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- In today's segment of the Michael Steele/RNC train wreck, we learn that Steele a) "didn’t seek this job. I didn’t ask for it," instead merely following God's calling, b) wrote a book on Republican strategy that no one in the Republican party knew about, and c) could face a challenge (again) from Katon "no colored folk allowed" Dawson for the RNC chairmanship. This is all undoubtedly excellent news for Republicans.
- Primary challenges make incumbents do funny things -- just ask Arlen Specter -- so it's not surprising that John McCain would devolve into a cookie-cutter right-wing caricature when his Senate seat is threatened. Steve Benen observes that McCain had and lost the opportunity to become a legendary Republican politician, largely riding on a reputation that was tended to by a political press eager to spread the gospel of the Maverick. But in the end, as far as I'm concerned, John McCain's legacy will be as the man who introduced the former governor of Alaska to the nation, who remains newsworthy to this very day because the very same political press erroneously believe she, like McCain, upended the political world irrevocably.
- The reason alleged "conservatives" sound so ridiculous when they talk about terrorism is because they inflate politically-motivated violence into something much grander than terrorists themselves could dream of. Typical of this sentiment is this National Review post in which the author laments that Barack Obama only refers to being at war with al-Qaeda, omitting the larger ideological war. He then makes the usual comparison to democracies fighting the ideologically-motivated Axis powers of WWII. And that's just the difference. Totalitarianism needs a state for it to flourish ideologically. Terrorists are stateless and do not possess the ability to destroy and conquer the West, unless this is a reference to Ed Koch's shadow army of "hundreds of millions" of Muslim extremists.
- Speaking of conservative cluelessness, here's another familiar trope: the supposed liberal indoctrination going on in our elementary schools and universities. I can't even begin to make sense of the argument here, if there even is one, but what's striking is the ongoing futile jeremiad against long-term evolving social, cultural and political forces that will never be rolled back and aren't as dangerous as conservatives makes them out to be. I'm reminded of this Nick Baumann post from yesterday, where he marvels at the fact that a reasonable conservative writer needed 700 words to explain to his readers that murdering homosexuals because they are homosexuals is morally wrong.
- Remainders: Dawn Johnsen is in for round two of the appointment bout; Rick Perry sees a model for Texas in California's legislative gridlock and crippling deficits; though loathed by the public, Congress spent more hours in session last year than any time since 1995; since our EPA has no compunctions with blowing up mountaintops to get at their sweet, sweet coal, perhaps we ought to move forward with plans to blow up the moon as well; and it has nothing to do with politics, but I agree with Mr. Lemieux that the outrage over Alabama "running up the score" in the final 90-odd seconds of last night's National Championship game is more than a little ridiculous.
--Mori Dinauer
