The Dish

As I suspected, Pat Fitzgerald is not done yet.

In theory, it should be possible for a Republican to be both socially moderate, fiscally conservative, and dedicated to the fight against Islamo-fascism. That’s, broadly speaking, my position. But one reason I feel no real connection to today’s GOP is that there are almost no people in that position in the party as it now stands. The most reliable fiscal conservative, Tom Coburn, is a rabid gay-hater and a theocon. It’s simply a fact that, as a RedState blogger points out, not a single Republican Senator who opposed the Federal Marriage Amendment voted for the Coburn Amendment, and not a single Republican Senator who co-sponsored the latest stem cell research bill voted for the Coburn Amendment. The kind of conservatism I believe in no longer really exists in the Congress of the United States. You have to go to Britain to find it, or back a couple of decades before the Southern fundamentalists took over the GOP entirely. McCain is the best we’ve got, and God bless him. But it’s also undeniable that he has deep suspicions of economic freedom, and often sees the need for government to intervene in all sorts of areas – steroids in sports, for example, – where government, in my view, has no role whatever. Does that mean that social inclusives and fiscal conservatives should despair? I hope not. There are glimmers of hope among fiscally conservative Democrats. A McCain-led GOP would be vastly preferable to a Bush-led one. But these are dark days for individual freedom and fiscal sanity in America, and it’s no use pretending otherwise.

Dana Priest balances her devastating expose of CIA secret torture sites with evidence of what seems to me to be great CIA work in foiling and monitoring terrorism across the globe.

IRAN ON SELF-DESTRUCT? Here’s hoping. Ahmadinejad is pushing the accelerator on Islamofascism, purging all his opponents within the regime, and provoking pushback even among the clerical despots who dominate the “parliament.” Money quote:

In a sign of divisions at the top of the clerical establishment, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has until now supported Mr Ahmadinejad, said “irregularities” in the government’s behaviour would not be tolerated.

It’s not impossible for the Iranian elite to split. What’s clear is that negotiating with the current leadership is pointless.

“I’m embarrassed the United States has a vice president for torture.” – former CIA director, Stansfield Turner. It seems to me the appropriate response is not embarrassment. It’s shame.

The Bushies are all over John Murtha. Instapundit says Murtha’s been saying “basically the same thing” for over a year. That depends on what the meaning of the word “basically” is. Murtha’s own statement contains the sentences:

For two and a half years I have been concerned about the U.S. policy and the plan in Iraq. I have addressed my concerns with the Administration and the Pentagon and have spoken out in public about my concerns.

The difference – and surely it’s a relevant one – is that Murtha is now calling for withdrawal of troops the same week the Senate went wobbly. It seems to me it would be more helpful if Republicans and conservatives offered positive arguments for how to do better instead of attacking every critic as a wuss, unpatriotic, inconsistent, or worse. Murtha spent 37 years in the Marines. He voted for the war. But, unlike some, he kept his eyes open and he’s reflecting genuine, real, patriotic worries about the war among many Americans. If he’s worried, we all should be. It doesn’t speak very well of the pro-Bush right that their first instinct is to ignore him and their second to dismiss him. But it’s no big surprise by now, is it?

AFTER WOMEN, GAYS: The Dutch heroine of the battle against Islamo-fascism, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, is making a new film. Her first one – the one that forced her into hiding and police protection – was about the brutalization of women in Islamic societies. Her new one will be about the Islamic fundamentalist world’s loathing and persecution of homosexuals. She sees the connection. I wish more American conservatives did.

CAN BUSH RECOVER? Lefty blogger Chris Bowers says he can’t. He has some evidence to back him up. My own view is that most people have made up their minds about Bush; and they don’t think he knows how to run a war. Here’s some more data.

BORAT’S COME-UPPANCE: This is hilarious.

“If Kerry had won, the Bush Bunch and the Congressional Republicans would have hung everything they posiibly could on him. Not that I’d be particularly sorry to see Kerry clobbered like that, but I can quite affirm that one of my reasons for finally deciding to vote for Bush was that, if the chickens did indeed come home to roost, they’d land squarely in his lap. And they are. ‘And that’s a good thing.'”

That email, by the way, was from John Francis Lehman (not the famous one). His blog is well worth checking out.

“If you want to talk irony: On the Washington Monthly website, there’s a list of “News and Opinion from our Contributing Editors” along the lefthand column. The second one down is from Joseph Nocera: “Trying to Wean Internet Users From Free,” and it’s dated 11/14/05. Hmmmm…. that sounds like an interesting enough article. Let’s see how that’s going to work, or at least what Joe’s ideas are.

THE ARTICLE IS BEHIND THE TIMES SELECT FIREWALL.

Now that’s funny.”

“Please keep hammering away on the torture/secret detention issues. Going into Iraq for slightly the wrong reason at slightly the wrong time in slightly the wrong way is unfortunate but does not have the potential to fundamentally harm our republic. Institutionalized torture, extra-judicial murder and secret detentions do. Everyone on the right needs to understand the truth of what has been done in all our names.”

I linked to their devastating interview with Noam Chomsky. It behooves me to link to their correction.

Among the best news on HIV lately is the drop in infection rates among African-Americans. Much of the drop can be attributed to needle-exchange programs. The response from the religious right? Here’s the Family Research Council: “The AIDS virus is spread through voluntary behavior. An unlimited supply of needles will not alter behavior patterns of irresponsible and often psychotic addicts.” Now, there’s the spirit of the Gospels. How many lives would have been lengthened and saved if these needle exchange policies had been put in place years ago? How much African-American health is worth FRC’s version of “morality”?