I've got to say - the more I read like this, the more sympathetic the guy becomes: Kerry is like some character in a Balzac novel, an adventurer twirling the end of his mustache and preying on rich women. This low-born poseur with his threadbare pseudo-Brahmin family bought a political career with one rich woman's money, dumped her, and made off with another heiress to enable him to run for president. If Democrats want to talk about middle-class tax cuts, couldn't they nominate someone who hasn't been a poodle to rich women for past 33 years? Read: Manly men don't need help from women. And rich women should know better than to marry beneath their class. At least Ann never claimed to be a "compassionate conservative."

A few last thoughts on the South Carolina Democratic Debate: Sharpton is absolutely right to question why for the poor to die for their country abroad is an "honor," but for the rich to pay taxes is a "burden," and to call for a less regressive payroll tax. I'm not sure what Dean was trying to pull off with his critique of Kerry's failed healthcare bills - it felt overly self-conscious and affected, even grasping. Kerry wasn't particularly smooth in responding, but came off better over all in that exchange. I wish I could say that Lieberman's touting welfare reform as the sort of "bipartisan accomplishment" he'd continue lost him my vote, but clearly he never had it in the first place. I do find it sad that the welfare system has been completely off the radar of these debates. I was glad to see Kerry get called on what Brooks called the "inner Moynihan" of some of his '90s rhetoric. He came off quite defensive responding to a statement of his on affirmative action, and preached fealty to the "mend it, don't end it" stance multiple times without allaying any fears about what kind of mending he plans to do.

Watching the Democratic Debate now. A couple thoughts so far: Somewhat should ask Joe Lieberman what it means to be "strong on values." Also, what it would mean to be weak on values, which of his competitors are weak on values, and whether the Bush administration could be characterized as "strong on values." Glad to see David Kay's charges getting some play here, given the way they've been underplayed by the media - or arguably overshadowed by the primaries. Dean is right to point the finger at Cheney, and Kerry did a deft job of avoiding either disputing or echoing his charge. I'm not sure what Edwards has in mind when he calls for a comission organized not by Congress but by "us, the people," although I'm all for it. Also, Edwards is in Congress too... Sharpton has joined Kucinich in calling for everyone to stay in for a long race to mobilize all their constituencies. I think there's a strong case for that. Also, he's right to point out that unlike John Edwards' dad, his couldn't have gotten a job as a mill worker.

It's difficult to picture this being a good move for Howard Dean. Joe Trippi, by most accounts, deserves a great deal of the credit for infusing the Dean campaign with an organizing approach that the Democrats have largely forgotten over the past couple decades, and by all accounts was central to Dean's tremendous rise over the past year. Replacing him with a Gore operative, further, risks the appearance or worse the reality of trying to reassure voters by embracing the establishment that's disenfranchised so many of them from the process. When Gore endorsed Dean I argued that it demonstrated more about Gore and his recognition of the failures of his "lockbox" campaign than about Dean; it would be a shame if Dean plans to regain his lead by becoming Al Gore circa 2000. Or, for that matter, John Kerry circa 2003.

This is good news for Kerry, of course, who goes into February 2 two for two. Also for Clark, who seized that third metaphorical ticket out of New Hampshire that pundits at least seem to think is important, and more importantly avoided that fifth-place standing that looked like a real possibility given reports about his machine on the ground. Good news also, I'd argue, for Dean, the only candidate to run in both Iowa and New Hampshire and rank higher this time, and faces two candidates sharing the top three with him in New Hampshire - Kerry and Clark - who are struggling for the same electable-veteran niche.

My predictions for tomorrow: Kerry comes in first, simply because Dean hasn't had enough time to catch up after recovering from whatever combination of his combative stance in Iowa/ his overly-apologetic response to his combative stance in Iowa/ his insufficiently apologetic response to his combative stance in Iowa/ media harping on an imagined combative stance in Iowa/ some combination of the above one may choose to blame for the beating he took in the polls in the past week. Dean comes in second and he and Kerry both pitch themselves as comeback kids; Kerry as usual finds the media more credulous than Dean. Dean comes in closer to Kerry than to the Edwards, who comes in third behind him, lacking the committed and organized constituencies Kerry and Dean have mobilized. Clark does not much, if any, better than he's been expected to the past few days, and likely even worse - in any case drastically worse than he was expected to a few weeks ago before Kerry stole his part as the anointed "Anti-Dean" and his campaign fumbled and failed to advance a coherent vision or take advantage of what could have been a real head start to build a machine in New Hampshire. If Clark does particularly badly, he strikes me as more likely than any of the other candidates to drop out shortly after, thus ending further embarassment and leaving his Presidential run as a whimsical coda on what many see as an accomplished career as a military public servant. Lieberman does worse than Clark, claims that he exceeded expectations, and argues that Kerry and Dean are both soft on defense and that only he represents a real choice between extremists. Kucinich does much better than Sharpton.

Nathan Newman offers a good reason to like Kerry. Mickey Kaus offers several reasons not to. As I see it, Kerry's greatest offense of the past months has been telling Eric Alterman in early December Eric, if you truly believe that if I had been President, we would be at war in Iraq right now, then you shouldn’t vote for me and then using the capture of Saddam Hussein to argue Howard Dean was weak for opposing the war.

David Brooks argues in today's Times that John Kerry has an "inner Moynihan," as when the Senator declared: We have to ask ourselves in 1992 whether this social disintegration is merely a symptom of deteriorating values that has swept all of this country to some degree. We must ask whether it is the result of a massive shift in the psychology of our nation that some argue grew out of the excesses of the 1960's, a shift from self-reliance to indulgence and dependence, from caring to self-indulgence, from public accountability to public abdication and chaos. Brooks faults Kerry for talking the talk but not following through on his principles by actually working to halt affirmative action, dismantle Social Security, and punish public school teachers. Needless to say, I think that having an "inner Moynihan" is frightening enough. Although, to be fair, Kerry is not alone among the Democratic contenders in having made Moynihan-like remarks - and taken deeply problematic stances - in the '90s. (The answer to Kerry's questions, by the way, is no)

A couple thoughts on the Iowa caucuses, a topic on which much ink (real and virtual) has and no doubt and will be spilled: As someone who, despite significant reservations, believes Dean would be the best of the leading contenders for the Democratic nomination, I was disappointed to see him come in third. As someone who believes with great conviction in the organizing model that Dean has employed, I was disappointed to see that it was not enough to win him the Caucus. That does little to take away from the tremendous progress the Dean campaign has made and the ways it which it's destabilized some of the unfortunate Clintonian paradigms of building power in the Democratic party. I'd also argue that losing Iowa does less than many think to hurt Dean's chances of seizing the endorsement. One of the ways the press has hurt Dean over the past months, besides applying a level of cynicism and scrutiny to him denied in coverage of, say, the sitting President, is by raising the bar for his importance impossibly high. It'll be interesting to see whether Dean is as effective as Clinton at seizing on and drawing momentum from underdog status. Some have argued that losing Iowa is better for Dean because it leaves several "anti-Dean" candidates in the running going into New Hampshire and stymies efforts to coalesce behind one Dean alternative - I guess we'll see how that plays out as well. It'll be interesting to see what Kerry makes of the new attention and the new media narrative offered to him. Specifically, I wonder to what he and his staff attribute his late surge. The role he takes over the next weeks may hint at who it is they he thinks is propelling his rebirth as a candidate. Looks like the zenith of Dick Gephardt's political career has passed. The interesting story here may be his failure to marshall stronger support from the labor movement - instead of garnering the endorsement by the AFL-CIO as a body some expected, he saw the two largest unions in the body go to Dean. I think the Cold War AFL-CIO (there's a reason they used to call it the AFL-CIA) model suggested to some by his support for the war in Iraq, and the tension it created, speaks to shifts in the American labor movement.

Apologies to the net-surfers (or maybe it was one person twice...) who happened upon this site looking for a "Howard Dean - Ann Coulter Porno" or secrets about "John Kerry" and "bisexuality." All I can say is, there's some truth to the argument that Dean was in bed with Gingrich in the mid-'90s, but this is a little extreme. And as to Kerry - would that he were, and his implosion in the Democratic primary could at least be remembered as a stand for something...

To those of you sent here when you googled... aclu supports internment camps Sorry, but no. Zinn argues that in the 50s the ACLU "withered" and muffled its criticism of McCarthyism to remain politically viable - heavy charges that I don't have the background to support or refute. But the ACLU was one of the few groups to visibly and stridently condemn the Japanese interment - raising the contemporary ire of Ann Coulter, who argues that it's hypocritical for a left organization to support J. Edgar Hoover's left stances (opposition to internment) and not his right ones (opposition to privacy and democratic oversight). I should apologize for already having given her argument too much ink back in July when she wrote it - as well as her equally silly one that since Democratic FDR shamefully caved to conservative animus towards Japanese-Americans in supporting internment, Conservative Republicans must be the real defenders of civil liberties. For anyone who still believes Coulter that FDR and the ACLU (and, for that matter, everyone from Bill Clinton to Cynthia McKinney) get their marching orders from the same playbook (care of Karl Marx), I should perhaps also clarify that the ACLU also opposes HOLC red-lining and the racial segregation of blood donations. Kissinger the war crimminal That about says it right there. That, and lemme know if you want to take a trip with me to look through his archives after his death for some tidbits about the full depravity of the man. IBEW chatroom Is there one? Hot. Sign me up. Ed Rendell hoagie photo Populism is not about eating a hoagie better than John Kerry (although I don't know who eats a hoagie worse than John Kerry). Populism is about wanting to see the Democratic Leadership Council go the way of the AFL-CIO's CIA-tool the AIFLD. Populism is most certainly not having the DLC choose Philadelphia for its annual celebration of prostitution to big business and scorn towards the American people to celebrate you as the kind of Democratic candidate that will reassure the bosses that they have nothing to worry about from the Democrats. Oh yeah - and the Philly soft pretzel is the real icon, not the hoagie or the cheesesteak. Matt Naclerio Should run for Mayor of New Haven. Katie Krauss Should've gone for Ari Fleischer's job while it was still open. Schwarzengger and antisemitism The most thorough and judicious article-length discussion of Schwarzenegger's relationship with Kurt Waldheim I'd say is Timothy Noah's here. Schwarzenegger's refusal to condemn a member of the Wehrmacht "honor list" for the Kozara massacre - or even his actions - raises troubling questions about his political courage and his sense of justice. Although on the question of how he'd govern the state of California, this is more disturbing. auth cartoon philadelphia inquirer israel, auth antisemitism, etc. I think I spilled enough (virtual) ink on this here. Josh Cherniss' thoughts to which I was responding (a response to my original piece here), are here. If he posts a response to mine, it'll be posted here - I suspect we've both exhausted the topic for now however. If you're one of the several who entered one of the searches above and you want to talk more about it, lemme know. Al Franken and Arianna Huffington's political show in bed It's been too long. Bring it back. Maybe we could get Arianna Huffington, Cruz Bustamante, Peter Camoje, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Simon, and Gary Coleman in bed together on TV - who says the American people don't have the patience for substantive political coverage? verizon cwa strike Read about smart tactics, support from Senators, and what you can do to help. arianna huffington verizon Know something I don't? Lynda-Obst Bitch Now I don't know the woman personally, but that's just not nice. Interfaith religious symbol I have been known on occasion to refer to James Baldwin as God...But I have to say Jim Lawson really wowed me this weekend. So he may be my nominee. Unless you found this site thinking it was an interfaith religious symbol, in which case sorry to disappoint... And for all of you who came here searching for wild bouquet If you're looking for a gift, get something here. Trust me - it'll make him/her swoon. Or buy me something and make me swoon...