Are Dan Drezner and Jack Shafer Brothers of the Asp? Because they certainly are Queens of Denial. Both Dan How scared should we be about 2024? and Jack Why the Fear of Trump May Be Overblown cast a cold eye if not cold water on Robert Kagan’s widely discussed and damn well verging on magisterial…
Tag: Donald Trump
“Thoughtful” Trumpers have a new gambit: Pragmatism!
Yeah, sure, that’s the ticket. Appeal to the ululating Republican masses with, you know, bloodless calculation! Because nothing gratifies a feral, nihilistic bloodlust like, you know, reason! That’s the latest, and perhaps most pathetic, stunt attempted by National Review dudes David Bahnsen and Rich Lowry, among other soulless cowards, to reap the rewards of Donald…
Clarence Thomas’ “originalism” too original for Damon Root
It is, I think, “amusing” to expect intellectual consistency from a man who, like four other unscrupulous “conservatives”, found that George Bush had a constitutional right to the presidency, come hell or high water, in the very worst Supreme Court decision ever, Bush v. Gore, whose multiple hypocrisies were ably deconstructed back in the day…
Shorter Ross Douthat: Pay no attention to that orange-haired man with his hand up my ass!
Last Sunday, Ross Douthat ran a column, “Three Paths to Containing Trump”, acknowledging in a fairly straight-forward manner that Donald Trump was a monster, that the danger that he would be the Republican nominee in 2024 was a real one, and that a “strategy” was therefore needed to forestall this danger. The three strategies Ross…
When Jennifer Rubin Does the Cuban
Okay, unless you’re familiar with the swing-band classic “When Reuban Swings the Cuban”—and you probably aren’t—you’re probably guessing that I’m accusing Jennifer Reuban of going communist, and I’m not. There was a time when I spent so much time making fun of Jennie for her passionately Likudist psyche—she once denounced Sen. Rand Paul for not…
Mitch McConnell’s “backbone” revealed to be a chocolate éclair! “It’s a miracle”, doctors say.
Surprised? I’m not. Days after Mitch McConnell scornfully denounced President Trump on the Senate floor following the Jan. 6 sacking of the US Capitol, saying the bloodthirsty mob had been “fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on earth because he was angry he’d lost an election,” Mitch was saying that if Trump won…
What Is Truth, Part 2: Real Time Originalist Smackdown!
In a recent post, George F, Will and Truth, I took issue with the estimable Mr. Will over the objective existence of “Truth”, which Mr. Will averred did exist and had in fact been largely unearthed by John Locke and enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, thanks to the efforts of John Madison, while I took…
John Podhoretz fails to make me want to subscribe to Commentary
In some sort of come on or other that I was reading, Commentary guy John Podhoretz began a sentence with the words, “Whatever else you want to say about Donald Trump, ….” I’m afraid those nine words were a bit of dealbreaker for me, because, well, that day I read no further. Still, there are…
Mitch McConnell reportedly working behind the scenes—to continue working behind the scenes
Mitch McConnell forthrightly criticized Donald Trump’s outrageous behavior, both before and on January 6, blaming him for the criminal assault on the Capitol, and then voted against instituting an impeachment trial of Trump in the Senate, on the specious grounds that Trump cannot be tried by the Senate now that he is out of office….
Rob Portman has a “quiet virtue”. In fact you might even say it’s silent.
Over at the National Review, Peter Nordlinger, a conservative anti-Trumper of the highest water, has these words to say about Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), who has announced that he will not run for reelection in 2022: Portman knows things — a lot of them. He has a strong commitment to the American system, undergirded by…