Monthly Archives: May 2005

May 27, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Curb Your Enthusiasm

It isn’t time to get too excited (or, alternatively, slit your wrists) over the widely-trumpeted USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll headlined: “Poll majority say they’d be likely to vote for Clinton.” What’s being reported is that 53% of respondents say they’d be likely to vote for Hillary Clinton if she runs in ’08. True enough. But here’s the breakdown: 29% are “very likely” to vote for her, while 24% are “somewhat likely.” »
May 27, 2005 — Paul Mirengoff

Profiles in flinching

The initial response of conservative bloggers and pundits to the Senate compromise deal on filibusters was mostly quite negative. This has changed somewhat in the past two days, although most conservatives still are somewhat negative. Charles Krauthammer demonstrates why that’s still the better view. »
May 27, 2005 — Paul Mirengoff

Dhimmitude, Hollywood-style

Diana West writes about how the television show “24” knuckled under to pressure from the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and, if I’m reading Diana’s piece correctly, converted a plot line about an Islamic terrorist cell into a tale of moral equivalence in which ex-U.S. military personnel are the bad guys. Perhaps they were afraid that the Professor Hinton’s of the world would complain about euphemisms, stereotyping, and desensitization. »
May 27, 2005 — Scott Johnson

A word from Wretchard

Wretchard is the proprietor of the Belmont Club blog, one of our favorite sites. Wretchard writes: A fault in Blogger is keeping the entire Belmont Club from operating. It’s Google’s policy not to offer online support and emails to them have not yielded results. I’d appreciate it if any of you would post up the notice that the Belmont Club is now here. »
May 27, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Don’t cry for me, Ashtabula

Tracy Allen writes in response to “It’s Georgie’s turn to cry”: You mentioned Voinovich’s pathetic display on the floor of the Senate yesterday, but I haven’t seen anyone relate that for someone who “cares” so much now, he didn’t care enough to show up for the two days of confirmation hearings when testimony was given. The heading comes from the subject line of Tracy’s message. Why didn’t I think of »
May 27, 2005 — Scott Johnson

The truth about bad legs

Thomas Lipscomb writes to his friends and colleagues in the media: This is a key moment in media history. So far NO ONE in MSM is covering this but my Chicago Sun-Times story and an item in the Washington Times. WHY? How do you account for it? Are you going to let this drop? If we do »
May 26, 2005 — Paul Mirengoff

An odious comparison turns into mush

Rutgers professor Alex Hinton has published an irate letter in the Weekly Standard which responds to a piece I wrote there. My piece used Hinton’s absurd comparison between the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror and our current prosecution of the war on terror as a springboard for showing how many on the left seem incapable of arguing against U.S. policy, and thus resort to half-baked metaphors and analogies. The most »
May 26, 2005 — Scott Johnson

(She gave us) Fever

Today is the anniversary of Peggy Lee’s birth. Lee had an improbably winding path to success from her hometown of Jamestown, North Dakota, to Fargo (where she took on her show business name), to Minneapolis and St. Louis, and to Chicago, where she was discovered by Benny Goodman at the moment he needed a replacement for Helen Forrest. In between St. Louis and Chicago were a couple of premature attempts »
May 26, 2005 — Scott Johnson

My favorite Democrat, part 20

Received in the mail, as promised by Lance McMurray of Red State Rant, is Senator Zell Miller’s new book A Deficit of Decency. Senator Miller has inscribed the book: “To Scott at Power Line — I’m proud to be your favorite Democrat — Zell Miller.” Thanks both to Lance and to Senator Miller. It seems appropriate to mark the occasion with a separate entry in this long-running series. »
May 26, 2005 — John Hinderaker

But It was Reliable Anonymous Hearsay

A reporter called me today and asked whether I had noticed an interesting point relating to the story of the airplane that inadvertently strayed into prohibited airspace over Washington, and caused the Capitol to be evacuated. I hadn’t; but I checked it out, and he was right. Yesterday, the Washington Post carried a rather sensational article titled “Military Was Set to Down Cessna.” The very first sentence of the article »
May 26, 2005 — Scott Johnson

It’s Georgie’s turn to cry

We’ve been tough on Minnesota Senator Mark Dayton here as his performance in the Senate seemed to manifest his personal difficulties, but Dayton has nothing on Ohio Senator George Voinovich. Yesterday Voinovich blubbered like a baby on the Senate floor over the prospect of John Bolton becoming the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. We adjust the lyrics of the Lesley Gore song only slightly: “He felt like making »
May 26, 2005 — John Hinderaker

The Pageantry Continues

The Miss Universe competition is heating up; they held the swimsuit event today. You can see it here. Miss Canada is the current betting favorite. It seems like the oddsmakers mostly put the contestants in order of height, so those who don’t fit that mold deserve special credit: Miss Mexico and Miss Norway: Our Miss Universe coverage has always been popular; this year the Freepers have been quite appreciative. The »
May 26, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Going, Going, Gone?

Austin Bay has the latest–well, the latest speculation, anyway–on the fate of Zarqawi. He notes that Strategy Page “thinks Al Qaeda is preparing the faithful for Zarqawi »
May 26, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Oops, Never Mind

The Pentagon reports that the Guantanamo detainee who claimed in August 2002 that a guard flushed a Koran down a toilet (do they have really big toilets there, or what?) was recently re-interviewed, and recanted the allegation: “We’ve gone back to the detainee who allegedly made the allegation and he has said it didn’t happen. So the underlying allegation, the detainee himself, within the last two weeks, said that didn’t »
May 26, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Adding the voice of reason

Kathy Kersten is an intellectual dynamo and long-time friend. Unable to engineer an injection of reason into its editorial board, the Minneapolis Star Tribune has added Kathy to its lineup of columnists. The Star Tribune introduces Kathy here as “an added voice.”) Kathy’s column debuts in the paper today: “Taxes aren’t the answer, archbishop.” »
May 26, 2005 — Scott Johnson

The McCain relapse

In his Daily Standard column Hugh Hewitt looks over the carnage wrought by the gang of 14 with a gimlet eye: “Non-nuclear fallout.” Joining Hugh in a great burst of derision is Peggy Noonan over at OpinionJournal: “Mr. Narcissus goes to Washington.” »
May 26, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Silence of the lambent

Thomas Lipscomb is a dogged journalist and former newspaper insider with a great nose for news and, even rarer, a willingness to use it. He now plies his trade as a senior fellow at the Annenberg Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California. Lipscomb writes: In February, Eason Jordan walked the plank for allegedly…(because no one has yet released the tape) stating the U.S. Military targeted »