Author Archives: Paul Mirengoff

December 17, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

A clown’s impression of seriousness

Here, via the Corner, is an amusing report: About a half hour ago, Sen. Joe Lieberman was making remarks on Medicare on the Senate floor when his allotted time expired. As is standard practice in the Senate, Lieberman asked the chair for a few minutes of additional time to conclude, “without objection.” But the presiding officer, one Sen. Al Franken, said no. “In my capacity as Senator from Minnesota, I »
December 17, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

How about Howard!

Howard Dean makes the leftist case against passing the current incarnation of health care reform legislation. He makes basically the same argument Yuval Levin sketched when he explained why liberals should oppose the legislation. Doctor Dean explains: Any measure that expands private insurers’ monopoly over health care and transfers millions of taxpayer dollars to private corporations is not real health-care reform. Real reform would insert competition into insurance markets, force »
December 16, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

How Obamacare might be stopped

Yuval Levin points out that the way the health care legislative process has played out makes it easy to miss the forest for the trees. The trees were the public option, Medicare expansion, and abortion language; the forest is the legislation that exists now that nearly all of the bargains have been struck. What should we make of that forest? Levin finds that it is “really quite appalling, and should »
December 16, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

“All who want to change the world Sing along with me”

French politicians have always been annoying, but at least they used to be serious. This video, which features ministers of the Sarkozy government plus UMP party leaders in a sing-along, strongly suggests they no longer are. (Where are Charles de Gaulle and Maurice Couve de Murville when you really need them?) »
December 16, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

What about Joe?

The view of Ezra Klein, Paul Krugman, and other leftists that Joe Lieberman opposed the public option and the expansion of Medicare in order to “settle an old electoral score” appears to be based on the claim that in September of this year, Lieberman supported the Medicare expansion. In other words, so Lieberman’s critics say, he was for the expansion before he was against it. This is an odd argument »
December 15, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

What about Ben? Part Two

Senator Ben Nelson says he’s not on board the latest incarnation of health care reform legislation. Nelson objects to the fact that the current proposal does not contain the language he wants with respect to abortion — language that would preclude those receiving federal health-insurance subsidies from being able to buy policies that include abortion services. Nelson also says he has other concerns. One would expect as much from any »
December 15, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

“Help the cause”

Jim Hake is the founder and chairman of Spirit of America, a nonprofit organization that helps Americans serving abroad assist people in need, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jim has written a book called 101 Ways to Help the Cause in Afghanistan. I asked Jim to tell Power Line readers about his book. He has graciously responded with the following: Help the Cause provides specific ways to support our troops »
December 15, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Whatever happened to the Obamacons?

“Obamacon” was a category created by E.J. Dionne, or someone like him, to accommodate conservatives who supported and found substantial merit in Barack Obama. It was populated, thinly, by Doug Kmiec, Jeffrey Hart, Christopher Buckley, and perhaps a few others. Where do the Obamacons stand now that Obama has served up almost a year of a left-liberal presidency and, if the public opinion polls are to be believed, lost much »
December 14, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Who’s the “mass murderer” now?

The Senate Democrats, along with Joe Lieberman who caucuses with them, held a meeting this evening to figure out how to salvage health care reform legislaton. The answer, apparently, was to jettison Harry Reid’s ridiculous Medicare expansion approach. According to ABC News: Senators emerging from the special Democratic caucus confirmed that the Medicare buy-in proposal will have to be stripped from the Senate bill in order to achieve 60 votes, »
December 14, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Joe Lieberman’s MSM “hate mail” just keeps getting worse

Ezra Klein of the Washington Post says that Joe Lieberman “seems willing to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in order to settle an old electoral score.” It is this sentiment, I suppose, that gave rise to the vicious article about Senator Lieberman written by Lois Romano and Alec MacGillis that appeared on page 3 of the Post last week. On the plus side, Klein is a »
December 14, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

ACORN cries foul, liberal judge agrees

A federal district judge, the Honorable Nina Gershon of the Eastern District of New York, has found that congressional legislation that restricts funding by the federal government of ACORN is unconstitutional by virtue of being a “bill of attainder.” Judge Gershon is best-known, at least until now, as the judge who ruled that Mayor Giuliani could not cut the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s funding after it displayed sickening pornography. Judge »
December 13, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Will democracy “medal” in the Obama administration after all?

Robert Kagan argues that President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech signals that “the world had better get ready for a tougher, less forgiving, more quintessentially American approach from a man who certainly gave the soft touch a try.” Kagan sees the speech as a turning point not just with respect to Afghanistan policy, but also in Iran policy and, more generally, democracy promotion. Kagan suggests that Obama has revised »
December 13, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Planting the seed of failure in Afghanistan

My Examiner column is about President Obama’s handling of Afghanistan — his prolonged decisionmaking process, his West Point speech, and his plan for a surge. I conclude with this: It is possible that Obama’s plan will succeed. . . But the president has not used his three months of deliberations and his address to the nation to maximize the likelihood of success. Instead, he has planted the seed of failure. »
December 13, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

How dare they “complicate” reform?!

The Washington Post continues its attacks on Democratic Senators who dare to have reservations about the various health care reform bills the leadership throws together. This piece about Senator Ben Nelson isn’t nearly as nasty as the one the Post ran on Joe Lieberman. However, Post-man Paul Kane does manage to accuse Nelson of insincerity and opportunism. Nelson’s deepest reservations about the legislation pertain to abortion, and specifically the prospect »
December 12, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Senate Democrats behaving badly

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, has concluded that if Majority Leader Reid’s “compromise” health care legislation becomes law, America will spend $234 billion more on health care over the next decade. This is only the latest blow to “Reid-care.” The Mayo Clinic has already denounced the expansion of Medicare and the American Medical Association also opposes this »
December 11, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

If less is less, that’s still an improvement

The Obama administration appears to be facing up to reality in the Middle East: With the Palestinians refusing to return to the negotiations, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu not calling for a complete settlement freeze and the Arab world declining to make any gestures to Israel, the current sense in Jerusalem is that the U.S. is scaling back its intensive involvement in the diplomatic process. This view is reinforced by the »
December 11, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

This day in baseball history

December 11, 1959 is a day of infamy for Kansas City sports fans of a certain age. On that day, Kansas City traded Roger Maris to the New York Yankees. In addition to Maris, the Yankees received Joe DeMaestri and Kent Hadley. Kansas City got Norm Siebern, Don Larsen, Hank Bauer, and Marv (soon to become “Marvelous”) Throneberry. After winning four pennants in a row, the Yankees had finished a »