Category Archives: Political Commentary

Same Old Corn

…different flakes. I’m assuming that the exclusion of Fred Thompson (who just got an endorsement from Human Events this morning) was deliberate.

I wonder how much the endorsement will help? I’m sure that it won’t hurt, but (though I’m not a regular reader) I suspect that most people who read Human Events in South Carolina were probably going to vote for him anyway.

[Update late morning]

Here’s an interesting analysis of why Thompson focused on Huckabee last night, and didn’t go after McCain. Hint: it’s not because he’s trying to help McCain win the nomination.

Meanwhile, Matt Welch, incoming editor of Reason, is making up for lost time in dissecting Dr. No’s past.

[Update mid afternoon]

It just occurs to me that we’ll know whether or not Krumm’s Thompson/McCain theory is valid after the Michigan primary. If he starts to go after McCain in addition to Huckabee after the primary, and before South Carolina, then it will all make sense.

Random Debate Thought

Whatever else you think of Ron Paul, it is entertaining to hear the phrase “Austrian theory of the business cycle” in a Republican debate (though it almost sounded like he said “Australian”–“tie me von Mises down, boys…”?)

[Update at 9:26]

Fred takes off the gloves and finally goes after Huckabee for his NEA endorsement and opposition to vouchers. “That’s not the position of the Reagan coalition. That’s the position of the Democratic Party.”

Huckabee’s response (paraphrased) boils down to, “well, people reelected me.”

Pretty weak tea to make your credentials as a conservative. Lots of Democrats, even very “liberal” ones, get reelected. Fred’s job is to draw a distinction between himself and the Huckster as the only true conservative in South Carolina, and so far, I think he’s doing well. We’ll see if he hits him again.

[Update at 9:42]

Ron Paul is really coming off as the crazy uncle at the holiday dinner, ranting about things that aren’t even relevant to the question. Brit Hume: “Congressman, all your fellow candidates agreed with the passive response to the Iranian provocation. Who or what are you responding to?”

[Update afterward]

A memorable phrase from the consensus winner tonight, Fred Thompson, on immigration: “High fences and wide gates.”

If anyone is inspired by his performance to send him some money in the wake of his performance, he’s looking for it.

The Loony Left

You’ve got to love these latest attacks on Jonah’s book:

Ezra…credits David Neiwert whose review is exactly the sort of shallow, cliche-ridden, attack-the-messenger stuff that I would expect Ezra to find so persuasive. More on that in a moment. But I find it hilarious that the part Ezra thought sufficiently profound to highlight was, in part, the bit where Neiwert insists that the fascist threat remains on the right and in particular that there’s a threat of “totalitarianism” from “dogmatic individualists.”

Apparently, to these people, words don’t mean things at all.

[Early evening update]

Jonah corrects the record, via an email by Niewert (and per a comment by Duncan Young in comments). Those were Ezra’s words, not his. The point remains.

This Is What John McCain Has Wrought

A panel of judges of rules that it’s against campaign finance laws to advertise a film:

Attorney James Bopp argued that they should be considered “issue- oriented” speech because viewers aren’t urged to vote for or against the Democrat.

“What’s the issue?” asked Judge A. Raymond Randolph, a federal appeals judge sitting on a mixed panel to review the case.

“That Hillary Clinton is a European Socialist,’ aren’t you saying vote against her?”

Bopp disagreed because the movie did not use the word “vote.”

“Oh, that’s ridic…,” Lamberth said, trailing off and ending the line of questioning.

Hey, some people (too darned many, in my opinion) like European socialists. Maybe it was a pro-Hillary ad.
It gets better (or worse, depending on your point of view).

The movie is scheduled for two screenings in theaters, once each in California and Washington. It is also being sold on DVD. Neither of those methods are regulated under campaign laws. The advertisements, however, are scheduled to run during the peak presidential primary season and would be regulated.

Bopp, who successfully led a challenge to one aspect of the campaign finance system last year, compared the film to television news programs “Frontline,” “Nova,” and “60 Minutes.” That prompted Lamberth to laugh out loud from the bench.

“You can’t compare this to ’60 Minutes,'” the judge said. “Did you read this transcript?”

Apparently, the judge missed the “Sixty Minutes” episode in which Dan Rather used fake documents to do a hit job on George Bush six weeks before an election.

The Supreme Court should have thrown the law out in toto. But it looks to me, at a minimum, like they’re going to have to at least interpret this (un)Constitutional abomination.

Hillary’s Detumescence

Emmett Tyrrell has some thoughts:

The reason for the dramatic decline in Hillary’s front-runner status is that Democratic voters increasingly are alarmed about a large hairy monster that has been roaming through their consciences for years, probably since they first heard of Gennifer Flowers and of Bill Clinton’s diplomatic negotiations with his draft board. The monster is the Clintons’ record of lawlessness and scandal. Already in this campaign cycle, Democratic voters have reminders of the Clintons’ unsavory practices, felons among their contributors, even shadowy Asians bundling checks, as in 1996, and, of course, the politics of personal destruction practiced against their opponents.

My guess is that a sizable number of Democrats have had enough of it. Obama represents a clean break with a troubled and mediocre past. As Hillary leaves New Hampshire, she challenges Obama on the question of experience. The junior senator from Illinois should take up her challenge. Hillary can chide him for his lack of experience, and he can remind us all of Hillary’s unique experiences, beginning with the Clintons’ “holiday from history,” and Travelgate, Filegate, missing billing records, lying under oath, her cattle-futures bonanza, the Riady family, Johnny Chung, John Huang, Charlie Trie — and suddenly, you see it, too, the large hairy monster that is the Clinton legacy.

Also, long-time cartoonist nemesis of Bill and Hill, Sean Delonas, is in high form in the wake of New Hampshire. (Note to visitors from the future, not a permalink. Select January 10th, 2008 in the pulldown boxes).

[Update a couple minutes later]

Dr. Sanity has some additional thoughts on the Democrats denial and anger:

Just as Hillary had a neurotic and “forgetful” moment regarding the antics of her husband; what we are witnessing is a supremely neurotic moment on the part of the left, who willy-nilly have jumped the Clinton ship and climbed aboard the Obama “vessel of hope”. They are astounded that the antics of the Clintons (which for years they have rationalized and excused) are being used against them. Their idealization of the Clintons had worn thin and, just in the nick of time, along comes a younger, prettier face that can help them shore up those tired, old “progressive” ideas, and delude them into believing they actually are supporting something fresh and innovative.

I hate to tell them, but Obama is just another socialist hack. For sure, he’s fresh and young and articulate. But his ideas are no fresher than Hillary’s and quite a bit more rigid and uncompromising. Hillary and Bill never believed in anything but themselves. Obama comes across as selfless as Mother Theresa, promising to lead us to his utopian wonderland.

What we are witnessing is the neurosis and fickleness of the political left, who just a short time ago adored the Clintons and could bear nothing bad be said about their legacy in the White House.

I still see a lot of potential for a very ugly August in Denver.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Oh, man. I didn’t pop the corn soon enough. I didn’t expect this until March, at least. They’re eating their own:

Obama’s national campaign co-chairman, Jesse Jackson Jr., slammed Clinton’s now-famous misty-eyed moment by wondering aloud why she didn’t shed public tears for victims of Hurricane Katrina, for example.

“They have to be looked at very, very carefully in light of Katrina, in light of other things that Mrs. Clinton did not cry for,” Jackson told MSNBC.

And they think that Huckabee is going to split the Republicans? This could be the crackup that finally drives the blacks off the Democrats’ liberal plantation. The slave revolt may be finally beginning. The big tent may be falling down around their ears. And the destruction of that coalition that the Clintons started back in the nineties may be finally coming to completion. If so, let’s just hope that some new, and better parties arise from the ashes.

[Update a while later]

Dennis Wingo in comments links to Camille psychoanalyzing Hillary today. This may not be just a night, but a year of the long knives.

Hillary’s Detumescence

Emmett Tyrrell has some thoughts:

The reason for the dramatic decline in Hillary’s front-runner status is that Democratic voters increasingly are alarmed about a large hairy monster that has been roaming through their consciences for years, probably since they first heard of Gennifer Flowers and of Bill Clinton’s diplomatic negotiations with his draft board. The monster is the Clintons’ record of lawlessness and scandal. Already in this campaign cycle, Democratic voters have reminders of the Clintons’ unsavory practices, felons among their contributors, even shadowy Asians bundling checks, as in 1996, and, of course, the politics of personal destruction practiced against their opponents.

My guess is that a sizable number of Democrats have had enough of it. Obama represents a clean break with a troubled and mediocre past. As Hillary leaves New Hampshire, she challenges Obama on the question of experience. The junior senator from Illinois should take up her challenge. Hillary can chide him for his lack of experience, and he can remind us all of Hillary’s unique experiences, beginning with the Clintons’ “holiday from history,” and Travelgate, Filegate, missing billing records, lying under oath, her cattle-futures bonanza, the Riady family, Johnny Chung, John Huang, Charlie Trie — and suddenly, you see it, too, the large hairy monster that is the Clinton legacy.

Also, long-time cartoonist nemesis of Bill and Hill, Sean Delonas, is in high form in the wake of New Hampshire. (Note to visitors from the future, not a permalink. Select January 10th, 2008 in the pulldown boxes).

[Update a couple minutes later]

Dr. Sanity has some additional thoughts on the Democrats denial and anger:

Just as Hillary had a neurotic and “forgetful” moment regarding the antics of her husband; what we are witnessing is a supremely neurotic moment on the part of the left, who willy-nilly have jumped the Clinton ship and climbed aboard the Obama “vessel of hope”. They are astounded that the antics of the Clintons (which for years they have rationalized and excused) are being used against them. Their idealization of the Clintons had worn thin and, just in the nick of time, along comes a younger, prettier face that can help them shore up those tired, old “progressive” ideas, and delude them into believing they actually are supporting something fresh and innovative.

I hate to tell them, but Obama is just another socialist hack. For sure, he’s fresh and young and articulate. But his ideas are no fresher than Hillary’s and quite a bit more rigid and uncompromising. Hillary and Bill never believed in anything but themselves. Obama comes across as selfless as Mother Theresa, promising to lead us to his utopian wonderland.

What we are witnessing is the neurosis and fickleness of the political left, who just a short time ago adored the Clintons and could bear nothing bad be said about their legacy in the White House.

I still see a lot of potential for a very ugly August in Denver.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Oh, man. I didn’t pop the corn soon enough. I didn’t expect this until March, at least. They’re eating their own:

Obama’s national campaign co-chairman, Jesse Jackson Jr., slammed Clinton’s now-famous misty-eyed moment by wondering aloud why she didn’t shed public tears for victims of Hurricane Katrina, for example.

“They have to be looked at very, very carefully in light of Katrina, in light of other things that Mrs. Clinton did not cry for,” Jackson told MSNBC.

And they think that Huckabee is going to split the Republicans? This could be the crackup that finally drives the blacks off the Democrats’ liberal plantation. The slave revolt may be finally beginning. The big tent may be falling down around their ears. And the destruction of that coalition that the Clintons started back in the nineties may be finally coming to completion. If so, let’s just hope that some new, and better parties arise from the ashes.

[Update a while later]

Dennis Wingo in comments links to Camille psychoanalyzing Hillary today. This may not be just a night, but a year of the long knives.