Watching the Watchers for June 5, 2007

Democratic Dustup

Commenting on the New Hampshire Democratic debate, Eugene Robinson made a good point: After highlighting Obama's response to Edwards's criticism that the Illinois Senator hasn't exactly been bringing down the walls with his outrage over the Iraq War, i.e. Obama saying that John Edwards's indignation is "four and a half years late," Robinson wrote:

Edwards is asking the right questions. If the war in Iraq is the most urgent issue facing the country -- and both Clinton and Obama said bringing the troops home would be their first priority as president -- then why aren't theirs the loudest, clearest, most eloquent voices in opposition to Bush's tragic misadventure? Each is asking for the opportunity to lead the nation. Shouldn't each be showing some leadership on the war?

Republican Wreck

Politico is reporting a stampede of former Bush-Cheney aides hedging their bets and jumping on the movie-actor-turned-presidential-candidate Fred Thompson's campaign bandwagon - - and payroll. Not sure that is a good development? Fred Thompson already shares positions identical to Mister Bush's on all the major issues including the war, now he has the president's advisers, too?

It appears that the Republicans haven't figured out yet, that the issue isn't the messenger - - it's the message and having a mediocre actor delivering the lines isn't going to make it sound or appear any more appealing.

The Republican message, however, isn't Fred Thompson's only problem. Richard Cohen shined the spotlight on a growing concern (i.e. Thompson's tendency to shun hard work):

If Thompson's name came up in some sort of free-association game, he would be a genuine stumper: Thompson and what? There is no Thompson Act, Thompson Compromise, Thompson Hearing, Thompson Speech or Thompson Anything that comes to mind. No living man can call himself a Thompsonite. Instead, Thompson came and went from the Senate as if he were never there, leaving only the faint scent of ennui. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life up here," he once said. "I don't like spending 14- and 16-hour days voting on 'sense of the Senate' resolutions on irrelevant matters." As a call to action, this lacks a certain something.

Lamenting a Bad Bet

New York Times columnist and onetime big-time Iraq War supporter, David Brooks, has been spending a fair amount of time lately licking his, "how could it have all gone so wrong?" wounds. His latest lament, however, is noteworthy if for no other reason than that it goes beyond whiney and enters into the macabre:

Iraqi society has continued to fracture and is so incoherent that it can’t even have a proper civil war any more.

Brooks seems to be upset that things have gone so far off track in Iraq (his not-so-long-ago most prized cause) that the people there can't even manage to go about the business of slaughtering one another properly. By the end of his piece, however, Brooks is completely contradicting his previous lament:

In the Baghdad neighborhood of Kadhimiya, Shiite militias are gradually consolidating control. They are expelling the Sunnis. They have created a system of street justice, complete with underground Islamic courts. They’ve battled rival militias. They fund their activities through extortion and bribery. But amid the mafia behavior and ethnic cleansing, they’ve created relative calm. Two thousand Shiite families have moved in.

To the common sense observer, that sounds like a right proper civil war!

An Inconvenient Reality

Bob Herbert had a little sit down chat with Al Gore. The discussion was supposed to be about Mister Gore's new book, "The Assault on Reason," but Bob's mind keeps drifting around to all the "what ifs." As in, "What if Al Gore and not George W. Bush had been selected as President by the Supreme Court in 2000?"

By the end of the first paragraph a person finds him or herself knowing where Herbert is going with the piece and, too, going there for themselves:

You look at him and you can’t help thinking how bizarre it is that this particular political figure, perhaps the most qualified person in the country to be president, is sitting in a wing chair in a hotel room in Manhattan rather than in the White House.

Can't blame Bob for feeling that way. Laura Bush and the family dog, Barney, have probably wondered about that, too.