Dana Milbank begins the Long Slog:
There are five 2014 House races still to be decided before we can answer a question of historical interest:
Was this the worst election for House Democrats since 1928? Or was it merely their worst since 1946?
Either way, the results do not reflect well on the House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi — a conclusion that seems to have escaped Nancy Pelosi.
Continue reading Democratic pundits glumly realize that no, Nancy Pelosi isn’t leaving.
Why? Because of this snark.
Not since the Ginsu knife cut through an aluminum can and still sliced a tomato has America seen a pitch quite like the one President Obama delivered in the Rose Garden on Monday.
…That was Dana Milbank.
Dana Milbank. When you can’t tell the administration yell leaders from the sarcastic mockers on first glance, well…
Moe Lane
PS: Milbank, by the way, is one of those people telling themselves that the shutdown blunted the impact of this story. Judging from Memeorandum right at this moment, the question is: ‘blunted,’ as compared to what?
PPS: More accurately: an Obamacare delay was always on the table. I think that the Obama administration may be beginning to think that it should make an offer for it.
(Via Instapundit) Dana Milbank seems upset that the Media’s pet candidate and politician promises to bring another dreary four years:
Lincoln’s second inaugural had the lines many Americans still know by heart: “judge not, that we be not judged,” and “fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray,” and, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Inviting comparison to that moment inevitably makes Obama’s second-term program, as he outlined it last week — “making modest adjustments to programs like Medicare” and “closing loopholes in our tax code” — seem little.
…But let me really depress Milbank: the next four years will be a political Grind where the weak are crushed by the System. Now is not the time to be an untested politician. Or to rely on one. And of all weaknesses, hidden rot is the worst: it typically picks the worst possible times to manifest itself.
Selah.
Moe Lane
He’s not really down on her being the next Secretary of State.
Even in a town that rewards sharp elbows and brusque personalities, Rice has managed to make an impressive array of enemies — on Capitol Hill, in Foggy Bottom and abroad. Particularly in comparison with the other person often mentioned for the job, Sen. John Kerry, she can be a most undiplomatic diplomat, and there likely aren’t enough Republican or Democratic votes in the Senate to confirm her.
That paragraph, by the way, is Establishment DC for You can go ahead and torpedo this nomination, guys: we won’t give you too much of a hard time for it. Makes you wonder what Susan Rice has done to the media…
There seems to be a little confusion – to be charitable about it – about precisely why the Republican party insisted on reading the Constitution out at the beginning of the 112th Congress. It’s not actually that complicated, really. It was because of idiots like this from the 111th Congress:
That’s Phil Hare from Illinois. If you can’t see the video: this fellow was so clueless about the US Constitution that he couldn’t tell where it ended and the Declaration of Independence began. Which is embarrassing enough, but as Glenn Reynolds noted in passing elsewhere there were a lot of idiots in Congress who were demonstrating a similar lack of elementary understanding of the actually rather straightforward document that they were operating under. And it wasn’t just legislators: the Volokh Conspiracy discovered this gem by Dana Milbank where Milbank quite relentlessly demonstrated that he knows less about the history of the suffrage movement than the people he’s sneering at. Continue reading Constitution 090.
He’s so bitter, in fact, that he let what would normally have been about four or five opportunities to slam the Republicans just… drift on by. A taste:
“We have a powerful message to send,”[Rep. Steny] Hoyer said, then asked himself: “And what is that message?”
That you named a lot of post offices?
I won’t pretend to feel sorry for Milbank, but I do remember feeling similarly frustrated in 2006. With the major difference, of course, that I didn’t deserve it; while Milbank and the rest of the Democratic party does. They pretty much got what they ordered; it’s not my fault that they don’t like the taste.
…almost vexed me, what with the casual racism, even more casual anti-Southern bigotry, generally condescending attitude and deep ignorance of elementary economics found within; but then I realized what Milbank’s true message was (H/T: Hot Air Headlines).
A black man will be in federal office next year. A BLACK MAN THAT I, DANA MILBANK, WILL HAVE NO POWER OVER. As a liberal Democratic pundit, this alarms me.
Once I realized that, my vexation vanished. Yup, Milbank. Look at the scary Republican. The scary Republican who you can’t control…
Moe Lane
PS: Tim Scott does have a general election race to win, mind you. Same for Allen West.
It’s a fairly good takedown of said column, but there was just this one point of Ed’s that I want to address:
At least this is better than some of your colleagues’ attempts to justify their position by holding up threats as badges of honor. That’s the “I must have been right because I got hate mail” response, after a dumb column provoked even less intelligent response from readers. All that means is that really stupid people read the column and couldn’t deal with disagreement in a cogent and rational manner, which has nothing to do with the source material. Threats prove nothing other than the intellectual level of the person who uses them.
Sometimes, that’s the goal. Not that it was Milbank’s, of course – but if you’re out there trying to illustrate that a particular group or faction can’t be trusted to come in out of the rain, it’s kind of handy if they obligingly send in proof about why you were right.
Besides, they splutter very entertainingly, sometimes.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
