Colin Powell to endorse Barack Obama?

3 comments June 26th, 2008 10:44am Pat Cunningham

Political columnist Robert Novak SAYS the former secretary of state is fed up with the Bush administration and the current direction of the Republican Party.

Supremes overturn D.C. handgun ban

5 comments June 26th, 2008 09:17am Pat Cunningham

In a decision likely to have an impact on political races this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that a handgun ban in Washington, D.C., is unconstitutional.

UPDATE: HERE’s the prevailing opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia.  The case was decided by a 5-4 margin along conservative/liberal ideological lines.

UPDATE II: HERE are highlights from Scalia’s opinion, including his observation that “the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.”

UPDATE III: Andrew Sullivan has a ROUNDUP of reactions from the blogosphere.

UPDATE IV: In the first sentence of this post, I said the court’s gun decision is “likely to have an impact on political races this year.” THIS GUY says the effect will be to take gun control off the table as an issue.

Feds say Rockford native violated law as Justice Department official

13 comments June 26th, 2008 08:12am Pat Cunningham

A REPORT released Wednesday says Michael Elston, a 1987 graduate of Auburn High School in Rockford who later served as a senior official in the U.S. Justice Department, violated federal law by using political considerations in screening candidates for coveted entry-level positions in the department.

The report was prepared by the Justice Department’s inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility.

The Washington Post SAID Elston won’t likely face legal sanctions, because he resigned from the Justice Department last year amid questions about his role in the firing of nine federal prosecutors.

Several of the fired prosecutors said they received intimidating phone calls from Elston warning them against making a fuss over their dismissals.

Elston, who now works for a private law firm,  did not respond Wednesday to calls from various news media.

There’s more on all of this HERE.

McCain ad: The Democrats are right about global warming; my president and my party are wrong

2 comments June 25th, 2008 08:52pm Pat Cunningham

I don’t know why John McCain’s campaign people think this ad is going to help them.

It’s only going to alienate the Republican base without any likely corresponding gain among independents (at least as I see it).

Open thread

6 comments June 25th, 2008 01:23pm Pat Cunningham

I’ll be out of the loop until late this evening, at the earliest. Meanwhile, feel free to comment here on whatever is on your mind.

You might want to guess how the Supreme Court is going to rule on the handgun ban in Washington, D.C. A decision is expected tomorrow.

I expect that the ban will be overturned, but I think the justices will issue varying opinions on the matter instead of a sweeping decision that establishes Second Amendment rights as broad as the gun lobby would prefer.

Anyway, feel free to discuss anything (within bounds of decency, of course.)

There’s no nice way to say this: Ralph Nader is a racist

14 comments June 25th, 2008 12:05pm Pat Cunningham

Ralph Nader, who did more than anybody other than  five members of the  Supreme Court to put George W. Bush in the White House, now presumes to TELL US how a black presidential candidate should talk.

A variation on the-dog-ate-my-homework

Add comment June 25th, 2008 09:11am Pat Cunningham

THIS is incredible, even for the Bush administration:

White House officials refused to open an e-mail, because they knew what was in it – an order from the Supreme Court they didn’t want to face.

Behold the wit and wisdom of the “psychological” twins of American politics

1 comment June 25th, 2008 06:42am Pat Cunningham

It’s early yet, but still…

3 comments June 24th, 2008 07:08pm Pat Cunningham

When Newsweek came out the other day with a poll showing Barack Obama 15 percentage points ahead of John McCain, I said nothing about it here — for several reasons.

One, the poll seemed to be an outlier (at odds with other concurrent surveys and thus perhaps in error), and, two, polls in June don’t necessarily offer any good indication of who will win in November.

That latter point still pertains, of course, but I’m less inclined to disbelieve the Newsweek poll now that a SURVEY commissioned by Bloomberg News and the Los Angeles Times shows Obama up by 12 percentage points (15 points, if you add Ralph Nader and Libertarian Bob Barr to the mix).

The most fascinating numbers in the Bloomberg/Times poll are those showing a huge gulf in enthusiasm among supporters of the respective candidates. Check ‘em out.

Have you ever seen the amazing “cigarette that stands against the wall”?

7 comments June 24th, 2008 02:09pm Pat Cunningham

There was a lot of fuss in the blogosphere yesterday over news that Karl Rove, the most overrated political operative of his time, had publicly offered a strangely incongruous characterization of Barack Obama as “coolly arrogant.”

Said Rove: “Even if you never met him, you know this guy.  He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.”

Never mind that Obama is hardly the type one associates with country clubs, martinis and snide comments.  (I think poor Karl was resorting to what psychologists call “transference,” probably stemming from an episode in which some cool stud at a country made him envious.)

Anyway,  this mischaracterization of Obama was so silly on its face that it only barely warrants comment. A worse offense, in my view, is the ungrammatical way in which Rove expressed himself.

His use of the pronoun “that” immediately after the noun “cigarette” made it sound as if it was the cigarette, not the cool guy, that was standing against the wall.

The rule in matters like these calls for the pronoun “who” (or “whom”) when referring to people and the pronoun “that” when referring to inanimate objects. Hence, the right way is to refer to a “plumber who was working in the kitchen,” not a “plumber that was working in the kitchen.”

We see this rule violated all the time, in writing as well as in speech. About a year ago, I left a comment on one of my favorite liberal blogs, complaining about the guy’s regular misuse of the pronoun “that.” All I got for my bother, however, was a snarky dismissal.

I suppose Karl Rove won’t heed my advice, either.  He never does.

POSTSCRIPT: Upon further reflection, I think we should give Rove credit for using the correct pronoun in the phrase about “everyone who passes by.”  That makes him a half-wit rather than a nitwit.