Zarqawi's old neighbor saying that these attacks were "something that not even a Jew would do", and the Hashemite dynasty is ready to make hash out of him. Right now, Zarqawi is furiously spinning his latest massacre, trying to explain to a shocked and grieving Jordan why it was necessary and why they should still support him. Sounds like Al-Qaeda has jumped the Zarq in Jordan.

A similar miscalculation has occurred in America. Fourteen moderate, squishy Republicans decided they were more interested in the psychological health of the Alaskan caribou than they were about the ability of poor Americans to heat their homes and drive to work. So they scuttled plans to finally tap a little of that sweet, sweet crude in ANWR. Hope those caribou vote for you, fellas. Tell'em to bring a photo ID.

Meanwhile down in Southern California, a strange thing happened. There's this blogger and radio host who has been extremely accomodating of lapses in party discipline by House and Senate Republicans. He's a nice guy (and according to people who know him, not just on the air) and a clever writer and he is, even when you disagree with him, always worth paying attention to--but he takes a lot of criticism because he cuts so much slack to 'moderate' Republicans. We're all Republicans here, we can't afford to alienate the moderates, he says repeatedly; and he's right to a point--it is when the moderates feel comfortable alienating the conservative majority that they deserve criticism and political pressure. But softly, softly, advises our California friend.

Imagine my surprise when I go over to his blog, and see a list of the defectors' names, with a sweaty, chanting, bare-chested Hugh Hewitt painting voodoo signs around them, a dagger in his teeth and a fatwa-writin' pen in hand:

...a defeat on this issue has to lead to retribution. If the party isn't dedicated to being a majority party organized around the core issue of national security seriousness, it won't last as a majority anyway. Exiling the weak-kneed on a national security issue is exactly the sort of action that will underscore the seriousness of the party on these issues.

So would be the stripping of some committee and subcommittee chairs from a couple of unreliable-on-national-security Members.

OOH-RAH! I hope he doesn't see this entry of the Therapist's or he might crank the outrage level up from "masked French youth" to "Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket".

I like the new Hugh. So before he pins my hand to my keyboard with a throwing star, I'm going to duck down into the extended entry and point out the one thing that slightly moderates my own fury about this situation:
Oil prices are down. They must be way down, because gas prices here in Northern California, while still exorbitant, are well below where they were before Katrina hit. The summer driving season is over, and the fall so far has been mild so heating oil usage hasn't depleted supplies yet. Bloomberg says that prices are going lower still.

The high prices triggered more exploration and production and got oil into barrels. It took a while and there were shortages, and oil is still too high, but it looks like the blip might be correcting itself. Which is, I should add, very promising for the economy.

Some of the urgency about tapping into ANWR has disappeared. Oil's too high but it's not at the shrieking, dive-klaxon-and-strobe-light emergency we were enduring in September. Government's always slower to respond to these things than a free market, and the legislation might have come in late on this one.

I'll be curious to see what the oilmen have to say about this. I'm not saying we shouldn't drill, but I do think there's cause to revisit the debate.

There's no cause, however, for Republicans to take money from George frickin' Soros. I wonder how much money he's making on this deal?

Posted by: seedubya at 07:28 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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