I think that the combination of the ethics thing and the trip to Saudi Arabia may be the last straw, even for this politically tone-deaf White House. They’ve noticed the problem over at The Corner, linking to Monday’s story at the Orlando Sentinel.
I’ve never been impressed with him, at least as administrator. He’s completely incapable of selling the new policy, or even being able to articulate it in any consistent way, and I think that he’s becoming a huge political liability for the agency. If he goes, though, it’s unlikely that he’ll be replaced before the Republicans come in next year, which will make it both interesting and difficult to find a confirmable replacement (meaning that Lori could be acting for an indefinite period).
In which I completely agree with Ramesh (not to imply that I generally disagree with him, though I occasionally do, being more libertarian than conservative):
If O’Donnell loses the Senate race, she should become Slate‘s chief legal writer. It would be a step up for the publication.
A big one.
And it’s just another example of the contempt in which people like Dahlia (and frequent commenter Thomas Matula) hold the Constitution and its requirements for elected officials and their oath.
[Update Thursday morning]
I can’t link it, because, well, it’s an email, but here are Jonah Goldberg’s thoughts:
This is awesome. It’s not just that Lithwick dismisses a perfectly sensible and mainstream argument. It’s not just that she is ignorant of the contents of the actual Constitution (it does not provide for the Supreme Court serving as the either sole or final arbiter of what is constitutional). It’s not that she seems to have forgotten Marbury v. Madison. It’s not that she cannot grasp the idea that some legislator might not want to vote for unconstitutional legislation. No, what really makes this great is the absolute bunkered pomposity behind her instinctual certainty that anyone who disagrees with her bouillabaisse of ignorance and ideology must be “weird.”
I’d like to see a Constitutional amendment (or even a law) that after your third vote for legislation that is ruled unconstitutional, you’re automatically thrown out of office. And the same thing for presidents that sign such legislation. That might instill a little more respect, or at least remove people lacking it.
Obama distrusts and/or despises the U.S. military, so he takes a job as Commander-in-Chief when two wars are ongoing.
Obama has little positive to say about America, so he takes a job where he is the Head of State of a nation he largely abhors.
Obama despises capitalism so he leads a nation that has a reputation as a paragon of capitalism and which built its prosperity on this economic system.
Obama, who perceives himself as black, is an academic racialist and sometime racist who wants to lead a nation that is two-thirds white.
Obama, who believes Western Civilization is ultimately the cause of all that is ill in the world, takes a job as chief executive of the nation that is preeminent in the Western world.
Obama, who is neither Christian nor Muslim and who attended an anti-Semitic church for 20 years, wants to lead a nation whose citizens are mostly Christian and whose history is steeped deeply with Judeo-Christian sensibilities.
Obama is thin-skinned and overly sensitive to criticism, so he takes a job where he is criticized every minute of every single day, all across the world, for some reason or another. Much of the criticism is ill-informed, but some of it is well-informed and cuts right to the bone.
Joel Garreau, on environmentalism as religion. It has all the earmarks, and it’s the only one that’s allowed to be taught in the public schools. In fact, with so many adherents in government (and particularly among Democrats) you could even say that it’s a state-sponsored violation of the First Amendment.