Good for the Gander

"Do Democrats realize that we really have crossed the Rubicon? In the future when the Republicans gain majorities (and they will), the liberal modus operandi will be the model—bare 51% majorities, reconciliation, the nuclear option, talk of deem and pass, not a single Democrat vote—all ends justifying the means in order to radically restructure vast swaths of American economic and social life. Is someone unhinged at the DNC? They just blew up any shred of bipartisan consensus when their President polls below 50%, the Democratically-controlled Congress below 20%, and health care reform less than 50%. Usually unpopular leaders and their unpopular ideas seek the shelter of minority rights and prerogatives. What will they do when they are in the minority—since they’ve entered the arena, boasted 'let the games begin' and shouted 'by any means necessary'?"

-- Victor Davis Hanson, Stanford University

Who Said This?

"You've got to break out of what I call the, sort of, 50-plus-one pattern of presidential politics, which is you have nasty primaries where everybody's disheartened, then you divide the country 45 percent on one side 45 percent on the other and 10 percent in the middle... We're not going to pass universal health care with a 50-plus-one strategy."

-- Presidential candidate Barack Obama, Oct. 9, 2007

Modern Day Woodrow Wilson?

"There is more than a passing similarity between Obama's health care battle and Woodrow Wilson's campaign for the League of Nations; there are also striking similarities between the men themselves.... Like Wilson, Obama is a self-styled progressive who is deeply skeptical of the Founders' creation. Like Wilson, Obama is firmly convinced of his own rectitude and his moral superiority over his political foes. As with Wilson, this makes Obama firmly opposed to compromise with these foes; he views compromise as betrayal of a fundamental belief, and as Wilson did, he views his opponents as morally defective. Obama, like Wilson, is a Nobel Peace Price winner (although Wilson actually did something to merit it)....

"Wilson's failure to compromise on the League is considered one of the greatest failures by an American president. Obama may well succeed... in the narrow sense of seeing his initiative passed into law, but regardless of whether he does or not, he and his party will reap a political whirlwind. Wilson's political misjudgment cost America, and the world, in the balance of the 20th century. Obama's political misjudgment is likely to be very expensive for America in the balance of the 21st."

-- Craig Pirrong, University of Houston

With Apologies to the Psalmist

Obama is the shepherd I did not want
He leadeth me beside the still factories
He restoreth my faith in the Republican party
He guideth me in the path of unemployment for his party's sake
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the bread line, I shall fear no hunger
For his bailouts are with me
He anointeth my income with taxes
My expenses runneth over
Surely, poverty and hard living will follow me all the days of my life
And I will live in a mortgaged home forever

-- Contributed by Crissy Martinez

Never Trust A Mormon With A Wet Bar In His Home

"Mitt Romney still hasn't entirely decided whether to take the pragmatist or the crusader path if he runs in 2012. Primarily, [Romney's new book] presents Romney as a pragmatist. . . . Private-school vouchers, a perennial conservative priority, are mostly 'politically infeasible,' he writes. Likewise, the conservative call to carve out private accounts from Social Security; instead, Romney backs voluntary 'add-on' accounts more like those that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama proposed. He complains that Republicans are 'overly fond' of bashing federal regulation. Someone may have to pass Thomas Donohue, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce domo, smelling salts after that. . . . Although he squirms and hedges, he concludes that climate change is real and is affected by human activity. He praises federal energy regulation for squeezing more efficiency from cars and home appliances. And Romney says that increased domestic production, although worthwhile, wouldn't 'appreciably' reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

-- Ronald Brownstein, National Journal

Dr. Sowell Tells It Straight

"Personal responsibility is a real problem for those who want to collectivize society and take away our power to make our own decisions, transferring that power to third parties like themselves, who imagine themselves to be so much wiser and nobler than the rest of us."

-- Thomas Sowell

Even Schwarzenegger Gets This

"Health care reform, which started as noble and needed legislation, has become a trough of bribes, deals and loopholes. You've heard of the bridge to nowhere. This is health care to nowhere. California's congressional delegation should either vote against this bill that is a disaster for California or get in there and fight for the same sweetheart deal Senator Nelson of Nebraska got for the Cornhusker State. He got the corn; we got the husk."

-- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, withdrawing his support for President Obama's health care plan during his State of the State address this week