links for 2008-11-19

So Joe Lieberman is keeping his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee on the say so of 42 Senate Democrats AND President Obama; his Secretary of State might be Iraq War supporter and preconditionless-summit opponent Hillary Clinton; no one will be prosecuted for waterboarding, Bush's guy John Brennan may take over at CIA and Bush's man Robert Gates may stay on as Defense Secretary.

I don't know how the liberals feel, but so far the Obama administration rocks.
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And, KOS hates Harry Reid.
Perfect……

Seeking a way out of the polarizing debate now occurring, several local people have written to the Sentinel urging the state to move toward granting "civil unions" for both heterosexual and homosexual couples – without using the word "marriage," which would be associated with religious traditions. In such unions, gays would have all the rights and equal treatment under the law that heterosexual couples enjoy. Still, they have fought hard for the right to legal "marriage," and changing the wording might feel like a defeat many would be unwilling to accept.

Religious communities, in turn, would have to give up their battle over "legal marriage."
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No way.There are already civil unions for homosexuals and what benefit does it give society to change the traditional definition of marriage?
None.

I've written about my problem with conservative identity politics more than a few times, but let me just expand on this point in regards to my Sarah Palin post below. Yes, it's true part of her appeal is that she speaks to a demographic category — though it isn't quite ethnic nor purely religious or regional. And absolutely, the fact that she's a woman was a factor as well, a sort of trump card for leftwing identity politics. But it's no coincidence that John McCain needed help with precisely these constituencies and demographic groups. Those overly vexed by her selection seem to forget that John McCain was actually trying to win the election. And all due respect to the potential electoral juggernaut that would have been McCain-Pawlenty '08, I just don't see a lot of merit to the effort to depict Palin into some grand symbol of conservative decay.
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Conservative identity politics not = Sarah Palin but horsetrading demographically

A group dedicated to pushing Sarah Palin into the 2012 presidential race was formed last week and is already emailing Iowa Republicans.

The "2012 Draft Sarah Committee" has a rudimentary website up showing the Alaska governor dishing out moose chili and appears to be composed of rank-and-file conservative activists.

They've already found their way into the in-boxes of some of the opinion-makers in early primary and caucus states.

David L. Kelly, apparently the group's Treasurer and Colorado coordinator, sent a mass email today that hit at least one Iowa GOP vet.
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Premature…..

Sarah Palin's position on illegal immigration

“A lot of the speculation and reporting is out ahead of the facts here,” said the person, who requested anonymity. “She is still weighing this, independent of President Clinton's work.”

Clinton, the person said, remains deeply “torn” between the possibility of serving in Obama’s cabinet and remaining in the Senate to “help pass health care and work on a broad range of domestic issues.”
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Chances are it is a No go…..

Newsweek, quoting unidentified legal sources close to the presidential transition team, reported Tuesday that Obama offered Holder the job and he accepted. Newsweek said Holder still has to undergo a formal "vetting" review by the Obama transition team before the selection is final.
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Another Clinton retread and with Marc Rich's pardon – priceless

A dentist found guilty of urinating in a surgery sink and other unhygienic practices has started a High Court appeal to save his career.
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If true, this is really gross…..

But how conservatives resolve their differences will also matter to Obama's success. For now, the right is divided into ideological conservatives and dispositional conservatives.

There's that. But there's also disdain for the American electorate that voted in overwhelming numbers for change from the discredited Bush/McCain/Lieberman policies. But in a city known for tone-deafness, there clearly isn't a more tone-deaf group than the Senate Dems.

I'm done with Reid as Senate leader.

Add Mitt Romney to the list of big name Republicans who are lending a hand to Sen. Saxby Chambliss, as he fights for his political life.

Chambliss is the freshman Republican senator from Georgia who will face off against his Democratic opponent, former state lawmaker Jim Martin, in a runoff election on Tuesday December 2.

What will really drive them bonkers — well, more bonkers — is that the vote within the caucus was apparently 43-12 in favor of keeping Lieberman as chairman.

The Republican Jewish Coalition should close its doors. Its budget, and anything else the GOP spends on wooing Jewish voters, should be equally divided between building more Orthodox Jewish day schools (thereby encouraging the Orthodox to have more children) and transporting evangelical Christians to the polls on Election Day.

That would do more to help Israel and to assure Jewish survival than the money wasted quadrennially on trying to bring a message of reason to the mega-meshugeneh.

We start this week with a lead of 622 votes out of 339,292 total cast, or 0.18 percent. The good news is that there are less than 1,500 ballots to tally in the only county that Brown won and over 25,000 ballots to process in the counties that I carried.

We expect final Nevada County numbers to come in by the middle of this week. Once they have been reported, our lead should steadily grow as the remaining ballots from Placer, Sacramento, Butte and El Dorado counties are tallied.

Law professor Brian Gray argues in this morning’s L.A. Times that California’s Proposition 8 may violate the federal Constitution — and that we could see a ruling to that effect some day, written by one Anthony Kennedy.

Is he right? The answer depends on whether you believe Justices Kennedy and O’Connor, on one hand — or Justice Scalia, on the other.

If you’re inclined to believe Justice Scalia, then Professor Gray may well be right: the U.S. Supreme Court might one day mandate gay marriage.

I’m not sure why Gray relies on the old case of Romer v. Evans, which declined to overrule Bowers v. Hardwick, rather than Lawrence v. Texas, which did. I think Gray is drawing a parallel between Proposition 8 and the measure invalidated in Romer, because each involved a statewide ballot measure to place in a state’s constitution a provision disfavoring gays. But whether Proposition 8 would be struck down depends much more on Lawrence than on Romer, because Lawrence went much further to defend

"HARDBALL" host Chris Matthews and the other "castratos" at MSNBC shouldn't hold their breath waiting for a Hillary Clinton interview.

Matthews, who once opined that men who supported Clinton were "castratos in the eunuch chorus," forgot the cardinal rule for those who are often mentioned on Page Six – he didn't take a good look around on the Acela train from Philadelphia to Washington Saturday before he started bad-mouthing the New York senator.
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Chris Matthews is a moron and to think he may run for the US Senate.

And the clearest opposition to the Clinton appointment comes from Obama's backers on the left of his own party, whose initial support for him was motivated in part by a distaste for the Clinton dynasty, and who now view her reemergence with some dismay.

"There's always a risk of a Cabinet member freelancing and that risk is enhanced by the fact that Hillary has her own public and her own celebrity and that she comes attached to Bill," said Robert Kuttner, a Clinton critic and co-editor of the American Prospect whose new book, Obama's Challenge, implores the president-elect to adopt an expansive liberal agenda. "The other question is the old rule – never hire somebody you can't fire. What happens if her views and his views don't mesh?"

"The silver lining, for those of us who are skeptical, is that it drastically limits the number of other Clinton administration alums that he can appoint, and that's a blessing," Kuttner said.

"Gay is the new black" is one of the mottos of the movement to redefine marriage to include two people of the same sex.

The likening of the movement for same-sex marriage to the black civil rights struggle is a primary argument of pro same-sex marriage groups. This comparison is a major part of the moral appeal of redefining marriage: Just as there were those who once believed that blacks and whites should not be allowed to be married, the argument goes, there are today equally bigoted individuals who believe that men should not be allowed to marry men and women should not be allowed to marry women.

To help promote its ideas, CAP employs 11 full-time bloggers who contribute to two Web sites, ThinkProgress and the Wonk Room; others prepare daily feeds for radio stations. The center's policy briefings are standing-room only, packed with lobbyists, advocacy-group representatives and reporters looking for insights on where the Obama administration is headed.
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The RIGHT needs to step it up ……