I must say I was greatly relieved to see Hugh Hewitt’s sane post telling conservatives not to go ape-shit over Arlen Specter. I hope Hewitt’s not the only Republican concerned with overkill. We have all learned that this president’s biggest mistakes have occurred when he was convinced he was invincible. Success in Afghanistan led him to construct a war-plan for Iraq that was far too optimistic. Success in the initial phases of the Iraq war led him to the “Mission Accomplished” embarrassment. A clear victory in this election – but no landslide – has now apparently led him to contemplate Clarence Thomas as Supreme Court Justice. And we’re also told by Karl Rove that “if we want to have a hopeful and decent society, we ought to aim for the ideal, and the ideal is that marriage ought to be, and should be, a union of a man and a woman.” By inference, the hopes of gay couples to belong to their own family and society are somehow non-existent; and the commitment of one gay person to another is somehow “indecent.” On “Meet The Press,” Rove also argued that even civil unions backed by “a few local elected officials” should be banned. Bill Bennett must be thrilled. I had hoped that this president might use his victory to unite. But he is dividing more aggressively than ever.
LIFE IN LA: I had another wonderful couple of days in Los Angeles. My official view is that I hate it here. But whenever I spend time, I find myself loving it. One of my dearest friends, Robert, lives here (he made and makes this website possible), and he always takes care to show me the atypical L.A. Last time, we spent a few hours in the new cathedral downtown – an astonishingly beautiful and contemporary expression of Latino Catholicism. This time, my trip was a real mix of things. Friday: Robert and I made our usual pilgrimage to Venice Beach. The hipsters, hobos, stoners, and steroid-boys always cheer me up. Friday night: major after-hours season-closing party for “Real Time.” Don’t remember much. Saturday: er, I slept a lot. Saturday night, I dropped by a party thrown by some “Simpsons” writers, and bumped into old Harvard pals. On to a quick gay fix at the Abbey where I got hit on by a beefy anti-Chomsky homo. Most flattering. Crashed. Sunday morning went to church, i.e. the Apple store in the Grove, and then took in a gorgeous John Adams piece and some over-the-top Shostakovich in Frank Gehry’s Philharmonic crumple. Quick afternoon look at MOCA, and a trip through the Ed Ruscha retrospective. Can you get more East Coasty? It was made even better by staying right next to the CBS studios in Fairfax, across the street from Farmer’s Market. You can walk everywhere for food, movies, coffee, books, or just people-watching. I usually feel at a loss in L.A. because I don’t know how to drive a car. But not this time. I even bumped into a Ptown acquaintance on the street. I guess it goes to show that stereotypes have a limited usefulness. Classical music, peerless architecture, old friends and walk, walk, walk. All in L.A. And it rained too. Heavenly.
“MORAL VALUES”: Here’s a fascinating piece of data. The percentage of people who said in 2004 that their vote was determined by the issue of “moral values” was 22 percent. In 1992, if you add the issues of abortion and family values together, that percentage was 27 percent. In 1996, it was 49 percent. In 2000, it was 49 percent. So the domestic moral focus halved in 2004. Obviously, the war took precedence, especially if you combine the categories of the Iraq war and the war on terrorism more generally. Again: the Republicans should be wary of over-playing their hand. If they believe the entire country is the religious right, the backlash could begin very soon.
The Dish 