Gray Davis says he won’t run for President in 2004.

In related news, it was also announced that Bozo the Clown, Osama bin Laden, Phil Donahue, Dennis Rodman, and the late Paul Wellstone, all of whom are viewed by savvy political insiders as having better prospects than Mr. Davis, won’t be running either.

My gums aren’t too sore, but I’m feeling generally lousy. I may be coming down with something.

Anyway, whatever minimal energy I have for typing and thinking has to be devoted to billable activities, what with Christmas coming up, and Tiny Tim and all…

Once again, over at Glenn’s site, someone confuses a court of law with the court of public opinion.

“Innocent until proven guilty” is an important principle in its place, which is in a venue in which someone is about to be deprived of life or liberty by the state. It is an absurd principle to apply to public opinion and opprobrium. OJ Simpson remains innocent in the eyes of the law (ignoring the civil suit). He remains obviously guilty to most thinking members of the public.

No one is “lynching” Mr. Lott. We are criticizing him, and some of us are asking him to step down as Majority Leader (not just for this gaffe, but because it was a final straw in a long and idiotic career built on many such). As Instapundit says, that’s not depriving him of his freedom of speech–it’s exercising ours.

I haven’t been blogging a lot lately for a lot of reasons (a combination of extreme busyness with billable activities, and slight burnout on things to say), but here’s today’s.

I’m still recovering feeling in my chin and nose from a major dose of lidocaine, and various items being inserted into and removed from my jaw. My gums are tender, full of sutures, and I suspect that I’ll be more swollen and painful tomorrow. I have reasonably good medication to deal with it (fortunately, my oral surgeon wasn’t put off by threats from drug warriors at the DEA into undermedicating me for pain).

End result, hopefully, in a few months–infection-free gums and teeth, and good replacements.

I saw the movie “Kate and Leopold” the other night. It’s entertaining, but I can’t imagine making a conscious and deliberate choice to go and live in a world of over a century ago, in which modern dentistry was unavailable…

OK, Lott has “apologized,” but he still hasn’t explained.

And note, as I pointed out in my previous post, that the Dems (at least the semi-intelligent ones, which doesn’t include Jesse Jackson) are not calling for his ouster.

One Democrat, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, defended Lott on Monday, saying he had spoken with Lott and had accepted Lott’s explanation that he hadn’t meant for the remarks to be interpreted as they were.

“There are a lot of times when he and I go to the microphone and would like to say things we meant to say differently, and I’m sure this was one of those cases for him, as well,” Daschle said.

They live in fear of the day that the Senate Republicans elect a leader who isn’t a pushover, and an idiot.

[Update at 9 PM PST]

OK, I’ve been reading what the folks at Free Republic have been saying on this issue. Frankly, much of it is foolish.

There seems to be a visceral reaction among many Republicans and conservatives (many of whom populate that particular forum) of “my Senator, right or wrong.” Or “we can’t give the Dems the satisfaction of taking down a political leader.”

This is exactly the kind of emotional, brain-dead thinking (during impeachment) that destroyed the Democrats in 2000 and 2002. “He might be a corrupt bastard, but he’s our bastard, and we’re not going to let those uptight bible thumpers remove our President, no matter what he did.”

Had the Democrats stood up for principle in 1999, as the Republicans did in 1974, and asked their President to step down, it’s very likely that Albert Gore (shudder, and perish the thought) would be President today, having run as an incumbent in a campaign representing a morally-purged Democratic Party.

Instead, they stuck by their guy, in the face of overwhelming evidence of his corruption and guilt, because the stock market was up, and his polls were (temporarily) good. They did so not for tactical, or strategic reasons, but only because they followed the ancient principle of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” They defended him reflexively, idiotically, in a knee-jerk fashion, simply because he was being attacked by “right wingers,” and “bible thumpers,” and “Republicans.” Not because his behavior was defensible.

Now, because of their insouciance toward his venality, they’re out in the political wilderness.

The Republicans face the same danger, if they don’t take care of business. To defend Lott simply because he is being attacked by Democrats is foolish, and counterproductive.

Lott has been a liability for years. This is a golden opportunity for Republicans to both get rid of someone who has been undermining them by playing a hapless stooge to his Democrat counterparts in the Senate, but also to demonstrate that they aren’t the racist monsters (and apologists for same) that they’ve been painted by Democratic attack dogs and their allies in the press.

Where is the supposedly politically-astute Karl Rove?

Jim Bennett writes (regarding Turkey) that friends don’t let friends join the EU.

Given the upcoming turmoil and upheaval (badly needed) in the Middle East, it’s not too early to start thinking about desirable post-war scenarios. A useful one to think about, in terms of liberalizing both the governments and economies of the region, might be MEFTA–the Middle East Free Trade Association. We could help form it now, and invite others in as they become eligible, by dint of democratizing and rationalizing their economic policies. It might eventually be integrated into NAFTA, but just having such a stand-alone organization would be a vast improvement for the region. The charter members could be Israel, Turkey and perhaps Jordan.

Something like this would be a much better bet for the Turks, rather than harnessing themselves to European policies with the effect, if not the intent, of holding economies back. It would allow them to forge their own destiny, and help stabilize the dangerous region around them, rather than allying with a Europe that doesn’t really want them, while their borders remain bloody.

Once formed, a post-mullah Iran would also be a good candidate, and offering this as a carrot could hasten the day that such an entity appears. Afghanistan could be brought in as well, as a means of continuing to stabilize the latter, as well as Armenia and some of the other appropriate ex-Soviet ‘stans.

And obviously, we would want to restructure a post-Saddam Iraq, or whatever new nations emerge from the end of the Ba’athists, to perhaps be a key anchor for such an organization.

It would have another benefit. Ultimately, the only solution to the Palestinian problem is to create neighboring states in which they can go and prosper–states that will no longer encourage them in their hopes of destroying Israel, and instead welcome them in building new, freer societies. Creating democratic Arab states with growing economies can provide a demand “pull” to complement the inevitable Israeli push, as the Israelis come to realize that they simply cannot share a land with many of these people.

I wonder if anyone at Foggy Bottom is thinking along these lines?

Given the news in other places, no one’s been paying much attention to Venezuela lately. Just in case anyone was still wondering if Chavez is really a dictator, and a Castro wannabe, he’s about to declare martial law, after murdering a few demonstrators.

It’s going to get worse, and maybe a lot worse, there before it gets better.

Everyone (well, at least many in the blogosphere) is demanding that Trent Lott step down after his stupid remarks about how much better off we’d be if Strom and the Dixiecrats had won in 1948.

I agree that he should step down, but not for the reason that many are putting forth–that he’s apparently an unreconstructed racist and segregationist. I don’t think that he is. I suspect that what he meant was that because Thurmond later changed his stripes, the turmoil of the sixties might have been avoided, though of course this makes no sense at all, since no one knows what Thurmond would have done later had he actually won in 1948 and had his segregationist world-view confirmed and rewarded.

There’s nothing new here. I believe that he should resign for the same reason that I’ve thought that he should resign ever since he took the post six years ago–he’s a politically tone-deaf idiot, a gutless wonder who presided over and enabled the sham trial in impeachment, and let the Democrats roll him time and time again. If he stays in power, he’s quite likely to continue to do and say stupid things that will lose him the Senate, or at least more likely than most of his probable replacements.

The reason for him to resign is that that’s exactly what Tom Daschle & Co. don’t want him to do (whatever feigned outrage they may express over the latest incident). He’s been far too useful an idiot for them.

Sixty one years ago today, the Japanese imperial Navy (fundamentalist Shinto extremists) attacked Pearl Harbor.

Thirty years ago today, Apollo XVII, the last Apollo mission, was launched to the Moon.

You think that we’re not at war with a culture? The Islamic equivalent of Toys’R’Us has Osama action figures flying off the shelves.

And now that it’s the Christmas buying season again, you may want to consider this, a hot seller last year.