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- There's no great mystery about what a "Tea Party Senate" would look like: Just as uncompromising and radical as the current congressional GOP rump. Frankly, the ball is in the Democrats' court -- provided they retain control of the Senate. They can gavel in the 112th Congress and propose majority-rule changes or let the era of "self-dependency" drag down their agenda. "Obama's still got a veto" isn't a very compelling campaign message.
- Marc Ambinder takes up the burning question of whether Barack Obama would be a more successful president with a Republican Congress. He decides that with divided government, the president could "stand above the GOP House and the Democratic Senate" and broker "consensus-building agreements between the two chambers." More puzzling, he says Chuck Todd made a "great point" that "Obama had a chance to change Washington but succumbed to Washington on the first major piece of legislation." At least now I have a working theory about the political commentariat's obsession with "fixing" Obama's "broken" presidency: confusion about why his campaign slogans didn't magically become reality.
- Jason Steorts, author of the National Review cover story on Ayn Rand, takes on critics and challenges one of the more obnoxious conservative beliefs, namely that there is an Objective Moral Order which is the sole source of morality in the universe. The alternative to accepting God's benevolence, you see, is rank idolatry, particularly ideologies that put man and the state at the center of the moral universe.
- Remainders: Michael Tomasky explains the depressing consequences of Bush-era judicial appointments; Jonathan Cohn explains the depressing consequences of Reagan- and Bush-era dismantling of regulatory apparatuses; cowardly Republicans whine about accurate portrayals of their desire to privatize Social Security; The Corner faithfully reproduces the Koch family's propaganda; when The New York Times hired Ross Douthat I thought he was a good choice (as a conservative), but I now fully retract that opinion; and please, CNN, stop insulting my intelligence with your worthless political "analysis."
-- Mori Dinauer
