Tuesday,
April 19 2005
THE QUOTE OF THE DAY: The award goes to Senator
Dianne Feinstein from her appearance on Hardball
last night discussing religion and judges:
"Criticizing
the court because you don't agree with the decision I don't
think gets you anywhere. The courts are supposed to be independent.
We're supposed to do our job and they interpret what we do.
If they find it unconstitutional, there's room to appeal and
go up to the Supreme Court. And that's always been a
final and respected judgment.
I would
hate to see that change, because it's really the first step
toward doing away, I think, with or weakening a democracy that
has been a very good thing for this nation over the past 200
years."
I actually
like Dianne Feinstein and count her among a depressingly small
group of reasonably moderate Senate Democrats. Nevertheless, this
is quite a revelation coming from a Senator whose party just spent
four solid years trashing the Supreme Court. It's a little hard
for me to warm up to this newfound concern for the weakening of
our democracy after Democratic party leaders and activists have
made such a habit of running around waving a bloody shirt and
calling President Bush illegitimate.
PLAY
ALONG WITH NEWT: Most people seem to think Newt Gingrich
is milking the rumor of a presidential bid to sell books, but
let's go ahead and play
along anyway:
Gingrich's
aides insist the rush of 2008 speculation is premature, but
they are quick to add that their boss, who has a loyal national
following who would relish a match with Hillary Clinton, won't
shut the door on a presidential run.
``The
answer is we don't know,'' said Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler.
``The speaker hasn't ruled it out.''
That's almost
exactly the same thing Newt said 100
days ago. (Just as a point of reference, that's only 21 days
longer than John
Kerry has been stonewalling on signing Form 180).
One guy who
isn't playing along with Newt is Robert Novak. When asked by Mark
Shields on The Capital Gang this weekend whether Gingrich would
have legitimate shot at the nomination, Novak
replied:
"I'm
not going to say he doesn't have a chance but, boy, it seems
to be very unlikely to me. I've been talking to a lot of Republicans
since this came and they just say, 'Ah, what are you talking
about, Newt Gingrich?'
Twenty seconds
later when E.J. Dionne said that some in Washington were approaching
the idea of a 2008 Newt run with "some seriousness,"
Novak interjected: "Who's taking him seriously? I haven't
found anybody." Ouch.
IT'S
MILLER
TIME : Lee Hawkins Jr. of the Wall St. Journal recently
visited a General Motors plant in Janesville, Wisconsin where
he reported on the automaker's struggle to cope with spiraling
health care costs. In addition to health issues caused by obesity
and smoking, Hawkins spent some time visiting with the owner of
Zachow's, a tavern located less than one hundred yards from the
plant's main entrance:
Mr.
Zachow said workers don't get drunk when they hit his bar during
breaks. "They only have less than a half-hour for
their breaks. If they can get two or three beers down, that's
about it," Mr. Zachow said. "It's fast and
furious. And they get a little exercise walking over.
The bar is in a good place. If they were going down
to the other bar down the street, they'd have to go down a whole
mile."
Three beers
in less than thirty minutes? That's frat-house style drinking.
It also makes me think that maybe John Edwards was right: there
really are "two Americas." Because unlike the boys at
GM, Ted Kennedy gets at least two hours to knock back three drinks
at lunch. - T. Bevan 11:45 am Link
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