November 14, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff

Say goodnight, Mary

Featured image Here is a poll to brighten your day. Bill Cassidy leads Mary Landrieu by 16 points, according to a survey by Magellan Strategies. The poll was taken for the Cassidy campaign, but the results don’t seem far-fetched. If you add Cassidy’s share of the vote on November 4 (41 percent) to the 14 percent share received by the other Republican in the race (Rob Maness), you get a landslide of »
November 14, 2014 — Scott Johnson

Clearing my spindle, NR edition

Featured imageI have been catching up on the past three or four issues of National Review between breaks in the programming on the NR cruise. Yesterday’s stop in St. Maarten interrupted the excellent programming that is the main attraction of the cruise. When the programming resumed, it kicked off with a panel on feminism featuring NR roving correspondent Kevin Williamson and Christina Hoff Sommers responding to questions presented by Jay Nordlinger. »
November 13, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff

Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch — is there a meaningful difference?

Featured imageThe nomination of Loretta Lynch for Attorney General elicited praise from many familiar with her work as a prosecutor. From some conservatives, it brought relief that President Obama hadn’t nominated Tom Perez. And nearly everyone is relieved that Eric Holder will depart. But there was a time when Holder received the same kind of praise Lynch is getting now. Indeed, he was something of a golden boy during his time »
November 14, 2014 — Scott Johnson

Thoughts from the ammo line

Featured imageAmmo Grrrll addresses a subject I know a lot about: IMPERFECT ANGER MANAGEMENT. If I may say so, I feel her pain. She writes: A few weeks ago, the New York Times reported as “news” that the President was really angry, “seething”, to be precise, and let ‘er rip with his staff of designated liars, lickspittles, and sycophants. So with the Ocean-Lowerer as my mentor, I have decided to let »
November 13, 2014 — Steven Hayward

Hallelujah! Climate Salvation in Our Time!

Featured imageThe New York Times lead editorial today is headlined “A Major Breakthrough on Climate Change.” Naturally I was looking forward to the news that someone had at last developed a low- or non-carbon source of cheap energy that is quickly scalable for the whole world. What might this innovative breakthrough be? Algae-biofuels? The long-promised fusion breakthrough? A Back-to-the-Future style banana-peel powered DeLorean? No: the New York Times is heralding . »
November 13, 2014 — Scott Johnson

Iranian fantasia

Featured imageThis past May the Times of Israel reported on a Persian-language animated video that depicts a nuclear attack on Israel. According to the Times of Israel article, the video is called “The Rachel Corrie Message 2: The Point of No Return” and it shows an Iranian reprisal for a failed Israeli nuclear attack on Iran. The Times of Israel article describes the video and provides some useful ackground. The wish »
November 13, 2014 — Scott Johnson

Obama then and now

Featured imageAs John points out in the adjacent post, Nancy Pelosi now pretends not to know who the irrepressible Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber is. Exercising her power as Big Sister, Pelosi has sent Gruber down the memory role. In his own way, Barack Obama raises an even more interesting epistemological issue. Obama? Obama? Who’s Obama? That’s the question that Obama’s previous disquisitions on the constitutional limitations on presidential authority raise in »
November 13, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff

Mary, Mary, where you goin’ to?

Featured imageAs John noted yesterday, Senate Democrats have agreed, after six long years, to hold a vote on the Keystone Pipeline. They hope by doing so to save Mary Landrieu, who is the clear underdog in the Louisiana Senate runoff election against Bill Cassidy. The move will also appeal to Joe Manchin, the centrist West Virginia Senator whom Republicans would love to add to their caucus. Harry Reid’s unwillingness to permit »
November 13, 2014 — Scott Johnson

McSally’s sally

Featured imageWhen they finished counting the votes in Arizona’s Second Congressional District — if I have this right, it’s the redistricted version of the district formerly represented by Gabrielle Giffords — Republican challenger Martha McSally led incumbent Democrat Ron Barber by 161 votes. The final count is subject to a mandatory recount, but we have ground for hope that McSally’s lead will hold up. A tranche of votes discovered after the »
November 12, 2014 — John Hinderaker

Senate Will Vote on Keystone to Help Landrieu

Featured imageNext week, Harry Reid will hold a vote on the Keystone pipeline. Why? To help Mary Landrieu hang on to her Senate seat. Landrieu wants to posture as a pro-energy Keystone supporter, and Reid is happy to give her the opportunity. There is a nice irony here. Tom Steyer contributed (or promised to contribute, anyway) $100 million to anti-Keystone Democrats. The Democrats happily accepted his money and nearly all of »
November 12, 2014 — Scott Johnson

The Gruber variations

Featured imageThe Gruber videos — I wrote about the first one here, Paul wrote about the one relevant to this post here, Jeff Dunetz wrote about the most recent one here — will undoubtedly fail to receive the attention they deserve, and therefore may not sink in with the public as they should. I wonder if any conservative groups should take the trouble to draw attention to it (them). A reader »
November 13, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff

To fight amnesty, say no to a long-term budget deal

Featured imageAccording to several reports, President Obama is poised to announce a plan to issue work permits to 4.5 million or more illegal immigrants. This move should throw a major kink into the plan of congressional Republican leaders to pass a long-term budget deal during the lame duck session. The Republican leadership’s desire for a long-term deal is not surprising. No sensible Republican wants another government shutdown. Moreover, other things being »
November 13, 2014 — John Hinderaker

Gruber? Gruber? Who’s Gruber?

Featured imageThe main source of hilarity on Twitter this morning was Nancy Pelosi’s denial of any knowledge of Jonathan Gruber. Asked about Gruber at her weekly press briefing, Pelosi said: “I don’t know who he is. He didn’t help write our bill.” It didn’t take the Daily Caller long to turn up the fact that when she was House Speaker, Pelosi’s own web site touted Gruber’s analysis of the ACA. Click »
November 13, 2014 — Scott Johnson

A Pryor/Cotton footnote

Featured imageIn the run-up to the mid-term elections Atlantic political reporter Mollly Ball took a close look at our friend and now, since last week, Arkansas Senator-elect Tom Cotton “The making of a conservative superstar.” Ball is a diligent and skilled reporter, but the piece seemed to me a work of almost self-parodic liberal/media hostility. It annoyed me at the time; now I want to look back in cheer. Ball led »
November 12, 2014 — John Hinderaker

Racism Institutionalized in Minneapolis Public Schools

Featured imageThis probably shouldn’t be surprising, but still… Minneapolis public school officials are making dramatic changes to their discipline practices by requiring the superintendent’s office to review all suspensions of students of color. The change comes amid intensifying scrutiny of the way Minneapolis public schools treat minority students and in the wake of new data showing black students are 10 times more likely to be sent home than white students. Superintendent »
November 12, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff

The “disenfranchisement” myth

Featured imageAfter much soul searching, the left has found the explanation for the walloping suffered by Democrats last week — “disfranchisement” of likely Democratic voters. Wendy Weiser of the left-wing Brennan Center for Justice argues that “in several key races, the margin of victory came very close to the likely margin of disenfranchisement.” The race between Thom Tillis and Kay Hagan is the only Senate contest Weiser discusses in which the »
November 12, 2014 — John Hinderaker

Bipartisanship, Democrat Style

Featured imageNow that Republicans have won the Congress, it’s no more “elections have consequences.” Rather, Democrats and their media allies are calling on Republicans to “work with” the Democrats. I suppose that will happen to some extent, but any pretense of bipartisanship is galling, coming from Democrats. Michael Ramirez explains. Click to enlarge: »