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- To riff off of David Weigel's article explaining why crazy Republican candidates aren't necessarily doomed this fall, what we're seeing in these candidates is an element of uncertainty added to what would ordinarily be a fairly predictable midterm election. Harry Reid, for instance, was toast until he successfully engineered Sharron Angle as an opponent. That doesn't mean Harry Reid still isn't toast, just that we don't know if he's toast anymore.
- Steve Benen finds it perplexing that Republicans are still trying to eliminate Social Security after Dwight Eisenhower essentially took it off the table decades ago. To be clear, nascent movement conservatives in the 1950s hated Ike's "dime-store New Deal" but lacked any sort of presence in the Republican Party to successfully challenge the GOP's peace with Social Security's existence. Nowadays, having taken over the party, they're in a position to make Social Security repeal the official party line, but they lack any sense of the practical reality of doing so because they are so enamored with the belief that they are the natural governing party in America.
- Conor Friedersdorf urges everyone to chill out on playing the "bigot" card concerning gay marriage: "I understand why anti-gay marriage folks are sensitive to this charge, just as I understand why we advocates of same sex marriage are sensitive to being called moral degenerates risking the wrath of God and the health of society. ... It’s probably best that folks on both sides just get less sensitive." Keep in mind that while no one is actually harmed by same-sex marriage, opposition to it is state-sanctioned discrimination. Why wouldn't that piss off proponents of same-sex marriage?
- Remainders: I find it amusing that the liberal reaction to Dr. Laura Schlessinger's rant has universally been surprise that she still exists; referring to The Washington Post as a "reliable Democratic Party organ" seems sufficient evidence of derangement; and are all rich people now liberals?
-- Mori Dinauer
