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Clearing the Browser Tabs – The Fear in their Eyes Sunday Edition

Jimmie | July 24, 2011 | Comments (3)

Do you remember back in the more innocent days of the 1990s when Hillary Clinton inveighed against the Republicans and their “politics of personal destruction”? Well, you’ve probably figured out since then that she wasn’t exactly speaking from an abundance of honesty. Now, she’s working for a man who has marinated in the same sort of radical character assassination politics she did, except, as she learned to her great dismay during the 2008 election, he was much better at it.

Well, the progressives have gotten their knives out again. This time the target is rising Republican star Allen West, a man of firm convictions and more backbone than the entire staff of Think Progress combined. Ann Althouse, who is not exactly anyone idea of a conservative, has noticed the strangely coordinated attacks against West along well-trodden lines and is not at all happy. Glenn Reynolds went the more adroit verbal judo route and wondered aloud whether the notion of two white people attacking a black man wasn’t some sort of dog-whistle to the traditional Democratic followers of the mold of, say, Senator Robert Byrd.

It’s tempting to say that the Democrats have gotten lazy of late, but I don’t think that’s why their attacks have been so clumsy. They’re afraid (and for good reason) and that fear has made them sloppy and desperate. I want to see a lot more of that fear, all the way to the 2012 election and beyond.

And now, links!

My friend Evan Pokroy made his debut at Big Hollywood with a very good opening piece about comic books. Part II should be out soon. I recommend them both, especially if you know little about the subject.
I still don’t know why Congressional Republicans didn’t fight harder to stop Rep. Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd — the guys most responsible in Congress for the recent financial meltdown — from passing a bill that couldn’t help but end up as corrupt as the men for who it is named.
Okay, parents. Let’s go ahead and set a rule right now. Do not, under any circumstances, leave your teenaged daughter with a Democratic Congressman who likes to dress up as a tiger. Can we do that with a minimum of debate?
I’m a big fan of Google+, but I’m getting increasingly annoyed at shenanigans like this from the company. They demand transparency from users; they must learn to practice it as well.
I give NASA a lot of well-deserved static for abandoning the notion of a real manned spaceflight program, but I must admit, pictures from an asteroid are awfully cool.
It’s going to be hard to wait patiently for the start of hockey season in October when good reporters like Greg Wyshynski post interviews like this one with Capitals owner Ted Leonsis (via another good hockey reporter, Katie Carrera).