Hal O'Brien

The Queen of Sheba (aka, David Brooks) just had an unfortunate piece of timing drop on him.

While making the equivalence here that the Democrats have taken six months to become as decadent in power as the Republicans did in 14 years, he also blurts out this:

"Machiavelli said a leader should be feared as well as loved. Obama is loved by the Democratic chairmen, but he is not feared."

Meanwhile, the actual news-reporting part of the New York Times tells us:

"The Senate voted 58-40 on Tuesday to strip $1.75 billion for seven more F-22 fighters from a military spending bill, handing President Obama a crucial victory in his efforts to reshape the military’s priorities.

The victory came after the president had placed his political capital on the line by repeatedly threatening to veto the $679.8 billion spending bill if it included any money for the planes."

Who ya gonna believe? Brooks, or the Senate's lyin' eyes?

Did you know the stimulus bill had $870 million dollars of pandemic preparedness funding in it? Did you also know it was negotiated away as a bargaining chip with the Republicans?

No?

GOP party chair Michael Steele knows. And now he's sounding like some teenager who got in a car crash just after canceling his insurance policy.

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Olympia Snowe, Republican Senator from Maine, has a piece in today's New York Times about Arlen Specter's switch of parties. Just about every point she makes strikes me as valid -- which is why her fellow Republicans will ignore them. But what stood out in sharp relief for me was a quote she uses from Reagan:

"“We should emphasize the things that unite us and make these the only ‘litmus test’ of what constitutes a Republican: our belief in restraining government spending, pro-growth policies, tax reduction, sound national defense, and maximum individual liberty.” He continued, “As to the other issues that draw on the deep springs of morality and emotion, let us decide that we can disagree among ourselves as Republicans and tolerate the disagreement.” {emphasis added}

Why is that a big deal? Because just like in the past two election cycles, it means the Democrats continue to be the party of Reagan conservatism. (Whether Regan himself was, I'll leave for the reader.)

My point, though, is that if Arlen Specter believes in those things, then of course he went to the Democrats.

And Olympia Snowe should, too.

A short folk story for you. You've probably heard it before, but I was going through my email archives, and this is how I wrote it once. I'm proud of it, as it goes...

===

It's Italy. Perhaps the time of the Renaissance. Perhaps in Tuscany.

The sun is dappling down, turing the hills slightly golden, the tile roofs carnelian...

Anyway, a very ordinary fellow walks into the antechamber of the the town physician.

"Dottore, I don't know what I can do. I am depressed. Depressed not in a shallow, surface manner, but depressed down into my bones. So much so, that I fear for my health. Dottore, what can I do?"

The doctor ponders for a while...

"Signore, I'm not certain there's anything I can do... We know how to treat some diseases of the body, but of the spirit? That we cannot... It is left to God."

"Truly, Dottore? Is there nothing?"

"Hmm... I know! I hear that tonight, our town will be graced by a circus. And in that circus, there is a clown, one who plays Pantelone -- I hear he is mirth itself! Every move causes you to laugh, every word, to roll among the seats! Surely, if this clown -- Pagliacci, I think his name is -- if this clown cannot remove your melancholy, I don't know what can!"

"Ah, Dottore. A most excellent idea. Under most circumstances, I would agree with you heartily -- and I can see why your teachers in Bologna were pleased with you. But, Dottore, I fear there is but one small problem..."

"I am Pagliacci."