Quick Hits

A lot up my sleeve. I thought this would get EASIER after the election.

• Let's keep this in mind.

In 1994, in the wake of the Republicans’ landslide midterm victory, Tom Delay ran for the position of majority whip against Newt Gingrich’s hand-picked Lieutenant, Robert Walker of Pennsylvania. Gingrich, like Pelosi, did his best to convince his colleagues to vote for Walker. He ultimately failed and Delay won. It was all quickly forgotten and Gingrich’s authority was not compromised in any significant way.

These inside baseball leadership battles get more ink than they deserve. In this case Pelosi made a strategic error, but it's not going to be remembered for long. Ari Berman has more in The Nation.

• Sudan agrees to a peacekeeping force in Darfur managed jointly by the UN and the AU. Welcome news, I hope it ends up helping.

• Very quietly, but very importantly, the Senate has approved an amendment reinstating the Office of Inspector General overseeing waste and fraud in Iraqi reconstruction. Unsurprisingly, Russ Feingold was the main Democratic sponsor of the amendment. Very surprisingly he was joined by Susan Collins, Norm Coleman and Joe Lieberman. That'd be a bipartisan measure.

• James Carville's crazy jihad against Howard Dean continues, calling him "Rumsfeldian in his competence." Ezra Klein has the best take on this that I've seen, importantly noting that Dean's playing a long game:

David Sirota, for instance, mocks Carville for thinking "Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy had nothing to do with Democrats winning in places like Kansas and New Hampshire, where groups like the DCCC all but abandoned its own candidates." Carville's right, it didn't. And Dean would agree. Credit for the Kansas win should largely go to Kathleen Sebelius, whose skillful exploitation of a moderate vs. conservative crack-up in the state was the greatest, and most underappreciated, political performance this cycle. As for New Hampshire, the Northeastern conversion was largely a structural occurrence -- as Tom Schaller has repeatedly pointed out, it was a realignment. The three or four staffers Dean may (or may not) have put on the ground there likely had little do with it.

None of this is an attack on Dean nor, for that matter, Rahm. Defend Dean's resource allocation if you want. But this election was not a referendum on the 50 State Strategy. It wouldn't have been had Democrats lost, it isn't now that they've won. The 50 State Strategy is an actual long-term strategy, the success of which won't be measurable for many cycles yet. I think it's an important gambit, and given how ready Carville was with the knife, it's a real blessing Democrats did far too well for Dean to be deposed, as this buys him time to pursue his vision.

• There are still plenty of races left to be decided, and in one of them, Republican incumbent Robin Hayes, leading by about 400 votes over netroots candidate Larry Kissell, is systematically trying to disenfranchise voters by trying to get historically legal provisional ballots thrown out. Some sort of actual legal standard on provisional ballots needs to be worked out - this doesn't seem to be working.

• One of the other things I noticed in Ed Schultz' description of his talk with Harry Reid is that Reid announced that there would be votes held on Monday and Friday. Imagine that, a 5-day work week for Congress. They'll accomplish more simply by showing up to do their job almost twice as much.

• I'm very concerned that Arnold Schwarzenegger will challenge Barbara Boxer for the US Senate in 2010. He really has nowhere else to go, being termed out for governor and currently unable to become President or Vice President. Arnold has managed to hoodwink the voters thanks to a star-struck media, and his lust for power trumping any sense of loyalty to his party or his nonexistent principles. He'd have even more tens of millions in corporate money to challenge Boxer.

• This video is truly disgusting. The UCLA police used a taser on a student for not having the proper ID card, then tased him AGAIN for not standing up after the tasing.



Tasers are important to subdue violent criminals but are increasingly used just to exert control. A kid in the student union is not a violent threat. He was treated like one because the MO for many police is to bend the subject to their will. I remember when I was in college that I used a student ID at the computer center with a picture of a famous college basketball player on campus on it, such was the obliviousness of the computer center monitors. I guess if I was a Muslim, like this student, I would've had several hundred volts coursing through my system. Thereisnospoon is absolutely right that what's sicker than the tasing itself are the comments on the YouTube age endorsing the practice. Law and order has become so revered that people will willingly succumb to authoritarianism in order to maintain public safety (even when there's no threat to it).

• Something sorely needed: a think tank that will promote thinking. I imagine this is what the Rand Corporation was supposed to be before it became a stalking horse for the defense industry. Count me in on the Thinking think tank. Where do I sign up?

• And finally, an Indonesian put a voodoo curse on the President's trip through Asia this week. If he makes a doll they'd probably sell, that's all I'm saying. Not that I'd buy one. That would be wrong. And anyway, this Presidency doesn't need any help being cursed.