Earmarks, MDS and Irony

George Will has long been a staunch opponent of John McCain. With respect to that, it is ironic that Will, in his column today, posits that lack of fiscal discipline, and particularly earmarks, cost Republican's the '06 election and will be the single most significant reason why Republican's remain the minority party.


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This today from George Will:

Coconut Road near Fort Myers looks like any other concrete ribbon near housing developments, golf courses and shopping malls in this state's booming southwest. But like another fragrant slab of recent pork, the $223 million "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska, Coconut Road leads to somewhere darkly fascinating. It runs straight into Washington's earmark culture of waste, corruption and anti-constitutional deviousness.

Today the road ends at a chain-link fence, beyond which flows the river of traffic on Interstate 75. The earmark that would have built an interchange to connect Coconut Road to I-75 was, like the bridge, smudged with the fingerprints of Alaska's Republican Rep. Don Young, who was chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in 2005. But this story involves more than one political vulgarian's wretched excesses. It also illustrates how Republicans earned their most recent and coming drubbings.

On July 29, 2005, the House and Senate passed legislation granting Lee County's request for $10 million for "widening and improvements for I-75" to facilitate evacuations during hurricanes. But on Feb. 19, 2005, Young had been in Bonita Springs near Fort Myers, collecting $40,000 in campaign funds. The contributors included developer Daniel Aronoff, a prolific supporter of Republicans and owner of about 4,000 acres along Coconut Road. The value of that land would be enhanced if Coconut Road were connected to I-75 by an interchange that would be adjacent to 1,200 of Aronoff's acres.

When the legislation reached the president on Aug. 10, 2005, the language about widening I-75 had been mysteriously deleted and replaced by "Coconut Rd. interchange I-75/Lee County." So $10 million was to be spent for a project that neither the House nor the Senate voted for, that Lee County did not want, and that someone unknown wrote into the legislation. But the Constitution says: "Every bill . . . shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate" before it becomes law.

Young at first said that the local House member, Connie Mack, asked for the change. Mack denied that. In January 2006, Young, who subsequently changed his tune, warned Lee County that it could not spend the $10 million for the widening project it requested. Young says that local residents requested the interchange project instead. But many residents, not including the developers who are Young's benefactors, oppose it for environmental and traffic reasons.

. . . [Senator Tom] Coburn demands "a select committee, comprised of members of both the House and Senate," because "secret, improper and unauthorized changes to congressionally passed legislation call into question the integrity of our entire constitutional and legislative process."

. . . In his State of the Union address, President Bush vowed to veto any appropriation bill "that does not cut the number and cost of earmarks in half." Coburn tartly notes that although Congress hardly needs 5,500 earmarks -- half of last year's total -- the president's goal would be met if Republicans themselves quit earmarking. That fact goes far to explain the Republicans' current and future minority status.

Read the entire article. The irony here, of course, is that while Will has been a vociferous opponent of McCain, it has been only McCain who has vowed to impose fiscal discipline on government and to veto any bill containing earmarks. In many ways, McCain Derangement Syndrome is a mysterious illness indeed, apparently making the otherwise rational person unable to come to grips with reality.

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Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and McCain Derangement Syndrome

The justifications given by Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh for not supporting McCain and abandoning our soldiers and national security to either Obama or Clinton are incredibly disingenuous and do not withstand a cursory examination.



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(Updated)

Ann Coulter is a witty, acerbic shock jock-ess. I liked her until she referred to John Edwards as a "faggot" at the 2007 CPAC convention. At that point, I perceived her goal to be self-promotion rather than promoting the conservative cause. And likewise seems to be her position on McCain. Her assertion that she will not only refuse to support McCain, but actively campaign for Hillary seems far more an act of self promotion than it does the elucidation of a principled position. You can listen here to her speech on McCain that she gave before the Young Americans Foundation during the CPAC convention.

Powerline has posted a good analysis of Coulter's speech:

I enjoy listening to Ann Coulter, partly because I usually agree with 80 to 90 percent of what she says and partly because of the guilty pleasure I get from much of the other 10 to 20 percent. However, watching the replay of her speech explaining to the Young America's Foundation why Hillary Clinton is preferable to John McCain, I found that those percentages were reversed. Moreover, though I did take guilty pleasure from her attacks on McCain, it became increasingly difficult fully to enjoy the spectacle of Coulter attempting to persuade college-age conservatives that a McCain defeat at the hands of Clinton would be just fine.

. . . For example, in response to a question about Iraq, Coulter responded that McCain wants to close Gitmo and end waterboarding. But Clinton wants to close Gitmo, end waterboarding and, more likely than not, get out of Iraq without having won. McCain wants to close Gitmo, end waterboarding, and win in Iraq. How is that even a close call for Coulter?

Similarly, when asked about judges Coulter reminded the audience that McCain was part of the Gang of 14, and added that there was no assurance McCain would appoint judges like John Roberts (whose nomination Coulter was no fan of at the time) and Samuel Alito. But McCain voted in favor of Roberts and Alito, and (though I disagree with the Gang of 14) supported restricting filibusters of Bush nominees to exceptional cases. Clinton voted against Roberts and Alito, and thought there should be no restrictions on filibusters of their nominations and the nominations of like-minded appellate court judges. Again, this seems like a no-brainer for conservatives. . . .

Read the entire post here. As to Rush Limbaugh, on the occasions I have been able to catch parts of his show in the wake of Super Tuesday, I have heard caller after caller criticize McCain and assert that they will not vote for him in the general election. Rush has fully agreed with their concerns and expounded upon them, but he has stopped ever so slightly short of endorsing their proposed actions. I could be very wrong on this, but it appears to me that Rush is allowing his audience to vent for the moment and that he intends to throw his support to McCain at some point in the future.

That said, Limbaugh has made precisely the same disingenuous arguments as has Coulter about McCain - that McCain, Clinton and Obama are essentially the same in all respects. Bill Kristol, in a very thoughtful essay, has appropriately labeled this thinking as McCain Derangement Syndrome.

Indeed, when you sit and listen to the Democrats, and then you go back and listen to Coulter and Rush, its easy to come away mystified. Anyone who thinks that the economy of the U.S. would function the same under McCain as under Hillary has not been paying any attention. Hillary is not Bill. She is very explicit about her intent to involve government in the economy in a big way - and I am not just referring to Hillarycare. Besides her desire to break our piggy banks to spend on social programs, she has expressed her extreme mistrust of our (mostly) capitalist economy. See here and here. And Hillary is the earmark queen among the Presidential candidates. Say what you will of McCain, he has shown no such inclinations to have a command economy - and indeed, he has drawn a clear line in the sand on earmarks.

But where Coulter and Rush are being most disingenuous is on the major issues of our time -Iraq, Iran and the war on terror. On these issues, they both refuse to concede that we would be better off with McCain at the helm rather than Obama or Clinton. You can listen to Coulter's reasoning in her speech linked above. As to Rush, I listened to him make the same argument as Coulter about ten days ago, but do not have the site. Their argument is that, despite what Obama and Clinton are saying in the primaries, Clinton and Obama would not pull out of Iraq. Coulter and Limbaugh hearken back to ambiguous statements Clinton and Obama made prior to being pulled hard left by the Democratic base.

This is a tenuous argument indeed. It assumes that Clinton or Obama can pull back from their central bedrock campaign promise once in office. One, the political repercussions of such an act would be severe indeed, and it would likely split the Democratic Party. Even giving the appearance of pulling back would be painted as a victory by the radical Islamists. It would greatly endanger the troops we have remaining in Iraq, as both al Qaeda and Iran would be justified in thinking that if they create enough mayhem, we will fully withdraw. And it would breathe a tremendous new life into the ideology of radical Islam.

Further, character matters in war, more so than in any other endeavor. By character I mean attempting to do what one perceives as right based on principles, even if doing so comes at great personal cost. It is the polar opposite of making decisions on the basis of expediency. The criticality of character is easily demonstrated.

The only reason we won the Revolutionary War was because of the character of a few men who stayed true to their ideals when all seemed lost. George Washington was chief among them. On December 1, 1776, the nascent revolution was all but dead after a series of defeats that left Washington with only the remnants of a demoralized army. Few if any believed the revolution would succeed, and many were clamoring to sue the King for peace. Yet when night fell on Christmas in 1776, George Washington risked the last hope of the revolution in an incredibly audacious gamble. He led this depleted army across the Delaware River to attack the feared Hessians at Trenton. And on that date, the fortunes of war turned.

And it was only principles of Abraham Lincoln that allowed the North to achieve victory in the Civil War. It was Lincoln’s principled stand against any expansion of slavery that led to the war – and it was not a war that went well for the Union forces in the beginning. As elections drew near in 1864, Lincoln’s commitment to his principles and refusal to end the war looked likely to cost him the election. Yet he never wavered.

That said, the hallmark of much of the modern left is that they subordinate any principles they might have to expediency. Indeed, as Charles Krauthammer noted about Hillary Clinton not long ago: "She has no principles. Her liberalism is redeemed by her ambition; her ideology subordinate to her political needs." Assuming that what Coulter and Limbaugh posit about Clinton and Obama is true – that they have no intention of abandoning Iraq despite promises to contrary – that itself is proof positive of their willingness to place expediency over principle. In this case, the expediency is lying to the American public in order to win an election.

To see the dangerous intersection of political expediency and military conflict, one need not look far back in the annals of history for an example. Bill Clinton provides it. In 1993, he gave our military forces in the Somalia the mission of nation building – a mission that necessitated combat against a particular warlord with ties to al Qaeda. As combat intensified in 1993, the commander of the U.S. forces requested the authority to deploy tanks and close air support – both of which were readily available in theater – for force protection. The Clinton administration refused the request on the grounds that they did not want to be perceived as escalating hostilities. A matter of days later, the Blackhawk Down incident occurred in Mogadishu. Unprotected U.S. infantry soldiers were caught in a massive ambush assisted by al Qaeda and resulting in 18 U.S. soldiers killed and 79 injured. Clinton immediately gave up the mission of nation building and took our ground forces out of combat.

All of the decisions made by the Clinton administration as regards the Black Hawk down incident and its aftermath are textbook examples of political expediency. The long term ramifications of the withdrawal of our soldiers were that Somalia slipped back into civil war and al Qaeda claimed a victory against the U.S. It was a pyrrich victory in the sense that upwards of 2,000 Somalis were killed by our soldiers in that engagement. But the dead are meaningless to al Qaeda. Their claim to victory was predicated on the U.S. withdrawal and the abandonment of its mission as the result of suffering a comparatively small number of casualties. As we now know, it was one in a series of incidents that led to the jihadist’s belief that they could attack America on its home soil and not face any determined counterattack.

I would note that I do not think Clinton's decision to leave Somolia was wrong. Our strategic national interests were not in question there. With Iraq, Iran, and in the broader context of triuphalist Wahhabi / Salafi Islam and its offshoots, our strategic national interests are directly involved.

And as much a role as character plays in the conduct of wars, it also plays an equally critical role in keeping us out of war. An enemy that knows we have both the means to destroy them and the will to use that power may well be disuaded from pursuing acts of war. That is particularly true as regards to Iran, where the threatened or actual use of force by the U.S. have been the only factors to ever have caused the theocracy to alter their behavior in times past - i.e., Khomeini released the U.S. hostages on the day the impotent Jimmy Carter left office and directly before Regan took the oath of office; Khomeini stopped the mining of the Persian Gulf after the U.S. destroyed half of the Iranian navy over a period of several hours in 1988; and, if the recent NIE is to be believed, Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program when the U.S. invaded Iraq.

The flip side of that coin is that a government that believes that those opposing it do not have the stomach to use their power will not be disuaded. Examples abound, but possibly the clearest can be seen in the history of pre-war Nazi Germany. And in that regards, it would seem Obama wants to reprise the role of Neville Chamberlin.

The war in Iraq and the conflict with Iran are zero-sum games that we cannot afford to lose. The consequences of losing to us and to Western civilization at large would be dire. But in Iraq and with Iran, we face enemies that are willing to endure significant casualties in order to achieve their goals. I do not believe that we can possibly prevail against such a foe should we have a Commander in Chief whose character is such that he or she will place expediency over principle.

McCain operates on principle. It is his greatest strength. McCain supported the surge on the basis that he believed it was the right thing to do even when it looked as if it would put a stake in his Presidential bid. In that light, the attempt by Coulter and Limbaugh to suggest that McCain, Obama and Clinton would be interchangeable as respects to how they would handle Iraq and Iran is simply ludicrous.

McCain Derangement Syndrome needs to die a quick death. The chief justifications underpinning MDS as articulated by Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh are demonstrably false and fully mirror the irrational hatred that defines BDS. And, as I see it, their proposed actions amount to an abandonment of our soldiers in the field in a time of war. In short, its time for Coulter and company to ‘rush’ through the "Five Stages of McCain."

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Interesting News - 8 February 2008

Today's interesting news, below the fold

Here is a bit more on the company Obama keeps. Obama’s rhetoric is soring, but the few things I can see undergirding it are disturbing – to me and others. About the only thing I like about Obama – and its one of the things I like about McCain – is his stand on trade. I thought Obama had at least one vote wrapped up. I was wrong.

Classical Values endorses McCain and does so for all the right reasons. Much could be riding on McCain’s choice for VP. Confederate Yankee is thinking that if McCain chooses Fred Thompson, that would go far to ameliorating Conservatives. Meanwhile, American Digest ponders MDS – McCain Derangement Syndrome. As I wrote here, I am not infected with that dementia.

This is incredibly troubling. Sharia law arbitration agreements now being recognized in Texas. And see here and here. True, parties can choose whatever law they wish to govern their private agreements. But we also have a long legal tradition that we will not enforce laws that contravene public policy – and much about Sharia law is antithetical to public policy in the West. One example of how antithetical it can be is demonstrated in this story of how "kumbaya gets t-boned by reality" in Ridyah.

Lionheart has up a fascinating post on the narcojihadism in Luton and Britain at large, as well as explaining why he has decided to seek asylum in the United States.

What is the value of Human Rights Commissions when they are being used to stifle freedom of speech and force secular left values on people who object to the same, in this case on Christian grounds?

The problem, Georgia’s incredible growth and below average rainfall has left the state with a severe water problem. The proposed solution – annex Tennessee, or at least that part of it with significant water resources. One wonders how many wars have been motivated on similar grounds since time immemorial. At any rate, break out the battle flags and muskets, and let Civil War redux commence.

Is the next little Ice Age already upon us? It certainly would put in perspective the politicization of science that has made the Goracle rich and now threatens to regulate us back to the stone age. Meanwhile, in Canada, there are calls for those who question the authenticity of global warming to be jailed. (H/T LostINto2)

Hook-handed hate cleric Abu Hamza is appealing his extradition to the U.S. where he will be tried on terrorism charges. His lawyer is concerned. "There are grave concerns about what might happen if the extradition goes ahead. The Americans have said he will not face the death penalty or be sent to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp - but how can we be sure? "I also fear that if he was sent to America he would become a victim of torture." The thing of it is, between British and EU Courts, I actually wonder if his appeal might not work. (H/T Sheik Yer Mami)

Taqiyya, the revered Muslim practice of fooling the Kafir and others, is explained. And you can see taqiyya in action here.

A 34-year-old Italian man who had sex with a 13-year-old girl has had his sentence cut by a two-thirds because a court decided there was "real love" between the pair.

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