Category: The Dish

Turd-blossom apparently talked Foley out of retiring earlier this year. More genuis from Rove.

"I know the speaker didn’t go over a bridge and leave a young person in the water, and then have a press conference the next day. Dennis Hastert didn’t kill anybody," – Republican congressman Chris Shays, on the Foley affair. The GOP establishment’s avoidance and excuses are now close to clinical.

The creepy predations of the closet-case Mark Foley may have some silver lining. They may force into the open a simple fact, reiterated by Tucker Carlson. Most Washington Republicans have no problems with openly gay people. Many of them have sons and daughters who are gay, including the epitome of conservative Republicanism, Dick Cheney. Dennis Hastert has gay staff. Rick Santorum had an openly gay staffer. They have no problems with gay people. And yet their party platform is vehemently opposed to treating gay people as equal citizens or as full members of their own families. This cognitive dissonance is only kept afloat by the closet, and the lies, eupemisms, and avoidance mechanisms that keep Republicans from facing this issue honestly. Maybe the revelation that Republican Capitol Hill is full of gay people may finally force them into a reckoning. The GOP has to respect gay people and grant us full equality, or they have to join the forces that regard us as anathema to stable society, a threat to the family and all potential child molesters. They cannot continue to have it both ways.

I know no better illustration of the contortions of the right than Jon Stewart’s recent interview with Bill Bennett (YouTubed below). I’ve always had civil relations with Bennett; and he has never shown any personal animus. But when I read his writing, it is filled with fear and loathing of gay people as an alleged threat to the very families we love and belong to. So which is it, Bill? The same goes with someone like Pat Buchanan, who has always treated me with great affection and respect. And yet, in print, he regards my commitment and love for my fiance as a danger to civilization. At some point, these people are going to have to decide. And now is as good a time as any.

This building is allegedly an insult to Muslims. I give up.

David Brooks and I debate what happened to conservatism under Republican rule. Both David and I agree that a coherent conservative governing philosophy has collapsed. But we deeply disagree about what to do about it. We have a big tussle over the legacy of Newt Gingrich and how to follow it. 

Become part of the debate by joining the book club for "The Conservative Soul." Details here. Amazon is now offering an extra low discount of 40 percent off the retail price. If you’re thinking of buying the book, you’d be nuts not to take their discount.

I can’t say I’m surprised he has dropped out. His inexperience in foreign affairs made his candidacy a non-starter, to my mind. So now we have the big guns: Gore, Clinton, Edwards, Kerry.

On the non-fiction list, "The Conservative Soul" has now reached the top ten books. I’m sure the 40 percent discount helped. Thanks so much.

Colonial Beach, Virginia, 2 pm.

"Some impose upon the world beliefs they do not hold; others, more in number, impose beliefs upon themselves, not being able to penetrate into what it really is to believe," – Michel de Montaigne, "Apology for Raymond Sebond", and the epigram for the fifth chapter of "The Conservative Soul."

The Dems have misunderestimated the macaca-bashing macher. His lead is still measurable and he won the last debate with Webb.