The Dish

At least that’s what it looks like from this Tapper report on a push-poll in New Hampshire. We’ve learned a few things about Huckabee this past week. He refuses to apologize for neanderthal comments about people with HIV in the early 1990s; he’s thin-skinned when it comes to criticism; and he has a bit of a temper. The beagles are also unimpressed by this. The nice guy isn’t so nice when you look a little more closely.

A reader writes:

In Friday night’s interview with Charlie Rose, Bill Clinton said, "When is the last time we elected a president based on one year of service in the Senate before he started running?" 

To that, I would answer: In 1860, when the country elected Abraham Lincoln, who had served just a single term in the House of Representatives. 

I’m not saying that Obama is Lincoln, but Lincoln’s example shows that a president’s good judgment and mental flexibility is more important than years logged in Congress. I for one am grateful that Stephen Douglas (the most "experienced" candidate in 1860) was not President of the United States during the Civil War.

Once you read about it, the only question is: why did it take so long? Check this out:

The Prophet Muhammad was punk, according to Knight, because he was a nonconformist who fought for what he believed. A growing number of young Muslims who resist their parents’ orthodox views, but also struggle with the values of their non-Muslim friends, are embracing punk. Muslim punk provides a place to forge a new identity for young Muslims confused about religion and their role in American society, particularly as they are bombarded by negative stereotypes of Muslims in a post-9/11 America. At the same time, Muslim punk offers a palpable way to express anger toward the orthodoxies of fundamentalist Islam.

We need to be vigilant and aware of Islamism’s appeal. But I think it’s also important for those of us opposed to it to remember that in a direct contest with the West’s freedom, Islamic theocracy will lose. There’s an embrace of contradiction among the Taqwacores, a quintessentially American support of rebelliousness (fueled in part by Sufism), and a sensibility that is perhaps best described as South Park Islam:

The Kominas performed songs with provocative lyrics such as “suicide bomb the gap,” and “Rumi was a homo” (a stab at an anti-gay imam in Brooklyn). The musicians started a joke band named Box Cutter Surprise, after the knives used to hijack planes on September 11th.

Marwan Kamel, from a band on tour called Al-Thawra, Arabic for “revolution,” said members created the group to shock audiences.

“The sole purpose was to light a fire under people’s asses,” Kamel said. “We were totally exploiting Americans’ fear of terrorism, but maybe that’s what everyone needs right now.”

On tour, the taqwacore bands allowed each other to embrace their contradictions as young Muslim Americans confused about their religion, identity, and place in the world. They prayed together, philosophized about Allah, visited mosques in Harlem and Ohio, shouted their grievances about President Bush, and generally thought for themselves.

“I began to feel a balance between my identity as a Muslim and an American,” Khan said. “It was literally the most amazing experience of my life.”

The great promise of America in this new war is not, I’d argue, as a fortress against Islam, but as an incubator of those trends within Islam that can ultimately defeat Islamism. That means more openness, not less. More modernity, not less. More confidence, less fear, and a sense of, yes, humor.

Ambers picks up word of a big Iowa endorsement tomorrow. It would be foolish to count him out yet.

Daniel Smith, 8, kneels on the floor in the lobby of Yale Avenue Christian Church as snow begins to fall outside December 15, 2007 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Daniel and his mother came to the church looking for a warm meal after being without power for almost a week and losing all of their food in the refrigerator. Many people from the Tulsa and surrounding area still remain without power due to a storm that hit last Sunday as they brace for a second round of winter weather. By Brandi Simons/Getty Images.

Ross reconsiders his position.

A powerful editorial from the Portsmouth Herald. With the Lieberman boost (discussed here), McCain may yet surprise us in New Hampshire.

As part of its campaign to rid the military of those decent enough to oppose torture and the abandonment of the Geneva Conventions, the Bush administration has put an aggressive torture advocate in charge of promotions of military Judge Advocate General corps – the 4,000-member uniformed legal force. Charlie Savage has the details. This institutional pressure cannot be over-estimated. If the next president continues Bush’s torture program, it runs the risk of becoming entrenched into American military practice – especially as its opponents in the military can be weeded out systematically. Sooner or later, the virus will imprint its own DNA on the American military itself.

A reader writes:   

After watching your post, I am convinced that what you saw was Bill Clinton realizing he is no longer going to be running the Democratic Party. Even if Kerry had won, there still was the chance of another Clinton presidency. If Senator Clinton loses, then their 15 year run has come to an end.  I think the country is ready for the end of the 25 year run of the Bush’s and the Clinton’s.  Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate their service to the nation, but it is time to move beyond them. Judging by his performance last night, my guess is their internal numbers look far worse than the public polls.

I’ll add, I am a Reagan Republican who has never voted for a Democrat for any office.  Depending on the campaign Senator Obama runs, that may end this year. If he proposes sensible reforms for Medicare and Social Security and has a strong policy towards terrorism, I think he wins big.

A blogger on the African-American blog Jack and Jill comments:

The sense of ENTITLEMENT REEKED from Clinton during the Charlie Rose interview. And, that is exactly why he, and his wife, need to be sent packing… This is as nice as I can be. There was another undercurrent in that interview, but maybe I’m too ‘ sensitive’ as a Black person and picked up on it. If any other Black folk saw the interview, maybe they’ll tell me if they picked up on the undercurrent too…

You mean: who the hell does this "uppity negro" think he is? Even I picked up on that one.

(Photo: Mario Tama/Getty.)

"The terrorists who torture and kill our prisoners (never something as benign as waterboarding) don’t do it because they need information to save innocent people. They do it because they like it, because they want to hurt or kill someone.

At some point you have to decide if a known terrorist having a very bad day (after which he goes back to a hot meal and a cot) is more of a moral problem than allowing a terrorist to blow up a building full of people.

Yes, it’s good if we do it, when it’s for the right reasons. So far, it’s been for the right reasons. And no, it isn’t good when it’s done to us, for the reasons it has been done to us. Get back to me when some enemy tortures one of our soldiers in order to save innocent lives," – a reader of Kevin Drum.