The Dish

A reader comments:

Reading the Hugh Hewitt posting linked to here, all I can say is that if you can remain the party of victory when your policies lead to defeat, if you can remain the party of fiscal restraint when you run up staggering deficits, if you can remain the party of moral rectitude when your leadership is mired in corruption and has indelibly stained the country’s honor, then certainly you ought to be able to retain control of the government when your approval rating is under 30%. Hell, if you can do all that you ought to be able to fly to Mars on a hang glider.

I’m afraid my reader doesn’t fully understand. For God, all is possible. And, according to Hewitt, God votes Republican.

A report on how religious fanatics have taken over the GOP in Texas.

We’ve enabled them. If you don’t know what they are, I explain here. What we’re trying to do is add one more nexus between the MSM and the bloggy conversation. If you’re a blogger and want to reach more readers, linking to a post here can also mean bringing Time.com readers back to your site. Readers on this blog also get to read criticisms and elaborations on the various posts. Win-win. So link away.

More evidence of a connection between genetics and sexual orientation. Will Saletan comments here.

David Boaz nails it:

Republicans used to accuse Democrats of setting up a nanny state, one that would regulate every nook and cranny of our lives. They took control of Congress in 1994 by declaring that Democrats had given us ‘government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public’s money.’ After 10 years in power, however, the Republicans have seen the Democrats’ intrusiveness and raised them.

So from the Republicans we get federal money for churches; and congressional investigations into textbook pricing, the college football bowl system, the firing of Terrell Owens, video games, the television rating system, you name it; and huge new fines for indecency on television; and crackdowns on medical marijuana and steroids and ephedra; and federal intervention in the sad case of Terri Schiavo; and the No Child Left Behind Act; and federal subsidies for marriage; and (for less favored constituencies) a constitutional amendment to override the marriage laws of the 50 states.

David is optimistic that this debilitating state of affairs can be reversed. Americans actually like self-government, liberty and federalism. It’s just that Republicans have stopped articulating this vision; and many conservative intellectuals have stopped believing in it altogether, preferring the theocon nanny state. Believers in freedom need to find the courage of our own convictions again. I hope my forthcoming book helps.

(Photo of Tom DeLay: Chuck Kennedy/KRT/Abaca.)

Conservative writer, Byron York, fears that immigration is sending the president into Carterland. Conservatives are now deserting the GOP quite fast. 31 percent is not a floor, and a trap-door may be opening.

(Graphic from Charles Franklin.)

One small step for a man; one giant leap for the media. Jeff Jarvis writes an appreciation of Iraqi blogger, Zeyad. Zeyad’s indispensable blog can be found here.

Like a fish in a very small barrel. Even Russert can do it.

Kevin Drum lays out a policy list lefty bloggers might generally agree on. Chait kick-started this latest round of debate. Atrios carried it forward. Read the manifesto. Some proposals I like (scaling down the war on drugs, supporting marriage, bringing back the estate tax, backing states’ rights). Most I dislike (progressive taxation, clumsy statist enivronmental policy, indexing the minimum wage, ending abstinence education, making Medicare even more costly). But it’s a useful Rorschach test for our new ideologically fluid polity.

(Update: I misread Kevin’s post. He wrote "abstinence-only education." I too disagree with sex education that only includes abstinence counseling. But I see no reason why such counseling shouldn’t be part of such an education.)

A reader objects to another reader’s email:

You take the point of the emailer in "Something Else About Mary" – but the (understandably) emotional response highlights part of the problem: Republicans who are welcoming, loving and tolerant of homosexuality get stripped of it by association, while the Democrats have done nothing real on a national level to promote understanding. As a vet, I was ashamed and angry when Clinton instituted "don’t ask, don’t tell" — Clinton, who had the opportunity as executive to make the military get realistic, caved. He signed DOMA into law. It’s shameful that the Democrats get credit for something that they, on a national level, have done NOTHING to fix. The Cheneys and the Rudy Giulianis and anyone else, from any party, who is willing to stand up for their gay friends and family members should be encouraged, not vilified and not found guilty by party association.

I agree. And so do many gay Democrats.