The Dish

Rod Dreher’s uncle’s:

Another reason to be libertarian: politics isn’t the only thing they’re interested in.

Chris Caldwell has a typically excellent review of Shelby Steele’s gloom (you may have to jump through a few FT hoops tho). Now there’s something Bill Keller might have done: asked Caldwell instead of Kristol. One gets the sense that the NYT simply doesn’t know the range and vitality of non-leftist opinion out there.

Garry Wills cuts to the chase:

Kennedy had to convince people that he would not let the Vatican push him around. Romney has let evangelicals know that he would let them push him around.

One other point worth remembering:

Kennedy said he would follow his own conscience, not allowing any church interferences with what his conscience dictated: "I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair."

This position is now derided by conservatives like Jonah Goldberg as the "divinization of conscience." It is the direct opposite of today’s theoconservative argument that all religious faith is public, and if it isn’t followed through in public, it is inherently suspect. Wills again:

Kennedy was on the side of the future. He defied the Vatican’s ban on American-style democracy, which was rescinded in the Second Vatican Council, convened after his election. Romney—looking to the past, and specifically to the current Bush administration’s position—kowtowed to the religious right. Saying that he opposes religious tests, he passed that one.

Don’t be fooled. Romney is the continuation of theocratic politics and an unchecked executive. He is Christianism’s avatar.

Beijing, China, 8 pm.

The conservative and Republican establishment have unloaded everything they can against the guy. But he’s still the likeliest winner in Iowa, and his potential to knock Romney off his gilded perch is powerful. I’d say that if Huck wins Iowa and Romney seems badly wounded, then McCain has a real shot in New Hampshire. If Romney cannot win Iowa after pouring all that money into it and cannot win his neighboring state, it’s hard to see him as electable. Maybe Giuliani could then have his moment. I can’t remember any race being this fluid, but I wouldn’t under-estimate Huckabee’s appeal to the religious movement that is now the core of Republicanism:

Iowans really like him; his personal attributes are megavolts more powerful than any of his rivals; his unvarnished evangelical worldview is enough.

Owen Walker, a farmer from Indianola, became a convert today. "He’s got.. he’s got heart. He’s a good man," he said. A fundamentally decent guy. "A down to earth person who we’re going to be able to trust."

His friend, Jim Meadows, told me: "When I really came to realize that he’d be a good candidate is when he demonstrated during the debates that he showed a lot of wisdom in the way he answered the question. The man is a genuine next-door neighbor type."

(Photo: A supporter of Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee wears a campaign button as he speaks during a ‘Meet Mike Huckabee’ event at a Pizza Ranch restaurant December 28, 2007 in Pella, Iowa. By Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.)

"I don’t subscribe to the principle that there are good Muslims and bad Muslims. They’re all Muslims," – John Deady, the co-chair of New Hampshire Veterans for Rudy.

He tells Hewitt that he’s been reading John Bolton. As always, it’s hard to tell if this is true or pure pandering. But neither is encouraging. If you want a continuation of Cheney foreign policy, a vote for Romney is a good idea. This is a great little Hewittism, by the way:

One of the first tasks for a conservative in the White House will be to get control of the Department of State, and the Central Intelligence Agency, that keep turning out these NIE’s …

So there will be no more National Intelligence Estimates, I guess. I mean: why estimate when you already know?

A reader writes:

You wrote:

"In some ways, this is one of the most important issues in this election after the astonishing power-grab by Bush and Cheney."

That statement is troublingly overqualified.

This is THE most important issue in this election, and in all ways.  Everything else is small by comparison, including Iraq and the GWOT.  Why?  Because those things are purely external threats.  External threats come and go.  The issue of executive power is the only issue in this election that can fundamentally alter the nature of the American state.  If the Bush/Cheney theory is not explicitly repudiated during THIS election as the ridiculous affront to the constitution that it is, we’re going to be stuck with it for decades, even after the external threats that gave it currency have faded.  There will always be a new threat to justify, in the minds of some, the unchecked executive.

Another rave – this time from Ross:

Juno’s shades-of-gray approach the culture wars ought to be required viewing for Brian De Palma, Paul Haggis, Robert Redford, and just about every other Hollywood filmmaker who’s turned out a lousy movie about the Iraq War in the last year or so.