The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Cain, Corn and … the Phantom Menace

My American Spectator column: DES MOINES, Iowa — Highway 193 runs nearly flat and straight some 60 miles southeast from the state capital in Des Moines to the Mahaska County seat of Oskaloosa, where the monument in the town square honors the tribal chieftain for whom the county was named. Chief Mahaska? “lived at peace […]

Fear and Loathing on Highway 193; Pawlenty Aiming at Bachmann?

DES MOINES, Iowa Got back from Oskaloosa — an hour away on Highway 193 — about 6 p.m. local time and spent hours struggling to upload video and photos. Now I’m just a couple hours aways from my deadline for The American Spectator, and so there’s only enough time for a couple of pictures and […]

Michele Bachmann Touts ‘No’ Vote on Debt Ceiling Deal in Latest Iowa TV Ad

DES MOINES, Iowa While watching TV news in my motel this morning, I saw a Michele Bachmann ad, aimed directly at getting her supporters out to next week’s Ames Straw Poll: It’s a good ad: She slams Washington “politicians,” blames the bad economy on Obama, says, “Someone needs to say no,” and closes with an invitation […]

‘Neo-Confederate Sex Panic’ Becomes the Biggest Political Punchline of the Year?

DES MOINES, Iowa Little did I suspect this morning when I boarded my flight at Reagan National that, by the time I reached Iowa, the nation would be deep in the grip of a hitherto unknown political fever: Neo-Confederate Sex Panic! “It was like the secessionists .. . Even as [Obama] was being inaugurated, the […]

‘That Evil Hour …’

How long, O Lord, how long? Where will it end? All I ever wanted out of this campaign was enough money to get out of the country and live for a year or two in peaceful squalor in a house with a big screen porch looking down on an empty white beach, with a good […]

Who’s Getting Rich in California?

Government employees, that’s who! Orange County’s nearly-three-dozen city managers were paid a total of $9.6 million last year, according to data in a recent grand jury report on city compensation. That’s 34 big cheese municipal executives earning an average $281,699 each, including $207,808 in salary and $73,891 in benefits. A dozen of them earned more […]

Pelosi to Dems: ‘Vote Your Conscience’

But Nancy, if they had a conscience, they wouldn’t be Democrats! OK, beyond the cheap snark, here’s a EuroNews video report, which you may enjoy merely for the narrator’s accent: Notice that even this lady with the weird foreign accent blames it all on “Republican right-wing Tea Party supporters.” And via Memeorandum and Breitbart, here’s […]

News: Herman Cain Beats Rick Perry and I Just Bought My Ticket to Des Moines

The media don’t much like him, but whenever he gets a chance to meet people one-on-one, he wins: Presidential candidate Herman Cain won the straw poll at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver this weekend with 48 percent of the votes, followed by Texas Governor Rick Perry. “How about spectacular,” Cain said to ABC News […]

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