TenuredVulture wrote:The overheatedness of American political discourse (and it's not like many on the left didn't believe that Bush was going to stage another terrorist attack and declare martial law) is perhaps the most disturbing political development of the last 15 years.

TenuredVulture wrote:The left really didn't mount much of a defense of civil liberties, they attacked Bush.

During the 1980 Republican convention, he wrote a column for The Washington Post describing the delegates as members of the "booboisie" once mocked by H. L. Mencken, by which Fairlie meant they were: "Narrow minded, book banning, truth censoring, mean spirited; ungenerous, envious, intolerant, afraid; chicken, bullying; trivially moral, falsely patriotic; family cheapening, flag cheapening, God cheapening; the common man, shallow, small, sanctimonious." William F. Buckley replied with a column attacking Fairlie for being an English interloper, a bad grammarian and a snob. When Buckley included the column in an essay collection five years later, Fairlie panned the book in The New Republic, dissing Buckley as unconservative, overexposed and "the quintessential Common Man of our time." This so incensed Buckley that he bought a full-page ad in a subsequent issue of the magazine to reprint his original attack on Fairlie.

When I first read Fairlie's column about the convention, it seemed overheated. Then I watched Sarah Palin speak. Fairlie's disgust at the GOP's impulse toward small-minded demagoguery anticipated the day when it would reach its fullest expression—when the movement would have no farther to fall.

I can't help but think of the DeMint criticism, which seems out of place now. But if we get 20 years of bumbling continuity, his criticisms may seem more accurate.

dajafi wrote:"Many on the left," for sure. Democratic Senators? Not so much.

...later on Thursday, news emerged suggesting that the senators could be working toward a solution of their own, with Mr. Espada, whose defection plunged Albany into chaos on June 8, apparently mulling a return to the Democratic fold. This would give his party a 32-to-30 majority.

As part of the deal being worked out, Senator John L. Sampson of Brooklyn, leader of the Democratic caucus, would be Senate president, according to people briefed on the negotiations. It was not clear how power would be divided between the men, or if such a deal would be supported by the entire caucus. Hiram Monserrate, a Democratic senator who initially sided with Republicans in the June 8 coup, is leading the negotiations, according to those who had been briefed.

It increasingly appeared on Thursday afternoon that a deal was at hand. Steve Pigeon, a top aide to billionaire Tom Golisano, left Mr. Espada’s office saying little. Mr. Pigeon, who helped orchestrate the coup along with Mr. Golisano, then huddled with a top Senate Republican, George Maziarz, on a stairway near Mr. Espada’s office.

After the conversation, Mr. Maziarz was speaking as if a deal was a fait accompli. Asked if he was disappointed, he said he was not, and said he understood that the rules and reforms Republicans had pushed through last month would still stand.

To me, one of the most interesting aspects of the story is how vehemently the Palin camp blames Barack Obama.

From the story:

For Palin, however, these aren't isolated incidents. She believes they grow from the same root, which is too big and too formidable to ignore. "A lot of this comes from Washington, D.C. The trail is pretty direct and pretty obvious to us," says Meg Stapleton, a close Palin adviser in Alaska. Awaiting a flight back to Anchorage from distant Dillingham, Stapleton adds that the anti-Palin offensive seems lifted straight from The Thumpin', which describes the political strategies of Rahm Emanuel, who is now the White House chief of staff. "It's the Sarah Palin playbook. It's how they operate," Stapleton says.

Palin and her Alaska circle find evidence for their suspicions about the White House in the person of Pete Rouse, who lived in Juneau for a time before he became chief of staff to a young U.S. Senator named Barack Obama. Rouse, they note, is a friend of former Alaska state senator Kim Elton, who pushed the first ethics investigation of Palin, examining her controversial firing of the state's public-safety commissioner. Both Rouse and Elton have joined the Obama Administration. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs scoffed at the theory. "The charge is ridiculous," he said. "Obviously there is no effort ... From my vantage point, a lot of the criticism she is getting from others seems to be generated from self-inflicted wounds.

Meg went a step further at one point telling me, "I just hope to God Rahm Emanuel isn't using taxpayer money to come after Alaska." That's the way they think about it: that these Alaskans filing ethics complaints have been hoodwinked by Obama operatives into wasting the Alaskan government's time and resources. They believe that with Palin gone, the state will no longer face this barrage of "frivolous" compliants. On that point, they are probably right -- there will be much less interest in filing complaints against Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell. Palin, Meg said, was their target all along because she "represents the biggest threat to Obama. She's the only one who can get the base excited."

Phan In Phlorida wrote:Ban on tobacco urged for military

First thought that came into my mind... do we really want the people with the guns and bombs and missiles to be going through nicotine withdrawl?

Yet Palin herself cut corners. Ruedrich, Palin’s target on the Conservation Commission, was forced to resign, but in 2006, as Palin was beginning her campaign for governor, a conservative columnist dug up e-mail messages showing that she too had conducted campaign business from her mayoral office. Confronted by the columnist, Palin acknowledged that she had erred. Then she turned around and issued a press release, demanding to know why the columnist was publishing smears.