… clearly because of his hostage-freeing prowess of yore.

From Yahoo! News:

Former President Jimmy Carter will travel to North Korea soon to win the release of an American held prisoner there, the U.S.-based Foreign Policy journal reported on its Web site on Tuesday.

Now if we could just find a siege for Janet Reno to diffuse.

The jury managed to reach a verdict on only one count against former Ill. Gov Rod Blagojevich: “making a false statement.”

The thumped US Attorney “absolutely intends to retry” the case. I wonder what exactly he intends to do next time, having failed to convict a defenseless Defendant.

The moral of this story: never, ever, talk to the Feds

This from Real Clear Politics:

“He once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan, what does that mean? I’ll tell you what it means. He was a country boy from the hills and hollows from West Virginia. He was trying to get elected,” former President Bill Clinton said of Sen. Robert Byrd.

“And maybe he did something he shouldn’t have done come and he spent the rest of his life making it up. And that’s what a good person does. There are no perfect people. There are certainly no perfect politicians,” he added.

I’m pretty sure good people* just don’t do these things in the first place. But it’s little wonder that Mr. Clinton thinks we should quickly brush unseemly indiscretions aside.

(*The issue of depravity has been shelved for the sake of brevity)

Democrat historian Joseph J. Ellis beclowns his reputation bigtime in a recent WaPo op-ed, taking a Jefferson quote out of context for partisan purposes, and even worse, completely misreading Madison and “originalism” in a predictable attack on Supreme Court justices he predictably doesn’t like. [Guess who...]

Now, it’s not like normal people on both sides of the Great Partisan Divide don’t bend history toward their druthers and try to enlist the Founders for their cause—it’s de rigeur these days, and that’s fine. But Ellis is largely known as an accredited historian when dealing with other than current issues.

And sure, as a gentleman of the left, he was entitled to stretch a thin point in making his preferred candidate Barack Obama into some sort of Founding Father. His transformation of the Tea Party movement into the Whiskey Rebellion was even more banal and baseless, but what the hey. But now Dr. Ellis has gone and simply committed scholarly malpractice, and enough’s enough.

(more…)

Via my other groupblog, American Creation, which deals with religion and the American Founding [and all here gathered are invited there to participate]:

Congress Becomes Madison’s “Overbearing Majority“ from The Weekly Standard.

Let’s cut to the chase. Madison:

“[M]easures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority…By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community…”

The usually worthy Volokh blog recently made a hash of “democracy” vs. “republicanism.”

What the Georgia legislature was trying to get at, I think [and they did it poorly as well], is that a “republic” implies much more than majoritarianism, which would be a strict reading of “democracy.” [The introduction in the Volokh discussion of "representative" also gummed things up.]

A republic requires and effort toward consensus, hence the Electoral College, and even moreso the Senate: the smaller states are not at the mercy of the larger ones, and indeed in the Senate have equal say.

From the official Senate website:

A key goal of the Framers was to create a Senate differently constituted from the House so it would be less subject to popular passions and impulses. “The use of the Senate,” wrote James Madison in Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, “is to consist in its proceedings with more coolness, with more system and with more wisdom, than the popular branch.” An oft-quoted story about the “coolness” of the Senate involves George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who was in France during the Constitutional Convention. Upon his return, Jefferson visited Washington and asked why the Convention delegates had created a Senate. “Why did you pour that coffee into your saucer?” asked Washington. “To cool it,” said Jefferson. “Even so,” responded Washington, “we pour legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it.”

[Our republic also places limits on majoritarianism via the Constitution, although I doubt the Obamacare legislation will be found unconstitutional in any significant way.]

But the disposition towards consensus instead of mere majority has a long history as the American political ethos. Social Security, Medicare and the Civil Rights Acts passed with a significant number of votes from both parties. Indeed, the American Creation blog had a behind-the-scenes controversy recently, and the “winning” side was actually the minority.

Good faith requires such things, and good faith is essential to the smooth running of a republic. This is the essential truth that was lost in the recent Congressional controversy. The parties just can’t take turns steamrolling each other—that threatens stability.

We all don’t have to agree, but agreeing to disagree only gets us halfway there.

We have to agree to agree, despite our reservations. That’s the heart of “consensus,” and of this American republic.

It’s sort of—if I may—like “love, honor, and obey” in a Christian marriage:

As a nation, we “love and honor” each other quite seldom, like how we responded to being attacked by The Axis in WWII, and even for a brief time after 9-11.

But who, in any decent marriage, doesn’t “obey” their husband or wife when push comes to shove in a Big Decision, no matter who’s “stronger” or weaker?

As citizens of a republic, we obey each other. That’s how it works. Sometimes majority rules. Sometimes the majority obeys the minority, out of respect for the other. This is good will, and good faith, because no republic, no marriage, can survive without both.

I think even the congressional Democrats realize now that they steamrolled their fellow Americans on this Obamacare thing, in pursuit of what they honestly thought is good for the country. And regret it, because it wasn’t right and it was disrespectful to the rest of us.

They didn’t get a single GOP vote. They ignored the polls. They made no effort at consensus. It was un-republican [small "r"], and it was un-American.

right where he belongs

This from LifeNews:

Stupak first faces a primary election challenge from a hardcore abortion advocate who, today finds herself getting national support from NARAL. … “Over the last several months, we’ve been forced to witness Rep. Bart Stupak’s despicable attempts to hijack health-care reform because of his extreme anti-choice agenda,” NARAL president Nancy Keenan said today an in [sic] email LifeNews.com obtained.

And if Stupak makes it through the primary, there will be a pro-life republican waiting to challenge him. But to make it through the primaries, he will likely have to downplay his ostensible pro-life stance which will make it tough to win many pro-life Michiganders.

Such is the fate of weak men.

Would it be too cynical to call it State of the (dis)Union?  I’ll be taking notes.  I’m looking forward to Governor McDonnell’s response and the post-game analysis by my fellow esteemed SA bloggers who are all a lot smarter than me.  Live blog here if you wish. I’ll bring the popcorn.

You know, this is an amazing week. Massachusetts goes Republican, health care dies and the Supreme Court unshackles the First Amendment. It’s the best week I’ve had since spring break in medical school — and I don’t even remember it. And there was another item . . .  Air America, the liberal talk show network went out of business — which is a redundancy because nobody was listening anyway. ~ Charles Krauthammer on Fox

Just came down the wire. Coincidentally [or perhaps not], I tuned in for a little schadenfreude this morning, and after the Scott Brown victory, they were in particularly miserable form.

Details here. R.I.P., if that means it stays dead.

Do not be idle – join the fight for your children and grandchildren.

Apparently, this one doesn’t. Democrat Mass. Senatorial candidate Martha Coakley’s aide pushes Weekly Standard reporter down, then continues to assault him as he seeks to question Coakley. Story here.  Let’s see, assault and battery, civil rights violations . . . yes, yes, all kinds of fun things to consider here. Has Coakley fired this thug? No, she’s blaming the incident on “Republican stalkers.” Good grief.

The reporter thinks this might be the perp.  Hey, Chicago style politics is all the rage these days! And Coakley is the Mass. AG! Holy, Moley!

**UPDATE: BigGovernment.com is saying yes, Michael Meehan is the perp. And surprise, surprise, he’s an Obama appointee – for the Broadcasting Board of Governors which oversees federal news operations like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe no less!! He also worked with NARAL – hey, he’s used to violence. And, you gotta love this line by BIG G:

“His (Meehan’s) Senate confirmation hearing should be a hoot.”

I could not make up much better stuff than this. Thank you Mr. Meehan, you may have just handed the election to Scott Brown.

Frank Beckwith has the story here, with a link to there.

Basically, the Democrat Senate Majority Leader has shot off his idiot mouth once again. Harry Reid’s subtext was actually if Obama had been too “black,” America never would have elected him.

But Commenter “Jay” agreed on the face of it, that

It surely IS true that Obama would have had a much harder time getting elected if he spoke stereotypical Ebonics, just as a white candidate who sounded like he’d come straight from a trailer park…would lose votes on that account.

as did Commenter BSK, who noted that

Obama’s looks and diction may have played a role in his presidency (something true of all candidates)…

And that should be like, duh? to any denizen of the 21st century. If you can’t articulate the English language at least as well as the twits who read the 11 O’Clock News, you can’t be president.

OK, OK, George W, Bush couldn’t quite talk that talk and Sarah Palin could, but let’s move on, and also past Barack Obama’s relative “light-skinnedness,” which actually cuts both ways.

Because there’s a far more serious issue at hand here.

Reid’s use of “Negro” is unfortunate in this day and age, but I’m a generation younger, and I remember MAD Magazine referring to the “TV Negro,” who looked black but sounded like he went to Harvard.

Which—or who—Barack Obama is.

And there’s a PC flap right now over the 2010 US census, that in addition to self-identifications of “race,” “Negro” was kept in, as well as “Black” or “African American,” since some folks from Harry Reid’s generation prefer “Negro.”

But little of this, the word “Negro,” has anything to do with what’s important.

GOPers have some room for a righteous whine here, but not much: Lott’s praise of Strom Thurmond

“I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have all these problems over all these years, either.”

was substantive, not just a comment on Barack Obama’s cosmetic appeal.

Yes, it was rhetorical carelessness on Lott’s part. His retraction:

“My comments were not an endorsement of his positions of over 50 years ago, but of the man and his life.”

Yeah, yeah. But it went far deeper than that. When Strom Thurmond ran for president in 1948, he was deeply committed to segregation and opposed to anti-lynching laws.

So the Republican Party can enjoy a “gotcha” moment on Democrat Harry Reid and on the press giving him a relatively free ride for violating political correctness.

But it’s a hollow victory, and indeed not a victory atall. Harry Reid mouthed some thoughtless words, but Trent Lott thoughtlessly gave voice to an abominable idea, that Strom Thurmond should ever have been elected president in 1948.

All stupidities are not created equal. Sadly, it’s just more evidence that when it comes to race, today’s GOP still doesn’t get it. Yes, Republican Ike sent in the troops to Little Rock to enforce desegration of our schools. And Sen. Everett Dirksen swung the day in 1964 to win passage of the Civil Rights Act.

But in 2009, The Party of Lincoln has few other laurels to rest on. It can’t even tell the difference between Reid’s stupidity and Lott’s. This has simply got to change.

You gotta walk the walk, but as a politician, you also have to talk the talk. When you speak an alien language like Trent Lott did that night, that Strom Thurmond should ever have been our president, even in loose party talk, you’re not speaking American atall.

The Senate passed its health care bill last night and in doing so did not exactly cover itself in glory. The numerous high-profile payoffs and shameless sellouts used to secure the bill’s passage were enough to make one lose all faith in representative government. Rep. Cantor hit the nail on the head when he stated, “They’re allocating taxpayer dollars as if those dollars belonged to the senators. It borders on immoral. Just look at the way Senator Landrieu put her vote up for sale. Senator Nelson did the same.”

Michelle Malkin breaks down who got what in “Cash for Cloture.”

As my fellow Alabamian pointed out below:

“But when  you express moral opposition to a bill and that moral opposition suddenly evaporates when your state gets enough money – that is a whole different matter.  In Alabama, we have a word for a person who sells his self for money – a whore.”

Sen. Nelson, Sen. Landrieu, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world, but for extra Medicare funding?

Arkansas 2 is part of what I call the Jacksonian belt, the swath of counties from southwestern Pennsylvania along the Appalachian chain and extending to Oklahoma and Texas which were largely settled by the Scots-Irish immigrants that streamed into America in the dozen years before the Revolution and their descendants. Their great hero, and the son of Scots-Irish immigrants himself, was Andrew Jackson, the victor of Horseshoe Bend and New Orleans, who set about removing Indians from much of this territory and was the founder of the Democratic party. In 2008 voters in the Jacksonian belt voted heavily against Barack Obama in both the Democratic primaries and the general election, as you can see on these national maps and by clicking on individual states to see the county-by-county returns. This map showing the counties which cast a higher percentage of votes for John McCain in 2008 than for George W. Bush in 2004 is essentially a map of the Jacksonian belt.

If Vic Snyder is in trouble, it’s a good bet that many other Democrats from the Jacksonian belt are too.

Very interesting. My Scots-Irish ancestors are smiling from heaven. More here.

The McDonnell blowout is no surprise, but Christie’s relatively comfortable win is.  Of course you never know how many dead will rise in New Jersey to vote for Corzine, but it looks like the GOP just picked up two gubernatorial seats.

Oh, what could have been…

It’s no secret that the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and the American Catholic bishops were pals. Friends, even. Hung out together, drank together, as friends do. Give each other awards. And they had a deal.

“I knew Ted Kennedy. Ted Kennedy was a friend
of mine. Congressman, you’re no Ted Kennedy.”

The late Edward M. Kennedy’s son, the mostly undistinguished congressman Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI), gets an earful from the Bishop of Providence:

(PROVIDENCE, R.I.) -The Most Rev. Thomas J. Tobin, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, today issued the following statement in response to a Cybercast News Service article that reported: Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I) told CNSNews.com that the Catholic Church is doing nothing but fanning “the flames of dissent and discord” by taking the position that it will oppose the health-care reform bill under consideration in Congress unless it is amended to explicitly prohibit funding of abortion.

“Congressman Patrick Kennedy’s statement about the Catholic Church’s position on health care reform is irresponsible and ignorant of the facts. But the Congressman is correct in stating that ‘he can’t understand.’ He got that part right.

Congressman Kennedy continues to be a disappointment to the Catholic Church and to the citizens of the State of Rhode Island. I believe the Congressman owes us an apology for his irresponsible comments. It is my fervent hope and prayer that he will find a way to provide more effective and morally responsible leadership for our state.”

Wow. “Irresponsible.” “Ignorant.” Catholic bishops never would dissed Teddy that way.

And Teddy Kennedy never would have attacked such reliable Democratic Party allies as the US Catholic bishops either—the deal was that the American bishops looked the other way whenever Teddy screwed up, and never opposed him politically.

That was the game, the unwritten agreement. The deal.

You know, opposed him politically over that issue—abortion—the inconvenient Catholic truth on “choice,” inconvenient for Catholics, for Catholic Democrats, and especially for Democrat Catholic bishops.

“Congressman Kennedy continues to be a disappointment to the Catholic Church.”

…said Bishop Tobin. Wow.

Of Ted Kennedy the man, what should we say? His personal life was certainly a disappointment before man and before God, before his family and before his constituents, and more disappointing than most. But being disappointing is true of all of us, even if to a lesser degree. We shall not judge.

But not only in death, but in life, Ted Kennedy was lionized not just by men, but worse, by the men of his church—and worst, by his bishops—that his politics in service of the poor somehow made up for it all, and as if that issue could be outweighed.

I can’t say I’d be strong enough to resist politics if the tide turned—and Ted Kennedy pulled a 180 from “pro-life” to “pro-choice” in a Boston minute [see Southern Appeal's Alberto Hurtado on "Teddy Who Was Once for Life" for the gory details].

But let’s think just a moment on what America 2009 would be like if the Lion of the Senate, the Lion of the Democratic Party, the Lion of Martha’s Vineyard, had put up just a fraction of his political clout against abortion, as the late Henry Hyde did.

What if there were a “Kennedy Amendment?”

Rep. Henry Hyde was no lion, just some guy in congress. He lived with little fanfare, and died with even less fanfare.

He’s remembered for nothing except one thing— theHyde Amendment stands as one of the few obstacles to the US Government being in the abortion business. It can’t finance abortions. The law is still on the books, for now.

Patrick Kennedy wants the Hyde Amendment gone, of course: erased, sent to the dustbin of history. And I expect that Congressman Kennedy will get his wish in the coming years, unfortunately.

Nothing lasts forever in politics, but what a different country this would be today if there had been a Kennedy Amendment…

Me, I might be a Democrat today, as I’m mushy [or "crunchy"] on a lot of the other issues. And the United States of America would be the standard-bearer in defense of the unborn, in defense of the gift of life all across the world.

Instead of what our country is, a big fat zero, let’s face it.

Patrick Kennedy accuses the Catholic Church of fanning “the flames of dissent and discord.” Ha. I hope you’re right, Congressman, I hope you’re godamm right, and it’s about goddam time the Church did fan the flames of dissent and discord. What’s a church for, anyway? To be an arm of the government?

We can only hope that this flap marks the end of 50+ years of the unholy alliance between the Kennedy family and the bishops of the American Catholic Church, and that “friendship” is over, and the “deal” is off.

See, after all these years of mythmaking about Jack, Bobby and Teddy, their real legacy could have been the “Kennedy Amendment,” in defense of the most defenseless of all, the unborn, and of human life itself.

That’s the Kennedy family’s greatest tragedy of all.

That would be Rush Limbaugh of course, thwarting his lifelong dream to affiliate somehow not just with professional sports [once upon a time he lackeyed for MLB's Kansas City Royals], but with his true love, the NFL.

For those who came in late, Limbaugh was prepared to pony up some portion of his hard-earned fortune [$20+ million a year] to become a minority owner of the St. Louis Rams.

“Minority.” Therein lies the rub.

Limbaugh hasn’t been gentle on the Black Establishment, especially the corrupt demagogues Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, nor has he been gentle on their fealty to the Democratic Party.

Limbaugh’s a Republican, afterall.

Neither has Limbaugh been particularly kind to the pathologies that are sometimes excused as “African-American culture,” or charitably, the fallout from slavery and Jim Crow. Crime, gangs, broken families, education, employment, whatnot.

Race is America’s Third Rail—to touch on its implications and enduring problems in any meaningful way is social suicide, and that includes African Americans like Bill Cosby, who endured Jim Crow personally in his journey as one of Black America’s first transracial—post-racial—social pioneers.

Cosby, like Jackie Robinson, pierced the ceiling of racial prejudice by overwhelming merit. Cosby was charming, could absorb the flak without firing back, and he was funny. Robinson was charming, could absorb the flak without firing back, and could play the hell out of the game of baseball.

Limbaugh’s funny and charming, and very good at what he does too. See, this isn’t about race, it’s about partisanship. It’s about political power.

The Democratic Party cannot gain or stay in power without retaining 80-90% of the African American vote. That’s just a statistical fact.

Therefore, race-baiting—in this case branding the other “side” as racist—isn’t only convenient, it’s entirely necessary for the Democratic Party and their clients like Jackson and Sharpton and Waters and Lee and the NAACP and MSNBC in these, the early days of the 21st Century.

Just as it was in the 1960s, and has been ever since.

Y’see, after his baseball career was over, Jackie Robinson tried to become a journalist. In 1960, he interviewed both John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. According to US government archives

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/jackie-robinson/nixon-draft.html

Robinson viewed Nixon’s civil rights record as more promising than Kennedy’s, especially after meeting with both candidates.

But the fix was in. The political power game, in favor of the Democratic Party. And so

Robinson was pressured into taking an unpaid leave of absence and ending his triweekly column with the liberal New York Post when he publicly endorsed Nixon.

It’s not about race and never was. It’s certainly not about Limbaugh.

Even Jackie Robinson himself had no chance against the machine, and he was no Rush Limbaugh. It’s not about race and never was. It’s about power, pure and naked.

One of the great joys of living in suburban DC is that I am privy to the ads not just for the local Maryland races, but also for all of the always thrilling Virginia ones as well.  It’s hard to top the lovely Webb-Allen Senate campaign from 2006 in which, by the end, I wanted both men taken out back and shot.  That same year was the Steele-Cardin race here in Maryland, one in which I don’t believe I ever actually saw Ben Cardin’s face, but I sure did see a lot of Michael Steele – in both his own ads and in Cardin’s.  I’m surprised I didn’t see Steele portrayed in devil horns at any point, but I was busy moving that month (I always seem to be moving in October).

This year is of course the gubernatorial election pitting Republican Bob McDonnell against Democrat Creigh Deeds.  McDonnell’s campaign has been okay.  He has run a lot of fluff ads featuring his family and suggesting that he will magically cure the local transportation problems by selling state-run liquor stores.  As for his opponent, he has run a very focused campaign that has centered on one crucial issue.  It’s an issue that keeps Virginians up every night, no doubt, and which might be the most pressing concern for all involved.  That’s right, Bob McDonnell wrote a master’s thesis 20 years ago that suggested such shocking things like: it isn’t ideal for the family when the mother works, Griswold v. Connecticut was wrongly decided, and that the removal of religion from public schools was a bad thing for the country.

Horrors I know.

Naturally this has been played up by the not-at-all uber partisan Washington Post.  Honestly, Deeds would have been an idiot not to have made some political hay out of this, especially in liberal northern Virginia.  Unfortunately, his entire campaign has essentially centered on this one aspect of McDonnell’s public life.  I have not seen one single substantive ad from Deeds outlining anything remotely like a positive vision of what he is going to do for Virginia.

Not only has this been the dumbest campaign I have ever witnessed in my life, it doesn’t even make logical sense.  Even if McDonnell were the king of all social conservatives, does anyone rationally believe that he’d be able to outlaw contraception and abortion as the governor of Virginia?  Somehow I don’t think the Chief Executive of a state that doesn’t even allow it’s governors to run for re-election is quite that powerful.

Finally the Virginia Republican party (ah to have a local state party that has enough money in its coffers to even pay to have a commercial made let alone broadcast it) has decided to have some fun with Deeds’ completely inept campaign, running an to the tune of “Dirty Deeds” by AC/DC.

It might seem like whining to complain about Deeds’ negative campaign, but even Jim Moran thinks it’s getting ridiculous.  For the love of humanity, when Jim Moran thinks you’ve gone too negative, it’s time to dial it back a little.

Creeds is probably toast, though it’s a little closer than it should be.  Creeds has simply offered the voters nothing.  As Jim Geraghty puts it:

Look, if Deeds had prompted the opposition to play “Highway to Hell,” that’s the closest he would have come to generating an actual transportation plan.

Yosi Sergant, former Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts, and NOT a political hack attempting to hijack the NEA for partisan purposes, and assuredly NOT a member of any non-existent “cult of personality,” has resigned.

Move along, folks. Nothing to see here.

An excellent piece in today’s issue of the American Thinker makes Glenn Beck’s point that, perhaps, Obama’s election will be better for America in the long run:

Would the country be as aware of the following if not for an extremist government in power in Washington?  Acorn and the “community organizer” groups have been revealed to be nothing more than corrupt partisan hacks exploiting the poor and the taxpayers.  The unions and their leaders exposed as power hungry ideologues with no interest in the long term well-being of their members.  The mainstream media’s willingness to lose all credibility with the vast majority of the public with its not so subtle cheerleading for their preferred politician has become obvious to all.  The Democratic Party, at one time the self-declared defender of the little guy, has openly declared war on small business and capitalism.  The Democratic members of Congress have been revealed to be indifferent to the voters, incapable of reading bills and fully in the pockets of liberal special interests groups.

This issue was debated in an earlier post. Read the rest of the AE piece here.

One of our commenters disputes there’s a “cult of personality” around our current president.

In the interest of fairness, we ask our readers to forward any similar renderings of Reagan or Bush, naked and triumphant. Unicorn optional.

—The Management

[As for naked paintings of Bill Clinton, let's just not go there.]

Doug Kmiec, a law professor, pro-life advocate, former Reagan Administration official, and evangelical-Catholic-whatever, took a lot of heat from us usual suspects for endorsing Barack Obama, perhaps the most pro-choice major candidate ever.

“A black man; a caring man; a talented man. A man different from conservative self and yet calling me to find the best of that self.”

Professor Kmiec has now been appointed by President Obama as America’s new ambassador to Malta.

A scene from A Man for All Seasons comes to mind, where Thomas More confronts his betrayer, Richard Rich:

There is one question I would like to ask the witness.

But for Wales?

Or Malta.

via Big Government

Rep. Nadler (D-NY) claimed today that the Republican-led initiative to defund ACORN is an unconstitutional bill of attainder. I am no expert on bills of attainder but this does not seem like one. Rather than a punishment for past action without trial (i.e. a bill of attainder), voting to cease funding ACORN is more of a decision that the appalling, systemic flaws present in the organization make it unfit to continue receiving federal funds. I would think there is a key distinction between discontinuing funding and a punishment that requires ACORN to do something.

Any thoughts on this?

(Cross-posted on Underdog Soldier)

“There are more,” Mike Flynn, Editor-in-chief of new site BigGovernment.com, told HUMAN EVENTS in an exclusive interview this afternoon regarding the number of undercover films exposing ACORN. Flynn would not reveal the location of the ACORN office where the latest video was filmed, but he said, “It’s a slightly different discussion in this one than you’ve seen so far.” The video should break around 9 p.m. EST.

Flynn said this is not the last one, either. “There are more after that. It is amazing. Stay tuned.”

More here.

Oh, it’s on Page One of the Obama playbook. The NYT Magazine ran “The Mellowing of Bill Clinton” a few months ago:

And the man once called the “first black president” remains deeply wounded by allegations that he made racially insensitive remarks during the campaign, like dismissing Obama’s South Carolina win by comparing it with Jesse Jackson’s victories there in the 1980s.

“None of them ever really took seriously the race rap,” he told me. “They knew it was politics. I had one minister in Texas in the general election come up and put his arm around me.” This was an Obama supporter. “And he came up, threw his arm around me and said, ‘You’ve got to forgive us for that race deal.’ He said, ‘That was out of line.’ But he said, ‘You know, we wanted to win real bad.’ And I said, ‘I got no problem with that.’ I said it’s fine; it’s O.K. And we laughed about it and we went on.”

Well, Bill laughed, I guess, but it was Hillary who took it in the pantsuit.

I was a little surprised the elites and mainstream media didn’t pick up on this, but the answer’s obvious now—they intended to use the same slimy tactic again, this time at the real enemy, the right. If they pulled it on Bill Clinton, what chance do the rest of us have?

No doubt some people are serious in calling Obama’s opponents racist, like that unfortunate puddinhead Jimmy Carter, but for the rest, it’s all just part of the game.

When Obama met with ACORN leaders in November, he reminded them of his history with ACORN and his beginnings in Illinois as a Project Vote organizer, a nonprofit focused on voter rights and education.  Senator Obama said, “I come out of a grassroots organizing background. That’s what I did for three and half years before I went to law school.   That’s the reason I moved to Chicago was to organize. So this is something that I know personally, the work you do, the importance of it. I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career.  Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.”

Hmmm . . . more here.

(Warning – F bomb not censored.)

Keep the pressure on.

A growing number of Republican lawmakers are calling for congressional hearings and IRS audits of ACORN following the release of three videotapes that show the group’s employees offering advice to a “pimp” and a “prostitute” on how to skirt the law.

Story here.