Monthly Archives: May 2010

May 19, 2010 — John Hinderaker

The Loser Letters: A Belated Re-Plug

Paul, who is by no means a religious fanatic, plugged Mary Eberstadt’s The Loser Letters here. The Loser Letters is an apologia for religious belief, in particular Christianity, in the witty form of letters written (from rehab) by a young woman called A. F. (A Former) Christian to leaders of the atheist movement. The letters appeared first on National Review Online. On our radio show last Saturday, Chad Doughty, sitting »
May 19, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

Portrait of the activist as a young woman

The thesis Elena Kagan wrote in 1983 as a graduate student at Oxford is now publicly available. The Washington Post touts it as being “critical of the Warren court” because Kagan argued that the Supreme Court’s development of the exclusionary rule during the Warren years was not based on a “coherent theory” and thus “assured the rule’s eventual demise.” Kagan was probably correct on her descriptive point – the Warren »
May 19, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Scandals: A Common Thread

Another Congressman bites the dust in a sex scandal, while a Senate candidate can’t resist embellishing his military record by claiming service in Vietnam. Michael Ramirez deftly unites the two; click to enlarge: One serious observation about the Blumenthal scandal, which has caused his poll numbers to plunge. His eagerness to portray himself as a Vietnam veteran reveals how far we have come since the 1960s. Blumenthal took advantage of »
May 19, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Obama Doubles Down on Arizona

Today President Obama held a joint press availability at the White House with Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderon. Naturally, the prime topic was immigration. Here is part of what Obama had to say: We also discussed the new law in Arizona, which is a misdirected effort, a misdirected expression of frustration over our broken immigration system, which has raised concerns in both our countries. … And I want everyone, American and »
May 19, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

High drama in Arkansas

The run-off in Arkansas between Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Bill Halter should be something to behold. Because Lincoln and Halter ran almost a dead-heat yesterday, the big question is how the 14 percent or so who voted for D.C. Morrison will break. The conventional wisdom may be that Halter has the edge with these voters, based on anti-incumbent sentiment. On the other hand, Morrison was the most conservative of the »
May 19, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

A safe Republican seat is a terrible thing to waste on a RINO

Flying way under the Arkansas radar screen last night was the Republican primary in the Third Congressional District. That’s the seat held by John Boozman, who is now the Republican nominee for the Senate. The Third District covers Northwest Arkansas. Repubilcans have held it since January 1967. Even Bill Clinton couldn’t win the seat when he sought it in 1974, a great year for Democrats. Yesterday, John Womack got the »
May 19, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

A better night for Democrats than for Republicans

The main theme from last night is the continuation of the anti-incumbent trend. But it’s also true, I think, that the Democrats got the better of the evening. First, Democrat Mark Critz held Pennsylvania 12 for the Democrats, defeating Republican Tim Burns. His victory wasn’t pretty; Critz captured only 53 of the vote in a heavily Democratic district. But this was a seat Republicans thought they had a decent shot »
May 19, 2010 — Scott Johnson

Inside Veterans Airlift Command

In his PJTV report on Walt Fricke, Bill Whittle invites viewers to take a ride with volunteers from the Veterans Airlift Command. Fricke founded the VAC; the VAC provides free air transportation to wounded warriors, veterans and their families for medical and other compassionate purposes through a national network of volunteer aircraft owners and pilots. Whittle is a brilliant reporter; he gets right to the heart of VAC’s mission in »
May 18, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

A bad night for incumbents and establishments

The headline from tonight’s primaries ought to be a variation on the one I wrote several days ago, “For Incumbent Senators, More Danger Ahead.” In Pennsylvania, incumbent Arlen Specter, leading in the polls until recently, was turned out. In Arkansans, incumbent Blanche Lincoln is nowhere close to the 50 percent she needed to avoid a runoff. In fact, as I write this post, she is only a few thousand votes »
May 18, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

The worm has been turned out in Pennsylvania

Fox News has called the Pennsylvania Senate Democratic primary. It’s Joe Sestak over Arlen Specter. Another Senate incumbent has thus failed to be nominated. To be fair, Specter is an extremely bright and able man. When he was on your side, you were very happy to have him. Moreover, Specter exercised independent judgment at times, an admirable quality in a Senator, as infuriating as it was for those of us »
May 18, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Bad News In One That Counts

Tonight’s action is basically primaries, but in Pennsylvania’s 12th, Republican Tim Burns is trying to win Jack Murtha’s seat. So far, though, he is falling short; with 50% of districts reporting, Democrat Mark Critz, a former Murtha aide, is ahead 55-43. Not only that, as Michael Barone points out, Critz is running ahead of President Obama in some key areas. So it doesn’t look as though the Republicans will be »
May 18, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

An oddity in the Kentucky returns

As John noted below, Rand Paul has won the Kentucky Republican Senate primary. But here’s something odd — according to the results I’m looking at, with 83 percent of the precincts reporting in both the Democratic and Republican primaries, the total Republican vote is about 300,000 while the total Democratic vote is more than 400,000. If, in fact, turnout was that much greater on the Democratic side, I’m wondering whether »
May 18, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Specter Not Giving Up the Ghost Yet

With 12 percent of precincts reporting, Arlen Specter holds a razor-thin lead over over Joe Sestak. But Michael Barone says that’s bad news for Specter, as the returns so far are Philadelphia-heavy. Personally, I’d like to see Specter win, as I think he would be an easier opponent for Pat Toomey. But for him to be out of politics, one way or the other, will be a good thing. UPDATE: »
May 18, 2010 — John Hinderaker

It’s Paul In Kentucky

Rand Paul has won the Republican Senate primary in Kentucky. That may be a good thing, as he was strongly supported by the Tea Party movement. But let’s hope the apple has fallen a long way from the tree. »
May 18, 2010 — Scott Johnson

GM comes clean

General Motors chairman and chief executive officer Edward Whitacre took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal last month to make an important announcement: “The GM bailout: Paid back in full.”. Whitacre asserted that GM had paid back all the funds it borrowed from the United States in full with interest. Whitacre omitted two facts that rendered his column highly misleading. They are the kind of omissions that constitute »
May 18, 2010 — John Hinderaker

How to Vote on Kagan?

Ed Whelan cites Byron York’s report that behind the scenes, Washington Republicans are conducting an “intense debate” over “whether the GOP should to try to stop Kagan, because that’s what Democrats would do in the same situation, or whether Republicans should concede that Kagan is qualified and vote to confirm her because the president has the right to expect the Senate to approve qualified nominees.” If that’s really the way »
May 18, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

Arlen Specter, the Israel angle

Jonathan Tobin notes that, whatever his other shortcomings, Arlen Specter has a solid three-decade record of supporting the Jewish state. Joe Sestak, Specter’s opponent, is another story: Sestak spoke at a fundraiser for CAIR – the pro-Hamas front group that was implicated in the Holy Land Foundation federal terror prosecution. And he has signed on to congressional letters criticizing Israel’s measures of self-defense against terrorists and refused to back those »