The Friday Political Thread: Magic Subliminal Cross Edition
The Christmas holiday falls on Monday and Tuesday, so this will be a long, languid, weekend. Occasional updates will probably appear on this thread.
Quote of the week…
"You can call me a one-issue candidate if you'd like, as long as you realize my issue is the survival of this country as we know it."- former presidential candidate Tom Tancredo, whose website is now an anthology of horrified news articles about his success pushing hard-line immigration doctrine on the GOP
The week in brief…
– Polls showed the Democratic race frozen after Barack Obama's mini-surge while the Republican race was tugged in a million directions: McCain up in New Hampshire, Romney recovering in Iowa, Paul staying strong in South Carolina, and Rudy losing his national lead.
– Just about every presidential candidate launched a TV ad to capitalize on the Sol Invictus.
– The Dec. 16 Tea Party fundraiser was a success, raising $6 million in a day for Ron Paul. Naturally, coverage of the campaign focused on whether he thought Mike Huckabee was a fascist and why there's a photo of him and the bad guy from American History X. Wonder what Tim Russert will ask Paul this Sunday?
– Mike Huckabee worried that Gitmo was too damn pleasant. ("He didn't say damn.")
– Congress banned the incandescent light blub. Seriously.
Larger issues…
In Dodd We Trust. Most people who run from the Senate, if they weren't already useless, soon become so. Neither Obama nor Clinton has gotten much done this year that wasn't for the camera. (Anyone remember Clinton's proposal to cap the number of troops in Iraq to stop the Surge?) Sam Brownback was never less productive then when he was flying to Iowa to fill one-thirteenth of the chairs at rec centers. The exceptions to this, this year, have been John McCain, who actually left the trail at points to turn his flamethrower on anti-war Senate Democrats, and… Chris Dodd. The only resounding note of his campaign all year has been Dodd's pledge to "restore the Constitution." This week he did that, chucking a wrench into the Senate gears to delay a vote on FISA reform until next year. And the crowd went wild! Jim Henley switched his Democratic endorsement from Battlin' Bill Richardson to the man from Connecticut.
It's not fair that Richardson lacked the ability to do what Dodd did yesterday—hold the Senate hostage for liberty!!!!!1!eleven!1!—but, as we libertarians say all too often, life isn't fair. The Dodd came through. Respect the Dodd. Respect the Dodd—with cash.
Dodd's not going to win the presidency, as Shawn Macomber discovered after some time getting Dodded on the trail. (It hurt. It hurt real bad.) But there's substantial bloggy momentum for a Dodd coup against Harry Reid. It's not hard to believe he'd want Reid's job. Thirteen years ago he ran for it and lost by one vote.
Below the fold…
– Chris Beam boards the Ron Paul Blimp, as does Charles Frohman. It sounds cold.
– Jonah Goldberg reels from Hillary Clinton's Christmas ad, the purest distillation yet of Liberal Fascism.
– Bob Moser watches Hillary and Barack battle it out for black votes.
– John Bresnahan and Martin Kady get ready for the Democrats to bail on anti-Iraq War politics.
– Kevin Poulson wonders if Hillary Clinton is still obsessed with digital T&A. (She is.)
There was only one possible choice for Politics and Prog this week. My only worry is what the second-most obvious yuletide hit is… but the way things're going the Religion of Secularism will ban Christmas next year, so no sweat!
