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- Even though the option of passing health-care reform through the reconciliation process is now available, it seems increasingly likely that Democrats will be able to hold together their caucus for a cloture vote, and even manage to bring a bill to the floor that contains a public option. Not only is would-be dealmaker Olympia Snowe not going to be part of the committee charged with merging the different versions of the bill, but Harry Reid has been quietly marshaling support for a public option and even the sanctimonious Joe Lieberman is unlikely to side with Republicans in a filibuster attempt.
- David Brooks suggests that American conservatives would do well to emulate their British counterparts, citing in particular the would-be next Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne. But this is, of course, something that will never happen, because whereas conservatives in the UK have practical solutions to policy problems, American conservatives have been pushing the same ideas for 30 years, no matter the circumstances, no matter the actual efficacy of those ideas.
- I'm not sure what value The New York Times saw in publishing this story about the potential political upside of being "the party of no" nine months into the Obama administration, but if the goal is keeping the base loyal, then the GOP is in for a more overt public transformation, if the results of this Democracy Corps focus group is indicative of the typical Republican base voter. It's nothing less than Red Dawn with Barack Obama standing in for the Soviet Union.
- David Ignatius' column on a potential snag in the Iranian government's ability to enrich weapons-grade uranium is an excellent reminder that for all of the awfulness of the Iranian regime, they are far from irrational. Now, they did steal an election, which evaporated any legitimacy they had. But if you want to stay in power and aren't particularly scrupulous, then stealing an election is a rational action. By the same token, if you're building a limited number of nuclear weapons with the whole world watching, are you going to use them for a first strike? Rather, if you perceive yourself as surrounded by enemies, you might conclude that a nuclear deterrent is your best defense.
- Of course Glenn Beck is showing selective outrage at people who (jokingly) quote Mao Tse-Tung as their favorite "political philosophers," people who also happen to have recently trashed Fox News. But what's more interesting is how right-wingers deal with the presence of evil in the world. Never mind that a renaissance of communist ideology is laughable; for conservatives the topic is so serious that it should only be mentioned to point out how evil it is, or discussed only in the context of annihilating it.
- Remainders: Obama has not been very ambitious with judicial appointments; "Balloon Boy" is a perfect metaphor for the uselessness of cable news; The Washington Post wants to make sure you're misinformed about the Constitution's Emoluments Clause; the premise of Freakanomics always bothered me, and the sequel is even worse; and conservative amateur historian believes the Democratic and Republican parties are unchanged since 1901.
--Mori Dinauer
