Red Tide Rising

There's a rising red tide, a blood-red tide, in the 2022 midterm elections, and as Rod Stewart once sang, you'd be a fool stop this tide.  As a registered voter who has voted in every single election from 1988 on, I've tried to stop this Republican tide, but after the 1994 Republican midterm victory, I tried to at least stem it.  Since then, I've had to conceded that the red tide is perpetually going to wash over us, and there ain't thing one we can do about it.  But 2022 - and 2024 after that - look to provide red tides - waves, really - that will drown us.

The Republican gains in governorships, the House, and possibly the Senate will sweep a lot of election deniers into office, setting the stage for a Trump comeback in 2024.  Trump himself is planning to challenge the midterm election results in states like Pennsylvania should Republicans lose any elections, according to Rolling Stone, and he has numerous sycophants to help him overturn all of them.  And in 2024, it may not matter when the Democratic presidential nominee is Joe Biden or . . . someone else.

We're on the road to fascism.  

Mitch McConnell has always said thath is primary goal as a senator is to keep the United States from becoming like a European country.  Given the parliamentary dysfunction in Great Britain, the rise of the far right in Italy and Hungary, and the abolition of abortion in Poland, it would appear that the opposite is true - European countries are becoming like the United States. 😱     

So Long, Boris

A day after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced hat he would fight on, he finally gave in.  He resigned his office on Thursday.  His last-minute defiance suggested the idea of Robert E. Lee vowing to fight on for the Southern cause on April 8, 1865.

The Prime Minister decided to call it quits after one British Cabinet secretary after another handed in their resignations.  The Tories were beginning to desert him left and right; ironically, they had lost confidence in him after he won a "no confidence" vote.  Johnson's resignation also means that he is stepping down as leader of the Conservative Party, so a replacement for both of his positions is due soon. It is likely that the policies of the Tory government will continue for now, most importantly the policy of aid to Ukraine.

It is wall good and fine to think that Britain can move on calmly into the future without the whiff of scandal or incompetence, but as I noted last month, many of Johnson's anti-democratic measures may remain in place.  But Johnson's resignation and his ability to move on to the next stage of his life without regret are still preferable in comparison to Donald Trump's refusal to hit the showers.  Johnson said he was not indispensable; Trump, with his Reggie Mantle-type superiority complex, believes that the Republic and the Republicans will fall without him.  The Tories, recognizing Johnson's baggage, decided that ending their support for him was the only way to save the party; in America, the GOP has only doubled down on supporting Trump despite his mishandling of COVID and his attempt to overthrow the government because, well, he helped get Roe v. Wade overturned, he stuck it to the Iranians, and he lives rent-free in the Democrats' heads.  The Tories are sane enough not to stick with Johnson; the Republicans are too zonkers to abandon Trump.

What happens in both Britain and America now is anyone's guess.

Block The Vote - 2021 Edition

The Capitol insurrectionists demanded that someone "stop the steal" - even though there was no fraud in the presidential election to get President Biden in - and now Republicans are taking the Big Lie to heart and acting accordingly.  

Numerous states are passing bills that would tighten voting rules by limiting or eliminating early voting, providing more ID at the polls to vote, or, in Georgia, where the Democrats won narrow presidential and U.S .Senate victories, demanding a reason for mail-in voting and getting rid of mail-in ballot receptacles altogether.  This is all designed to keep Democratic constituencies - especially blacks - from voting.

Can I offer any comfort to you?  No. Like Jacob Marley's ghost, I have none to give.   And there are three reasons for that.  First of all, Republicans, though out of power in Washington, did very well in state legislative elections in 2020, a census year, meaning Republicans have the upper hand in redrawing U.S. House districts (as well as state legislative districts) and they intend to bitch-slap Democrats with the back of it.  (Where was Martin O'Malley's Win Back Your State PAC when we really needed it?)  Second, Republicans already control the legislatures passing this voter-suppression legislation, and they're likely to be upheld by a Republican-dominated court system.  Third, the voting-rights bill passed by the House, which would negate state voter-suppression laws, has no chance in the Senate because Republicans will filibuster it and Senate Democrats haven't figured out a way to get the voting-rights bill around that roadblock.  

I do have one ray of hope, a silver lining of sorts, to throw out.  And it's not President Biden's executive order securing the right to vote; that's purely symbolic.  In states like Georgia, mail-in-voting has been traditionally used more by Republicans - who are older and have trouble getting to the polls - than Democrats.  So this suppression of mail-in voting could keep more Republicans than Democrats in Georgia from casting a ballot and end up being a wash that doesn't help the Republicans one iota.

With this legislation all but certain to become law, Democrats in Georgia will have to work with what they have.  If they have to stand in line all day to vote, so be it.  They can't let the bastards win.  And if you're a Georgia resident and you need water to sustain you while waiting to vote, BYOB - Georgia's new voting legislation doesn't allow people to hand out water bottles to voters either.

Spaceyed Out

Speaking this past week on behalf on continued federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (the status of which is unclear at this moment) on Chris Matthews's MSNBC show "Hardball," actor Kevin Spacey eloquently cited the benefits a robustly funded arts establishment provides - namely, by attracting people to urban downtown areas to enjoy ballet, opera, and museums and generating strong economic activity in vital urban centers while creating a sense of community. Spacey also cited the ability of art to broaden our minds and nourish our souls, and how it makes us smarter and sharper. I agree completely. But he lost me when he said that he doesn't believe Republicans who want to cut funding for the NEA dislike highbrow culture.

I believe it.

Look, when was the last time a Republican ever expressed interest in classical music or avant-garde movies? Ever see Newt Gingrich attend an opera performance at the Kennedy Center? Or hear of Sarah Palin take in an underground movie at some art house theater? Of course not! Republicans hate the arts because there's no money in art, art makes you think (can't have any of that in America), and so much of it is so unmanly. Ballerinas fluttering around in tutus? That's so . . . gay! Do I have to repeat the story of Rush Limbaugh saying he'd go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art if he could use a golf cart to get in and out as fast as possible? Where has Kevin Spacey been, anyway?

Well, he was supposed to be at a congressional hearing in Washington with Alec Baldwin to testify for continued arts funding this past Tuesday, but the hearing was called off due to "time constraints."

Spacey's comment that he doesn't believe Republicans hate the arts was funny, but not nearly as side-splitting as Quincy Jones's call for the National Endowment for the Arts be upgraded to a federal department with Cabinet-level status.

I suspect that most rank-and-file Republican voters want to kill arts funding, as many of them go to NASCAR races and watch old action movies on Spike TV. And, they don't read. If the NEA is zeroed out in the 2012 budget, then Americans are blockheads who deserve The Little Fockers instead of The Little Foxes.

Back From The Brink

The federal government averted a shutdown and possibly serious damage to the economy, thus denying late-night comedians opportunities for cheap laughs for their monologues Monday night.

As of this writing, details are sketchy, and we should learn more about the particulars in the week ahead. Planned Parenthood funding has been saved for the remainder of fiscal 2011, but the Democrats had to agree to over $38 billion in cuts to various social and discretionary programs. Many people are afraid President Obama gave away too much too soon, and, by the way, several critical infrastructure projects are on hold. (Aren't they all critical?) Incredibly, House Speaker John Boehner is under attack for conceding too much for the Republicans, and Tea Party activists are already threatening to produce a challenger against him in the next House Republican primary in his Ohio district.

It seems that both sides lost by stopping a shutdown.

Anyway, this isn't the real fight in determining federal budget policy for the next decade or so. The big fights come in crafting a 2012 budget and prioritizing the country's needs, along with raising the debt ceiling to keep the government able to borrow money. I believe the Democrats forfeited their objectives on this issue so they can figure out how they're going to cave on the next two.

I don't see much hope for this country in the immediate future . . . or beyond that.

Backwards Badgers

The state of Wisconsin, where the Republican party was founded in 1854, is abut to come under control of that very same party. A PBS NewsHour report last night highlighted the success of the GOP in the Badger State, in which the Republicans won the governorship, a U.S. Senate seat, control of both houses of the legislature, and a larger share of the state's U.S. House delegation. Now the incoming state legislature is looking to negate and challenge many provisions in the federal health care law and make severe cuts to the state Medicaid program. Wisconsin's new Republican legislative majorities want to put more people at the mercy of the free-market insurance system as well as toughen requirements for state services.

In the state that gave America Robert LaFollette and William Proxmire, two progressive heroes, an ill conservative wind is blowing like so many winter gusts off Lake Michigan. As for the new incoming governor, Scott Walker - already charting a right-wing course with his decision to refuse federal stimulus money for high-speed rail - he has advocated cuts in Medicaid but refuses to say just exactly what sort of cuts he'll pursue when he takes office in January.

Somehow, the state's motto, "Forward," seems sadly out of date. :-(

Ten Questions

Here are ten random trivia questions. See how many you get right!

1. What is the travel time on the French high-speed passenger train between Paris and Lyon?

2. Who appears on the $100 bill?

3. If there are five protons in an atom, how many electrons are there?

4. Who wrote the symphony commonly known as the "Ode to Joy?"

5. What is the life expectancy of the average American?

6. In what year did Ronald Reagan leave the office of President of the United States?

7. How often are members of the House of Representatives elected?

8. In what year did Hawaii become a state?

9. What is the capital of Afghanistan?

10. What was the name of the game show in the 1984 "Saturday Night Live" sketch in which guest host Jesse Jackson played himself as a game show host?

The answers are as follows:

1. The question is moot! Although industrialized nations like France, Japan and Germany have high-speed passenger rail service and China is getting started on building such a network, the United States lacks such a system. Every attempt to build such a system in this country has ended in defeat because of the airline industry, because it cuts into the very profitable business of selling tickets on overcrowded planes. And even though the airlines now support such a system to reduce the strain on their domestic flight paths, Republicans, who have just taken over the House, oppose the idea as more government spending. They also oppose public transportation in principle because it’s an example of the government telling you when you can go somewhere and where you have to be to catch the train or bus, and besides, it gives mobility to those pesky poor people! Also, many Americans are out of work and can’t afford to go overseas and ride a high-speed train, so most Americans will never see one in their lifetimes.

2. The question is moot! More and more Americans are being thrown out of work because American companies are consistently outsourcing jobs to China. Republicans in the House only propose cutting taxes for the rich as a way of creating jobs, even though giving rich people money to invest in a steel plant in Cleveland ends up being used by rich people to buy another mega-mansion in the Hamptons. The only jobs created in America anymore are jobs that pay less than the minimum needed to live on. So, most Americans will be unable to identify who’s on the $100 bill because they never actually see one.

3. The question is moot! The new Republican majority is dominated by the Tea Party, which has made it clear that they want to diminish public education, if not undermine and dissolve it altogether with private schools and school vouchers. Also, cutting spending on education means less money to teach science, and the United States ranks shockingly low in the number of scientifically literate students it produces. So it really doesn't matter how many electrons there are for five protons in an atom.

4. The question is moot! In addition cutting funding for general education, Republicans want to cut funding for arts education. In addition, they also want to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts. Republicans have decided that high culture is a frill the government cannot afford to support. If average Americans prefer hip-hop to symphonic music, if they prefer sadistic action movies to cutting-edge art films, if they prefer NASCAR to ballet, so be it! The free market has spoken. High art, like public transportation, doesn't make money and so has no place in America. So, as Republicans actually take pride in the fact that this is a country made for William Shatner, not William Shakespeare, why should you care who wrote "Ode to Joy?" Most Americans don’t.

5. The question is moot! Republicans in the House want to repeal a health care law that will save lives. They hope to replace it – it not in 2011, then in 2013, when they get all the power – with a plan of their own, as defined by Alan Grayson, the Democratic congressman from Florida who was voted out of office after only one term: Don’t get sick, and if you do, die quickly. So it doesn't matter what the life expectancy of the average American is, because it’s going to drop very sharply very soon.

6. The question is moot! Today (November 4) is the thirtieth anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s election to the Presidency. It doesn't matter in what year he left office because the Reagan era has continued long after the nation’s fortieth president left office and even after he died. Because the pro-business, anti-public, pro-gun, pro-law enforcement, anti-civil rights agenda he left behind has stayed in place. We've now had three decades of Reaganism; chances are we’re headed into a fourth decade of Reaganism, starting now.

7. The question is moot! Although the Democrats theoretically have an opportunity to regain the majority in the House, redistricting by Republican governors and legislature leaders in traditionally Democratic Northeastern and Midwestern states that are losing House seats will tilt the House delegations in these states in favor of Republicans. Also, the states that are gaining House members are Republican states in the South and West. So the next several election cycles are going to turn against the Democrats. Who cares, then, when the House of Representatives is up for re-election again?

8. The question is moot! People on the American mainland don’t consider Hawaii to be a real state. They consider it a foreign, exotic, far-off territory where the locals are not really Americans. Not coincidentally, that’s where President Obama was born and raised. Also, not surprisingly, this ties in with the argument that Obama was not really born in the United States and thus should be impeached, convicted and removed from office. It doesn't matter that Daniel Inouye, currently the longest-serving U.S. senator, is also president pro tempore of the Senate by virtue of the fact that he’s also the senior senator of the majority party. Hawaii isn't considered by Tea Partiers as part of the real America; it might as well be another country, which it actually was until 1898. So it doesn't matter when it became a state.

9. The question is moot! The government of Afghanistan only controls the capital city and the area around it. Nevertheless, President Obama feels obliged to continue the one policy Republicans can agree with him on – the war in Afghanistan, even though it’s doing us much more harm than good. And the Republicans would prefer to see the war go beyond the July 2011 draw-down due date. Since we can’t get Afghanistan to be a responsible nation rid of fundamentalist Taliban militants, since it’s a failed state, it doesn't matter what its capital is.

10. "The Question Is Moot." Really. That sketch inspired this quiz.

Once More Into the D.C. Breach

Having been on the receiving end of attacks by the Republicans for months, Democrats are now fighting back, as evidenced by Democratic senator Barbara Boxer's spirited performance against Republican opponent Carly Fiorina in California and Democratic senator Russ Feingold's similar stand against Republican Ron Johnson in Wisconsin. In Minnesota, Tarryl Clark has noted right-wing gadfly Michele Bachmann running scared so much that Bachmann has put out a new e-mail calling for more help from her supporters to keep her House seat. Could this mean that the Democrats are gaining momentum?
Not a chance.
The economy remains so excruciatingly bad, and Republicans have such an established ability to communicate their message, that it's appearing less likely that the Democrats will even minimize their losses, much less reverse them. Furthermore, because the Republicans have been on the attack for so long, it seems almost like an act of desperation for Democrats to attack in response.

It's also proven to be very effective for the Republicans to divorce themselves from the governing process for so long. At the beginning of the year, many pundits believed that incumbents of both parties would be blamed for the sorry state of the economy, and that Democratic incumbents would naturally bear more of the brunt of voter antipathy simply because there were more of them. Now, however, they're bearing all of it. Republican incumbents, by contrast, are sitting pretty. In Iowa, Charles Grassley - once a likeable moderate but now known as a purveyor of the "death panel" ruse against the health care law - is on his way to winning a sixth term to the U.S. Senate. David Vitter in Louisiana is still a favorite for re-election to the Senate, despite two sex scandals and a reputation for protecting BP. The Democratic challengers in these races, Roxanne Conlin and Charlie Melancon, respectively, are fighting hard but with little wind at their backs. It is very difficult for Democratic challengers to run effectively against Republican incumbents in Iowa and Louisiana when the national party is trying to defend Democratic incumbents in tough races in California and Wisconsin.
To be fair to the Democrats, even if they had counterattacked months ago, they'd still be behind in the polls due to an economy that stubbornly refuses to recover. Nevertheless, for the Democrats to promise a counteroffensive in the midterm campaigns at this point is comparable to the notion of the French planning to invade Nazi Germany after the fall of Belgium. The Democrats still have a chance to hold the Senate, even though the House is probably gone. But if present trends persist - and there's not much time left - the Senate may also fall to the GOP.

President Obama is a cool and reasonable man, and that has hurt him in his inability to connect with voters. But if a Tea Party-dominated Republican party gains control of one or both houses of Congress, that might be the best thing for him.

Back On the Block

In one short week, Senate Republicans have blocked a number of bills that would have benefited millions of people and strengthened out democracy. After blocking a clean energy bill, and a federal election disclosure bill, as mentioned earlier on this blog, the Guardians of Privilege (GOP) blocked legislation aimed at giving tax breaks to small business to help create more jobs. So who are people angry at? The Democrats, of course.

Let me explain. Republicans hope to paint the Democrats as being ineffective in getting anything done and insist that the legislation Democrats offer will only add more spending to the deficit, so any bill Republicans stop deserves to be stopped. Thanks to key words about budget concerns - offered up by Republican sloganeer Frank Luntz - Republicans hope to regain control of both houses of Congress - even the Senate, where they need ten seats - and commit America to a fourth decade of supply-side economics that benefit the rich and create the kind of jobs adult Americans will have to compete with their own teenage children for.

The Republican act of stopping economic legislation passed by Democrats and blaming economic inaction on the Democrats when the Republicans got us into the mess we're in seems like an episode of an old sitcom where a character takes the rap for a misdeed he didn't commit while the culprit gets away with it - at least until the last scene, when he's exposed. The editor of The Nation, Katrina vanden Heuvel - whose name sounds menacingly European - suggested on Ed Schultz's MSNBC show that Democrats base their campaigns on exposing Republican stall tactics designed to make President Obama fail and bring the Palinistas and the Bachmanniacs into power.

But, sadly, unlike one of those old sitcom episodes - except for an episode of, say, "Seinfeld" - Republicans are poised to get away once again with their misdeed. That would be pretending to stand for the little guy when in reality they plan to run roughshod over him. In regard to the small business bill - which Republicans had once supported - the Senate GOP insist they're holding it back at so they can offer more amendments to it. By that, they mean that they want to add tax cuts for the top earners in this country and block extensions of credit to small businesses to create jobs. But they frame it as providing tax relief to working Americans and trying to keep the government from bailing out private enterprise. Oh my gosh, they sound so . . . reasonable! They seem to make . . . sense! I'm not going to fall for that, but many of my fellow Americans will, because they are, well, morons. Even if the Democrats could make a concerted effort to do what Katrina vanden Heuvel suggests, they wouldn't get very far. No matter, because I do not believe the Democrats have the ability to make their case. They're Democrats, remember?

In other news, Chelsea Clinton got married today. Watch me not care.

Abandon Bipartisan Ship!

President Obama invited Republican congressional leaders to a televised discussion on health care reform two weeks from this Thursday (February 25), and even though they've suggested interest in it, they insist that the President isn't going to get bipartisanship if he insists on sticking to the provisions in the current health care bills that passed the House and the Senate. Obama spoke out on the issue today, citing that the Republicans in the Senate have been using parliamentary rules to delay and obstruct bills from passing; thwarted in December in their attempt to stop a health care bill from passing in that chamber, the Republicans can now stop any legislation pieced together from the two health care bills that have passed (hello, Scott Brown!). He's made it clear that bipartisanship, as far as health care reform is concerned, does not mean the Democrats giving up everything they support to allow the Republicans to have everything they want. Indeed, that isn't bipartisanship - it's the George Walker Bush agenda!

With health care and other issues as mired in Washington politics as Washington itself now is in snow, Obama seems to have found an opening to make the Republicans offer a positive alternative to the Democratic health care plan or risk being seen as gumming up the works. It's a risky gambit; the voters see large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress and don't know or care about parliamentary or procedural rules, and they don't understand how much legislation has actually been passed by one or both houses of Congress if the President can't get the opportunity to sign any of it. This strategy might work, though. Republicans are being forced to be proactive on an issue they would prefer not to even discuss. If they have something to offer in the health care debate and offer it in good faith, it's time to do it now. Obama may be at a nadir in his presidency, but he's capable of reversing course at any time.

Hopefully, the time is now.

Health Care News - August 31, 2009

Good news and bad news involving health care reform as the month ends . . .

Janet Hook, reporting for the McClatchy-Tribune News Service, wrote yesterday that Democrats and Republicans actually agree on my many elements of health care reform and such proposals could expand and improve medical insurance in this country. Among these ideas are banning insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, expansion of coverage for preventive medicine, and provide new incentives for small businesses to offer insurance to their employees. The theory is that Democrats and Republicans can work out a deal of sorts to reform the system incrementally - something Edward Kennedy did for his entire Senate career.

But there's a sinister game afoot. As Democratic legislators have had their town hall meetings disrupted by protesters, Republican candidates hoping to challenge Democratic incumbents in next year's midterm elections are hosting their own "town hall" meetings to let opponents of health care reform vent in a more civilized manner. These meetings are little more than the opportunity for local GOP candidates to preach to the converted and get free publicity from the local media.

The Democrats have dismissed this tactic as empty showmanship, which they do at their own peril. Because as the Republicans, the party of Ronald Reagan, and Ronald Reagan, the President from Hollywood - not to mention Hollywood itself - have all proven, empty showmanship works.

I doubt the Republicans will gain majorities in the House or Senate in 2010 - the majorities Democrats currently enjoy in both houses of Congress are likely top big for the GOP to overcome - but a strong showing and a whittling down of the margins in both houses will make it that much more difficult for President Obama to accomplish much in the latter half of is first term - or win a second.

Sonia's In!

Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed as the 111th U.S. Supreme Court Justice in the Senate by a a vote of 68 to 31, with Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) absent and nine Republicans voting in favor, many of them - George Voinovich of Ohio, Mel Martinez of Florida, Kit Bond of Missouri - leaving the Senate when their terms expire at the end of next next year. Senator Lindsay Graham was among the Republicans who voted for Sotomayor, which doesn't surprise me - a former military lawyer, Graham is a grown-up when it comes to these things. So are Maine's to Republican female senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.

Most Republican senators, even those representing states where the Hispanic population is growing by leaps and bounds, voted against her on the grounds that her past liberal rulings and her involvement with ethnic activist groups would influence her decisions. Personal perspectives and the influence of her own ethnic background were somehow considered far more troubling than a Chief Justice who neglected the fact that the deed to his house was illegal because it forbade the sale of his house to blacks and Jews.

Republicans, having already ticked off Hispanics by making Sotomayor sound like some wild-eyed left-wing Latin militant with a bias against whites, have shrugged this off as their most virulent allies go after health care reform by sending thugs to derail the discussion of the issue at congressional town hall meetings. A lot of them are bringing placards depicting President Obama as Hitler and hanging Democratic politicians in effigy, and the Republicans say little if anything against it. Many of these people, already ticked off with the idea of a black President, are apparently ticked off with the idea of a health care plan that could actually help . . . other people!

The far right didn't get into the corridors of power in the last election. Now they're trying to get in by breaking the door down.

News of the Weird

U.S. Senator John Ensign of Nevada looked to be in big trouble when it turned out he had an affair with a staffer's wife, but when the Republican lawmaker announced the affair himself to short-circuit an extortion scheme against him, it got him a warm reception from his fellow GOP senators. They applauded him at their weekly luncheon. That showed 'em! :-D

Meanwhile, Mark Sanford, South Carolina's Republican governor, went on a five-day hike on the Appalachian Trail without telling his wife, the lieutenant governor, the South Carolina state police, and just about everyone else in the state.

Oh yeah, he might have hiked naked.

I didn't know Republicans were trying to get themselves back to the garden. Sanford wanted to get back to Eden!

He has a better chance than John Ensign.

I Have Seen the Specter

You know things are bad for the Republicans when one of its brightest and most mature U.S. Senators leaves the party. Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania switched to the Democratic Party effective immediately. His decision was based on two factors. First, he realized that there was no place for him in the Republican party after voting for President Obama's stimulus bill against overwhelming opposition from fellow Republicans. Second of all, he found that a conservative Republican primary electorate, out of step with Pennsylvania's moderate politics, could possibly deny him renomination for a sixth Senate term next year, and felt the general electorate was more qualified to vote on his re-election bid.

Specter was born in Wichita, and grew up in the Jewish community of Russell, Kansas - i.e., his family. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and Yale School, he settled in Philadelphia, where he served as district attorney. As a U.S. Senator since 1981, Specter has supported abortion rights and gun rights, and he was one of only four Republicans to vote against Robert Bork's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Reagan in 1987. He has high ratings from both the liberal group Americans for Democratic Action and the AFL-CIO.

So, Specter's a pretty moderate guy. A Democrat once before, he rejoins the party and demonstrates the growing disgust in the American Northeast with the GOP. Once a party of establishment types, it is increasingly becoming the party of right-wing crackpots and bigots, the kind of folks that even James Baker III once called "yahoos." Heck, these are the kind of people even Barry Goldwater thought were kooky.

Because Specter is not a true liberal, except by Republican standards, he won't be any more a reliable vote for the Democrats than he was for the Republicans. Indeed, there's something about him that irks Barbra Streisand; she invited Specter's 1986 Democratic opponent to her private fundraising concert for the Democratic party, and she went right up to Specter at one of President Clinton's inaugural balls in 1993 and snidely asked him how it felt to be on the losing side. (Actually, Specter won his bid for a third term in 1992, despite female opposition in Pennsylvania to his support for confirming Clarence Thomas to a seat on the Supreme Court, which he now regrets.) But he will be clearly be more comfortable in party that is the big tent the Republicans pretend to be. (Pennsylvania's other Democratic senator, Robert Casey, Jr., is pro-life.) And when Al Franken finally gets into the Senate, the Democrats will have a filibuster-proof majority that should intimidate the GOP opposition. Specter is certain to be a formidable candidate for re-election next year.

Streisand may even campaign for him. :-D

This must be the ultimate wet dream for MSNBC host and Philadelphia native Chris Matthews.

(Semi-related useless fact: Arlen Specter's name is an anagram of "learn respect." :-))

Too Much Of a Rush

I've had enough of Rush Limbaugh. Well, not so much the man himself - I can always turn him off. What I've had enough of is Democrats attacking Rush Limbaugh and inflating his already considerable profile.

Picking on a talk radio host that just happens to be America's most popular conservative political commentator and allowing him to assume the mantle of the de facto leadership of the Republican party isn't helping anyone, not even Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh's fame alwas rested on his commentary, but now he's more famous for being rather than doing. To be honest, he's always been famous for being to some extent, but his actions speak as loud as his words; because his actions are his words!e

This latest brouhaha is an embarrassing ideological food fight that is dragging down the political discourse of the entire nation. Why nit just let Limbaugh undistinguish himself with his unformed, sometimes contradictory opinions without comment, rather than call mor attention to him? Paul Begala and James Carville, the architects behind the current strategy of pumping Limbaugh up, have done more than enough to make the Republicans look worse than they already are. Now they're making this non-issue. Meanwhile, America needs health care reform and General Motors is in danger of going the way of Studebaker. That's it; let's move on. Please. I have foreign nationals among my friends, and you're making America look foolish to them.

Begala and Carville may continue to obsess about what they heard when they had Rush on the radio, and they may fixate on how many people listen to Rush, and the influence of Rush, and if they do, I just have one thing to say. . ..

Rush is a band.

Twitter Ye Not

Republicans in Congress sent an awful lot of awful text messages on Twitter while sitting through President Obama's speech Tuesday night. Now that they have been made public on MSNBC, I suspect that they're going to become much more receptive to the idea of a constitutional right to privacy.