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- Obviously, cuing up a jobs bill became something of a political necessity once the unemployment rate cracked double digits, because Washington loves attributing special significance to round numbers. The bill will undoubtedly be another round of stimulus spending that will studiously avoid reference to the s-word, be a gentle courtship of Senate moderates whose consciences demand reducing the bill's cost by arbitrary amounts of money, and be introduced just in time for the Spring tea party season.
- As annoying (and cowardly, in the case of the anonymous version) as the now-routine Senate hold is, the real prize in institutional reform of the Senate is of course eliminating the filibuster once and for all. It's frustrating to know that unprincipled centrists owe their relevance to parliamentary precedent that can be overruled with a simple majority vote, but one which no Democrats are providing leadership for.
- National Review hauls out the president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, to confirm the conservative movement's fundamental prejudice about climate change, namely that communism and environmentalism are "structurally very similar." I understand the impulse to believe that survivors of communist regimes are able to recognize the road to serfdom much sooner than other mere mortals but Klaus' contention that environmentalism is a totalitarian nightmare where faceless bureaucrats control our behavior and establish a command economy is patently absurd.
- Remainders: Private military firms are something every American should be proud of; Pete Hoekstra does not deserve the privilege of knowing intelligence secrets; I'm dying to know the "strategic consulting" to be provided by the RiceHadley Group; and this guy probably has a bright future in national Republican politics.
--Mori Dinauer
