Laying down arms

If you needed any more evidence that the Republicans are freaking terrified of having to run against Obama in the general election, here's a pretty good indicator: one of McCain's top advisers says he'll quit before the general election campaign if Obama is the Democratic nominee. Mark McKinnon apparently does not want to be standing in the way of history.

Who would want to be leading the opposition to one of the most potentially transformative and uplifting movements and candidacies that this country has ever seen?

Quote of the Day, unexpected voice of reason edition

Lincoln Chafee, former Rhode Island senator and thorn in the side of the Republican establishment, has apparently written some interesting memoirs. They include this remarkable quote, which perfectly encapsulates for me why I will absolutely never ever vote for anyone who voted to authorize the Iraq war:

"The top Democrats were at their weakest when trying to show how tough they were," writes Chafee. "They were afraid that Republicans would label them soft in the post-September 11 world, and when they acted in political self-interest, they helped the president send thousands of Americans and uncounted innocent Iraqis to their doom.

[...]

Chafee writes of his surprise at "how quickly key Democrats crumbled." Democratic senators, Chafee writes, "went down to the meetings at the White House and the Pentagon and came back to the chamber ready to salute. With wrinkled brows they gravely intoned that Saddam Hussein must be stopped. Stopped from what? They had no conviction or evidence of their own. They were just parroting the administration's nonsense. They knew it could go terribly wrong; they also knew it could go terribly right. Which did they fear more?"

So sad, but not terribly surprising. As I have said before, even I knew we shouldn't be going into Iraq. But I didn't have to win re-election at a time when the electorate still seemed to be highly motivated to get a military victory and take out our post-9/11 anger on Saddam Hussein even if he didn't have WMD. A lot of people made a calculated political gamble without adequately considering the possibility that it would be one that would prove not only unpopular but deadly to over 3,000 US troops. And for that they have lost my respect and my vote.

Stepping in briefly from hiatus

I couldn't believe it when I found something written by Bob Barr that I agree with nearly every word of (I'm not really thinking about that part about the 2nd amendment.)

Wow. I'm sorry for all those things I said about you. Or, well, some of them anyways.

Bob's editorial entitled OK, scrap the Bill of Rights, from today's AJC.



(This post put together to Davd Gray's "Alibi" )