Unconventional Wisdom

Ally McBuckley

Calista Flockhart is going to play a conservative pundit in an ABC series this fall with an otherwise great cast (Ron Rifkin, Patricia Wettig, Sally Field).

She won't be like Anne Coulter, though.  According to writer Jon Robin Baitz:  "I think she's a thoughtful conservative. She's ideologically, in some respects, very much in mind with the older parts of the party, the sort of Eisenhower Republican, the William Buckley conservative. She's also a humanist."

Eisenhower Republican.  William Buckley conservative.  That's the same thing, right?  And Buckley's pretty much a humanist, right?

It is possible for a conservative woman pundit to be wonderful written.  But not by Jon Robin Baitz, apparently.

I'll still tune in for Ron Rifkin.

There Is No "People-Powered Army"

Okay, I really shouldn't read Daily Kos, because it drives me crazy.  It's not the Bush bashing, or the anger.  It's that Kos and his friends never stop patting themselves on the back, without cause.  And for the last month, it's been about the "people powered Army."  Kos is leading a "people powered army."  In Connecticut, Ned Lamont is being pushed by a "people powered Army."

But there is no people powered army.  What there is a gang of freaks with laptops -- social outcasts, or at least political outlets, who now, in one of the Internet's worst consequences, have an outlet.  These people have always resented the cool kids, by which I mean not just the popular kids but also the smart ones, the socially functional ones.  The cool kids went off to become the Washington, D.C., "establishment," where they have positions of either power or money or both.  The "Netroots" professes to hate these people, but really wants to be them.  But a blog will never make them cool.  And endless self-congratulations about the power of the Netroots will buy a few years worth of annoying news stories -- "no one knows how much power the bloggers will have in 2008" -- but eventually the establishment, which is itself promoting these people, will figure it out.  There aren't that many of them.  They have no power.  They merely have the megaphone we give them by reading their crap.  And the more it is read, the more it will be recognized for crap.

Connecticut in 2006 may be the watershed.  Not the primary.  It really doesn't matter what happens in the primary -- although, God, it would be sweet if Lieberman won it.  But what matters is the general, because Lieberman will win, and maybe, just maybe, it will set in that this group of fools can make a lot of trouble but can't make a U.S. Senator.

The Bewildering Howard Dean

Today the New York Court of Appeals, that state's highest court, ruled that the New York Constitution does not require the state to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. 

Howard Dean issued a statement, in which he said in part:  "Today's decision by the New York Court of Appeals, which relies on outdated and bigoted notions about families, is deeply disappointing, but it does not end the effort to achieve this goal."

The ruling (here in PDF) is not bigoted, nor does it rely on bigoted notions.  I say this as a supported of legislatively authorized gay marriage.  But Howard Dean should really no better.  Because, in the past, Dean had this to say:  "The Democratic Party platform from 2004 says that marriage is between a man and a woman. That's what it says."  That isn't what it says, actually, but that's the "bigoted notion" he was advancing.  When I say "in the past," I mean two months ago!  And Dean told Lesbian Life that he opposes same sex marriage.  And, of course, in 2004, as the Washington Post reported, Dean opposed same-sex marriage. 

But now, it's not only "bigoted" to oppose same-sex marriage -- it's apparently bigoted to believe that the issue ought to be left to legislatures, not courts.  So says the Chairman of the Democratic Party.

Regarding Lieberman

Have you been reading all this crap that they've been writing over there on the left, about what bad shape Lieberman is in?  What a load of nonsense.  Lieberman yesterday ensured his reelection.  First of all, he is certain to win a three-man race in Connecticut against an unfunded, unknown Republican.  If Jodi Rell were running, that would be different.  But she isn't.  Lieberman will have the support of most registered Democrats, nearly all indepedents, and many Republicans.  And, ultimately, Lieberman will have the support of the establishment press and the rest of the Washington establishment in both parties, even if not publicly, because he's fundamentally a good person, and the people beating up on him are fundamentally bad people. 

Second, Lieberman is now more likely to win the primary, not less.  He's sucked up all of Lamont's oxygen.  Whatever the spin on the lefty blogs,  it is now assured that Lamont can't win.  He can either lose in the primary or the general, but he'll never be a Senator, and he'll never stop Lieberman, so really, what's the point now of working for him or sending him money? There is no point.  And what's the point of coming out to vote for Lamont at all?  Again, there is no point.  He can't win.

Democratic Senators, especially those who aren't running for president, can demonstrate the impotence of the little band of formerly voiceless freaks that is the "netroots" by supporting Lieberman in the general election.  When there aren't any consequences for them -- which there won't be -- Kos and his pathetic ilk will lack credibility the next time they issue their silly threats.