2008 Matters

I don't have a whole lot for this update, mainly because I'm tiring of the speculation 23 months out from Election Day. But here's a couple things.

• I think it's noble of John Edwards to appear at All Saints Church in Pasadena, the very church that is under investigation from the IRS for criticizing the Iraq War (apparently that's a crime). The All Saints case is an example of the selective politicalization of the Internal Revenue Service, and it's a perfect example of the ways in which this Administration tries to shut down dissent. Edwards has gotten religion (no pun intended) on a war that he supported, and while his judgment can be questioned, antiwar Democrats should give him a little credit for trying to make amends, and certainly for standing up for the principle of dissent.

• John McCain has hired the man responsible for the racist anti-Harold Ford ad to be his campaign manager. This is all evidence of the new ruthlessness of McCain. He's going to slash and burn the rest of the Republicans in the field, learning from the previous winner of the Republican nomination. Terry Nelson, the new campaign manager, is also named in the indictment of Tom DeLay for money laundering, making him an interesting ally of the man who wrote the campaign finance reform bill.

• I know he's dropped out of the race, but Bill Frist, as divisive a majority leader as there has ever been, had the audacity to decry partisanship and plead for unity and compromise in his farewell speech yesterday:

I think, as a consequence, we are moving toward a body that has too much of a two-year vision, governing for that next election, rather than a body with a 20-year vision, governing for the future. As we consider the future of the institution, I urge that we ask ourselves what it is that our forefathers envisioned. Is today’s reality what they foresaw?

I urge that we consider our work in this chamber. What is it really all about? Is it about keeping the majority? Is it about red states versus blue? Is it about lobbing attacks, in some way, across the aisle, back and forth? Is it about war rooms, whose purpose is not to contrast ideas but to destroy? Or is it more?

[…]

I think we need to remember this vision of the Senate: that the framers established the Senate to protect people from their rulers and as a check on the House and on the passions of the electorate. And let us not allow these passions of the electorate be reflected as destructive partisanship on this floor.

Yeah, good idea. Let's start by not bringing up uselessly divisive bills like banning flag burning and gay marriage, and let's not do destructive things like misdiagnosing women in a vegetative state on the Senate floor. Frist has to be one of the most full-o-crap politicians to ever disgrace the Capitol.