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- Like Kevin Drum, I've been having a difficult time putting into words what motivates the post-Jim Bunning GOP who have decided, through their complicity, to needlessly inflict pain on the American public. Is it just pure malice at the Democratic majority? A desire to create a Dickensian dystopia through government indifference? Inchoate rage that they're no longer running the show? I really have no idea.
- Jerry Brown officially launched his bid for California governor today, releasing a video where he promises to get California "working" again. I had hoped Brown might mention the structural and institutional reasons California cannot raise enough revenue to balance its budget, but given that as governor he played a role in getting Prop. 13 passed, I guess that was naive. See also our September cover story for more on Brown's candidacy and amuse yourself with Jello Biafra's reflections on the first Brown governorship.
- Harold Ford has dropped his exploratory bid for Kirsten Gillibrand's Senate seat in New York, citing his desire to avoid a "brutal and highly negative Democratic primary," adding that "I refuse to do anything that would help Republicans win a Senate seat in New York, and give the Senate majority to the Republicans." Noble, and a team player. Meanwhile, to sate your fantasy Senate candidate desires, we've got Mickey Kaus angling for Barbara Boxer's seat. Kaus, 58, has already secured the endorsements of a pseudo-scholar working as a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a libertarian law professor who endorses torture and indefinite detention of terrorism suspects.
- Remainders: Endless Republican amendments won't stop reconciliation, and neither will the Senate parliamentarian; when it comes to energy policy, the American public says more of everything!; the genius of Roger Ailes is that he is a foreign policy realist (his term) who can't distinguish between the desires and capabilities of our adversaries; a Republican state senator makes a play for a top leadership position in the GOP; and Mitt Romney's mindless jingoism (posing as serious foreign policy) alone ought to make him the would-be Republican presidential front-runner.
--Mori Dinauer
