I’ve not written heavily on political issues recently. Why is that? Doug Mataconis has been beating me to the punch on pretty much everything that’s been going on and his take on the issues has been spot on:
- Congress and the President-Elect deciding that the Constitution does not mean what it says and dispensing arrogance along with it, with the added goodness of the courts likely unwilling to intervene.
- Doug’s linked to spreadsheet survey of how the bailout is costing us $8.5 trillion. Let’s add a “so far” to that, because….
- The Big Three automakers have begged Congress for a total of $34 billion so they can continue to survive in their current inefficient and unprofitable incarnations. This must not happen. At least this time they didn’t take private jets to go and try to feed at the public trough.
- Democrats won’t be getting their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate after all, thus keeping the Republican Party “slightly relevant” to national politics.
- The massive surge of voters for Obama turns out to have been not so massive after all, except in battleground states.
- Jeb Bush likely to run for Senate in Florida, paving the way for a Bush 2012 campaign (because four years without a Bush in play for the White House is simply too long).
- In the growing debate about what Republicans ought to be like in the future, it’s really a power struggle between religious conservatives and libertarians, and it would be better for everyone if the libertarians won because younger voters aren’t cottoning to the social intolerance that religious conservativism seems to carry with it.
- Doug is understandably disturbed at the presence of active-duty troops within the geographical limits of the United States (although in a comment I suggest the concern is probably overblown).
So with all this good work being done elsewhere, I can’t do too much but mirror him. More importantly, with the exception of the Posse Comitatus issue, his normative response to things is pretty much exactly what mine is. All I can do is step back in awe and urge all you Readers to check out what Doug Mataconis has to say about politics at Below the Beltway. He’s the best political blogger blogging these days.
