The numbers that indicate that Congress has record low approval ratings historically, is sort of like a political Rorschach test. People (and particularly the media) tend to project their own feelings about it on the rest of the population, and assume that others are unhappy for the same reasons they are, but in fact, the upset comes from two entirely different directions.

Democrats are unhappy with the Congress because it has failed to do many of the things that they thought they were promised when they elected them in 2006 (e.g., surrender in Iraq, raise taxes, socialize medicine, impeach Bush, etc.) The rest of us are unhappy because they’re attempting to do so (well, OK, only the loons are actually trying to impeach Bush). Their incompetence and inability to do the wrong things has gotten everyone angry at them.

They’re really in a no-win situation. And it couldn’t happen to a more mendacious bunch.

But having said that, this is just cruel. But in a funny way.

I think that Harry Reid is living in an alternate universe:

“Who’s winning?” Reid asked a group of reporters. “Big Oil, Big Tobacco. … Al Qaeda has regrouped and is able to fight a civil war in Iraq. … The American people are losing.”

I’m pretty sure that he’s the most incompetent and idiotic Senate Majority Leader in my lifetime, and that’s saying something. And I thought that Tom Daschle was bad. If I were a Democrat, I’d be embarrassed.

Pejman has a long endorsement of Fred Thompson. I agree with most of it. If I were a Republican, he’d get my vote.

[Update in the evening]

Matt Lewis says don’t write off Fred Thompson..

[Late night update]

OK, call me crazy [raucous chorus of Transterrestrial readers: “You’re crazy!”], but I think that this could be a winning campaign ad for Fred.

Stephen Bainbridge (no fan of the Iraq war) makes the case against Ron Paul.

I don’t think that there’s a single federal agency that wouldn’t be improved greatly by simply razing it to the ground and starting over. The CIA should have been disbanded years ago, and replaced with something else.

It should still be. My biggest disappointment (among many) with the Bush administration is that, while it talked tough on the war, it was never willing to refocus the government on fighting and winning it, instead increasing and consolidating bureaucracies, and continuing the war on US citizens (e.g, drugs). That’s the problem with having a “compassionate conservative” and a big-government Republican in charge. It’s why I pine for a Fred Thompson, who at least talks like a federalist.

I don’t think that there’s a single federal agency that wouldn’t be improved greatly by simply razing it to the ground and starting over. The CIA should have been disbanded years ago, and replaced with something else.

It should still be. My biggest disappointment (among many) with the Bush administration is that, while it talked tough on the war, it was never willing to refocus the government on fighting and winning it, instead increasing and consolidating bureaucracies, and continuing the war on US citizens (e.g, drugs). That’s the problem with having a “compassionate conservative” and a big-government Republican in charge. It’s why I pine for a Fred Thompson, who at least talks like a federalist.

I don’t think that there’s a single federal agency that wouldn’t be improved greatly by simply razing it to the ground and starting over. The CIA should have been disbanded years ago, and replaced with something else.

It should still be. My biggest disappointment (among many) with the Bush administration is that, while it talked tough on the war, it was never willing to refocus the government on fighting and winning it, instead increasing and consolidating bureaucracies, and continuing the war on US citizens (e.g, drugs). That’s the problem with having a “compassionate conservative” and a big-government Republican in charge. It’s why I pine for a Fred Thompson, who at least talks like a federalist.

Are political campaigns unfair to women? Probably. There are many, many reasons why electing Hillary Clinton president would be a bad idea, but the fact that she looks her age isn’t one of them.

[Update a few minutes later]

I guess other people have to be wondering, though, if this haggard look is the result of a campaign (and one that is still in a primary, having not even gotten to the general), what would she look like after four years of the presidency? Will she even survive a general campaign? I recall being shocked in 1980 at how much Jimmy Carter appeared to have aged in his term.

Is Hillary! building up to one? She’s always struck me as pretty tightly wound.

This upcoming “bi-partisan” (if you really believe that Ahhhnuld is a Republican) disaster of a health-care plan.

Apparently Sacramento has never learned the story of the goose that laid the golden eggs.