The Senate in One Sentence

“We have to have a little back-and-forth every once in a while or this place would be boring as hell.” — Orrin Hatch, to Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, after being shushed by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy for interrupting Kagan.

Things That Are Related

Sarah Palin’s Twitter praise for a Thomas Sowell column comparing the BP escrow fund to the political roots of the Holocaust, and this.

Have a nice weekend, everyone!

Heaven Forbid Journalists Report Facts

Barrett Brown wrote a lengthy and hilarious post over at Vanity Fair about conservative reaction to Michael Hastings’ blockbuster Rolling Stone piece that brought down McChrystal. Couched in an attack on National Review (too easy!), it’s a rather damning indictment of the media in general. To wit:
Unlike many of this country’s most respected commentators, Hastings did not spend the better part of a decade repeating conventional wisdom about our allegedly unprecedented success Read more

More Important Considerations Than Personnel

What the hell were McChrystal and co. thinking? I don’t know. (Yes I do: they were drunk.) But this much I know to be true: their complaints about the civilian leadership are a hell of a lot less important than the actual on-the-ground success of their strategy in Afghanistan. Matt Yglesias makes the necessary point:
Back in the real world it seems obvious to me that the Obama administration’s actual McChrystal-related problem Read more

“A Gaffe Is Any Impolitic Statement”

Jonathan Chait limns the important difference between gaffes and honest (if misguided) expressions of ideology:
The interesting micro development of the last two years is that the [Republican] party is starting to be infiltrated by figures who come out of smaller and even more ideologically radical subcultures — candidates like Rand Paul and Sharron Angle. (Jason Zengerle has a fantastic story in TNR on Paul’s ideology.) The news media is doing a Read more

Proud Moments In American Twittering

Posted without comment: John McCain is now referencing “Jersey Shore” on Twitter.

All Your Election Results, Outsourced

The big news is that Blanche Lincoln survived the Arkansas runoff. Yay? Eh. For a great rundown of all the results, see Chris Good.

Never Stops, Never Stops

One million more states are holding primary elections today. Each one is wackier than the last. I’m not going to summarize them all, because I don’t care to think too much about places like South Carolina (even though it’s got the juiciest story).
Here, however, are the four marquee races to watch:

Nevada Senate: Harry Reid, in the thankless role of Senate Majority Leader (think Tom Daschle), has been polling terribly at home all Read more

Political Journalism, Inside Out

Chris Beam had an astonishing little piece on Slate that exposes the ragged, ugly seams of contemporary political coverage. Read it and weep.

Weak Tea

I only have 4 things to say about the results of yesterday’s elections:

Buh-bye, Arlen. You won’t be missed. (But this should be a fascinating general election campaign.)
It’s great that Bill Halter has forced a run-off in Arkansas, but D.C. Morrison’s votes should break for Blanche Lincoln, since he ran to her right. But really, who cares? Whoever wins the nod is going to get trounced by John Boozman.
Rand Paul’s win Read more