Welcome to the Blogosphere!

Michael Barone, who knows more about the nuts and bolts of American politics than pretty much anyone, wrote to tell us that he has started a blog as part of the U.S. News web site. We had the feeling that Michael was itching to be a blogger, as he has been kind enough to email us about various items we’ve posted, including (but not at all limited to) comments we’ve done on his columns. That he has started a blog is good news; unfortunately, his current lead post is not: Barone thinks that Jean Schmidt’s narrow victory over Paul Hackett in a strongly Republican Ohio district is bad news for the GOP.
Fortunately, Michael’s second post is less depressing. He responds to this post and this post by Paul, which pointed out that Ted Kennedy’s assault on President Bush’s recess appointment of John Bolton represents a flip-flop, as Kennedy has been a big advocate of recess appointments during Democratic administrations. Michael writes:

Surprise: he is against them now and was for them then. You could probably easily find similar inconsistent statements by Republicans. All of which only illustrates my First Rule of Life: All process arguments are insincere, including this one.

I’m not sure whether I agree with that rule. But I can’t dispute this one:

My Second Rule of Life, if you’re interested is: Never eat in a Chinese restaurant next door to an animal shelter.

Oh oh. Barone, one of our most buttoned-down columnists, shows signs of loosening up on his blog!

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