Sarah Palin’s new book has no index.

So says Andrew Malcolm, and if true, that is probably the funniest thing that I’ve read all day*. But what Going Rogue: An American Life will have is this:

e) She settles scores with some of those brave McCain folks who as genuine teammates in battle anonymously leaked unhelpful things about her to journalists during the campaign. Ms. P helpfully provides their names.

Andrew’s one of the few mainstream journalists who cares about the Wasilla Church Burning**, so I think that we can safely assume that he’s enjoying the prospect of names being named, too.

Moe Lane

*The joke in DC is that the first thing that anybody in this town does when they see a new political memoir is out is to flip to the back and look him or herself up. Not going to happen on this one, which is perhaps cruel of the former Governor.

**Eleven months, at this point. And no, I don’t enjoy bringing this topic up: while I enjoy hate mail as much as the next person, the kind that I get when I mention this issue typically smells bad. The kind of smell you associate with public restrooms in major metropolitan train stations.

Crossposted to RedState.

Dorwin Award*: Robin Carnahan.

Watch with some amusement as Missouri Secretary of State (and Senate hopeful) Robin Carnahan (D) refuses to answer two simple questions:

  • Does she support the House’s health care rationing bill?

and

  • What is her opinion on the Stupak amendment?

(See also: The Conservatives.com)

While Carnahan’s response to the first question might be at least considered a standard attempt at mealy-mouthing, and thus not overly outrageous; I cannot imagine how any progressive watching that could be pleased at her ‘answer’ to the second question.  Every credible side in the health care dispute concedes that the Stupak amendment is relevant to the discussion, and people are keeping track of who has what opinion of it.  Robin Carnahan’s going to have to choose a side.

Moe Lane

PS: What exactly did the Carnahan family do in Missouri to justify their quasi-hereditary political status in that state?  Save St. Louis from a rampaging Mississippi River monster?

*See here and here for the reference.

Crossposted to RedState.

We elect far too many Constitutional illiterates to high office.

Yes, I know: you’re looking at the screen and nodding slowly, as you would towards somebody who has blurted out an ‘insight’ that everyone else in the room had had five minutes ago.

(CNSNews.com) –  When asked where specifically the Constitution authorized Congress to mandate that individuals buy health insurance, Sen. Jack Reed (D.-R.I.) said that he “would have to check the specific sections” but said that it was like making people “sign up for the draft.”

And in fact I had already worked said insight out a while ago.  But… sometimes you just have to come out and repeat the obvious, dammit.

Via Dan Collins‘ Twitter.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Is AG Beau Biden (D) afraid to run for DE-Senate?

Now watch: he’ll announce today, just to spite me.

Or simply… thoughtful?

[Former President Bill] Clinton delivered the keynote address at the party’s Jefferson Jackson Dinner, the kickoff to the 2010 campaign in Delaware — a foray many Democrats hope will again feature “Biden for Senate” buttons.

But there was no word from Attorney General Biden on Tuesday night about whether he will run for the U.S. Senate seat once held by his father.

Mark my words, an announcement was expected last night; the Jefferson-Jackson dinner would have been the logical time and place for it, too. On the other hand, VP Biden’s name does not have the luster… well, it never particularly had any real luster, but he doesn’t poll well these days. And on the gripping hand, as one of Jim Geraghty’s readers notes 2014 may be a more logical time for AG Biden to run for Senate anyway.  Meanwhile, of course, Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) is running for Senate himself.  For those keeping score: no on stimulus, yes on cap-and-trade – but yes on Stupak/no on health care.

Possibly lately he’s been… thoughtful… too.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Gallup: R+4 on the Generic Congressional Ballot.

Yes. Gallup.

(Via AoSHQ) Shift of eight points since July, which for Gallup represents the GOP ‘edging ahead.’ The current numbers are GOP/Democrats 48/44.  And 52/30 among independents.  And this represents registered voters, not likely ones.  Gallup tried to caveat this one every way that it could, but has to conclude:

Since Gallup regularly began using the generic ballot to measure registered voters’ preferences for the House of Representatives in 1950, it has been rare for Republicans to have an advantage over Democrats. This is likely because more Americans usually identify as Democrats than as Republicans, but Republicans can offset this typical Democratic advantage in preferences with greater turnout on Election Day. Most of the prior Republican registered-voter leads on the generic ballot in Gallup polling occurred in 1994 and 2002, two strong years for the GOP.

Particularly interesting is this amusing graph:

wtzl0rgg206gadur_zzjgq

…and yes: the Democratic line does look uncannily like the trajectory of an airplane just after it has lost all power to the engines, mid-flight.  A real shame that this didn’t come out last Friday, huh?  There’s a bunch of Blue Dogs who probably would have appreciated the opportunity to factor this information into their long-term voting strategies.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Christmas in the Heart: a polemic.

Not mine: Andrew Ferguson’s.  Not having purchased Bob Dylan’s Christmas In the Heart, I’m not sure how much of this:

Many of the notices about Christmas in the Heart have been pussyfooting. We should be clear: The record is not irony, or camp. This is not a case of “It’s so bad it’s good.” Dylan is not Florence Foster Jenkins or Tom Waits. This is a case of “It’s so bad I can’t believe it.” Under no one else’s name would a commercial concern like Sony release a product so embarrassing. Yet embarrassing doesn’t quite cover it. For a man as self-aware as Bob Dylan, it’s–what? The conclusion is unavoidable: He’s doing this on purpose. He knows what his record sounds like. It’s not a misstep. It’s not a gag. It’s an affront, a taunt. He’s giving us a choice. He’s saying, Okay, this is what it’s come to: You’ve got two options. You can cover your ears and go running from the room in horror, or you can call me an enigmatic genius who’s daring to plumb heretofore unexplored archetypes of the American imagination. But you can’t do both.

…is righteous anger, and how much of this is a reaction to the music; but I can’t help but note that I didn’t get the joke of this Weird Al video until I actually saw it.

Which may mean that Al just proved Andrew’s point for him.

Moe Lane