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Monday, April 16, 2007
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Cunning Realist: "Direct and indirect spending on Iraq is an important part of what's driving the dollar down and the cost of living up. Current thinking in Washington is that a recession or weak stock market must be avoided in order to pay for Iraq. But the monetary stimulus this necessitates is driving up the price of everything, including stocks. It's also created a link between a rising stock market and inflation; the former exacerbates the latter."
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the link."
"2008 pres"
6:59:40 PM 
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Reason.com: "The Wash Times reports nothing but trouble for the GOP when it comes to coaxing the religious right, one of their most reliable voting blocs over the past 30 or so years, to pull the lever or punch the screen for one of the party's leading candidates...'Richard Land, president of the Religious and Ethics Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, takes a hard line against virtually all the major Republican candidates. He says he'd vote for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, over Mr. Giuliani if the 2008 presidential race came down to such a choice. And if Mr. Giuliani wins, 'he'll do so without social conservatives,' Mr. Land said."
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan: for the link.
Talking Points Memo: "Tommy Thompson takes a stab at an apology for saying that money-making is 'part of the Jewish tradition.'"
"2008 pres"
6:35:52 PM
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Scott Horton (via Harper's): "I have spent a good bit of time in the archives over the last two weeks, reading materials from the first two decades of the Republican Party - the formative conventions, the campaign of John Charles Frémont and then the rise of Abraham Lincoln, the vigorous debate over the country's stake in slavery and the resolve to stem it that led to civil war. It was a heady period. Much of this is played out in the pages of Harper's magazine - for while the magazine took no formal posture and published works of Democrats and Republicans alike (including an amazing essay by Stephen A. Douglas), there is little doubt as to the partisan orientation of the publication as a whole. The spirit of the age stood with the Republicans, and so did Harper's. And while much of the language of the period seems musty and florid, there is a vigor and strength of vision in those years which is truly inspiring. Indeed, the fact and rise of the Republican Party itself is inspiring - one of the decisive turns in the history of the American Republic, and in the end one of the great political parties to emerge in the totality of human history.
"But reading all of this and then turning to the morning newspapers every day, I can't suppress the question: how did it come to this? It's hard to see even a trace of the party of Frémont and Lincoln in the party of Bush and Rove. Indeed, the values that Bush and Rove espouse and the constituencies to which they pander seem very much just what's in the crosshairs for the Republicans of 1856 and 1860; a check of the electoral map in 2004 and 2006 shows the Republican constituencies of yore are, with very few exceptions, safely in the Democratic column, while Bush builds off a base starting with the old Confederacy.
"Kevin Phillips, Vic Gold and Andrew Sullivan are among the writers who have attempted to explain this process, each from a different posture and each offering some important insights. But in the end this is a case of a breathtaking political hijacking. It started with Richard Nixon's 'Southern Strategy' and wound up with a party dominated by figures driven by nostalgia for the antebellum South.
"I believe it's unfair to a great political party - unfair to Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight David Eisenhower - to call the current tenants at 1600 Pennsylvania 'Republicans.' A new label is far more appropriate, because it describes the end state likely to emerge from their transfiguration of American political institutions, namely 'Banana-Republicans.'"
"2008 pres"
6:02:37 PM
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Time: "In what could prove an embarrassing new setback for embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the eve of his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, a group of influential conservatives and longtime Bush supporters has written a letter to the White House to call for his resignation.
"The two-page letter, written on stationery of the American Freedom Agenda, a recently formed body designed to promote conservative legal principles, is blunt. Addressed to both Bush and Gonzales, it goes well beyond the U.S. attorneys controversy and details other alleged failings by Gonzales. 'Mr. Gonzales has presided over an unprecedented crippling of the Constitution's time-honored checks and balances,' it declares. 'He has brought rule of law into disrepute, and debased honesty as the coin of the realm.' Alluding to ongoing scandal, it notes: 'He has engendered the suspicion that partisan politics trumps evenhanded law enforcement in the Department of Justice.'"
5:50:19 PM
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Josh Marshall: "Albuquerque Journal: Bush pulled the trigger on Iglesias. We've always known it must have gone down something like this. But they've got the details."
"2008 pres"
7:09:56 AM
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Western Democrat: "[Howard] Dean was in Denver recently to speak to supporters in advanced of the 2008 convention being held there. Because this man was really the final decision-maker in the whole process, I move that Howard Dean becomes an honory Western Democrat."
"2008 pres"
7:04:00 AM
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Juan Cole: "The six cabinet members belonging to the Sadr Movement in Nuri al-Maliki's government are set to resign. The movement's 32 parliamentarians will continue to attend sessions of the legislature, but presumably would vote against the prime minister in a vote of no confidence. The Sadrists want the Iraqi government to insist on setting a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, and are annoyed that PM al-Maliki publicly rejected that approach recently when he was in Japan."
Washington Post: "A Washington Post investigation of the incidents provides a rare look inside the world of private security contractors, the hired guns who fight a parallel and largely hidden war in Iraq. The contractors face the same dangers as the military, but many come to the war for big money, and they operate outside most of the laws that govern American forces."
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the link.
"2008 pres"
6:45:37 AM
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Political Wire: "New Pew Research survey: 'Since the late 1980s, the emergence of 24-hour cable news as a dominant news source and the explosive growth of the internet have led to major changes in the American public's news habits. But a new nationwide survey finds that the coaxial and digital revolutions and attendant changes in news audience behaviors have had little impact on how much Americans know about national and international affairs.' The most interesting finding is that regular viewers of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart were the most knowledgeable while regular Fox News viewers knew the least."
"2008 pres"
6:38:17 AM
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Here's a look at the current crop of Republican presidential candidates from the Rocky Mountain News. From the article, "Political analysts, rank-and-file Republicans and even some of the nine candidates who spoke Saturday night are surprised that the three early leaders in the race all stand in the ideological center or were moderates who have evolved their positions to fit the traditions of the Grand Old Party. Political insiders expect a fourth option to emerge: an unquestioned, same-as-it-ever-was sort of conservative. After all, Giuliani has to explain away his three marriages and longstanding pro-choice stand. McCain must answer for his past criticisms of religious conservatives and defend compromise legislation on immigration reform that links his name to liberal Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. And Romney is being stalked around the country by a costumed porpoise accusing him of being a 'flipper' on issues like abortion and gun rights...
"Some Republican activists left the convention hall still mentioning two absent friends - actor and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia - who would fit the bill for those looking for an old-fashioned Republican...
"At this early stage, the two best-known candidates, McCain and Giuliani, are the ones who spend the most time defending the unpopular war in Iraq and the need for a leader to continue the fight against terrorism. While others echo the theme, often taking harsh aim at Democratic war critics, they spend more time talking about home- front issues that have traditionally been important for the Republican Party base. Candidate Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, brought copies of the cumbersome income tax code to Saturday's dinner, saying it should be 'taken behind a barn and killed with a dull ax.' Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister, stresses moral and family values themes. He has expressed frustration at unnamed evangelical Christian leaders who were critical of former President Clinton's behavior while in office but have not said that morality matters in the Republican presidential field. Huckabee insists he's not pointing a finger at any particular candidate, although his criticism is often interpreted as a reference to Giuliani's three marriages and McCain's two...
"Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson enjoys a nearly home-field advantage in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. Since he comes from the state next door, he has visited the state virtually every weekend for months. His pitch, loudest and longest of any of nine speeches Saturday night, is that party members need to shake off last year's election defeats and stick with "optimistic" conservative values...
"Meanwhile, Colorado's entrant in the field, Rep. Tom Tancredo, is trying to gain traction by riding his signature issue: a call for tougher border enforcement and opposition to guest-worker plans he equates to "amnesty" for illegal immigrants. He won both applause and scattered 'oohs' Saturday by questioning whether unnamed candidates really share that view."
Here's a nice breakdown of presidential campaign finances from the New York Times.
Captain's Quarters: "Hillary Clinton and her supporters had thought that the 2008 primary race would be nothing less than a coronation march, as the supporters of her husband all came together to return the White House keys to the Clinton family. It turned into a dogfight instead, and some of her husband's former colleagues have decided to back another dog in the fight. Barack Obama has managed to convince some of Bill's big fundraisers to support his candidacy over that of the former First Lady.
Captain's Quarters: "Hillary Clinton has had a difficult conundrum facing her ever since the beginning of her presidential campaign. Her vote to authorize the use of force against Iraq and Saddam Hussein in October 2002 has the anti-war base revved up to defeat her in favor of a more capitulationist candidate like Barack Obama or John Edwards. She has tried to alternately defend the vote and claim that she was misled as a defense against the activists within her own party."
Captain's Quarters: "Fred Thompson appeared on the pages of the Wall Street Journal yesterday to assess tax policy and its impact on the American economy. To no one's great surprise, Thompson favors tax cuts to incentivize capital investment -- and to no one's great surprise, he articulates that vision very, very well."
"2008 pres"
6:13:20 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 12:51:08 PM.
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