We'll Always Have Florida

I am tied up traveling (visiting my son at the Boy Scouts of American National Jamboree), but Ralph Kostant has been prolific. Here's Ralph's latest. And thanks, Ralph, for keeping this blog afloat. If this continues you're going to be conscripted into permanent bloggerhood. Enough of this "honorary Hedgehog" stuff!

I'll be back later today and will report from the Jamboree, which has lately been the ACLU's favorite pinata.
________________________________________________________________

We’ll Always Have Florida.

The GOP has the White House. The GOP has both Houses of Congress. The GOP will soon add a conservative Justice to the Supreme Court. Despite a few setbacks (John Bolton, Social Security), President Bush is having his way with his legislative agenda, beating the Democrats like a bongo drum, and driving Nancy Pelosi to public displays of hysterical frustration. But cheer up, Democrats; to regain your composure, picture a replay of that scene in Casablanca, where Bogie says to Ingrid Bergman, “We’ll always have Paris.” Only, cast Washington Post liberal columnist Richard Cohen as Rick and the MoveOn.org crowd as Ilsa, and change the line to, “We’ll always have Florida.” In his July 21, 2005 column, entitled “Chad Tidings,” Cohen bemoans the nomination of John Roberts, writing “Another chad has dropped.” He continues, “You hang enough chads, and you get to change the Supreme Court.” This observation might have made some slight sense (I am being generous here) if W. had nominated Roberts during his first term, but apparently Richard Cohen went out for popcorn during the scene when W. wins re-election in 2004 by over 3,000,000 votes.

Mark Steyn, don’t you love him, utterly demolishes Cohen’s column here in the July 24th Chicago Sun Times. Don’t fret Richard, you’ll always have Florida.

It’s a (Robert) Byrd! It’s a (Valerie) Plame! No, it’s Super Dean!

Speaking of the paranoid style of politics, Howard Dean is at it again! The Chairman of the Democratic Party has now blamed Kelo v. the City of New London on President Bush. As reported at Townhall.com, the Dean Meister charged, "The president and his right-wing Supreme Court think it is 'okay' to have the government take your house if they feel like putting a hotel where your house is."

Planet Earth to Howard: We have a problem with your last transmission. First of all, none of the Justices currently sitting on the SCOTUS were nominated by George W. Bush. Secondly, and this is a minor point, as Townhall.com duly notes:

The four justices who dissented in the Kelo vs. New London case included the three most conservative members of the court - Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was the fourth dissenter.

The court's liberal coalition of Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer combined with Justice Anthony Kennedy to form the majority opinion, allowing the city of New London, Conn., to use eminent domain to seize private properties for commercial development.

Howard continued, "We think that eminent domain does not belong in the private sector. It is for public use only.” Excellent, we couldn’t agree more. Since we would never question Governor Dean’s sincere dedication to that principle, we look forward to his endorsement of the Roberts nomination!

Let’s Go For the Hat Trick: Liberal Ethics Illustrated

The reaction at leading Lefty blog The Daily Kos to Dean’s latest buffoonery was educational. While at least one commentator wrote, “There's simply no way that Dean's comments can be spun to make them even remotely defensible,” another revealed the high moral standards to which the loony Left aspires:

I'm 100% behind it. Why? Because it resonates, and I'm perfectly willing to go
for a false statement that illustrates a truth. The GOP is the party of Big
Business. Big Business (business in general) is who benefitted from the Kelo
case. So, frankly, I say it's a great line of attack. Screw accuracy -- remind
people that now big business can take their homes away to make a shopping mall,
and that's A-okay by the GOP.

Screw accuracy, indeed.

Ralph B. Kostant