Misc Commentary For August 17, 2005: Part 2

by John Hawkins | August 17, 2005 9:48 pm

This[1] could be interesting:

“Republican Party leaders are courting Joe Scarborough to replace U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris in the 2006 Senate race against Bill Nelson.”

Normally, I don’t think it’s a good for pundits to run for office for a number of reasons. They tend to be too uncompromising, they’ve built up a long track record of outrageous statements, and running for office requires a related, but still different skill set than writing columns or doing TV or radio.

However, Scarborough is a level headed guy who’s less controversial than a lot of other hosts, plus he has proven that he can campaign with the best of them during his time in the House. In my opinion, I think Scarborough would be a significantly better candidate than Katherine Harris and I think he’d have a good shot of knocking off Bill Nelson.

I’d also add that Scarborough is not only a rock ribbed conservative, but he’s also a relentless deficit hawk. The Senate desperately needs more representatives who fit exactly that description.

— Palm Beach County is still pursuing Rush Limbaugh for “doctor shopping[2].”

You know, while Rush certainly broke the law by illegally obtaining pain killers, they’re not even going after him for that. Nor would it be wrong for the prosecutors to do so. I have much more sympathy for someone who gets hooked on pain killers than someone who’s using marijuana, heroin, crack, etc, etc, but still, the law is the law, and if Limbaugh broke it, he should be treated just like anybody else.

However, that’s exactly the problem.

To me, this looks like another Martha Stewart case, where someone who’s rich and famous is being targeted because of their celebrity. If Martha Stewart would have been just another Jane Doe, she would have never been prosecuted. Same goes for Rush Limbaugh. The only reason they’re still pursuing the case at this point is because he’s “Rush Limbaugh,” not Joe Schmoe.

We as a society tend to be very sensitive to celebrities getting breaks or special treatment because of their stardom. But, it seems to me that we should also be sensitive to people being targeted for jail time simply because they’re famous.

— A while back, I noted that my favorite blogging trend was Chick Pic Blogging[3], which is attractive women creating blogs featuring lots and lots of pictures of themselves.

Know what my least favorite blogging trend is? Conservative blogs for people who hate conservatives. This features ostensibly conservative/libertarian bloggers who whinge endlessly about Republicans and Conservatives. They despise the war, religious people, or just all things Republican and they obsessively go and on and on about it.

The only thing more annoying than a liberal is someone who claims to be a conservative and yet sounds like a liberal most of the time. Have a glass of shut-the-hell-up already Pat Buchanan, Andrew Sullivan, and you other third rate, right-wing rejects…

— From a Wall Street Journal[4] editorial on the delay in writing the Iraqi Constitution:

“At least the last-minute brinksmanship doesn’t appear to be about religion, despite repeated alarms in the U.S. about the rise of a Shiite “theocracy.” Most of the Iraqi framers seem to agree with constitutional language asserting that Islam will be “a”–not “the”–principle source of legislation. This is not so different from the vague appeals to divine providence found in some of America’s founding documents, and certainly is no reason to fear Iranian-style clerical dominance. On both family law and women’s rights, as well, compromises appear to be within reach.

Oil, Federalism, and religion have been the main sticking points in the Constitutional debate. Oil and Federalism? As long as the Iraqis can work out the oil issue, they can probably work out the Federalism issue.

The religion issue could be more of a problem. Here’s the relevant line from an earlier version of the Constitution[5]:

“Islam is the official religion of the state and it is the main source of legislations.”

The official religion part? That’s not a problem since they are, after all, an overwhelmingly Muslim state. However, if Islam is the “main source of legislations,” instead of “a source” of legislations, it would open the door for Sharia and other similarly backwards religious practices.

So, let’s hope the WSJ is right…

Endnotes:
  1. This: http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050817/NEWS01/508170327/1006
  2. doctor shopping: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-prush17aug17,0,546532,print.story?coll=sfla-news-palm
  3. Chick Pic Blogging: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/archives/week_2005_08_07.PHP#004223
  4. Wall Street Journal: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007118
  5. earlier version of the Constitution: http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2005/07/if-this-is-going-to-be-final-draft.html

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