Month: September 2011

While snowmobiling. That's the allegation in The Rogue. If true, Tony Newman shakes his head:

It is time for voters to punish elected officials – not for past drug use, but for supporting draconian laws that lock up so many of our brothers and sisters for doing what so many of our elected officials do themselves.

Jacob Sullum outlines Palin's alleged specific hypocrisy:

Last year on the Fox Business Network, Palin said she opposes marijuana legalization because it would "encourage especially our young people to think that it was OK to just go ahead and use it" but added that methamphetamine is a bigger threat. "If somebody's gonna smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody else any harm," she said, "then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at." Of course, that is more or less the policy she sought to overturn as governor.

Tom Junod thinks so:

[A]nother night, another show about Fox News. It's been like that, over at The Daily Show, ever since Obama was elected. Stewart just doesn't have the material he used to have when George W. Bush was in power, nor the nightly foil. (Audience members still ask him to "do Bush" during the introductory Q&A.) He's been accused of making halfhearted jokes about Obama in an attempt to keep the show ideologically balanced, but that's not the problem, not really; the problem is that Democrats, with their perpetual disarray, are not as funny as Republicans, with their reality-bending unity, and that Stewart is left to nurse what is probably the most potent comedy killer of all: disappointment.

I'm still an addict. But last night was an illustration of the problem. Stewart went after the Obama administration (rightly) on the Solyndra scandal. I have to say the deal reeks to high heaven of crony capitalism and possible political payback. That has yet to be proved – but it sure should be thoroughly investigated; and anyone involved in any shenangians should be fired forthwith. But Stewart's piece – about as good an exemplar of how comedy can make the news more comprehensible than television "journalism" – still fell a little flat. Because he obviously wants Obama to succeed, as does the bulk of his audience.

But then you have so many genius moments – last night's talking vagina segment was priceless – that you forgive the underlying problem.

Pat Robertson is taking a lot of heat for this clip:

Mark Gordon thinks Robertson has boxed himself in:

If, as Robertson apparently believes, marriage is nothing more than a contract that can be voided upon the incapacitation of a contracting partner, not an enduring, divinely sanctioned covenant, then he has no grounds whatsoever for claiming some special privilege for heterosexual unions.

PM Carpenter:

Why, then, do modern commentators persist in referring to modern conservatism as "conservatism"? While Krugman's statement is perversely unimpeachable — "modern conservatism is actually a deeply radical movement" — it also contains a colossally unconcealed contradiction, which is way overdue for journalistic retirement.

But that would require MSM journalists and editors exercising their own judgment against the propaganda of one political party. And that we know they will not do. They couldn't even call torture by its proper name, for Pete's sake.

With mouth agape, Raymond Pritchett watches Max Boot's House testimony, where Boot was unable to name one Pentagon program that could be cut:

The inability to make a strategic argument in the context of the budget constraints facing the nation made Max Boot look like a clown … when [House Armed Services Committee] Republicans are trying to find a political argument in support of defense at a time the primary issue facing defense is making good strategic choices towards shaping our defense posture with less money, picking someone like Max Boot who advocates against making any choices at all is a wasted opportunity to find a much needed political narrative for the right. The conservative side of defense politics is remarkably weak right now – for the first time in decades – primarily because the old guard voices Republicans promote the most have no new ideas, and do more harm than good when chanting ideology instead of addressing strategic choices.

You can read Boot's prepared testimony in full here.

The claim that Joe McGinniss is a sexual pervert is the main line of defense against the devastating facts assembled in "The Rogue":

I'd ask the fathers and husbands of America to consider our privacy when one summer day I found this guy on the deck of the rental property, just 18 feet away next door to us, staring like a creep at my wife while she mowed the lawn in her shorts, unbeknownst to her that he was prying. As well as our teenage daughters while they tried to enjoy our traditional Alaskan summer days outdoors.

How about disproving some of the facts McGinniss has uncovered? Or would that be impossible?

Daniel Levy wonders:

If there is to be a U.N. vote, then the EU member states are the sought after prize. Europe could score something of a win itself if the EU can present a sufficiently unified front and hold true to its values, interests, and policies by supporting Palestinian statehood and negotiating a text with the Palestinians that also delivers certain strategic Israeli needs — even if these are neither acknowledged as such nor appreciated by the Netanyahu government. Alternatively, Europe will split and sulk back to its off-off-Broadway role as payer, not player.

John Sides explains:

In The Party Decides, the political scientists Martin Cohen, David Karol, Hans Noel, and John Zaller argue that one thing is likely to make political parties nominate a centrist: losing. Specifically, the longer a party is out of power—that is, the more presidential elections it has lost in a row—the more likely it will nominate a moderate candidate. Parties that have been out of the White House for only a short time are more willing to nominate a candidate closer to the ideological pole.

A shorter version of my rule of thumb: it gets worse before it gets better.

David Corn:

McGinniss does a fine job dissecting Palin's associations with extreme Christian fundamentalism—territory other authors have previously excavated. Palin ran for mayor of Wasilla with one public issue: more bike paths. But McGinniss shows how her real agenda was to transform her town into an enclave of evangelism. When she campaigned for governor, McGinnis writes, "the hardest job her staff had was to keep her quiet about her religious beliefs." He reports that after being elected governor she fired a group of minority state employees who had worked on her campaign. An aide (named) says, "Sarah just isn't comfortable in the presence of dark-skinned people." But what about Glen Rice?

Surely, David knows that human beings are extremely capable of such apparent contradictions, especially on race and sex. Bottom line:

The Rogue is must-cringe reading.

But how amazing that after three years in public life, no other reporter has gotten anywhere near as close to the Wasilla McGinniss explores. It almost makes you think the Beltway didn't really want to know what it had foisted on the nation and the world.