promoting democracy in the Middle East
 

]


Shape Shifter is a lizard. Get with the program, newbie.

So Peggy Noonan agrees with me . . .
 

Given that you can make Slave and others apoplectic simply by saying "Hillary!," her candidacy should be entertaining. The hate machine will be in full gear.*



*And no, I'm not talking about the VRWC, or suggesting that there are not valid reasons to be against her. But the depth of Repub hatred for her, almost from the beginning of Clinton's** first candidacy, was incredible.

**Interesting that Peggy Noonan thinks Clinton is dumb, oily, and immature. As for oily, he was an extraordinarily effective politician and campaigner, and anyone who denies that is delusional -- look at where he started. His announcement of candidacy was widely viewed as a joke. As for dumb, his education alone ought to convince people otherwise -- and he didn't get to Yale by being a scion of wealth, unlike certain other people.*** As for immature.... okay, I'll give her that one.


***As for dumb, I will leave aside that whole eight years of peace and prosperity thing, since I know that's not popular these days. Deficits don't matter, war is peace, and anyone who doubts that the country is just as prosperous as it ever was is living in fantasyland.

Ty- now is it a scandal?
 

I love it when you talk dirty. But I think this is the wrong board.

So Peggy Noonan agrees with me . . .
 

Less incredible than the hatred for Bush.

Peggy is just wrong here. I agree with you here.

So Peggy Noonan agrees with me . . .
 

I disagree with you on two counts.

First, I don't think the hatred for Bush was particularly intense before he actually became President and put some policies into effect (like appointing Ashcroft) that led to hatred. Not to deny that the hatred is virulent.

Second, and more importantly. Bush was the candidate/president. Hillary was the candidate's wife. That, in particular, is why I found the hatred to be so extreme.

So Peggy Noonan agrees with me . . .
 

It always struck me as overblown, and I wondered if it didn't stem from the fact that, where B Clinton was mostly an opportunistic centrist, H Clinton was an unabashed far-left liberal who sometimes acted as though B's election was a mandate for her more extreme viewpoint.

So Peggy Noonan agrees with me . . .
 

Perhaps, but the hatred really was in full swing before he got elected. I don't think she acted as if his mere candidacy was a mandate.

So Peggy Noonan agrees with me . . .
 

Could be. My memory is that the hatred really started with the health care proposal, but, of course, I drink.

So Peggy Noonan agrees with me . . .
 

The hatred for Bush started after the contested election and spiraled from there. The hatred for Hillary was precisely because she was not a candidate. Billmore is right, it started because she was unelected and unconfirmed, and yet still undertook to implement high level policy.

So Peggy Noonan agrees with me . . .
 

My hatred for Bush began to simmer during the 94 gubenatorial campaign with the whisper campaign in East Texas about Ann Richards' sexual preference, but really formed into a healthy flame during the 1999 legislative session with the healthcare bill that passed without his signature, the James Byrd law debate and the comments on the legislative floor to Glenn Maxey about how anti-gay stuff shouldn't be taken personally.

What can I say, I'm a trendsetter.

Cannon Law Question
 

Re: title -- I'm sure dtb would be happy to spank you if you ask -- no need for this not-so-subtle offensiveness.

ETA I'm sure some of you fancy DC people can tell me -- who would have a "consul" license plate, and what does it mean?

RT, you should peel off your bumper sticker. Today.
 

I really wish that GWB would stop this shit.

E.J. Dionne in WaPo:

• Lately the president has been chastising Democrats for not sitting down with him to fashion a solution. "I think there is a political price for not getting involved in the process," Bush said in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Wednesday. "I think there is a political price for saying, 'It's not a problem, I'm going to stay away from the table.' " But when Bush's critics show up at the president's taxpayer-financed events, they are often told there is no place at the table for dissenters.
  
  Just ask Karen Bauer, who tried to attend Bush's Social Security event in Denver last week with her friends Leslie Weise and Alex Young. They were given tickets by the office of Rep. Bob Beauprez (R-Colo.). "We had on suits; we didn't have any buttons or pins," Bauer said in a telephone interview. Beneath their sober attire, they wore T-shirts that read "Stop the Lies," but decided to keep them covered.
  
  Before the three could enter, they were stopped and directed toward "a man wearing a smiley-face tie," Bauer says. The man in the tie told them that the Secret Service was coming to see them. Someone "in a suit wearing an earpiece and a lapel pin" came along to say that "we had been ID'd" and "that if we had any ill intentions, we would be arrested and jailed." They were initially seated, she said, but the organizers had second thoughts and escorted them out.
  
  According to the Secret Service, the man they spoke with was not a government agent but a local Republican volunteer. It appears they were "ID'd" by a bumper sticker on their car that read: "No More Blood for Oil." So don't dare display a controversial bumper sticker if you want to hear your president. The Republican Party is watching you.
  
  This was not an isolated case. The Bush Social Security tour consists of strictly controlled political meetings similar in spirit to the authoritarian style of Bush rallies during the 2004 campaign. In a famous instance last September, a distraught mother whose son was killed in Iraq was arrested for protesting at a New Jersey rally for first lady Laura Bush. The charges were later dropped, which makes you ask why she was charged in the first place.

It was uncool to see him doing this crap during the campaign, but now it's just ludicrous. If he wants to do nothing but revivals, he should simply call them that, and bring his own damned tent.

Gattigap

So Peggy Noonan agrees with me . . .
 

Clearly, you weren't listening to Rush Limbaugh early enough.

(I drink too)

The Party of Tolerance
 

• ``Stop the bigotry!'' the demonstrator shouted as he hurled the liquid Thursday night during the program at Western Michigan University. The incident came just two days after another noted conservative, William Kristol, was struck by a pie during an appearance at a college in Indiana.
  
  After he was hit, Buchanan cut short his question-and-answer session with the audience, saying, ``Thank you all for coming, but I'm going to have to get my hair washed.''
  
  The demonstrator, identified by authorities as a 24-year-old student at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, was arrested and faces a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace. He was released on a $100 cash bond, pending his April 14 arraignment.

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news...&w=APO&coview=

The Party of Tolerance
 

Wow. Dean attended Kalamazoo?