I’m surprised that Hamilton isn’t on the SCOTUS short list.

(H/T The Other McCain) Turns out that federal judge appointee David Hamilton – whose new ‘moderate’ tag is making Feddie over at Confirm Them wince – is also a former fundraiser for ACORN – a group that is, as the TribLIVE site put it, “now being scrutinized on myriad voter registration fraud allegations.”

Ah, vetting. When were they going to start doing that, anyway?

Crossposted to RedState.

Shorter Susan Estrich: ‘Save us from ourselves.’

Susan Estrich is very unhappy that apparently nothing stands between the Democrats and their desires right now:

Imagine how different things might be right now if there were a Republican Party. I mean a party like the one led by Ronald Reagan, George Bush or Newt Gingrich; a party with a program, a single set of talking points, and the technological and communications advantages to get their message across. That kind of Republican Party. The kind that doesn’t exist right now.

…which is particularly funny, given that she’s been actively trying to put the Democratic party in this position for the last decade or so. Not that this was exactly what she wanted: what she wanted was probably more like the 110th Congress, only with a Democratic President. That way those awful Republicans would still be in a position to block the Democrats’ worst enthusiasms, while still gnashing their teeth over all that legislation being sent over by the White House. Put another way, she clearly still wants anything besides the Democratic party to take the blame for the current mess; alas for her, if 2008 demonstrated nothing else it demonstrated that the Republican party is not in charge. And it’s been remarkably united in refusing to take on responsibility without also taking on an equal amount of power.

As for vacuums… nature abhors them, and what Estrich is “complaining*” about is a self-correcting feature. What’s confusing her on that point is probably that ‘populist’ movements on the Left are exclusively a top-down affair these days (the recent CWFP embarrassment is a pretty good example of same): artificially creating a popular response to a perceived outrage pretty much requires that somebody organize the community from the start to get the desired response. The concept that the true leaders of a movement would naturally come from the movement themselves is just too tainted with free market thinking for our academic and pundit classes… which causes them to discount societal trends that are not being shepherded from the start. Essentially, everybody’s looking in the wrong place.

No, not “everybody except me is looking in the wrong place.” I don’t have a clue who the new leaders of the Republican party for the 2010 elections are going to be, either. It’s just that I’m going to wait a bit until it actually becomes steam engine time. Whether or not a Democratic pundit wants to nag my party into solving her problems for her.

Moe Lane

*Scare quotes because if the economic situation resolved itself tomorrow she’d jump up and down for joy at our supposed destruction. She’s only concerned now because she’s afraid, not to mention as pessimistic about the ability of the Democratic Party to fix things as I am.

Crossposted to RedState.

Obama contacts DNC about Sanford request before contacting Sanford.

I had to have Protein Wisdom point out this fairly significant, and frankly insulting, thing that happened to Governor Sanford:

Last week I reached out to the president, asking for a federal waiver from restrictions on stimulus money. I got a most unusual response. Before I even received an acknowledgment of the request from the White House, I got word that the Democratic National Committee was launching campaign-style TV attack-ads against me for making it.

Just in case nobody’s ever mentioned it to the President of the United States, let me: you are a government official first, a Democrat second. That means that you take care of the former’s business before you attend to the latter’s. Doing it the other way around is inappropriate.

I can use ruder words and still be perfectly accurate, by the way.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Obama attempting to mitigate AIG Bonus meltdown?

From Blue Crab Boulevard we see the first subtle signs of panic from the Obama administration over the likely repercussions of letting Congressional Democrats attempt to scapegoat Wall Street for their own sins.

Obama Seeks to Soften the Punitive Legislation

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration wants to soften the impact of bills speeding through Congress that would impose heavy new taxes on Wall Street bonuses. But some potential allies in the Senate are reluctant to cooperate, fearing the political consequences of watering down the legislation.

Financial-industry officials launched a campaign Friday to fight back but are finding their hands tied: Anti-Wall Street sentiment following the American International Group Inc. bonus payouts is making it difficult to reach once-friendly lawmakers to make their case. Key senators and their staffers, nervous about appearing to support the industry, are refusing all meetings, and, in some cases, turning away phone calls. “Unless you have a pitchfork and a noose nobody’s listening to you” on Capitol Hill, said one financial lobbyist.

The White House has yet to publicly criticize the bonus tax proposals. But administration officials say privately they are concerned the House and Senate bills could lead to an exodus of employees or whole companies from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, known as TARP, as well as other government-sponsored financial rescue efforts.

Continue reading Obama attempting to mitigate AIG Bonus meltdown?

More details on retail ‘Card Check’ compromise.

The Washington Times is reporting on more details of the possible retail store “Card Check” compromise that Brian Faughnan wrote of yesterday, and the details of this one are definitely more palatable than the proposal presented in the Wall Street Journal. The plan being offered by the retailers preserves more than the secret ballot:

Their compromise would reject the card check method of voting and keep secret-ballot voting as it is now practiced in most instances. The compromise would also eliminate the union-backed provision that would force the settlement of certification disputes through mandatory arbitration.

To assuage the unions, the plan would for the first time permit union organizers to press their cases at work sites and would also prevent long delays before a union certification vote must be held.

…which, as Ed Morrissey notes, is much more likely to pass the Senate than the current version.  In fact, the current version is not likely to pass the Senate at all. Continue reading More details on retail ‘Card Check’ compromise.

Obamateurism* of the Day, 03/22/2009.

This new feature comes from Ed Morrissey, and it’s pretty much in direct response to Slate’s unaccountable decision to not let go of what was never a particularly funny joke in the first place. But if Slate wants to play, hey, we can play too. With more video footage.

You can send in your tip to Ed at obamaisms@edmorrissey.com . He figures that he can make this a daily feature, and so do I. Who knows? There even might be a book or two in it – and now we know why Jacob Weisberg’s so keen to keep this thing going. You get used to income streams, know what I mean?

Moe Lane

*I’m not entirely loving the name, though.

Crossposted at RedState.