Karl Rove -- Liberal Talisman?

We've been blessed with an intelligent new poster here at Le Sabot -- Gyemant. A few threads down from here we're discussing Church/State and American and Ukrainian elections. Here are a couple of thoughts I had about that thing-that-goes-bump-in-the-night for liberals, Karl Rove:

"The whole omnipresence of Rove thing is a liberal talisman to ward off an uncomfortable truth -- the modern conservative movement has grown from its tiny beginnings among intellectuals in the 1950's until it's become a nationwide counter-establishment that can challenge the liberals even in the grassroots. Especially in the grassroots.

Both the Left and Right wings are highly flexible and decentralized. Which is why I didn't blame Kerry for all the excesses of the Left (though I do blame him for not speaking more forthrightly against them.) Likewise, Rove isn't directly involved in everything that happens on the Right."

I wonder if the liberal perception of Rove doesn't stem from an underlying presupposition about human nature. If one buys into bureaucratization, centralization and collectivism, it makes sense to believe that the whole spectrum of conservative activism is centrally planned. It fits with a particular vision of human nature and the Good Society.

Which is another reason I'm a conservative -- I believe that human initiative and liberty are key to ordering society and bringing about peace and prosperity.

NOTE: I certainly don't dispute Rove's influence or the impact of his work. And a political campaign does lend itself more to central planning than do the affairs of an entire nation. I'm speaking here of Rove as an omnipotent, omnipresent Liberal Icon, not as a political operative.

Political Blogger Mass Suicide to be Discovered in Several Weeks

"BOSTON—By examining web-traffic data for left-leaning DailyKos.com, researchers have predicted that the mass suicide of 14 political bloggers will likely be discovered sometime in mid-December. 'After months of doing nothing but sit alone in our rooms at our computers, trying to get our message to the people, we lost the election anyway,' read the still-unread suicide pact posted Nov. 3. 'We'd rather be dead than live in a country as f-- up as this one.' The bodies will most likely be found by property managers, long-estranged parents, or neighbors returning copies of Joe Trippi's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."

Courtesy of The Onion Hat tip: Jerkasaurus.com

Conservative Schism! Panic at Chez Rove!

Conservatives have found a dark cloud in the silver lining of the 2004 elections -- a revolt by Paleoconservatives angry with George Bush. One RNC source described the mood as "Fraught. Fraught and overwrought. Perhaps a little wroth, too," as GOP insiders considered the impact of Constitution Party candidate Michael Petrouka's vote tallies.

Republican pollster Frank Luntz's comments were typical of many at the gathering: "While we were able to narrowly pull off a victory this year, the writing is on the wall. While Bush could only manage 51% percent of the popular vote, Petrouka soared to nearly .2% in Ohio, and .08% in must-win Florida. If present trends continue, the Constitution Party will constitute a real spoiler effect by the 2396 elections. We're doomed."

Moonbat Meltdown!

I’ve been wandering through the darker marshes of the online fever swamps, where the Deaniacs and other lunatics of the Democratic Party have retreated in defeat, Osceola-style. Pick most any of the major Lefty blogs, and you’ll get a fascinating peek into their overheated craniums. Half of them seem poised to emigrate. Kerry is being downed as a quitter, and many are planning to vote Nader next cycle. The air is full of talk of “Repugs”, vicious caricatures of Christians, and allusions to a coming (or currently) fascist America. Here’s an endearing example:

Conspiracy theories abound, the most popular being that the Diebold Company stole the election for Bush. My favorite meme is “secession”. The idea is to pull out of the Union and unite with Canada, whose positions on unlimited immigration, gay marriage and drugs so closely mirrors that of the Democratic base. They believe the rest of the country (Jesusland) would be an economic and cultural “Bangladesh” without the Blue States.

While I could have done the same with a hundred websites, all of the following quotes are from just a single DailyKos post. Nice bunch.

"I'd prefer blowing up Diebold HQ."
Posted by streak

"We're better off letting Chimpy stew in his own mess at this point, while doing what we can to accelerate the express elevator to hell that his second term bodes for his red-state buddies - the poor and stupid . . ."
by patricks

"I'm a new participant in Dailykos.com and am fascinated by the concept of secession, and a geo/cultural breakup of what is currently the USA. Let this be Bush's legacy! Secession hold so much more potential for the blue states to realize our dreams. Let's get some buzz going on this. I'm 100% serious."
by Torta

"And but so... When do we put on our black hoodies and storm the White House and take it back for the people? I may be a cartoonist, but I ain't kiddin' around this morning. . . "
by scottbateman

"America is Finished as a Democracy. . . We will have a secret police in place by 2008, the paperless voting machines will be under their control, the mass media will be totally compliant."
by easong

"Roe v. Wade will be overturned! We could slip into fascism! He'll become more entrenched! Elect the new court! How can we fight such a monster?. . . . Bush is the Anti-Christ. "
by nomes

"But hell will freeze over before I vote DNC or GOP again."
by lawnorder

"The War Begins Today. Unite? Never. We fight Bush & his thugs until hell freezes over. And then we fight on the ice."
by patricks

In the Unlikely Event of a Kerry Victory. . .

There are some definite silver linings for Republicans. Here are a few:

Kerry will be a weak president -- Kerry is a Senate back-bencher with a liberal, but amazingly picayune record of legislative non-achievment. He has no agenda, which is why his campaign has been nothing but attacks on Bush and invoking his 4 months of Vietnam service. He'll be faced by a solidly Republican Senate and House. He'll have no honeymoon period to speak of, given the bad blood his underhanded campaign tactics have engendered among the Rs. Good luck, Frenchie.

Kerry will quickly alienate his base -- People aren't voting FOR Kerry, but against Bush. The ambivalence is palpable in most of the endorsements Kerry has picked up. The Dem base chose him because he was electable, not because he was particularly palatable. Watch how fast they turn on him when they realize that the anti-war president they thought they were electing does almost nothing discernably different from Bush in the War on Terror, particularly in Iraq. He'll be less effectual than Bush, but that will be out of incompetence, not deliberation. Given the impression of weakness the mainstream of America has of Kerry, he can't AFFORD to pull out troops or scale back the war in Iraq. Near-instant buyer's remorse.

This will keep down future Democratic turnout. He'll thus need to tack Left to shore up his base for the mid-term elections. This won't endear him to the other 80% of the American people.

Kerry will be instantly unpopular with the American people -- He'll be going into office with off-the-chart personal negatives. And unlike Bush, Clinton or Reagan, he has zero personal charm to help alleviate them. Try imagining the American people warming to Kerry. The secret to Bush's survival was resolutely high personals, which helped keep him going even when job approval numbers dipped. Kerry has no similar ace in the hole.

Kerry will have a riled Republican base to deal with -- given the slew of dirty tricks his campaign has pulled, along with its media surrogates, Kerry will be in the political crosshairs of Republican activists from day one. And he'll be facing grassroots organization and alternative media of a degree Clinton never experienced. If the race is close, multiply the Republican sense of grievance by two. I say this because of the Banana Republic levels of fraud the Dem activists are pulling in places like PA, OH, FL, SD and elsewhere. The impression of a stolen election will be unassailable.

Kerry will disenchant the Mushy Middle -- when they realize he was completely talking out his hat about bringing in the UN and Europe. People dumb enough to believe he could convince France, Germany and Belgium to first find a credible military force, and then deploy it to the Gulf shouldn't be voting in the first place. But if they do, they deserve to be disappointed. That won't stop them from taking their disillusionment out on Kerry's approval numbers.

All said, a one-term Kerry could queer Hillary's chances in 2008. It could also help complete the voter re-alignment that began in the 60's, and ensure long-term Republican majority status.

Election Predictions!

President: Bush beats Kerry

Popular Vote
Bush 49.5%
Kerry 48.5%
Nader 1%
Fringe Types 1%

Electoral Count
Bush 282 EVs
Kerry 256 EVs

Senate: R 53, D 46, I 1

Republicans take NC, SC, GA, KY, OK, FL, LA and SD.

Democrats take CO, AK, IL.

Net Change +2 Republican

House: R 229, D 203

Net Change +2 Republican

How about the rest of you?

More Political Prognostication!

Check out Thinklings, and be sure to read the comments. Also, my buddy Inkling at The Rough Woodsman has posted his predictions.

Predictions for a second Bush Term:

* Bush appoints 3 Supremes. Two of them are consistently pro-Life, one a Sandy Day. As for other federal judgeships, thanks to an improved Senate balance he has even greater success putting believers in judicial restraint on the bench. When necessary he plays hardball with recess appointments.

* Dems finally accept long-term minority status in Congress, setting off a wave of Dem retirements.

* Dems sink further into denial, and actually convince themselves that they lost because they weren’t liberal enough. Lib blogs buzz with people saying, ‘if only we had nominated Dean.’

* Anti-Bush hysteria goes into overdrive. Bush hating becomes a cottage industry supporting an entire class of political hacks. Oh wait, that’s already happened.

* The open Kerry cheerleading of Big Media is a preview of coming attractions. Media outlets increasingly abandon the pretense of objectivity, and the line between analysis and hard news becomes more and more difficult to discern. This fuels a trend toward alternative media. Bully for us.

* The cultural and political divide between the US and Europe continues to widen. England becomes increasingly Euro-integrated, and nearly as emptily moralizing, effete and bureaucratized as the rest of them. The Euros continue to tut-tut whenever Americans take decisive steps to protect themselves or fight for the democratic causes about which Euros only posture. We continue not to care.

If your campaign is talking about “new voters” and turnout. . .

. . .it’s because you’re losing. Kerry & Co. should ask Howard Dean how banking on newly registered youth voters worked out.

Can We Stop Saying "Suspected" Forgery Now?

I have nothing original to add on the RatherGate scandal. Yes, it's great to be handed such a clearcut example of the liberal bias we've always suspected. Yes, this event confirms what Drudge and Monica seemed to show -- that we've entered a new era for media. And yes, the fact that the liberals thought that an ancient pseudo-scandal like this would sway the election, even if the memos were genuine, shows how isolated from the rest of America they've become.

I'll just say this though. . . After looking at this WaPo side-by-side, I can't imagine how any intellectually honest person, that is to say, non-CBS employee, could use a qualifier with the word "forgery."

Democratic in What Sense, Exactly?

Let me get this straight. . . the Democratic Party is mounting aggressive legal challenges against Nader's Reform Party to force them off the very instument of democracy, the ballot? The perverse irony is sweet enough to rot a political junkie's teeth.

One Paragraph Punditry

No shortage of big stories today, and I'm on a tight schedule. Brevity being the soul of thrift in this case, I'll do a few one-paragraph reaction posts. . .

The incoming Iraqi government is a real step forward. The principals have agreed to a President, two VPs and a Prime Minister. I fully expect the anti-war crowd to ignore it. Over time, it becomes harder to believe that they were merely against the war, rather than against any success in Iraq. I could understand someone opposing the war. But now that it has taken place, wouldn't any reasonable person WANT things to succeed? Apparently not. First, they deny progress because any success would validate the invasion in many swing voters' minds, and secondly, because there are a lot of self-loathers out there. They really do see a pro-active America as the world's greatest threat, and they're counting on a bloody nose in Iraq to "teach us a lesson." I'm curious though, how does one "support the troops" while simultaneously undercutting everything they're fighting and dying for?

12,000 troops are leaving Korea -- and it's about time. The South Korean economy dwarfs the North's. Our troops, for at least the last two decades, have basically served to subsidize the Korean economy. They have the population, economy, and heavy industry to defend themselves against the backwards and impoverished North. While living peacefully under our umbrella, the South has backbitten us in our negotiations with the North, protested our presence, and generally acted like the ingrates they are. 12,000 troops is merely a good start, IMO. We have forward bases in Japan, Okinawa and Diego Garcia. Enough GIs have frozen their butts off for a year away from their wife and children for these people. The report mentioned a negotiating committee for the issue. What do we have to negotiate? We owed them nothing to begin with, and we've been paying off this non-existent debt for 5 decades. I think we can call it even.

The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban was struck down by a Clinton-appointed federal judge. Bush appoints Federalist Society judges. Democrats have a de facto litmus test for pro-abortion appointees. 2,200 babies will now be murdered in the next year in one of the most painful and barbaric ways imaginable. But keep telling yourself there's no difference between the parties.

The Kerry Campaign: A One-String Guitar

Kerry continues to demonstrate the clueless and hollow nature of his campaign. It has so far consisted of little more than Bush-bashing, with the exception of a gumdrop-fairy promise to create ten million new jobs (Why such a modest number? Why not just promise 0% unemployment if you're going to fantasize?)

Today he accused Bush of "rushing to war." Right. A year-long international debate is a "rush." By that definition, a tree sloth battle royale would be a blindingly fast confrontation. As for his contention that the post-Iraq planning was weak, I'm inclined to agree. It was impossible to forsee all outcomes, and the situation is rapidly shifting.

I also highly doubt that a Kerry cabinet of California liberals would have been a big improvement. Especially when he spouts nonsense like this:

"I believe our troops are in greater danger today, exposed to more gun fire and more mortar attacks and more ambushes than they had to be if we had done what common sense dictates ... which is to build alliances and share the responsibilities,"

These potential allies are a bit like his jobs. They exist only in his imagination. If Bush's patient negotiations with the UN didn't secure us allies, where were these allies to come from? Further, this is an incredible insult to the large number of countries whose troops are suffering and serving right alongside ours. It's interesting to watch him insult and alienate the 35 countries who have contributed to the Coalition forces in Iraq, all while telling us how much more diplomatic he would have been than Bush.

As usual, he wants it both ways. He voted in favor of Bush's "rush to war," finding the pace just fine back then. He voted against the 87 billion dollar supplemental bill to pay for additional body armor and pay raises for the military, but then attacks Bush for not providing for the troops.

He also keeps forgetting to mention that bin Laden is no longer Minister of Defense in Afghanistan, Libya has abandoned its WMD aspirations and Iran is increasingly open to accountability on the subject.

America IS safer thanks to Bush and his post-9/11 response.

This Thing Was a Heartbeat Away. . .

. . .from controlling the nuclear launch codes.

I'm SO glad that Clinton's cholesterol was low. I'm equally thankful that Palm Beach Democrats are too stupid to read a ballot.

Vets Against Kerry

Kerry's campaign is beginning to look reassuringly like Bob Dole's. Like Dole, he's a compromise Establishment choice with no particular vision for what he'd do with the presidency should he actually win it. Also like Dole, he's trying to substitute anti-incumbent anger and his own biography in place of any "vision thing." And, like Dole, the central component of his biography is military service.

Unlike Dole, Kerry is roundly despised by the troops I know. Normally this would be a peripheral fact, but America is at war. And further, he himself has chosen to place this service at the center of his campaign.

Which is why it's big news that "nineteen of the 23 officers who served with John Kerry and every one of his commanding officers in Vietnam have signed a letter that says he is not fit to be commander in chief." That's an extraordinary percentage to agree on anything, let alone sign a public letter against a national politician.

My great hope is that America will listen to these soldiers who knew Kerry best. I remember how demoralizing it was having Clinton in office when I served. We ALL knew we had a Commander-in-Chief who "loathed" the military, in his own words, and who "doesn't like the military" in the words of his daughter.

Unleavened Republicans?

One of the Big Lies of this campaign, and an enduring fable of the previous election, is that Republicans are questioning the patriotism of Democrats. I have yet to see any public figure on the Republican side say "Candidate X is unpatriotic."

This is a naked attempt by Dems to insulate themselves from any charge that they're weak on defense. But in what alternative universe is the phrase "weak on defense" equivalent to "unpatriotic"?

Maybe we can start using the same verbal prestidigitation. When Dems attack us on Social Security, we can express shrill indigination at this accusation of being unsociable. Or when we're criticized for our support of Israel, we can denounce the Dems for calling us unleavened. There's no limit to the fictious "mean-spirited" attacks we can be indignant about. Especially once we stop letting reality get in the way.

Like I said, I've never heard any Rs calling Kerry unpatriotic. My own position is this -- Kerry espouses a poisonous political philosophy that's inimical to the founding ideals of this country. How that relates to his patriotism is a question for deeper minds than my own.

I wanted to add something to my last post. One of my good friends has contacts with the Reformist movement in Iran. He's mystified by the negativity towards Bush by some in America. As he puts it, all the dissidents in Iran are for Bush.

Kerry brags about unnamed foreign leaders who prefer him, as if that should sway us. If I had my choice though, I'd want a president loved by the freedom activists of Iran, not the bureaucrats of France.

And while Kerry may have the respect of Old Europe (for what it's worth and as long as it lasts), Bush clearly has the respect of the leaders of North Korea, Pakistan, Libya and Iran. This is a much more valuable foreign currency than the Euro, and a type which Kerry wouldn't begin to know how to earn.

Reagan Redux

Let's see. . . A weak Democratic president who hollows our military and signs Executive Orders binding the hands of our intelligence services, and seems more interested in securing the affections of our enemies than in supporting our friends abroad. A president possessed of such spinelessness that Muslim fanatics grow emboldened enough to directly go after Americans. He is, of course, therefore beloved of Europeans.

He's followed by a conservative Republican intent on rebuilding the military and reasserting America abroad. This one is derided as a cowboy and roundly hated by Europe. At the same time, his bold stance scares the Hades out of our enemies, and brings them to concessions that would have been inconceivable before this 'cowboy' came in office.

While there'll never be another Reagan, Bush's foreign policy is cut from the same cloth.

Kerry Keeps it Real

You need to be reading Ace of Spades HQ. There are funny sites,and there are thoughtful sites, but few manage to synthesize the two.

As most of you probably know, Kerry decided to shed any residual dignity he had left after cursing his own Secret Service agent. When in company with Sharpton or Howard Dean, dignity is a useless encumberance. So Kerry went into hyper-kinetic pander-mode, and told reporters that,

"I'm fascinated by rap and by hip-hop. I think there's a lot of poetry in it. There's a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it. And I think you'd better listen to it pretty carefully, 'cause it's important.

"I'm still listening because I know that it's a reflection of the street and a reflection of life, and I understand all that."

Here are Ace of Spade's Top Ten influences of hip-hop on Kerry, which are too good to excerpt:

"10. Is on record as a staunch opponent of "frontin'" oil corporations, but supports small family-owned businesses which are "just tryin' to represent"

9. Frequently concludes anti-Bush speeches by dropping microphone and striking "down" pose while exposing his "Senator Thug" belly-tatoo

8. Never once worked for the man; got himself some high-payin' b-- and has just been pimpin' and chillin' with the bling-bling ever since

7. Pro-"jimmies," but favors controlling "nines"

6. Developed his own martial arts style combining elements of Korean Hapkiddo and pop n' lock "robot" stylings of the Boogaloo Shrimp from Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

5. Has dedicated his public life to helping working American families get the tools and help they need for raising their "shorties"

4. Starred in late-eighties "rap-com," The Fresh Brahmin of Beacon Hill; series featured frequent cameos by senior Senator from Massachusetts, DJ Pantless Ted

3. Wrote and co-sponsored SR 371, nicknamed the "Truth and Quality in Dropping Rhymes Bill;" bill had laudable goal of finally outlawing "suckah MC's who gots no skills," but was defeated by a posse of playah-hatin' Southern Republicans on a voice-vote

2. Known for always "keeping his pimp-hand strong" when negotiating in conference

...and the Number One Influence Hip-Hop Has Had on John Kerry...

1. At his acceptance speech at Democratic National Convention, Kerry plans to give much love to the Creator, all peace to JC, props to his producers No-Bonze and Jellything from Bad Boy Entertainment, and a special "shout-out" to his agent Myron G. Herskovitz"

Caption This Aging Hipster!

It's long past time that I updated my Clog of the Week. Best caption for this photo wins the spot!

Dis-honoring the Troops

James Taranto's Best of the Web ranks with ABCNews's The Note as my favorite media blog. He combines cheek with information you don't see on other sites. For instance, about the 90 Dems who voted against the recent "Honoring the Troops" resolution in the House.

This is astounding to me. Just think about this -- almost 1/2 of the House Dems, including their leader, Nancy Pelosi, refused to honor the troops in even a symbolic way.

Lest anyone think the reso was an unsusual sort of Gotcha! gimmick to get Dems on record voting against it, these types of resolutions are done regularly. The same day featured a resolution "honoring the life and legacy of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt . . . on the anniversary of the date of his birth."

The death of the Southern Wing of the party, and the emaciation of the old, patriotic Industrial Dems has tilted the Dem congressional delegation heavily to the Left. Can anyone imagine the House Dems voting in such a way even 10 years ago?

Kerry: An Intelligence Failure

Barbara Comstock has a good guest piece in NRO today, overviewing Sen. Kerry's record on the Senate Intell Committee. During the 90's, he spent 8 years on the committee.

"Despite such incidents as the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and the bombing of the Khobar Towers in 1996, Kerry proposed intelligence cuts throughout the 1990s and even asked his colleagues in 1997, "Now that [the Cold War] struggle is over, why is it that our vast intelligence apparatus continues to grow?. . .In September 1995, two years after the first World Trade Center attack, Senator Kerry proposed cutting $1.5 billion from the intelligence budget."

Interestingly, not a single other senator voted with him on the cuts. He actually equated these cuts to "trimming the mink subsidy." During these eight years, he proposed budget cuts three times, and never once advocated an increase. This is par for the course for Democrats, who have done little but bind the hands and gut the budgets of our intell services since the days of Frank Church.

Is George Bush perfect? Of course not. We've discussed his faults here at Le Sabot. But do any of you REALLY think America will be safer with a President Kerry?

Cheney's In the (White) House!

I'm sure most of you have read them, but I got such a kick out of Cheney's recent Gridiron comments. Here are a few excerpts:

"Dave Broder: "How would you accurately describe your role in this administration? Be honest."

I would say that I am a dark, insidious force pushing Bush toward war and confrontation. . . .

Helen Thomas wants to know, "How do you justify attacking innocent dictators?"

Helen, let me get back to you on that. I need to talk to Richard Perle.

Terry Hunt of AP wants to know, "Has Senator Kerry had Botox treatments?"

Terry, I have some guidance on that from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz:

"The Administration takes this development seriously. Botox, of course, is related to the botulism toxin, which can be processed into high-grade biological weapons. We have dispatched Dr. David Kay . . . to search for the bio-warfare agents we believe hidden in Senator Kerry's forehead. . ."

Kerry: Words Have Meanings; Votes Have Consequences

We use terms like conservative and liberal, and they're necessary in political dialogue. But it helps sometimes to look at what goes into the term -- what exactly does it mean to be a liberal Senator? As John Kerry was rated the most liberal by the Lefty stalwarts at Americans for Democratic Action, let's use him as our example. I spent some time reading tonight. Here are a few of his votes from recent years:

1. He voted to repeal Reagan's "Mexico City" rule, which outlawed giving foreign aid to NGOs which perform abortions.

2. He voted against exempting religious organizations from laws banning discrimination of sexual orientation in hiring. In other words, churches and religious organizations would be forced to hire homosexuals regardless of their beliefs on the matter.

3. He voted against myriad new weapons systems, and for military spending cuts and freezes.

4. He voted to reduce the maximum penalty for terrorists who kill US citizens abroad from the death penalty to life in prison.

5. He voted against allowing states to refuse recognition of other states' gay marriages.

6. He voted to use federal funds to pay for abortifacient pills for public school clinics.

7. He voted to subject US troops and citizens to the authority of the International Criminal Court, opening them up to frivolous persecution of the type Brussels excels at, and weakening our national sovereignty.

8. He voted to have military clinics offer abortions.

9. He voted to add homosexuality to hate crime laws, and require the federal government to prosecute even when no federal law had been broken.

10. He voted to impose the damaging Kyoto Treaty, which exempted polluters like China and would have severely damaged our economy.

11. He voted repeatedly to keep partial-birth abortion legal.

These are just a handful of his votes, but they do help flesh out what it means to be a liberal.

***Gratuitous cheap-shot alert!*** A nutshell definition seems to be: Someone who wants to spare the lives of terrorists but take the lives of infants.

Kerry: Strong on the Attack, Weak on Defense

Kerry's radio attack on Bush today was sleazy even for him. Hoping to find a fig leaf to cover the naked weakness of his own defense record, Kerry hoped to make an issue of the shortage of body armor in Iraq. Let's grant that he has a point on the body armor, and the new stuff is way more effective than the thin flak jackets they were issuing when I served. That puts flak jackets under the Bush debit column.

Meanwhile, Kerry's column would look like this:

"The Massachusetts senator voted against defense appropriations bills that included money for weapons such as the Patriot missile, the Tomahawk cruise missile and the B-2 stealth bomber — all of which military leaders say have become integral to the U.S. force and were crucial to winning the 1991 Gulf war and last year's war in Iraq.

According to voting records, Mr. Kerry also favored cutting or canceling spending on the Apache helicopter, the M-1 Abrams tank and a wide range of fighter jets.

Among the votes the group evaluated were nine Mr. Kerry cast against developing a missile-defense system envisioned to protect the United States from nuclear attack. Also noted are the six times in the past 10 years he voted to freeze or reduce defense spending. Mr. Kerry also cast two votes to loosen trade controls over "dual-use" technology such as U.S.-made high-speed computers that can also be used by enemies to build high-tech weaponry."

If it were me in Baghdad, I'd rather have M-1s, Apaches, fighter jets, the Patriot and the Tomahawk than flak jackets. But John Kerry's the one with all the medals, undoubtedly he knows better than me. I'm sure he has all sorts of moral and strategic high ground from which to lob HEAT rounds at Bush.

Kerry: 96.5% Liberal, 100% Unfit for the Presidency

I'll admit to surprise when I read that National Journal had ranked Kerry as 2003's most liberal Senator. Perhaps it's his gauntly patrician look or his basic blandness. It seems wrong that the most sinster Winger in the place should be so totally lacking in wild-eyed appeal. Nevertheless, it's there in black and white. He received a whopping 96.5% composite liberal score.

If Edwards wins the Veepstakes this won't "balance" the ticket, as he's holding down 4th place out of 48 Democratic Senators. They will instead comprise. . . *cue Bush campaign music* "The most liberal Presidential ticket since George McGovern."

Republican Oppo guys all over America are making burnt offerings to the household gods of the National Journal right now, sobbing in broken gratitude for this factoid.

American Exceptionalism

Mark Steyn explains why many Tories like John Kerry: "He has the reassuring mien of an unexciting Cabinet heavyweight back when the party still had heavyweights and a Cabinet to put them in. . . superficially, he has the air of a cadaverous Douglas Hurd."

I think it's simpler than that: the Tories' conservatism is closer to our own Democratic Party. American-style conservatism exists at a party level only fitfully in most places of the world -- Western Canada or the Czech Republic, for example. Then there are those rare individuals born with a normally-recessive conservative gene, some atavistic trait of Churchillness that skips three or four generations and then appears -- Baroness Thatcher is a good example.

Speaking of Lady Thatcher, I once saw a poster of her which illustrates things nicely. She was saying, apocryphally, "In my country, as in America, there are two parties -- the Labour Party, which in your country would be the Socialist Party; and the Conservative Party, which in your country would be the Socialist Party."

Our relatively vibrant and healthy conservative movement is the chief reason that Europe and America speak past one another. They can't understand the conservative mind a whit better than the editorial board of the New York Times.

Jimmy Carter -- Tanned, Rested and Ready

If Kerry's "intern problem" turns out to be genuine, it seems possible the Dems will look outside the current pool of candidates for a dark horse savior. The most oft heard name is Hillary Clinton, but I think this lacks imagination. The Dems should borrow a page from the 2002 campaign and nominate an old Party warhorse. Then, faced with the loss of a Senate seat, they tapped Walter Mondale to save the seat (albeit unsuccessfully.)

This year, why not his boss? After Hart, Clinton and now Kerry, a docile near-octogenarian like Jimmy Carter might just start to appeal to them. Sure, he admitted back in the 70's to having "lust in his heart", but now that he's IN his 70's, that little hitch should be worked out.

I'm curious, what do you think his campaign slogan would be?

Moore Trouble For Bush?

I said the other day that if Bush doesn't win a second term, the post-mortem would be neglect of his base. OpinionJournal has news today that Judge Roy Moore is flirting with the idea of an independent bid. A Moore candidacy would be formidable if backed by the Constitution Party. Even matching Nader's 2000 showing, he'd likely elect John Kerry.

If Moore does run, and if he spoils the race, Bush and the Republicans will have no one to blame but themselves. Their fiscal irresponsibility has tarnished conservatism's reputation, and justifiably angered the base. I'll be voting Bush in 2004. But there are undoubtedly others who will not, unless Bush gets busy earning their votes.

Just Say No!

Thanks to The Weekly Standard

Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry

John Kerry interjects his Viet Nam service into every speech in much the same way an Amway salesman mentions his "Fortune 500 Company" to everyone he meets. He seems right proud of it these days. What he seems less interested in recounting is the full-on backstabbing of his fellow GIs he performed upon returning to the United States.

Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry has put together a good overview of his activism, including his post as an organizer for the rabidly pro-Communist VVAW. The pic I've posted is from a VVAW protest. For those not up on Chinese Communist dictators, the bald-headed guy is NOT Charlie Chan.

NOTE- For further coverage of the issue, check out Evangelical Outpost. Joe's staying on top of this one.

Neglecting the Base

If President Bush manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory this election, the post-mortem will read: "Like his father, he neglected his base."

That was my reaction as I read today that he's increasing funding to the National Endowment for the Arts. Sure, the amount is negligible when we're talking about a trillion dollar budget. And granted, the NEA has come a long way since the bad old days of Mapplethorpe. And yes, a few moderates will read this the way he wants them too -- that Bush isn't Gingrich, and they need not fear him.

But the NEA has a lot more psychic impact on the conservative base than it does for the mushy-middle. It isn't a federal agency, it's a symbol, one which conjures up images of crucifixes in urine and all manner of perversion in glossy black-and-white. For a president who normally understands the importance of symbols, this seems totally ham-handed.

For the record, the federal government has no business funding art in the first place. I support the separation of Art and State.

Fred Barnes -- Where's My Hat Tip?

More for the Great-Minds-Think-Alike file -- Fred Barnes also points up the similarities of Bob Dole and John Kerry as candidates.

"That match-up is reminiscent of the Bob Dole versus President Clinton election in 1996. Hold your applause. It would be a conventional presidential contest between two party regulars.

Kerry is Dole without the wit. Like Dole, he's an establishment figure, an old political horse with little pizzazz. He's not identified with any particular issue or cause. His ideology is basically liberal but flexible, just as Dole's was conservative but pragmatic. Kerry is acceptable across the center-left breadth of the Democratic party, a mirror image of Dole's standing among moderate and conservative Republicans."

And like Dole, he's "acceptable" without being energizing.

Dean Should Put Some Ice On That. . .

. . . Before It Swells.

We're taking advantage of tomorrow being our day off, and the Duchess and I have been refreshing ABCNews's real-time New Hampshire stats with monkey-feeder-bar like intensity. Three things have been bouncing around in my head:

1. The expectations game is going to bite Dean hard. All week he succesfully spun a recovery, and raised the expectation bar to a squeaker loss. Now that it's a double-digit blow-out, he's in serious trouble.

2. Kerry? The Dems will probably soon know what I experienced with Dole in '96. Okay, he's our nominee, he's a respected senior figure. But he's so. . . DULL. How do you get excited about having Kerry for your nominee? It's like staging a romantic comedy with Woody Allen -- sure, he's funny, but does anyone want to see him kissing Diane Keaton? (Oh wait, bad example.)

3. Polls. . . One more miscall like this, and John Zogby should change his last name to Trelawney.

Oh, I said three things, but it's actually four. I noticed that Lyndon LaRouche has pulled in 64 votes so far. The Duchess and I have been regaling the hamster, Vinnie Pukh, with our rendition of "LaRouche, LaRouche, LaRouche is on fire!", to the tune of the 1984 Rockmaster Scott classic.

Kerry: Liberal Lazarus

A strange sort of transference took place in Iowa -- Howard Dean scared the voters to death, and thus brought John Kerry back to life. With Kerry's campaign not only resucitated, but vigorous, I think it's time we paid some attention to him.

You may have heard, if you've listened to him for more than 3.2 seconds, that he served in Viet Nam. He reminds me of Mister Subliminal on SNL with the way he can interpose the small Asiatic nation into conversations on anything from trade to terrorism. What he mentions less often are his traitorous actions upon his return. Check out Conduct Unbecoming for reasons why he doesn't deserve veteran support. Also Evangelical Outpost and Sophorist on Kerry's anti-war book. (Take a look at the mock-Iwo Jima landing with hippie veterans holding an upside-down flag. That'll play GREAT at the VFW.)

For an analysis of Kerry's voting record, and his ambivalent feelings and honesty about it, read Rich Lowry's Kerry vs. Kerry, and Fred Barnes with The Great Explainer.

For an in-depth look at Dukakis's former Lieutenant Governor and his chances in the South (read that a few times without giggling, if you can. . .) check out ABCNews's 5-page extravaganza Forget the South?

Are They SURE This Time?

Does anyone else think the Punditocracy hasn't earned its money this election cycle? Does anyone remember six months ago when we were assured by everyone other than Joe Lieberman's mom and dad that John Kerry was the absolute favorite to win the nomination? The pundits gave him an aura of inevitability -- he had the money, the organization, the best position for superdelegates, etc.

Then along comes Dean's, and the cloak of inevitability was passed to him. We were assured that Terry McAuliffe had doomed the party to a Dean nomination through the front-loaded primary schedule.

Now we've come full-circle, and they're as much as giving Kerry the nomination. Can you remember another election where the "experts" shifted this many times this decisively?

Labash in New Hampshire

Matt Labash isn't P.J. O'Rourke, but every once in awhile he hits all the right notes. This week he takes a very wry, very personal look at the absurdity of the NH primary. Here's Labash. . .

On Teresa Heinz57-Kerry:

"Launching into a Dadaist recitation of every subject from her childhood in Mozambique to Marilyn Monroe, she offers that one of the reasons she thinks her husband should be president is "because I'm getting older."

On Gephardt:

". . .something seems to be missing. Perhaps the rock'n'roll bacchanal that was once synonymous with the name "Dick Gephardt."

On Kucinich:

"With ferret-like movements, he lands next to me, and tells me how the frontrunners in his party have stepped into a Republican-sprung bear trap on Iraq. . . A sucker for directness, I'm utterly charmed by Kucinich. I ask him to sign "A Prayer for America," his campaign book, which I now call "my bible," so that I can flip it on eBay. "Cool," he says."

Ted Kennedy -- Mass's Conservative Senator?

The Americans for Democratic Action are the Left's answer to the American Conservative Union when it comes to rating politicians on their voting records. Ed Gillespie just made a rather surprising point at this year's CPAC conference:

"Americans for Democratic Action-the premier liberal rating organization-puts his (John Kerry's) lifetime rating at 93 percent. Sen. Kennedy has a lifetime rating of only 88 percent. Who would have guessed it? Ted Kennedy is the conservative Senator from Massachusetts!"

This is an Oppo man's dream factoid.

In For A Long, Strange Tripped Spin?

I was really hoping for a Dean loss in Iowa, for a couple of reasons. One, because he represents an atavistic and destructive force in our body politic. Secondly, and more partisanly, because it muddles the Democratic field. With the current front-loaded primary system, it could have been easy for him to roll straight through to victory -- most people were predicting it. Instead we now have a 4-way race with no clear front-runner. The longer this drags the more poisonous it'll become, and the more battered the eventual victor. It also allows Bush to keep out of things that much longer.

Robert Moran adds another element -- the proportional delegate system of the Dems. The Rs have winner-take-all, but Dems receive delegates according to their percentage of the vote. This makes it even more difficult in a 4-way race to get your majority.

I'll belly up to the bar in a few days and post my New Hampshire predictions. Be sure also to check out , Blackfive, and Anti-Climacus for more political prognostication.

An Attack of Sanity, Or Madman's Logic?

Some pundits are reading Iowa as a repudiation of the hard-core Lefties who've controlled the dialogue thus far in the 2004 campaign. Most have pointed out that 75% of the vote went to candidates who supported the Iraq War. This DOES show that the war isn't the defining issue of the campaign, but that's not the same thing as saying the lunatic Left has lost its teeth.

The war was only a focal point of a much broader, more lasting motivation -- hatred of Bush. Voting for relatively normal candidates like Kerry and Edwards doesn't demonstrate a sudden bout of sanity. It shows that they're calculating enough in their madness to see Dean was damaged goods.

This election is about finding a way to get rid of the "thief" of the 2000 elections. And once Dean went wobbly on them in the past couple of weeks, it seems to me that Iowa voters moved on to more electable candidates.

Geisha 'Bot and the Human Rorschach

The crisis of leadership in the Democratic Party comes into sharp focus when you look at whom they've chosen as their front-runners. Rejecting a passel of experienced mainstreamers, they've picked two guys who wouldn't even register in a healthy party -- a small-time governor and a retired, Republican general. Both of them have shed whatever personal beliefs they once had, emptying themselves to become purified vessels of Liberalism.

Dean reminds me of some kind of cyberpunk pleasure droid in a William Gibson novel. As he campaigns, I can almost hear him humming a variation of Animation's Strange Behavior -- "You're an obsession, you're my obsession. . . Who do you want me to be to make you vote for me?"

His programming causes him to change to suit the whims of his current patron -- Southerners like God? Well, he'll tell you all about It. Dem primary voters hate guns? His pro-gun record goes out the window. Liberals hate the Iraq war? Sayonara support for pre-emptive strikes. And so on.

Clark is an even better example. He's a Democratic candidate made in their image. He's like an interactive Rorschach blot that takes the shape of focus polling results. From a Republican supporter of Bush and pre-emptive strikes, he's morphed into an ultra-liberal dove in mufti who maintains the most radical position on abortion possible short of gunning down kindergarteners. There are people in Witness Protection programs who haven't had to change as much as Clark has.

If I were Gephardt, my campaign slogan would be, "A Choice, Not An Inkblot."

Hoist On Their Own Petard

There are those occasional human-interest stories that brighten your day -- for example, a den of Hezbollah terrorists accidentally blowing themselves up in their basement. It's tragic not having C-Span here in Kiev, because I think I would have had a similar warm feeling watching the last Democratic debate.

It must have been a schadenfreude-fest watching Sharpton mau-mau Howard Dean over minority hiring. After years of Democrats using the race card to bash Republicans, what sweet irony for it to burn their own front-runner.

Democratic Debate Drinking Game!

These are just some preliminary thoughts for the game. Any additions you have are welcomed!

Take a sip every time:

1. Dean's neck veins bulge.
2. The spotlight glints from Edwards' teeth.
3. Gephardt uses the phrase, "Miserable failure."
4. Someone falls asleep while Lieberman is talking.
5. Sharpton reminds you how uptight the rest of them are.
6. Kerry mentions that he just happened to serve in Vietnam.
7. Moseley-Braun drops the gender card.
8. Clark flashes his newly-minted liberal bonafides.
9. Dennis Kucinich calls for the legalization of marijuana.
10. Someone uses a family tragedy to "humanize" themselves.

Take 2 sips if:

1. Lieberman makes a moderate statement and then backtracks.
2. Clark is wearing a cardigan sweater.
3. Someone sheds crocodile tears while discussing their family tragedy.
4. Sharpton goes on an alliteration binge.
5. Someone mentions a Jewish relation closer than 3rd cousin.
6. Kucinich falls off the stool he's standing on.
7. Dean sings a chorus of "Amazing Grace."

Chug the Bottle if:

1. Dennis Kucinich actually smokes marijuana.
2. Finches or sparrows nest in Kerry's hair.
3. Moseley-Braun articulates why she's running for president.
4. Dean wears his tinfoil hat on-stage.

Senator Harris?

The Duchess just pointed out to me that Drudge says our old friend Katherine Harris is leaning toward a run in Florida. While it may make the primary a bit sticky, she's definitely a better choice for conservatives than Sec'y Martinez -- the anointed candidate of D.C. Republicans. While I generally LIKE Rove's machinations, he's all wet in this case. There are multiple other candidates who would be preferable to Martinez. And Katherine leads my list. A strong, Christian woman could do great things in the Senate.

Hitler is so Campaign2002. . .

Michelle, over at A Small Victory comments on the recent Bush/Hitler ads at Moveon.org. She makes a good point -- the Bush=Hitler meme is tired. Some of her nominations for the next hateful symbol of the Bush regime are: Lex Luthor. Zod. Oliver Cromwell. Ho Chi Minh. Cruella DeVille, Darth Vader and Stalin.

Allah's response was cool: "Don't those people like Stalin? (If you don't read Allah, get over there. He has one of the coolest schticks in the entirety of the blogosphere. Content is a strong PG-13.)

Feet to the Fire.

If the Republicans find that their majority doesn't expand the way they expect, they'll have it coming. I'm absolutely repulsed by the expansion of domestic spending during the past two years. I understand the pressures that naturally come with majoritarian status (it's quite easy for those who have no power to posture about fiscal responsibility, quite another when one is actually the one responsible to fund the government and keep interest groups happy. . .) Neverthless, the Republican leadership is making a mockery of its own principles.

I was glad to read this article in the WashTimes today about unrest on the Right. We need to be SCREAMING at our Republican officials right now. They seem to think that their base is assured and they can spend on credit like teenage newlyweds in order to buy centrist votes.

Rove himself estimates that 4 million Evangelicals stayed home in 2000. If Republicans continue the way they're spending, they'd deserve for it to happen again.

Does this mean I'm giving up? Absolutely not. The party today is still the mainstay of conservatism. We've spent 50 years accruing influence in the party, and it would be mad to walk away now, simply because we've ebbed for a time. But we cannot be docile. Otherwise we'll end up being the Republican equivalent of the black vote -- a group so dependable that Dems think they can be safely ignored while more coy groups are wooed.

And while I'll agitate for conservatism within the party, I'll also remain loyal and vote because the idea of a Democrat guiding the War on Terrorism scares me more than any entitlement expansion.

Lieberman Tugs on Superman's Cape

Joe Lieberman made what I think will be looked back on as a brave, but doomed gesture yesterday. He dared to question that most sacred of Democratic rights -- the right to kill unborn children.

Abortion is the Left's equivalent of a sacrament, a physical symbol which embodies a much higher spiritual "truth" or reality. In this case, the ultimate liberation from personal responsibility and the limitations of gender and nature. In other words, the closest thing to an Absolute in the Left's religion. Only by giving women "control of their fertility" are they, in the theology of the Left, wholly equal to men and free of the burdens of nature. Liberation in its highest form. . .

It is an untouchable, unquestionable Right. Clinton announced that the era of big government was over, he crossed the unions on Free Trade, he sold out gays in the military and abandoned the liberals on welfare reform. But he faithfully vetoed the partial birth abortion ban, despite 75% support for the ban among the American people. He understood.

Lieberman, apparently, does not. He's stated that a re-evaluation of Roe vs. Wade may be necessary in the light of medical advances. That the period in which a woman has a "right-to-choose" is shrinking as more is known about fetal development and viability. (His statement is predicated on the notion that Roe's health clause doesn't make the 1st trimester restriction farcical, but nevertheless.)

If NOW's Taliban-wing doesn't go berserk at this, I'll be very surprised. Along with the rest of the Democratic activist base. By considering restricting child-murder even in such a tiny way, Lieberman has committed the Democratic equivalent of pulling the mask from the old Lone Ranger. And he'll pay a price for it.

Update- Steven from Poliblogger just pointed out that Lieberman is already backtracking. The feminist clerics have given him a penance of ten mea culpas.

Mad Cow Disease Diagnosed in New Hampshire!

DeanWatch: A Fair Trial for bin Laden?

In case you needed further proof that Howard Dean is an alien from planet Bureaucraton, check out this article. He truly isn't from the same world as the rest of us. He refuses to declare bin Laden guilty for the September 11 attacks. Apparently, the multiple tapes in which bin Laden crows about the attacks and claims responsibility weren't enough for him.

Dean's committed to capturing him alive. Consider the implications -- no Daisy Cutter's dropped on his cave, no shoot-to-kill, no popping him with a Hellfire from a drone. . . We have to dig him out of the mountains alive.

Dean STILL doesn't realize we're at war with terrorism. He continues to think in judicial terms:

"I've resisted pronouncing a sentence before guilt is found," Dean said in the interview. "I will have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials. . ."

Someone who can't tell a life-or-death struggle from a court case can't be trusted with the security of the United States or its citizens.

DeanWatch: No Safer?

Dean continues to maintain that we're no safer now than immediately after the September 11th attacks. Even if one disagrees on Iraq, this seems like a stretch, given that the Taliban is no longer running Kabul. Now, with Libya unilaterally ending its nuclear weapons program, it seems impossible to maintain. Especially in light of this article:

"I will do whatever the Americans want because I saw what happened in Iraq, and I was afraid," Mr. Gadhafi told Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, according to a Berlusconi spokesman who was quoted in yesterday's Telegraph of London.

DeanWatch: And You're No McCain, Gov. Dean

The LA Times has a good write-up of Dean's "contradictory statements", which is what they call lies when an individual is running for president. An example:

" In a Dec. 10 news conference in Concord, N.H., Dean insisted that he "never said Saddam was a danger to the United States, ever."

But in an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sept. 29, 2002, Dean said, "There's no question Saddam is a threat to the U.S. and our allies."

Dean likes to posture as a straight-talker, but each day evidence mounts to the contrary.

DeanWatch: Usual Suspects Foreign Policy Team

NRO has a good overview of Dean's new "centrist" foreign policy advisers. Read through this list of Vietnam protestors, UN-philes and appeasers. Then ask yourself: to whom would you trust the safety of America -- these people, or Powell, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice?

Telling it often enough...

Does anyone remember the phrase "Twelve years of Reagan and Bush"? It seemed during the 1992 election that all of the evil of the world could be summarized under this rubric. Unemployment is up a bit -- 12 years of Reagan and Bush. There's a trade imbalance -- 12 years of you-know-what. I stubbed my toe -- Reagan/Bush are at it again.

In the end, the Reagan years were slandered as the Decade of Greed, rather than a time when every single income bracket from richest to poorest saw an increase in after-tax income. The period became the source of all our problems, rather than a time in which we rebuilt our military, restored pride in our country, punked the Communists into surrender and recovered from Carterish stagflation.

The Left is attempting the same thing now with the War in Iraq. They seem to hope that endlessly repeating the mantra that Bush mislead us on WMDs will push it into the popular consciousness.

Bush didn't. He believed that Saddam had them. Just as Pelosi, Dean, Clinton, Gore and all the others went on record as believing back in the 90's. Strangely, it wasn't a Republican president who kept up sanctions on Iraq because of the WMD threat. It was Bill Clinton. Something the Dems seem to have conveniently forgotten.

New Feature: DeanWatch

Despite Dean's surge, the press continues to give him the second-tier kid's-glove treatment. His misstatements are overlooked, his genuine nuttiness downplayed, and each day brings more near-hagiographical write-ups of his campaign. Gaffes that would damn a Republican candidate, or even a mainstream Dem, are relegated to page B-6 when covered at all.

Recent examples include his strong implication that Bush knew about 9/11 in advance, and him repeatedly calling Russia the Soviet Union.

Thanks to Deb Orin at the NY Post, word has leaked out about Dean's hate-filled fundraiser in New York. Don't try finding much about in it the papers of record, as usual.

"Comic Judy Gold dissed President Bush as 'this piece of living, breathing s---' . . . Comic Kate Clinton evoked Michael Jackson (hit with new child-sex-abuse charges) and said: 'Frankly, I'm far more frightened of Condoleezza Rice' - the Bush national security adviser who has nothing in common with Jackson except being black. . .

Rice seems to drive liberal woman comics especially nuts. Sandra Bernhard insulted her in racial terms with a "Yes Massa" accent at another Dean fundraiser the same night. . . Comedian David Cross used the N-word for blacks in a disjointed "joke" apparently based on the premise that it's fine for a pro-Dean comic to use racial epithets. . ."

Can you imagine if a Bush fundraiser had featured a Donna Brazile "Yes massa" impression during the 2000 campaign? He would have been crucified. Dean gets another pass.

But that's the beauty of the internet. The media can try all they like, but the truth just isn't so easy to quash anymore.

Moderate Dems -- Snail Darters for a New Century

The moderate Dem is becoming an endangered species. Another of the failing, plaintive voices for sanity in the Democratic Party -- John Breaux, senator from Louisiana -- is retiring. I've always respected him, and he's served as a buffer against the increasing granolafication of the Dems. But no longer.

For those keeping score, that's 5 Southern Democratic senators retiring. Undoubtedly, having a New England liberal at the top of the ticket will help the Dem's chances of holding them. Maybe he could pick Michael Dukakis as his running mate, to boost his appeal in the region.

Granolification n. The process by which an organization or geographical entity comes under the influence of fruits, nuts and flakes. See: California; American Universities; Episcopal Church

DeanWatch: Dean of Strategic Incompetence at Democratic U.

If you need another reason to vote for Bush, it splashed down in the Pacific on Thursday. We've now had 4 out of 5 of our anti-missile "hit-to-kill" intercepts come out successfully. This is a validation of both Ronald Reagan's vision for a ballistic missile shield, and President Bush's brave decision to pull out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

Given that North Korea either has, or will soon have, an ICBM capable of hitting the west coast of the United States, it would require a stupidity bordering on criminal to oppose an ABM system for our country.

For an example of such stupidity, look no farther than Governor Dean. He's on record as saying that he'll re-enter the US into the ABM treaty when he's inaugurated. This, of course, overlooks the fact that the country with whom we entered the compact, the Soviet Union, no longer exists. (Though given that Dean still refers to Russia as the Soviet Union, maybe he's simply unaware of the situation?)

It also overlooks the fact that the only thing standing between us and nuclear blackmail by rogue states is such a shield.

The Incredible Shrinking Candidacy

By now everyone has read that Kerry used the great unspeakable of the English language while attacking George Bush. I want to add to the general consensus that this was way, way beneath the dignity of a Democratic presidential candidate.

Oh wait, never mind. No it isn't.

No Class.

While my dislike of Hillary always matched my similar disdain for her husband, I always respected her more. Sure, she's a Lady MacBeth from central casting, but in contrast to her aging-frat-boy husband she seemed to have a modicum of style and class. I was impressed enough with her recent visit to Afghanistan and Iraq to toss her a kudos bar.

I want my kudos back. After looking in vain for the text of her speech, I read some excerpts from it. Only a Clinton could so crassly turn a morale-boosting trip to the troops into a slam on the President at the expense of the troops' morale.

Here are some highlights:

" Using Iraq as a pulpit, she attacked Bush for having been "obsessed with Saddam Hussein for more than a decade."

"The senator told the troops that while "Americans are proud" of them, "many question the administration's policies." Being told that you might die in a war that is under attack by people back home must be a great stimulant to combat morale."

"She also made sure to plant doubts among the troops about the ability of their commanders, saying that "the obstacles and problems are much greater than the administration usually admits to."

"Bush sought to assure the troops of the united support of the people. Hillary wanted them to know that many people objected to what they are trying to do. Bush's message was that we will persevere in the face of terrorism. Hillary's was that this war was due to one man's "obsession."

You can take the girl out of the trailer park. . .

I like the President.

I just reread President Bush's Whitehall Palace Speech, and am so impressed by it. It's the sort of optimistic, gutsy rhetoric we haven't heard since Reagan. No one could ever match Reagan in my estimation -- I'll never again be a twelve year old boy watching admiringly as my president takes on the hated Communists.

But George Bush has something of the same spark -- a hopeful, patriotic, confident outlook just when the country most needs it. So kvetch all you like; complain about stolen elections or popular votes. . . Say he isn't your president. Well, he's mine. And thank God for it.

Does Red or White Wine Go With Crow?

We've spent two years listening to howling and gibbering from the Dems about the "Bush Economy" and how he's somehow singlehandedly responsible for the natural trends of the business cycle. A 6.2% unemployment level constituted the "worst economy since the Great Depression." The burst tech bubble, a worldwide financial slowdown, and 9/11 weren't even peripheral factors. Bush was the Man.

Well, in the spirit of turnabout being fair play, I'll agree. Bush is, indeed, the Man. And in the same spirit, I'll cheerfully wreath him in laurels for the 7.2% GDP growth rate-- the fastest since 1984. We'll toss in some applause for the 4 year high in manufacturing; the highest construction spending in recorded history; the Federal Reserve forecasting 150-200K new jobs a month; signs of recovery in the tech sector; a rebounding dollar; and a stock market surge, including a 30% jump in the S&P 500 since March.

When coupled with the news that Bob Graham is gone and another Southern senate seat open, this must be a painful day for the Bush-haters.

Being the empathic, metrosexual kind of guy I am, I had to fight back shuddering winces several times today. I feel your pain. You were planning on a sour economy to save you, and that's all changed now. I'll just echo the words of one of the truly noble Democratic presidents, Bill Clinton -- "We must learn to make change our friend."

Fever-Swamp Dream Sequence

Now that Arnold has won, expect the shrill wail coming from the Left to crescendo until it resembles something like an F-15 Eagle on afterburner.

Put yourself in their place a moment and try to visualize:

Begin Fever-Swamp Dream Sequence

A red haze overlays your vision; a black pall of hatred at watching a dunce from Texas steal the presidency wells up inside you; the conspiratorial wheels spin in your mind as you see the Black Hand of Rove moving across the landscape like a plague... Suddenly, you're watching PBS and the election results are broadcast. And then a still, small voice that sounds like Noam Chomsky whispers inside you: "ANOTHER stolen election..."

Oooh! The surge of righteous anger! Oh! The chills of moral superiority! Ah! The bland but nutritious flavor of your veganic soyburger!

You want to shake the entire American electorate and scream! You want to wave a pencil in your left hand and give a curmudgeonly cry of "Buy Viagra! Wait, I mean, where's the outrage!?!?"

Realizing that this is unfeasible, you instead retreat into an angry funk, eat an entire pint of Ben & Jerry's, listen to a Phish album, and IM your friends to vote for Kucinich.

The dream turns to nightmare on Election Day as you realize that your friends and those like them only account for 14% of the electorate, and that angry funks play badly with the other 86% who don't live on Haight-Ashbury Street. Not to worry though, being out of power allows you to spin whatever sort of fantastical ideologies you'd like, without worry that they'll ever suffer the indignity of facing the limitations of reality.

End Fever-Swamp Dream Sequence

Know Nothings...

Two-thirds of registered voters in America can't name even one of the nine Democratic candidates for president, according to a recent poll. Does this say more about the sad state of the Democratic field, or the sad state of the American electorate?

At the Races...

A very interesting poll for you political junkies. Exempting the data for 6/03, because it's skewed by the inclusion of Hillary, there are some considerable shifts in the opinions of likely Democratic voters.

First was Lieberman's 16 point drop, which shows how unpalatable a 'moderate' is to the Democratic base this cycle. Their drift leftward isn't just anecdotal. They've moved pretty decisively away from the closest thing to a centrist in the race.

Gephardt (or Gebhard if you're Barbra Streisand) dropped 9 points, which nearly cuts his support level in half. This is due both to his lackluster fundraising and campaigning, and the loss of a lot of soft support he'd gained simply through name-recognition. Some of Lieberman's erosion can be attributed to the latter cause as well, but not nearly all of it.

The cheeriest element of the data was the growth in the None, Other, Wouldn't Vote, and No Opinion categories. This jumped from a total of 16% in April to 38% now. For those uninitiated in the intricacies of opinion polls, this is what is known in sociological circles as a bad thing.

A side note-

I was never that shocked by Barbra's horrendous spelling. I always figured that if the best her parents could muster was a phonetic spelling of her name approaching that of a 7-year-old, how could we expect her to do any better?

The Dems' Long, Dark Tea-time of the Soul

I've watched the Democratic base's flirtation with bitter madness with a great deal of passionate ambivalence.

On the one hand, it's disturbing, because it's never a good thing for 15% of the country to basically declare war on the functions of government and retreat into a cult-like and insular denial of reality. We live in a two-party Republic, and it's unhealthy for one-half of this system to take leave of its senses.

On the other hand I've felt a surge of what the Russians call zloradstvo. It can basically be defined as the happiness one feels watching an enemy be run over by Cossacks. Well, something close to that, anyway. The spectacle of Democrats drifting farther and farther out into Left field, to the point where the borderguard stations for the Middle Ground can hardly be sighted, is a happy one. Their venomous and irrational hatred of Bush will eventually alienate everyone except themselves. And NPR has never won an election by itself.

For a very good analysis of this phenomenon, check out "Democrats Go Off the Cliff" by David Brooks.

Here's a section that summarizes it well:

"It's mystifying. Fury rarely wins elections. Rage rarely appeals to suburban moderates. And there is a mountain of evidence that the Democrats are now racing away from swing voters, who do not hate George Bush, and who, despite their qualms about the economy and certain policies, do not feel that the republic is being raped by vile and illegitimate marauders. The Democrats, indeed, look like they're turning into a domestic version of the Palestinians--a group so enraged at their perceived oppressors, and so caught up in their own victimization, that they behave in ways that are patently not in their self-interest, and that are almost guaranteed to perpetuate their suffering."

________________________________________________________________________________________

Another interesting piece is Kenneth Pollack's take on the WMD controversy. It's significant not so much for what it says, as for who is saying it and where. He's a former Clinton NSC guy, and it's published by the closest thing the Dems have to a Heritage Foundation -- the Brookings Institution.

Nifty Fifty?

It's probably a little early to break out the champagne, but this was still a nice headline to come across: GOPERS BELIEVE THEY CAN TAKE NIFTY 50 STATES