by David Weigel
In retrospect, why did an Army of Bloggers (sort of copyright Glenn Reynolds) feel it necessary to call 98 U.S. senators to see which one put a hold on a Barack Obama-Tom Coburn bill to publicly track earmarks? Of course it was Ted Stevens. If earmarking was a 1970s adult film loop, Stevens would be John Holmes. (Robert Byrd could be Harry Reems.)
by David Weigel
An extra cookie, please, for whoever gave John Schwartz the green light to make Harry Anderson (of "Dave’s World" and "Night Court") the focal point of a Hurricane Katrina thumbsucker. Anderson and his wife had moved to the city in 2000, had purchased and relaunched a club, were absolutely enjoying themselves. They even held out during the hurricane and in the weeks following. It’s in the year since then that everything went pear-shaped.
The city tried to more than double their $17,000-a-year property taxes. A lawyer had the amount reduced, but “that just meant that the lawyer got the money instead of the city,” Mr. Anderson said. Then, in May, there was a repeat of an attack that had occurred more than a year before, when a stranger had approached Mr. Anderson, slammed his face into the side of a building and cursed him, saying, “You killed the Matador.” That was the name of the bar he had replaced with Oswald’s.
But it was the recent mayoral election, Mr. Anderson said, “that was the nail in the coffin.”
The re-election of C. Ray Nagin, whom Mr. Anderson holds largely responsible for New Orleans’s drift since the hurricane, came as a shock. The Sunday after the May 20 election, he said, he walked the streets of the Quarter, angry with a result that “pulled the rug out from any hope of” change for the better.
“This city hasn’t evolved,” Mr. Anderson said. “I just feel this place is stuck on stupid.”
It’s a Monty Python classic: the Greeks vs the Germans in an international soccer match between philosophers.
by Ana Marie Cox
Jonathan Chait at the New Republic offers an amusing precis on Chris Matthew’s grade school vision of foreign policy. Of the "neocons" Matthews has said
When are we going to notice that the neocons don’t know what they’re talking about? They’re not looking at this country’s long-term interests. They’re bound up in regional and global ideology, and they have had no experience–I’ll say it again–in even a schoolyard fight.
Chait theorizes:
A more suspicious mind might detect in this some ugly insinuations, but I prefer to take Matthews’s theory at face value. Maybe he truly believes that participating in schoolyard brawls is necessary training for the successful conduct of foreign policy. (Perhaps the young George F. Kennan formed the nascent outlines of his worldview in the elementary school latrine, while administering swirlies to the pencilnecks.)
Though, as we all know, it’s the pencilnecks who know how to practice real diplomacy.
Little Britain parodies the Pet Shop Boys in a Pet Shop Boys video. It’s a pretty good parody of a lot of pop videos, actually.
by Ana Marie Cox
This clip of CNN anchor Kyra Phillips apparently imparting some you-go-girl wisdom from the girls’ latrine will likely be dragged out as proof of either liberal bias or, you know, general untrustworthiness of the press. I find it kind of endearing and not nearly as embarrassing as much of the actual news produced on CNN.
Jokes to watch out for: CNN wants its anchors to emote, but Kyra really let it all out. Also: You can only listen to so much hurrican coverage before… And, lastly: We have a whole new meaning for the term "Situation Room," where shit happens.
by David Weigel
The rage at the John Mark Karr story leads citizens to attack even people who didn’t care about it very much. (Me here, Ana here, Andrew here.)
The complete corruption of the media must tickle you pink. For the last 2 wasted weeks of public airtime the disasters you and your republican colleagues have created have been ignored. Do you have any conscience whatsoever? The licenses of all broadcasters that have even one news program should be revoked immediately for the travesty of the last 2 weeks, and not given back until CLEARLY DELINEATED REGULATIONS have been set up in regard to all news coverage.
You mainstream media people will never escape what you have done to this country (no matter how many bullshit roadblocks you try to throw up) regarding Iraq and foreign policy in general.
One day I will come here and read that you have decided to go back into the private sector because you can’t handle the vitriol coming your way for the things you have done politically. It will be sooner than you think.
Again, not sure who that refers to. Maybe Rita Cosby.
by David Weigel
The Club for Growth’s successful round of Republican primary victories is backfiring in Colorado, as a retiring Republican mulls an independent write-in bid to squelch the CFG candidate who would replace him.
Rep. Joel Hefley is seriously considering running as a write-in candidate to retain his seat rather than risk handing it over to Republican nominee Doug Lamborn.
…
Shortly after announcing he would not seek an 11th term, Hefley endorsed [former aide Jeff] Crank. Crank and Lamborn engaged in a bloody political battle that included third-party mailings accusing Crank of being a tax hiker and an advocate for the “radical homosexual lobby,” charges Lamborn either leveled or refused to renounce.
Lamborn, a state senator, won the primary by 892 votes and is set to face Democrat Jay Fawcett in a district that leans heavily Republican. Thirteen Republicans have publicly announced their support for Fawcett, and others have complained behind the scenes about Lamborn’s primary campaign.
Living last year in Virginia I saw this happen on a smaller scale. Conservative Republicans primaried a number of moderate, squishy Republican state legislators in the DC suburbs and exurbs, in large part because of anger over Gov. Mark Warner’s tax hikes (which said legislators supported). The victorious conservatives got summarily creamed by Democrats. Colorado-05 should be a safe GOP seat, but Kos, for one, is bullish about Democratic chances in a three-way race. And think how happy Kos et al will be if the CFG primaries Lincoln Chafee.
Knightsbridge, London, 11 am.
by David Weigel
Dana Milbank (via Glenn) offers up the most brutal take on John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt that I’ve yet seen, and the hook is their choice of partners to promote their work: CAIR.
Yesterday, at the invitation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), they held a forum at the National Press Club to expand on their allegations about the Israel lobby. Blurring the line between academics and activism, they accepted a button proclaiming "Fight the Israel Lobby" and won cheers from the Muslim group for their denunciation of Israel and its friends in the United States.
The button read: "Walt & Mearsheimer Rock. Fight the Israel Lobby." And this is embarrassing:
As evidence that the American public does not agree with the Israel lobby, the political scientist cited a USA Today-Gallup poll showing that 38 percent of Americans disapproved of Israel’s military campaign. He neglected to mention that 50 percent approved, and that Americans blamed Hezbollah, Iran, Syria and Lebanon far more than Israel for the conflict.
Feel free to kick me off the Serious Person Roll Call, but I had initially thought there was merit in the discussion Mearsheimer and Walt were trying to kickstart. They faced a serious hurdle in that discussion of Israel, like immigration, is dominanted by fringe voices, and they were going to be lumped in with that fringe immediately whether or not they liked it. If, as Milbank finds, they do like it, that’s too bad.
The Dish 