Author: Moe_Lane

I suppose that Carter *would* feel that way.

Somebody cruel asked former President Carter what his biggest failure was.  His answer? “I guess my biggest failure was not getting re-elected.”

Which sort of misses the point, doesn’t it? Because from what I dimly remember of the time period – and have read since – Carter didn’t lose because of the hostages, or because of the malaise, or because of the stagflation, or even because of the killer rabbit.  He lost because he was… well, Jimmy Carter.  It was a package deal, in other words.

Moe Lane

PS: Also from that interview: “I did the best I could, but I failed.”

(pause)

“You did the best that you could” is what we tell our children in order to keep them from despairing at ever learning how to master the skill of winning, Mr. President.  In an adult such excuse-making is highly unseemly.

#rsrh Amusing: even while slamming ‘No Labels…’

…Slate manages to call into question Republican/conservative motivations (apparently, the Right doesn’t really despise pornoscanners and health care rationing), but not Democratic/liberal ones. I swear to God, it’s like these people can’t help themselves.  All Christopher Beam had to do was avoid making a cheap shot for one article and he would have been golden.  But he couldn’t hold it together for long enough.

Depressing, in its way.

Via Hot Air Headlines.

Moe Lane

PS: One thing that a lot of people in the Middle forget about defaulting to trying to find ‘bipartisan’ solutions to problems is that such a stance assumes that a partisan solution is always going to be, at best, suboptimal.  Which is nonsense.

Bloomberg’s ‘No Labels’ group rips off graphic artist.

It was my first intention to cheerfully ignore the quote-unquote ‘No Labels’ movement, given that it is yet another iteration of what is a peculiarly American phenomenon.  You see, you get these rich liberals who decide that since the political system is clearly controlled by a shadowy cabal of elites, surely they’d be candidates for membership as the Secret Masters of the Democratic party; then, when they discover that their role is actually to be sheep to be shorn for the benefit of public sector union bosses and government apparatchiks – and that the Republican party insists that their elites actually like America – they get quite huffy and start their own ‘nonpartisan’ little clique.  And so we see here with ‘No labels:’ you can tell that it’s ‘nonpartisan’ because they’ve got Republicans in it, too!  Well, except for that pesky little detail that their ‘Republicans’ can’t win elections as Republicans.  Which just makes them better Republicans, no doubt.  Pure.  Ethereal.  Safe.

But now it turns out that there’s actually a real reason to mention “No Labels:” Ben Smith reports that they stole their design from a graphic artist named Thomas Porostocky.  A very unhappy graphic artist – and for good reason: Mayor Bloomberg has more money than Croesus, which means that he could have easily just paid for the designs that his group stole.  But it apparently didn’t even occur to No Labels to recompense artists for their work; which makes sense, as it’s clearly not as important as electing Democrats by splitting the independent vote away from the Republicans. Continue reading Bloomberg’s ‘No Labels’ group rips off graphic artist.

I Haz a Kindle.

[Forty-five minutes of swearing, struggling, three suppressed attempts to throw the damn thing through the window, and one general network failure later]

I haz a Kindle that works.

‘Course, I don’t have anything to put on it yet, but that’s Step 2.  Even with the slow erosion of Amazon.com revenues on the site, I can probably get a book out of it every month.  A couple, if I stick with some of the more obscure and low-priced ones.

#rsrh Looking over lexington_concord’s…

…quick analysis of the Virginia Obamacare court decision (short version: individual mandate unconstitutional, severable from the rest of Obamacare, no injunction on Obamacare as a whole until the Supreme Court takes a gander at the law), I really have only one thing to add: the severability issue was always going to be more of a political issue than it would be a legal one.  We were always going to have a big bite at that apple; Judge Hudson’s declining to address the point doesn’t really signify.

Freshmen House assignments.

The Hill reports that the following House freshmen will be given slots on the following committees:

  • Appropriations: Alan Nunnelee, Steve Womack, Kevin Yoder, & Tom Graves on Appropriations.
  • Energy: Cory Gardner, Morgan Griffith, Adam Kinzinger, David McKinley, Mike Pompeo, and Charlie Bass.
  • Financial Services: Quico Canseco, Bob Dold, Sean Duffy, Michael Grimm, Nan Hayworth, Bill Huizenga, Robert Hurt, Steve Stivers, Steve Pearce, and Michael Fitzpatrick.
  • Ways and Means: Rick Berg and Diane Black on Ways (four more members out of the ten total were elected in 2008).

There are a good number of Tea Party members in that list (and a bunch who are not; I expect that my respected colleague, friend, and RS boss Erick Erickson is going to be annoyed at the Appropriations lineup); it looks like about a third of the freshman class were put on these four important domestic committees.  As Ed Morrissey notes, we have to keep an eye on who Boehner puts on in Rules (whose membership is pretty much the Speaker’s personal prerogative), and which freshmen (if any) get Armed Services/Foreign Affairs.  I personally would like to see Allen West get a spot on the latter – if only because having him on that committee would ensure that there was never a dull moment around there.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

I link to this out of sentimentality (NSFW!).

I don’t agree with this old Irish guy on the basic issues of the Irish collapse:

…but when I close my eyes and listen I can hear my father and paternal grandfather in the rhythms of the guy’s speech*.  They were good union men and honest working-class Democrats, and I miss them both terribly; it was nice to kind of listen to them again.

And that last exchange was pure Lane.

Moe Lane

*Including the profanity. Oh my God, especially the profanity.

QotD, Lamenting Democrats edition.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) House Democrats are not handling their recent spanking well.  They’re especially distraught over losing control of the House in such an insanely short time:

“We only had it for four years,” one senior Democrat lamented. “It took so long to get it back, and now it is all gone.”

Well, that’s what happens when politicians run as moderates and rule as liberals, Sparky.  This is also what happens when a political party lets itself be run by its liberal fringe on the legislative level and by a feckless dilettante on the executive.  And, finally, this is what happens when politicians ignore necessary business in order to pass ideological wish lists – then inform the American people that it’s all for their own good, so don’t worry their pretty little heads over it.  And what are the consequences of all of that?  The political party guilty of such behaviors gets promptly backhanded by the American people.  As we saw.

Learn or don’t learn, as you blessed well please – but do not whine about it.  It’s unbecoming.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Continue reading QotD, Lamenting Democrats edition.