×
- The effort to make routine White House job offers into "Obama's Watergate" illustrates how much better the right wing is at "working the refs" in the press. Consider the success master fixer Karl Rove has had in creating total amnesia about his own efforts to use the executive branch to further the interests of the Republican Party, and it shouldn't be surprising that whatever "scandals" Republicans dream up will receive dedicated coverage by the Beltway press corps.
- It's impossible to say, as this Newsweek story professes, whether the 11-dimensional chess game Democrats are playing to minimize their midterm losses will pay off, but I'd wager it's very probable that Democrats, in general, could end up being better organized than Republicans. Whether that is enough to counter the fundamentals remains to be seen. But given the large number of closely contested races, any edge is better than none at all.
- You have to hand it to conservatives still carrying the torch for George W. Bush: Their loyalty is unflappable. The latest offense: A living music legend makes light of the former president's intellect and the right wing goes into conniptions over it. I'm with Yglesias on this one: "The interesting thing here is that conservatives are frequently pretending to dislike George W Bush and his policies, but at the end of the day they just can’t quit the man or stop defending his honor and his legacy. ... If [conservatives] return to government, they will continue with Bush-style policies and we’ll get Bush-style results."
- Remainders: Contrary to conclusive evidence that suggests otherwise, conservatives show no sign of ditching their belief that poor people and activist government created the recession; is 538.com good for political science?; I count no less than 12 veto points in this "how a bill becomes a law" infograph; and gee, you could almost say Limbaugh and McCarthy are less interested in confronting terrorism than they are in using its threat to attack the left.
--Mori Dinauer
