What Sort of Despotism (Part II)

Here is a great piece by Michael Barone, author of The Almanac of American Politics, and poll analyst par excellence.

Why do I think it's so great? Because Barone echoes my piece What Sort of Despotism -- written 20 months ago and still featured on my blog page Near the Heart of the Argument -- in his choice of quotes from Alexis de Tocqueville to describe the administrative tyranny in which we, by democratic means, have enshrouded ourselves.

The Loo for Lew, in Lieu of his Lulu

On two different Sunday talk shows Jack Lew said that the Democrats in the Senate couldn't be blamed for failing to pass a budget for over 1000 days since everybody knows that it takes 60 votes to get anything done in the Senate.

That 60 votes are needed to end debate and call the question in the Senate is common knowledge -- something a Steve Martin Saturday Night Live skit once characterized as "not what you know, but what you think you know" -- but it's wrong.

The Commissar in Chief

In 1982 the British band After the Fire released Der Kommissar, its English-language version of 1981's European smash hit by the Austrian band Falco.

Don't turn around. Uh, Oh!
The Commissar's in town. Uh, Oh!

Now, the Obama administration is determined to restore to Commissars their horrible power over individuals and private groups.

None of The Above?

On of my correspondents writes

I call your attention to Erick Erickson's op ed published [Tuesday] in Red State and picked up by RealClearPolitics...  Being a liberal pinko commie, and yet desirous of actual thinking with respect to politics, I find Eric's article to be particularly damning with respect to the current slate of candidates.  His position is not radically different than Joe Scarboro's Morning Joe position on the current list of GOP Candidates - yet despite Joe being my morning wakeup coffee companion, I can't help but feel his show is a carefully calibrated liberal fantasy of what conservatives think (recall my aforementioned pinko liberal leanings).  Thus, I'm craving a nuanced, real, trusted conservative response to Eric's article.  I know you're busy, but, of course, good Scotch is available for suitable debating of the issues raised by this email, and the article in question!

Since that Scotch -- make mine Lagavulin, please -- will have to remain a virtual experience until we are a thousand miles closer to each other, I'll take my encouragement from the fact that my friend describes his liberal-pinko-commie inclination as just that: a leaning.  I have always detected that certain faculty within him that craves rational political thought and that I believe is incompatible with the emotional tilt to his claimed politics.  Early in our friendship, I described him incorrectly as a genetic liberal, but over the years as I have come to know him better and to know more about his family, I have come to understand that he is indeed a lapsed genetic conservative longing to return to his roots.

But enough about him and his opinions.  Let's talk about me and mine.

The Damage Romney Did in Florida

It's difficult for me to say this, but there is little I can find with which to disagree in this piece by the shrieking wacko progressivist E.J. Dionne.

The political consultants -- yeah, yeah, I know, but if I'm citing Dionne, I can cite them, too -- say that negative ads cut twice.  For every two votes you take from your target, you lose one your own. 

The Race is On

Those of you who have attained a certain age, and who spent a significant part of your formative years in a small town or rural setting may remember when Top 40 radio really played the top 40 records in the country.  I heard Rock and Roll, Rhythm and Blues, Country and Western, Big Band Swing, all of it, on KBIM in Roswell.  In the NMSU SUB Snack Bar there was always a cowboy -- yep, the whole nine yards, hat, skinny Levis, belt buckle, and boots, though maybe studying agronomy or agricultural engineering -- walkin' up to the juke box and droppin' in a quarter for three plays.  One of them was sure to be George Jones pickin' and singin' The Race is On.  It was later covered by The Grateful Dead, though it's just not the same.

Over the last ten days, the Romney machine -- including the Super PACs flying low on Wall Street money -- carpet-bombed Newt Gingrich back into second place.  Yesterday -- to hear the establishment punditry and the Romney endorsers tell it -- Mitt creamed! Shellacked! DEVASTATED! Newt by FOURTEEN! percentage points and took ALL FIFTY! delegates from Florida.  Shazam! Kaboom!