White flag?
 

I agree it should not fiddle with the markets, but if it must fiddle, the interest deduction is damn sensible fiddling. If there's one thing the past decade has shown us its that Americans don't know how to invest. At least real estate is a (in comparison to others) low volatility market. The last thing we need is people out there betting their savings on what they read in Derivatives for Dummies.

White flag?
 

If what you are saying is that he has put her up as a kind of strawoman, because he really wants someone else, the I agree.

I am not questioning that he is and was loyal to his dad and the criticism angered him. I knew all that. But his dad was not a Reagan conservative and I thought Bush was closed to Reagan than he was to his dad in philosophy. His dad was not a tax cutter. He may have believed in fiscal conservativism but not in small government fiscal conservatism, more balanced budget big government.

Rhetoric aside, I think W is different than his dad politically. And not just by the example of learning from his dad's mistakes, but the current court nominee is a mistake, it is a mistake that is reminiscent of one of his dad's two biggest historically impacting mistakes (Souter and failing to take out Saddam) and like his dad, it is a direct repudiation of a major campaign plank that induced a sizable number of people to vote for him, i.e. Big lie, albeit not under oath, so not as egregious as perjury.

Bush is not a fiscal conservative like we are. He is not as bad as Delay but he thinks government needs to really step up in certain areas. He really wants to help people and wants to use government to do it. I mainly ended up on his enemy list because I was disloyal, but I also think I ended up there because he thinks I am one of those crazy fiscal conservatives that wants to destroy the safety net. I don't think they cared when I wrote articles about his pro-life stuff, but the articles I wrote critisizing their fiscal prudence really crossed the line and showed the people around him that I was a "financial ideologue" that couldn't be trusted. My fiscal criticisms were damaging to his administration in the "Valley" and I am pretty sure that is why I became "persona non grata". I think the social conservatives around he think I lost favor because of my socially liberal views, but I am pretty sure it was they new I could not be trusted to go along with the spending increases. They warned Arnold that I was a knee jerk fiscal conservative. I don't think I am, but that is the way I am perceived.

White flag?
 

Interesting theory. I would be tempted to reject it outright, but stumbled upon these tidbits from Ryan Lizza:

• For instance economic conservatives pleased by her corporate law background may find it distressing that in 1990 Miers voted for a 7 percent property tax increase during her short tenure on the Dallas City Council. And Miers's long affiliation with the ABA will serve up lots of interesting tidbits that are unlikely to please social and legal conservatives. For instance, she apparently submitted the following report to the ABA's House of Delegates. Here are two of the report's recommendations:
  
  
  * Supports the enactment of laws and public policy which provide that sexual orientation shall not be a bar to adoption when the adoption is determined to be in the best interest of the child. ...
  
  * Recommends the development and establishment of an International Criminal Court.

Oh, my.

It seems extremely unlikely that Bush would offer up a crony as a tactical sacrifice, but reading stuff like this makes me wonder.

Either that, or the White House's vetting staff has just been shot dead on the South Lawn. Someone please collect the bodies.

Gattigap

White flag?
 

Why? It is their money. If the real estate market bubble bursts (and ftr, I don't believe this is possible on a national scale) the pundits and liberals in congress will be saying the same thing about allowing people to bet their savings on real estate.

I am in consistent in one thing, let the market decide.

Important you remembered this caveat. You almost stepped on the rake.

White flag?
 

Well, if Reid already okeyed her, then the people most likely to knock her down are the Republicans. It doesn't make that much sense to me that is a likely scenario.

Moral Relativist?
 

I'm really sick of hearing the moral relativist charge. You do realize that if it wasn't for us relativists, nothing would ever get done, don't you? There is nothing morally deficient in compromising. But there is something intellectually - and from a common sense and logical perspective - quite lacking in refusing to compromise.

My guiding principle is trying to get somewhere - trying to overcome differences to reach consensus. Thats a quaint notion in the age of Rove, but I think its coming back. I think people are crying for centrism. And I think you'll find moral relativist will be a compliment in the next ten years. I'll be happy to say I was one all along.

White flag?
 

The thing is, based on that, who is going to shoot her down, the Republicans?

Last time I checked, "thumping" is not a synonym with "reading." The moniker is not arbitrary.

White flag?
 

I am very glad that he is not on the Supreme Court, but I have yet to see a convincing argument that Bork did anything wrong in 1973, particularly not that "tarnished the [Executive] Branch of government."

S_A_M

FWIW, both of his fired/resigned superiors, Eliot Richardson and [the other one] counseled/urged Bork to keep his position for the good of DOJ -- and thus to fire the IC. Only so many of the top leaders can fall on their swords over a principle without it severely damaging the operations of the Department.

As symbolic gestures of protest which appropriately damaged the Nixon presidency, the first two resignations were enough.

No such luck G. This is a personal (albeit on a grand scale) betrayal of trust, like with his dad, although more painful because I expected to be let down by his dad, the other kind of lie violates the rule of law. I have an oath to uphold the same. I think. What kind of oath do we take? Soemthing, right?

White flag?
 

Agreed, it's unlikely.

Therefore, please have Maintenance clear the bodies of the dead vetting team from the South Lawn. I understand the power of metaphor, but really. The President doesn't need to watch that shit through the Oval windows.

White flag?
 

I disagree. Who better to fall on a sword than a long-time political friend and ally (see Webb Hubbell)

It still seems too roundabout though.