Free Republic

Jed is so right. I've read George Will's hotly hyped Sunday column several times now, and it's worse than a dud. Maybe it's the drippy, rainy weather we've had here, but I can't cut through the foggy posturing to figure out what his larger point really is. Let me get my towel out and dry his text off. Two things are clear from the start: Will regards Miers' nomination as act of "perfect perversity." And he says that her defenders, in stark contrast to himself, lack "constitutional understanding." They cause people like him to "cringe" when he sees them trying...

This is how the bullies' world ends -- with a whimper. It's really rather sad, the way it always is when it becomes clear that behind the posturing, meanness, and vile haughtiness stands a broken collective of lowlifes with nowhere to go, no prospects for recovery, no chance to regain anyone's respect. So how many reputable Democrats have come out to rail against the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court? Let's see: we have some of the usual residue from the Bork-Thomas era, such as Ralph Neas and Nan Aron. We have all the creepy MoveOn.org Howard Dean...

Amid the reactions to the elevation of Joseph Ratzinger to the papacy, there have been some doozies. My favorite came from a furious Ms. Cokie Roberts on Tuesday's night's Nightline. She must have been venting something fierce all evening, because Ted Koppel, none too pleased himself, introduced her with these words: "Cokie Roberts, you, you were, I gather, able to contain your enthusiasm, when you heard the news." Whereupon Cokie shot back with this. (And if looks could kill, Nightline would have lost its entire viewership, such as it is.) Well, this, this choice is really something that is different...

Has the dust settled on last night's showdown? What dust! The commentariat, such as I could sample, all expressed surprise at how "civil" the debate turned out to be. Evidently they were still in recovery from Al Gore's heavy breathing and bullying four years back. It's a credit to President Bush's likable persona that he could sigh and display annoyance all he wants and no one seemed alarmed. A guest on "Nightline" was the first I heard to make the predictable point that if some alien saw last night's two participants in action for the first time Kerry would have...

[Kerry] produced the verbal gaffe of the evening, referring to the KGB headquarters as being located on Treblinka Square. What kind of empty suit would mistake the Nazi death camp for the Lubianka.

Long after John Edwards passes into oblivion he'll be remembered for one thing: he brought out the touchy feelers in John Kerry. For two guys who didn't much get along there was nothing like the prospect of shared power to turn them into ever-loving pals. But that doesn't make their sudden unity any less appalling. American men used to be American men. They would shake hands, period. Even fathers and sons. Or especially fathers and sons. That always amused the observer in me, growing up as I did in a somewhat different culture. Poles weren't exactly Italians, but plenty warm...

Only because a friend reminded me did I even recall a hot journalistic project launched by Steven Brill back in the days of the high-tech bubble. Brill called it, with all due modesty, Brill's Content. It was supposed to serve as a "media watchdog," but instead became an attack dog, most famously in its inaugural issue smear of Kenneth Starr. Brill invested millions, his rag went nowhere fast, and some three years later it shut down, unread and unmourned. More interesting was that racy Salon had written it off long before as a "snooze." Now comes a successor of sorts...