Birthers: Waiting for George Will

The birther insanity seems to be reaching some kind of fever pitch. MSNBC invited Orly Taitz, one of the key people behind the madness, to give her opinion. David Shuster and his co-host (sorry, I don't know her name, but she seems good) just took her apart. I forced myself to watch all 6:57 of it, because I am a firm believer in reading/watching everything that I link to, but I had to pause it and walk away from the computer. I'm linking to it instead of embedding it because I sure as hell ain't putting that on my blog. Have to admit, I kind of wish Shuster and his co-host would have let Orly go a little longer, I'm sure her fans now see her as a little more persecuted. If I were a mainstream Republican, I would be cringing at the thot that this fruitcake is showing up on national television. As a Democrat I'm thrilled, because just watching her shreds her credibility. She's like a cross between Zsa Zsa Gabor and Lyndon LaRouche. Is that an incredibly painful combination to even contemplate? Exactly.

So far Ann Coulter has denounced the birthers (really not linking to that). Doesn't seem to have done much good, as the video from MSNBC shows.

I'm waiting to hear what George Will has to say about this, because he has to say something. This may be the one occasion I deeply miss William F. Buckley, Jr. I'm sure Will will be dismissed as an elitist who no longer represents conservatism (this despite his ardent support Ronald Reagan). But he just might provide a smidgen of cover for some normal, mainstream Republicans to start taking these people on. This is getting dangerous, because it seriously corrodes faith in the American republic to believe that the president is not a real American. Much as I hated Reagan, I never doubted even his patriotism. Someone needs to contain the assholes and idiots.

I don't know whether or not George Will has addressed this directly; I Googled a simply query and didn't find anything; I checked his recent columns for the Washington Post, nothing. I did come up with this great quote from Eugene Robinson:

Trying to analyze the "birther" phenomenon would mean taking it seriously, and taking it seriously would be like arguing about the color of unicorns.

Accountability lies at the core of democracy, but trying to hold people accountable who are completely nuts is a nightmarish process. I rarely agree with George Will, but he is a superb writer, and I respect him for his commitment to his principles. He has an extraordinarily low tolerance for fools. He's also a great fan of baseball. Please, Mr. Will, this is a moment when even those who disagree with you are asking you to serve your country: you've got to hit this one out of the park.

Obama's press conference

"I'm a big believer in persistence."

-President Obama, responding to a question about the possibility of achieving peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.

On economic issues, he pounds home the old liberal idea that the best way to ensure economic growth is to make the right investments in human capital, infrastructure, etc. But he makes it sound fresh. Maybe that's because conservatives have thot that they were the ones in charge ideologically for so long. So now being, in some respects, an old-fashioned liberal is new.

Here's the entire press conference, all 56 minutes of it. God bless MSNBC.com

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Daschle quits, Obama admits mistake (on TV!)

Tom Daschle withdrew his name from consideration for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Good for him. He didn't want to become a distraction, which is what he was becoming. He probably could've gotten through the nomination process, given that the Democrats control the Senate and most of them are good friends of his, but he would have been politically wounded, and Obama with him. The people involved claim that it was his decision, which I am willing to believe. This would have followed him. It also didn't smell right. It wasn't just that it was a mistake paying taxes. Part of it involved a clerical error on the part of the company he was working for. That would have been understandable. But part of it involved being driven around in a chaffeured car. Talk about a symbol of the rich. That's a bad visual. Kudos for him for doing the right thing.

I'm a little disappointed, because I was initially supportive of him as Secretary of HHS; I was looking forward to a very accomplished and smooth Washington operator taking on one of the toughest jobs there is right now. We might need all of that insider knowledge and experience to crack this nut called the healthcare crisis.

But then another part of just wants to scream "What an idiot!" How hard is it to pay your damn taxes? There's no excuse for not knowing the laws when you're one of the people writing them.

The upside is that Obama handled it brilliantly. He was interviewed on MSNBC by Brian Williams, and - amazing for a president - he owned up to it. He admitted that mistakes were made, and he took responsibility.

I think we should all take a moment, stop, think, take a deep breath, and appreciate real leadership when we experience it.

As Andrew Sullivan notes, it took Obama two weeks to do what George W. Bush couldn't do in eight years. And will probably never do in his entire life.

Here's the video of the interview with Brian Williams. One thing that I noticed is that Obama can do the politician thing of reciting talking points, but he can also answer questions honestly, and think about the answers. Wow.

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That "terrorist fist-jab"

In this campaign, one quote keeps running through my mind. From Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock,"

"What mighty contests rise from trivial things"

I swear, one of these days we are going to hear about somebody finding something ominous and potentially terrifying and unAmerican in the way Barack Obama crosses the street. We currently have a mini-controversy (or mini-mini-mini-controversy) about how Michelle and Barack did a fist pound last Tuesday, as they embraced on stage. Seriously. Someone on Fox News, apparently completely unaware of any recent developments in American culture, went on the air to wonder if this was a "terrorist jab." Joe Scarborough, who is a former Republican representative in Congress, had a great deal of fun with this on his show on MSNBC. This is how ridiculous it's getting - a former Republican is making fun of Fox News.

Go to this page on HuffPost to watch the video on Morning Joe. It even has Ali G interviewing Pat Buchanan. God bless competition among news programs. Every now and then idiots are made to look like idiots.