vs.-future Democratic primary, then see who can beat a semi-innovative but embattled Republican incumbent. Why should you care? Well, Riley's getting a Republican primary challenger. And, that's right, it's Roy Moore. If you thought that issue about the Ten Commandments in the courtroom was dead, you're completely wrong. This one's going to get wild.
- Apparently it's really buggy still, but AOL is coming out with a massive update of AIM (currently in beta) that lets you do IM, email (two gigs of storage), voice chat, video chat, and text messaging. Plus tabbed IMing! That last one is really going to help. Keep an eye out for this one.
- I know I harped on this yesterday, but the GOP blowback on Harriet Miers is astonishing. As recently as last week I never would have expected this kind of open revolt within the party. I mean, even Trent Lott says he's leaning against supporting her. When the Manchester Union Leader starts an editorial about a Bush decision with "America is not supposed to work this way," you are in deep shit. The UL then says that Miers "is no more or less qualified to sit on the Supreme Court than thousands of other attorneys with similar career highlights. What separates her from the others is a single attribute: friendship with the President."
But the really good stuff is from George Will, who is a huge conservative and yet just gets really brutal. Here's one choice quote about Bush:
He has neither the inclination nor the ability to make sophisticated judgments about competing approaches to construing the Constitution.
Here's another:
In addition, the president has forfeited his right to be trusted as a custodian of the Constitution.
Wow! The whole thing reads like it's from an alternate universe. I mean, I knew Republicans were good at pretending they all got along until after election years, but this is just amazing. - Speaking of New Hampshire's conservative paper of record, the Union Leader is not subtle about its support for Steve Forbes' flat tax. In fact, they say in an editorial the other day that "It should go without saying that a flat tax makes sense."
For those familiar with the flat tax argument, there is not much new in Forbes' new book. The big twist is that this time he would have the federal government offer Americans a choice: Pay taxes under the current system, or pay under the flat tax — whichever benefits you most.
Doesn't that just make it a flat tax for everyone above the flat tax percentage (Forbes says 17%) and keep it the same for everyone else? Why would anyone in the rich tax bracket pay more than the flat-tax rate? I don't get economics. - In the past 20 years, Rhode Island, despite being one of the most Democratic states in the country, has had a Republican governor for all but four of them. The one exception was Bruce Sundlun, a former businessman who was governor from 1990 through 1994, back when that was two terms. Certain pregnant sisters of mine have taken Sundlun's subsequent class on politics at URI, but you know what he's up to now? He's trying to become the next town manager of Coventry. The former governor! Now a town manager! And no, he's not from Coventry, and he's never lived or worked there. Seriously, why isn't he trying to run for U.S. Senate or something?
While I have the opportunity, I have to mention the last time I mentioned town managers, because it was at a bar the other night. I was getting approached by a beautiful woman, per usual, but this one was different. That's right, she wrote her thesis on South Kingstown and Narragansett, Rhode Island (and something about the water systems thereof.) I asked her if she met with the town manager; she hadn't. (Look, I was curious.) Am I the only one who thinks it's crazy that I met a chick at a bar who wrote her thesis on my hometown?
- 70s songwriter Andrew Gold (you owe it to yourself to check out "Lonely Boy") comes through in the clutch.
- The nice thing about Bush's collapsing presidency is that reporters are finally getting a spine. Look at this great WaPo article on Karen Hughes' assertion that Bush is the first president to advocate for a Palestinian state, and the copious and lengthy ways in which that is demonstrably false, and how the Bush administration has said it's not true.
Thanks for stopping by, San Diego.
Comments
Kupo!
Posted by: Mog | October 6, 2005 8:48 AM
Did this girl that came up to you know you were from SK? Or was it a totally random incident that can only happen in NYC? And what in god's name did she write about?
Sundlun was an old bat when I took his class. Really, I don't think the brain synapsis or whatever are working quite the same. Is it hard to be a town manager?
Posted by: Laura | October 6, 2005 10:16 AM
No, the thing about SK came up in completely random conversation. she went to Brown and majored in environmental science, and wrote something about water conservation or the structure of water or something like that in SK and Narragansett. she said she wouldn't let me read it.
and sundlun was apparently quoted as saying being a town manager would be tougher than being a governor. no comment here, I wouldn't know.
Posted by: Terry | October 6, 2005 10:37 AM
I'm glad the Clemons/Hodes thing doesn't sit well with someone else.
And isn't Pindell a doll?
Posted by: Rachel | October 8, 2005 5:23 PM
this is a superior post in so many ways, I'm not certain where to begin. First, Matt Bai rules. We loooove him at work. Second, AL GOV race: hott! How I'd love to work on that one, if for no other reason than to watch the fur fly with the (R)s. Third, I hope Tom Tancredo destroys his party with the immigration talk. There are so many patently offensive (R)s in Congress at the moment that I cannot pick the most obnoxious, although Tancredo, Santorum, and Coburn are my current frontrunners.
Posted by: Katy | October 10, 2005 11:04 PM