Frequent commenter “Joe” calls our attention to Patterico’s dig at Jeff Goldstein (and unnamed others) in which the prosecutor endeavors to play the Instapundit card:
Now that Glenn has said the same thing the “pragmatic” conservatives are saying, will the blogospheric demagogues who seek out Mark Levin’s favor put Glenn Reynolds on the list of “pragmatic” conservatives whom they bash on a regular basis? I boldly predict they will not. They need his traffic. So, even if he’s saying the exact same thing as I am, they won’t bash Instapundit. The demagogic bloggers on the right are happy to be pure when it comes to the fate of the country. But when it comes to their own self-interest, I suspect they will be a little more . . . pragmatic.
This is absurd. Professor Reynolds did not say “the same thing the ‘pragmatic’ conservatives are saying.” Professor Reynolds has been an out-front supporter of the Tea Party movement from Day One — which is certainly not what any soi-dissant “pragmatic” conservatives have ever said, or are saying now, or are ever likely to say in the future.
At last count, losses for House Democrats appeared to total at least 63 seats, pending absentee ballots in some races and possible recounts in others. Among the defeated Democrats were such long-serving incumbents as Rick Boucher (14 terms, VA-9) and Paul Kanjorski (13 terms, PA-11), who had survived even the 1994 “Contract With America” GOP landslide.
“We didn’t lose the election because of me,” Ms. Pelosi told National Public Radio in an interview that aired Friday morning. “Our members do not accept that.”
Instead, the California Democrat attributes the loss of at least 60 seats to high unemployment and “$100 million of outside, unidentified funding.” . . .
“The reason they had to take me down is because I’ve been effective in fighting special interests in Washington, D.C.,” Ms. Pelosi said, citing the health insurance and financial services industries. “I’m effective. They had to take me out. I’m also the most significant attractor to support for the Democrats.”
“So, I’m not looking back on this,” Ms. Pelosi said. “They asked me to run, I’m running. We don’t let the Republicans choose our leaders, and again, our members understand, they made me a target because I’m effective, politically and policy-wise.”
She’s so “effective,” isn’t she?
Yeah, you’re “effective,” all right. And the effect is a cataclysmic policy disaster for the nation and a political disaster for your party. (Exactly as predicted: “Democrats in the Deathmobile,” American Spectator, March 19, 2010.)
Given that the entire rationale of the Democratic Party is that no one should ever be responsible for their own lives — if you drop out of high school, get hooked on drugs and spawn a brood of impoverished fatherless children, you’re a victim — we should not really be surprised that Nancy Pelosi can’t even take responsibility for leading her party to its worst defeat since 1938.
The Democratic Party is in a ditch, and Nancy Pelosi’s just sittin’ up there, sippin’ on a Slurpee.
At this point suggesting that Democrats were buried under an avalanche of “outside, unidentified funding” is just an outright lie:
Overall, Democratic candidates in the 63 races that flipped to the GOP had $206.4 million behind them, a tally that includes candidate fundraising and spending by parties and interests. That compares to only $171.7 million for their GOP rivals.
“In the course of the Obama administration we have seen examples of Democrats in the White House, Congress and across the government pursuing ideological goals that are not only not based on facts and science and argument but actually fly in the face of facts and science and argument.”
“National Greatness” was sort of a Protocols of the Learned Elders of RINO, helping pave the intellectual way toward “Compassionate Conservatism,” No Child Left Behind, Medicare prescription drug coverage and everything else loathsome about Bush-era Republican policy.
Yes, well, this is a frustration for me. For people in the center, Arlen Specter is symptomatic of a problem, which is that there is no centrist philosophy. You know, people in the center should be able to say, we have big budget deficits, out of control, and here’s our agenda. . . .
And, yet, the center has not developed that. People who consider themselves moderates have not developed that philosophy. And, so, a lot of people who look like centrists and who seem basically centrist, like Arlen Specter, just seem like opportunists. . . .
Yes, exactly, Mr. Brooks: Specter did seem like an opportunist, because he was an opportunist, just like you. Specter was a vain and unprincipled power-seeker, and you are a vain and unprincipled power-worshipper.
Look how adept you are at trimming your sails to the prevailing winds, Mr. Brooks. When Obama was riding high, you were there to sniff the creases of his pants, and now you’re back to lecture us on behalf of your own opportunistic centrism, “A National Greatness Agenda“:
The country is restive and looking for alternatives. And before the next round of voting begins, I suspect we will see another mass movement: a movement of people who don’t feel represented by either of the partisan orthodoxies; a movement of people who want to fundamentally change the norms, institutions and rigidities that cause our gridlock and threaten our country.
Make book on it: If Republicans stand strong on conservative principles, play shrewd politics, nominate good candidates and capture the Senate and White House in 2012, Brooks will be there after Election Day to lecture the re-ascendant GOP that they should abandon “partisan orthodoxies . . . and rigidities.”
“It’s imperative for funding to continue to ensure that this essential tool of democracy survives and thrives well into the future.”
The co-chairmen of Obama’s fiscal commission, Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson, proposed eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, among other ideas, in their report on how to bring down the long-term debt in the U.S. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting assists NPR and PBS stations in their operations.
“The National Commission’s proposal to eliminate federal funding for public media would have a profound and detrimental impact on all Americans,” NPR said in response to the proposal.
Two simple questions:
How much NPR do you listen to? Not much, probably.
European shares were expected to fall for a third straight day on Friday, tracking losses in Asia and on Wall Street, with worries about Ireland’s debt levels and weak commodity prices seen putting pressure on equities. . . .
“As for Europe, the deteriorating state of the Irish economy has scope to further erode sentiment approaching the weekend break,” said Ben Potter, research analyst at IG Markets. . . . The 10-year Irish government bond yield has rocketed to 9 percent, from as low as 4.4 percent earlier this year, making it the second highest-yielding euro zone bond after Greece’s 11.7 percent. The bid/ask spread for Irish debt has also blown out, suggesting the market is freezing up.
We are looking at an ill-designed house of cards on top of a Ponzi scheme erected over the San Andreas Fault. The question is not whether disaster will result, but when.
When that disaster finally hits — when capital freaks the hell out and the bond market goes sideways — the lone sanctuary of sanity and calm will be Galt’s Gulch.
It’s not too late to take Glenn Beck’s advice and buy gold. But then again, ammunition, Coleman lantern fuel and freeze-dried food might not be bad investments, either.
Finally, maintaining the dollar’s international appeal also requires imposition of the rule of law in the US. Currently, the fraud perpetrated by the biggest banks is far worse than anything the Russian kleptocrats and mafia combined could possibly imagine. The US is in the grips of the worst scandals in world history, with the financial sector no longer constrained by anything that would be recognizable as lawful practice. And that is the biggest threat to the dollar as international reserve currency. Unless the top banks are closed, with their management jailed, there really is no hope for the US dollar or for its economy.
“Jailed”? Hell, why stop there? Public floggings! Firing squads! Feed them to wolves!
BTW, you gotta love the headline on Professor Wray’s Nov. 4 column:
