On a Lighter Note (Congressional Quote of the Year So Far)

from The Huffington Post: "That Crack Cocaine Thing"

Senator Jeff Sessions simultaneously shocked and cracked up the Sotomayor hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday afternoon when he said he was looking forward to doing "that crack cocaine thing" with Senator Patrick Leahy and Wade Henderson, the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Sessions, in a casual tone, said "Mr. Henderson, It's good to work with you. Senator Leahy and I are talking during these hearings, we're going to do that crack cocaine thing that you and I have talked about before."

After an awkward pause, Henderson laughed to himself and said, "Thank you, Senator, I appreciate that."

While the Senate gallery laughed, and witnesses including NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former FBI director Louis Freeh snickered, Sessions sputtered, "Let me correct the record."

Sessions explained: "I misspoke. We're going to reduce the burden of penalties in some of the crack cocaine cases and make them fair."

Obama On Why We Need Health Care Reform Now

I think he makes a pretty good case here, and it's the first time I've heard him directly address the reasonable objections that have been made in a concise, straightforward manner. He should say this more often.

from his townhall meeting in Green Bay on Thursday:

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: So I just want to repeat, the single biggest problem we have, in terms of the debt and the deficit, is health care. It's Medicare and Medicaid.

(APPLAUSE)

That -- that is -- when you hear all these projections about all these trillions of dollars and red ink going out as far as the eye can see, almost all of that is because of the increase in Medicare and Medicaid costs that are going up much, much faster than inflation.

It's undoubtedly true that this economic crisis has hurt our budget situation. Because, again, a lot less money is coming in from corporate taxes, sales taxes, et cetera. So that reduces the amount of money coming in at the same time as we're having to put a lot more money out for food stamps and for unemployment insurance and all kinds of other help that people need when they get thrown out of their jobs, subsidizing COBRA so they can keep their health care.

That's contributed to some of it. Some of it is that I have proposed some investments in education and in energy and in health information technologies.

But there was just an article in the New York Times yesterday that showed that all that stuff -- everything that I've proposed, my stimulus package, what we've done in terms of bailing out the financial system, all that stuff -- that accounts for maybe 7 percent, 8 percent of what you've seen in terms of increased debt and deficit.

The real problem is Medicaid and Medicare. That's the nightmare scenario. If we can bend the curve, the cost curve down, so that health care inflation is no more than ordinary inflation; it's matching up with the amount of increases that you're seeing on your paychecks in your wages and your incomes, then we're going to be OK. And if we don't get a handle on it, we're not going to be OK.

It doesn't matter, you know, that we eliminate earmarks or do all that other stuff. That won't make any difference. We'll still be consumed by huge debt for the next generation.

That's why it's so important. That's why we're going to get it done. That's why I need your help, Green Bay.

Quote du Jour: Obama in Turkey

Obama: "I've said before that one of the great strengths of the United States is, although as I mentioned we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."

Yes, these comments may be controversial to some here at home who, while dropping the term "founding fathers" quite a lot, appear not to have read them very thoroughly. If they had, they might realize that our nation is based as much on secular classical principles of justice, equality and democracy (principles inherent in early community-based Judeo- and Hellenistic Christianity, but not in Christianity as it was later conceived as a state religion) as it is on Abrahamic or Judeo-Christian values.

Except for the unfortunate concession on Armenia implied by his phrasing, the conciliatory Ankara speech is another very encouraging example of the new tone Obama is setting.

Religious Pluralism and the Nonbeliever

I like how Eboo Patel, executive director of something called Interfaith Youth Core, parsed his terms in last Thursday's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on engaging Muslim communities -- specifically how those terms didn't exclude nonbelievers or promote unity at their expense.

PATEL: Mr. Chairman, I believe that the question of the 21st century will be the question of the faith line -- that is, how diverse religious communities choose to interact, whether that interaction moves toward conflict or toward cooperation.

The biggest mistake we can make on the question of the faith line is to define it wrong. The wrong definition of the faith line pits Muslims against Christians, or believers against nonbelievers.

If we define the faith line as Muslims against Christians, we are left with a world of 2 billion people at war with a world of 1.3 billion people. That is an eternal war.

I prefer to divide the faith line -- to define the faith line as a line that divides people I call religious pluralists from religious totalitarians.

I have a very simple definition for a religious pluralist. It's somebody who believes in a society where people from diverse backgrounds live in equal dignity and mutual loyalty.

I have a very simple definition of a religious totalitarian. It's somebody who wants their community to dominate and everyone else to suffocate.

Weekly Schiefferism

OK, yeah, I like Bob Schieffer. Here's yet another of his quotable "final thoughts," from Sunday on "Face the Nation":

Finally today, it is an example I have cited many times over the years, that Hubert Humphrey once said the 1964 Civil Rights Act was America's single most effective foreign policy initiative.

It had nothing to do with foreign policy, but it told the world who we were and what we stood for and that our system was about fairness and equal treatment, and that it worked.

I thought about that when Barack Obama announced that torture would never be part of our national policy. America has always been the most successful when it is leading by example, when we have practiced what we have preached.

America's weapons did not win the Cold War. They kept the Soviet Union at bay. The war was won when the people on the other side looked across the Iron Curtain, saw a better way of life there, realized their system of government could not give it to them, and so the walls came down.

With a simple declaration, President Obama told the world our system of government is so strong, we don't need to torture people to survive. That is the way of those who would destroy us. But that is not us. We have found a better way.

That is what our message to the world must be. More importantly, that is what we want our children to know. When we are admired and respected by others, we are far more secure than any weapon can ever make us.

Quote du Jour: Hope Over Fear

The inaugural speech

"On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord." -- President Barack Obama

Quote of the Year (so far): Joe the Plumber...

... I mean Middle East war correspondent:

"I think media should be abolished from, uh, you know, reporting."

More words of wisdom from Joe

Veterans Day Quote du Jour: World War II vet held in Nazi slave camp

... who breaks decades of silence on his ordeal there and its aftermath of U.S. military-enforced secrecy and indifference, but nevetheless offers his unembittered wisdom:

"You only live once. Let's keep trucking. If we don't do that, who's going to do it for us? We have to be happy. Why hate? The world is full of hate, and yet they don't know what they want."

Quote du Jour: Bob Schieffer on Obama's Victory Speech

I noticed this, too.

from Schieffer's closing comments today on "Face the Nation."

Finally today, seeing the television picture of that crowd in Grant Park that had come to celebrate Barack Obama's victory was a sight I will never forget.

But I was disappointed, at first, in Obama's speech. I was expecting another of those rousing, old-time, "Yes, we can" orations that had electrified crowds during the campaign.

He made a fine speech, I thought, but why didn't he ramp it up, as he had so many times before? Where was the punchline for this one?

Well, the next day, I read something in the paper that helped me understand that wasn't what he had in mind Tuesday night.

I read that his campaign had planned a big fireworks display, but Obama had said no. He understood that the rally that night would speak for itself. There was no need to gild the moment with fireworks, nor would a stem-winding speech that rubbed victory in his opponent's face have been appropriate.

Tuesday, in his mind, was the night to say thank you, not gloat. The faces in the crowd would tell the story.

That restraint, Obama's understanding of how it would all look, an ability so often lacking in today's politicians, may well but what brought him to victory.

Time and again, in a hard-fought campaign, there were lines Obama could have crossed but didn't.

He made no issue of McCain's age. He raised no questions about his health. He never went after Sarah Palin. He knew how it would have looked.

Communicating, cutting through, connecting with people is more than just the words we choose. It also means understanding when no words are necessary.

Quote du Jour: Joe Biden

Despite Joe Lieberman's dismissal of Biden's remarks here as "psychobabble" on MSNBC today, I think it was right on the money, speaking to the better aspects of McCain's character at the expense of his present campaign style.

on the "Today Show" this morning, talking about McCain's use of the term "that one."

SEN. JOE BIDEN: When John knows that he's on the attack, and this, and he's not feeling good about it, John never looks you straight in the eye. John doesn't go and refer to you by your first name.

I think it's part of this whole thing -- if you notice, John didn't make a whole lot of eye contact last night because I think John, when he's on the attack mode and making the other guy a bad guy, it's just not his style.

Quotes du Jour: John McCain/ Herbert Hoover

Let's play "Who Said Which?"

"The fundamentals of the economy are strong."
"The economy is fundamentally sound."

Ah, Republicans and their fundamental-ism...
Meanwhile, on Wall Street...

Quote du Jour: Sean McCormack

from today's State Department briefing

We've got seven months -- or six months left, 193 days, I think -- something like that. Not that I'm counting.

We're not counting, either, Sean.

Another one of those botched German-English translations?

Jelly doughnuts aside, it happened with Maliki, but then there was a third language involved there.
No, I'm guessing Angela knew exactly what she was saying ;)

Asked at a news conference on Wednesday what she thought of Obama, Merkel responded: "I would say that he is well-equipped -- physically, mentally and politically."

And apparently, Dubya's grand tradition of banal workplace sexual harassment of fellow world leaders may well continue into the next administration, if she has her way:

"That's not really up to me," she joked. "But I wouldn't resist."

However, she's retained enough sense of her gravitas as a chancellor to end on a coy note regarding Obama's Berlin speech:

"Maybe I'll turn on the television."

I bet she will.

But then, so will we all (OK, most of us, anyway.)

Christopher Hitchens Gets Waterboarded

from Vanity Fair:
Believe Me, It's Torture

I apply the Abraham Lincoln test for moral casuistry: “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.

Quote du Jour: Semi-anonymous California Motorist

from Reuters:

U.S. motorists brave Mexico border violence for fuel

"It's worth taking the risk even with the violence," said a retired California engineer named Terry, who declined to give his surname, as he filled his red Ford pick-up truck in Tijuana, over the border from San Diego. "I know they could kill me or kidnap me, but the cost of filling my tank in the United States is just too much," he said.

WTF? I thought for a second I was reading The Onion. I've heard a lot of people bellyaching about the price of gas since it passed the $4 mark, and I've done some bellyaching about it myself, with good reason, especially knowing how little the oil companies are suffering in all of this, but saving $100 a month is worth the genuine risk (based on the recent travel advisory for border areas like Tijuana) of being kidnapped or murdered? Some people are just much, much braver than I am.

Quote du Jour: Bob Schieffer on Hillary's Swan Song

Well, since I never got around to that eulogy, I'll post Bob Schieffer's from his "Final Thought" on today's "Face the Nation." Bob always says it better than I can. I thought I wasn't going to cry, but the last paragraph made me a little sniffly.

Finally today, Hillary Clinton made the speech of her life yesterday. She showed a grace all too rare in modern politics. And she set the right example for the young people who have worked so hard for her.

The Clintons have not had much practice at losing. And, until yesterday, that showed, in a not altogether flattering way.

But yesterday, it all changed. She offered no excuses. Instead, she said the race was over; the time had come to unite behind her opponent, for whom she said she would work her heart out.

She told her followers that she had not run to be the first woman president but had been a woman running for president, and that, the next time a woman runs, it will no longer be so remarkable.

As the father of two daughters and three granddaughters, I believe she's right about that. She lost this race, but she has advanced the cause of women everywhere.

In life, we lose more than we win. Sometimes it is losing, not winning, that brings out our best. Yesterday Hillary Clinton showed us her best.

Quote du Jour: Prime Minister Gordon Brown

from a news teleconference on the Global Campaign for Education Action Week

Education is a moral issue, as well as an economic issue. It is one that transcends political divides... I want to see us become the first generation in history to ensure that every child goes to school, and that we develop the potential of not just some of the world's children, but all the world's children.

"Bitter" Quote du Jour: Rep. John Shimkus

I guess I'm not the only one switching camps.
Now House Republicans are doing PR damage control for Obama in their speeches on energy prices. I know this guy's from Illinois, but still...

from a news conference today:

REP. JOHN SHIMKUS (R-IL): Illinois was just declared one of the biggest states that is moving wind power. We want them all. Because more supply, with a demand, will mean lower costs. And these are true costs.

And why do we use the terminology "bitter?'

Well, you know why we use "bitter." There is bitterness out there. And it's bitterness because of these high costs. And in rural America, where people have to travel long distances to get to work -- and we don't have the buses, we don't have the light rail. We have working trucks, big trucks to haul our beef and our pork and our beans and our corn.

Quote du Jour: Bob Menendez

This week's Petraeus-Crocker Iraq hearings in a nutshell:

SEN. ROBERT MENENDEZ (D-NJ): You can -- despite how many questions have been asked here, you will not give us, you know, what is the end game of success. It sounds like, "When I see it, I'll realize it, but until then, give us an open checkbook."

And that's a problem. You know, how many Iraqis need to be -- what's the troop strength that needs to finally -- here, when we say, OK, they can do it on their own ability?

What is the political dynamics in which we say, OK, that's it, you know, they can move forward?

I mean, at some point, you cannot expect the Congress of the United States, on behalf of the American people, to continue an open checkbook and say, trust us, trust us; when we see it, we'll tell you that we've finally hit success.

And that's what we hear up here. And the American people are not supportive of that.

Watch it here.

Quote du Jour: James Joyce

“History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.”

I just heard Charles Krauthammer assert on Inside Washington that Bill Clinton was an "inconsequential president" because he happened to govern during a "holiday from history."

Do those who hold this view believe this was merely coincidental, that all eight years flowed blissfully by because of the groundwork laid by one-term president Bush the First? I'll give him and his predecessor the credit for tearing down that wall, but what about the economy? It wouldn't look so grim again until... now, I guess.

Of course, it didn't flow along entirely blissfully. Stuff happened, some of it very bad stuff, particularly in Africa, and at least one chance was missed to nip Al Qaida in the bud. However, 9/11 didn't happen on Bill's watch, and I doubt the infamous "Bin Laden Determined to Attack in the United States" memo would have been ignored by his national security adviser.)

But to argue that the fact the 90s were a relatively smooth epoch diminishes Clinton's legacy, and conversely that all the messes Bush the Second has been trying to clean up (while in the process making more and more) means he is a more consequential and courageous president seems like some kind of crazy nocturnal fantasy to me.

Wake me up when it's 2009.

But I guess that would mean I'd be shirking my responsibility as a voter. In that regard, I've kind of been wishing I could just get with the program and jump on the Obama bandwagon. It seems like the easiest thing to do.

But I've been wanting to see Hillary in the White House since before she ran for the Senate. I liked her even in the early, pre-makeover, pre-cookie-endorsing days. Basically, she had me at hello, hard as that is to believe. It's not like I think she's the sort of woman I'd want to be friends with. Her life isn't very much like mine, on the surface. But I think she's the rare woman in politics who has the unmitigated gall to break through the White House glass ceiling, as well as being one of the several that would do a fine (and consequential) job once there. And even though, at times lately, she's almost lost me, it feels somehow fickle to abandon her now, even if it's only one measly post-Super Tuesday vote.

But I haven't set that in stone. I need to sleep on it some more. (And maybe I'll have another dream like I did the other night, where it was revealed that all the stupid race-baiting tactics and thoughtless remarks in South Carolina were just part of a vast right-wing conspiracy.) Oh, Mr. Sandman...