Call It A Comeback
First, thanks to Joe Conason for the link–scroll down for the post. Unfortunately, Blogstudio, which I have praised in the past, is having connectivity issues with its vendors. I’ll be back tonight or tomorrow. Expect continuing problems through Thursday. Impeccable timing.
The Good Dr. Luntz just pronounced that what Lott meant when he said a Thurmond Presidency would have avoided all these problems was that Bill Clinton and his loose moral standards wouldn’t have occurred. We could have avoided them with a Thurmond Presidency. IOW, Bill Clinton’s genitalia wouldn’t have become the cause of every modern problem.
The problem is that Strom was so randy, he’d put Bill to shame. Besides marrying very young women, he also is reported to have slept with a woman on the way to her execution. His behavior as a younger man was well known. If Bill Clinton’s moral failings were a problem, imagine if we’d had a segregationist serial adulterer as President. So the Good Dr. Luntz seems to have a Polisci degree without knowing any history.
Update:
From the transcript:
MATTHEWS: … because you?re an analyst of public opinion. We?re going to have a poll in a few moments about what?s going on here. He was asked by Ed Gordon, a very effective, I thought, interviewer tonight on Black Entertainment Television. What problems were you talking about when you said we wouldn?t have them if we?d voted for a segregationist back in ?48. What do you believe he thinks those problems are that we?ve avoided or that we?ve incurred because we didn?t vote racist back in ?48?
LUNTZ: It has to do with problems that we?ve had over the last eight or nine years. I don?t want to speak…
MATTHEWS: He said we wouldn?t have these problems if we had voted for Strom Thurmond in ?48 for president, a segregationist who ran against Harry Truman. What is he talking about there?
LUNTZ: I think that some of the issues that he?s talking about, quite frankly, and I don?t know if he would agree or disagree, but I think some of it has to do with Bill Clinton and the things that happened in the 1990s, the moral decay of the country. The acceptance of certain types of behavior. If…
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) come on.
LUNTZ: … you-if you…
So there you have it, voting for a man who had probably slept with a death row inmate, would have solved the problem of Bill Clinton’s genitalia.
Today goes to Best of the Web:
Now, what’s "white" about names like Laurie and Jill? Wouldn’t a fair comparison have included some odd-sounding white names, like Dweezil or Moon Unit? And if employers discriminate against people with "black" names, how come Latonyas and Latoyas were more likely to get called back than Emilys were?
Let’s see
Kenya vs. Moon Unit. Raise your hand if you can see a difference. Thousands of Horseshacks are beating out Taranto here.
One should ask oneself why a name other than Fucknuts Dipshit should matter in who gets a call back. What reason besides race accounts for the difference?
Mike Royko wrote a rather stupid column years ago that made the same argument. He was then hit on the head and reminded of folks from the neighborhood named Stanislav. Perhaps they don’t have people with ‘weird’ names where Taranto’s upbringing occurred.
What is wrong with this story?
Interestingly, CNN was notified of the problem the day it was published and have never corrected it.
Via Eschaton:
Federal flood insurance is going on hiatus. It would be nice if it just went away. The program subsidizes insurance so flood prone areas can develop. The question no one besides Steve Chapman (no longer available) seems to want to ask is why do we want areas that are prone to floods to develop? Let people pay for their own insurance and flood prone areas will see far less development–a good thing for those who value wetlands and don’t value subsidizing sprawl.
Conason starts the next crusade. It is interesting to watch a meme get started without any blast faxes. Tells you a lot about how the press in general works, doesn’t it?
He reports that Ashcroft had relations with a guy named Thomas Bugel, a former member of the St. Louis School Board, and a member of the CofCC.
By now, you are asking what the hell goes on in St. Louis. And you should. Given Tom Spencer has written a book much of which is about racial politics in St. Louis he might have some good stuff to report here.
Bugel, Earl P. Holt III, Louis Fister, and Shirley Kiel were white supremacists who ran in the 1989 School Board Election and won with stealth candidacies. They officially called themselves "members of the Metro South Citizens Council, a group that says it promotes ”racial integrity” and the interests of white citizens." (P-D March 29, 1991).
They often used the euphemism that they were anti-busing, but busing was only the most vocal issue they liked to talk about. Scratch beneath the surface, and they were and are simply racists.
Civic Progress took over the 1993 election and decided they had enough. They ran a slate and swept out the CofCC faction. For Ashcroft to not know what these clowns were about would be impossible. They had been a prominent story in the one of the two major state papers.
Even stranger though, is this tidbit from the P-D on January 21, 2000:
A group of St. Louisans is pushing for a federal investigation into the treatment of a prisoner at the U.S. medical center in Springfield, Mo.The group, led by former St. Louis School Board member Thomas Bugel, is asking area lawmakers for their "immediate assistance in ending the torture of Dr. Charles T. Sell." The group has gathered 1,000 signatures on petitions seeking congressional help. On Thursday, Bugel and Mark Sell, the inmate’s brother, met with Rep. Jim Talent, R-Chesterfield, whose district includes Sell’s home address. Bugel also gave copies of the petition to one of Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond’s assistants.
Talent’s office released a statement saying, "It’s clear Dr. Sell’s situation has the support of many in the community. These are serious charges and my office will review them closely and take appropriate action."Patrick Werner, district office director for Sen. Bond’s office in Clayton, said the staff will make a formal request for information about Sell’s case and review it for possible action.
"support of many in the community"
Yeah, I suppose so Jim.
To be fair, Gephardt and Gene McNary also visited with the organization in the 1980s before they were as well known. Both have publicly blasted the organization since.
Oops: All but Holt ran in ’87 and finished their term in ’91. Holt was in office from ’89-93. Fact checking my own ass.
Oops 2: First, some grammar was fixed above. Second, the School Board Members except Holt served from ’87-’93. Holt did serve from ’89-’93. The reason for my confusion is that before the passage of Senate Bill 781 in 1998, terms for the SLPS Board were six years. SB 781 changed that to four years. I do not know the reason why Holt served for only four. My apologies for the confusion. Not surprisingly, on this matter no one had yet contacted me. Finally, the slate technically refused to run when they were targeted by Civic Progess, an uber-Chamber of Commerce in the Saint Louis region, claiming the vote was rigged.
As usual the Dark Prince of the Right just makes up the facts over the outrage over Lott’s remarks. The CBC largely ignored the story as was reported on Reliable Sources over the weekend. But it makes a nice argument for conservative victimhood by the Dark Prince.
Kristin McQueary points out the dangerous game Fitzgerald plays by backing Lott. Admittedly, African-Americans and Latinos aren’t voting for the guy, but this kind of thing helps turn them out.
McQueary also reports the meeting between Pete and LaHood went nowhere and Dan Proft of the Illinois Leader is trying to build a conservative coalition of wingnuts to ‘win’ elections. Keep up the good work, Dan. The Dems love you for it.
Usually I refer to the problems in funding Illinois Schools as largely a rural problem. In fact, it is a broader problem with many suburban areas outside of the wealthy north or growing west experiencing the same issues. Phil Kadner does a good job in describing the political problems of any solution and the paralysis gripping southwest suburban officials.
Sweet, Trent stays in the news cycle for 3 more weeks
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