Category: The Dish

Worcester County Cricket Club player Moheen Ali poses for his photo for the 2007 Season at New Road on April 16, 2007 in Worcester, England.

Scott Schools, mentioned in the Dish here and here, turns out to be almost a definition of a Bush-Rove Republican:

Schools is a GOP party guy (he’s given $11,000 since 2000), and was recently appointed on an interim basis to the San Francisco-area U.S. Attorneys Office. He came from South Carolina via Washington, D.C., instead of the usual route, where the president appoints attorneys who serve around the area of their appointment, after consulting with the state’s U.S. senators. Schools’ predecessor, Keven Ryan, was one of the eight U.S. Attorneys forced out in the recent scandal (though apparently more for poor managerial skills than for political reasons).

What seems pretty clear is that Schools knows what his priorities are. His prior gigs included working in the office of South Carolina U.S. Attorney Strom Thurmond, Jr., where he handled public relations in the first federal case ever brought against a political protester for not adhering to "free speech zones" during a presidential visit. Thurmond, Jr.’s (who was appointed at the age of 28 as a White House favor to his father) office also made news a few years ago for prosecuting girls who sold their panties over the Internet.

This is your Justice Department. And these are their priorities. Sleep safe, America.

A reader writes:

If you’re looking for anecdotal evidence of Republican collapse among the young here’s some for you. I’m white, from Putnam county (just above Westchester county in New York), an entrepreneur (new business almost a year old happily profitable), from a middle class family, college educated, married with a baby on the way, and 26 years old. Wouldn’t you say that’s essentially the profile of an Eisenhower Republican. My family has always voted Republican, but me and every single one of my friends have never voted for a person with an R next to their name. 

It’s not because we believe the Democratic platform, those idiots could use a little education about incentives. We just believe in representative government as set up by Madison, and hope that the opposition party might offer that. Young voters who want small government, low taxation, and good infrastructure programs (think 50’s interstate highway system) vote Democratic because if all the Republicans are offering is God, torture, and a unitary executive, you might as well hope for democracy from the other party.

God, torture and an untrammeled executive: a good summary of what conservatism has become.

Is it just me or is there something just a little creepy about the impulse to blame gun-control policies on campus for a massacre of over 30 people? While the corpses are not yet cold?

A friend of mine who has an advanced degree in camp got me to sit down the other night and watch the newly released DVD of the old Normal Lear classic 1970s sit-com-soap, "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman." I predict a big come-back. There’s no laugh-track; the comedy is of the Gervais-Cohen squirm variety; and the main character appears to be completely stoned throughout. Ahead of her time, Mary Hartman. Money clip:

With Bush, we’ve had a surge and a splurge. One day, someone else will pay the price.

British aristos dump on Kate Middleton’s mum, now that Wills has dumped Kate. She chewed gum in front of the queen, apparently.

"Islamophobia" in Scotland.

Info on the culprit?

A reader writes:

As far as anti-war arguments go, why hasn’t anyone simply stated that they’re trying to protect the soldiers from President Bush, rather than the insurgents? Just saying we should end the war provides far too many opportunities for Bush & Co. to say, "the soldiers want to stay until they accomplish their mission" or "the soldiers want to stay and win."

Of course they do. We all want them to win. But the simple fact is that they can’t win when they have the huge handicap Bush’s leadership gives them. I just really wish someone in the opposition party would call the President’s and war’s defenders out on this, and simply say, "I’d love to win the war as well. But we have to protect the soldiers from our President’s delusions." Make Bush out to be our soldiers’ greatest threat, and force the supporters to prove he’s competent.

Bush’s rank incompetence has been the greatest threat to the troops – and to American security. I have no idea why the Democrats don’t actually start accusing Bush of aiding terrorism by his ineptness. It’s what the Republicans would do if Bush were a Democrat.