Bad vibes

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo has an interesting post asking what it is that makes some people instinctively react that a candidate is not to be trusted.

Here's the closing paragraphs:

"There's a cultural-political tuning fork out there. And there's a kind of person who heard Clinton's schtick and reacted just as I do to Romney. Some mix of cultural assumptions, experiences, regional imprints, etc.

I feel it to an extent with Bush, though nothing like I do with Romney. And setting aside what people feel about Bush now it was, by and large, the people who reacted so negatively to Clinton who heard Bush and thought, why, what a genuine, down-to-earth guy.

So who makes you hear the dog whistle? And what sort of cultural imprint makes some of us hear it with (a shocking phoney like) Mitt Romney and others with Bill Clinton?"

I don't know where that leaves me. I felt it with Bill Clinton, and I feel it with Romney too.

For me, it's a sense that the candidate would say opposite things to voters on the same day, as long as they couldn't hear each other. Maybe a campaign that appears too obviously poll-driven sets it off; maybe it's how the candidate responds to what appear to be hard but fair questions. Maybe it's even the look in his eyes.

Romney trips it. Edwards trips it, but in a somewhat different way (how anyone can expect that saying you joined a hedge fund to learn about poverty will fly as an answer is beyond me), which I think just means he's not as clever a politician.

Hillary doesn't trip it. Unlike her husband, I think she does have a deep core of beliefs she intends to put into action, and the facades she puts on aren't about hiding an empty suit, they're about hiding something she knows people won't like.

Nobody else trips it either. Richardson's gaffes (Red Sox and Yankees fan is one for the ages) perversely make him seem like an honest guy who has been told he needs to lie, but who's just really bad at it.

Random musings

The Sopranos: Loved the show, hated the non-ending.

Paris Hilton: Go away. Never come back. Your 15 minutes were up years ago.

The Kyl-Kennedy immigration bill: I hope it stays dead. Bush has no respect for people who actually believe America is a nation of laws. OK, so I'll blog more about this later.

Barry Bonds: A career-ending muscle tear would be good. Taking enough HGH to make your shoe size go up by 2 1/2 makes a mockery of baseball records.

Draft Bill Leonard for Congress

I've had the pleasure of voting for Bill Leonard twice. I'm not in the district, so I won't be able to do it again, but if Congressman Jerry Lewis (poRk-Redlands) retires or is forced out due to the FBI investigation, I want to see Bill Leonard, currently the senior Republican on the State Board of Equalization and formerly a State Senator and Assemblyman, run for that House seat.

Bill Leonard has served as a conservative with distinction for the better part of almost 30 years. His most notable accomplishment was shepherding the Leonard Law through, thus ensuring free speech rights for college students in California.

His integrity is impeccable, and his devotion to a freer society is unquestionable.

The woman who would be Empress

Byron York has the details on two new books about Hillary Rodham Nixon Clinton.

Of course, the parallels aren't exact. Hillary published her enemies list.

Sheryl Crow Dingleberry of the Week Award winner for June 10-16, 2007

Congratulations are in order for Seattle Democrat Congressman Jim McDermott. Fresh off the D.C. Circuit upholding a judgment against him for unlawfully distributing a tape of other people's private cellular phone conversations to the press, word has come out that McDermott has introduced a bill to block the deportation of and give a green card to one of the assassins of a Bangladeshi president and the president's family (including small children).

Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed fled Bangladesh to avoid trial for murder after the Islamist coup he helped bring to power was ousted in 1996. The State Department found his trial in absentia to be fair, and Ahmed is facing the death penalty. He has been living illegally in the U.S., and has fought deportation attempts in the courts - and lost. The Ninth Circuit (known as the most liberal federal appellate court) rejected his claims, finding that he participated in terrorist activity and persecuted others because of their political opinions.

Now McDermott has a bill that essentially calls Mohuiddin a persecuted innocent and says the American courts were all wrong.

McDermott's sympathy for Islamic fanatics and assorted America-haters isn't new, but it's still utterly revolting. And for it, McDermott gets the first ever Sheryl Crow Dingleberry of the Week Award, for the week of June 10-16, 2007.

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin

Sheryl Crow Dingleberry of the Week Award

There aren't enough awards for people who are just a waste of perfectly good oxygen. The Darwin Awards only cover getting yourself killed, and no one has yet seen fit to create some award for celebrities whose rap sheets are longer than their IMDB profiles.

Here is my contribution: The Sheryl Crow Dingleberry of the Week Award.

Why the name? Well, when Ms. Crow suggested that people shouldn't be allowed to use more than one square of toilet paper at a sitting, naming this award after her became appropriate. And since using only one square runs a high risk of leaving behind those things that toilet paper is designed to get rid of, the rest of the name just fell into place (or hung on, depending on how you like your puns).

Yes, Ms. Crow later came out and said it was a joke. Of course, making a joke about your own position isn't very common, and considering that the same post where she put this idea forth also said she had developed a clothing line featuring a "dining sleeve", was that a joke too? How about the reality show for who can live the greenest life? How about this: "We had a great week on our travels through college campuses however the events of the Virginia Tech shootings weighed heavily on everyone's minds and hearts." Really funny. You're a regular Carol Burnett.

No Sheryl. You got caught being stupid. Even Rosie O'Donnell thought you're wearing a tinfoil hat.

But you have now given your name to the Sheryl Crow Dingleberry of the Week Award. Congratulations.

So much for after dinner

Home obligations came up, and the weekend was devoted for things other than writing. We return you to your irregularly scheduled blogging.