COULD ISRAELI ELECTIONS BE DELAYED?

David Bedein has some interesting info in the Bulletin on the possibility that elections could be delayed because the Hamas is planning an attack on February 10:

Ashkelon, Israel — The Middle East Newsline has learned from Israeli security sources that there is a distinct possibility that Hamas has achieved the capability to torpedo Israel’s parliamentary elections on Feb. 10.

Israeli government sources confirm that Hamas could fire salvos of missiles and rockets that would prevent hundreds of thousands of people in central and southern Israel from voting in Knesset elections.

They're absolutely correct to be concerned. Does this signal the possibility that next week's election could end up being postponed because of the danger the Hamas is now imposing? We'll have to wait and see.

JUDEA PEARL FAILS HIS SON, AND PLENTY OF OTHERS TOO

Debbie Schlussel writes about Judea Pearl, the father of the murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, and tells that he's simply not what he could be. In fact, some of the things Judea's said and done are disturbing.

I think I recall Pearl signaling his support for Steven Spielberg's disgusting Munich movie 3 years ago, and that clued me in that something was wrong with his mindset. But now, I realize that he himself appears to be a leftist.

And I think I can understand now why the movie biopic about Daniel Pearl, whose exact title I can't even remember now (and he may not have even been the central focus), was made in all its moral equivalence and leftism. Update: now I remember: it was called "A Mighty Heart". A shame it couldn't live up to its title.

NAZI WAR CRIMINAL CONVERTS TO ISLAM

Aribert Ferdinand Heim, also known as the Doctor Death of the Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen concentration camps was reportedly living in Cairo, as a convert to Islam until his death in 1992. For the past 4o years it was assumed Heim was hiding in Latin America. His 53 year old son, Rüdiger Heim, was present when he died. What does the conversion of this War Criminal to Islam, and his subsequent life as a fugitive from justice, tell us of Nazi and Islamic ideology? What does this story tell us of the Egyptian bureaucracy?

WE CAN ALL RELAX NOW: UN TO LAUNCH BHUTTO PROBE

BBC: UN to launch Bhutto probe 'soon'

UN chief Ban Ki-moon says he will launch "very shortly" an inquiry into the killing of former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto in 2007.

YEAH, SURE - IT'LL START AS SOON AS THE HARIRI PROBE IS DONE.

LIKE.... NEVER.

THE UN HAS BECOME A USELESS PIECE OF CRAP INSTITUTION WHICH WASTES BILLIONS AND HELPS NOBODY EXCEPT TYRANTS.

"REHABILITATED" GADDAFY TELLS AFRICAN NATIONS TO DITCH DEMOCRACY

GREAT:

The new African Union (AU) chairman, Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi, has said that multi-party democracy in Africa leads to bloodshed.

Speaking at the AU summit in Ethiopia, Col Gaddafi said Africa was essentially tribal and political parties became tribalised, which led to bloodshed.

He concluded the best model for Africa was his own country, where opposition parties are not allowed.

Analysts say the AU is in for an interesting year under Col Gaddafi.

The BBC's Mark Doyle, at the AU summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, says many may wonder what direction the 53-member organisation will take under his leadership over the next 12 months.

"Our parties are tribal parties - that is what has led to bloodshed"
said Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

This is what the West gets for appeasing scum like Gaddafy: a insane dictator who spreads vile ideas.

Scum like Gaddafy - and Kim and Assad and Ahmadinejad should be assassinated, not appeased.

YEAH: ASSASSINATE!

All appeasement of scum like Gaddafy has gotten humanity is millions of people - our brothers and sisters - living under ruthless tyrannies for decades and decades.

• YOU WANNA APPEASE THESE THUGS AND CAL IT "REALISM"!?

• FINE. YOU CAN CALLIT WHATVER YOU WANT. BUT THAT DON'T MAKE IT SO.
  

• ALL YOU'RE REALLY DOING IS CONSIGNING THE MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THESE TYRANTS - AND THEIR CHILDREN AND THEIR CHILDREN'S CHILDEN - TO DECADES AND DECADES OF CONTINUED INHUMANE DEGRADATION...

• AND YOU'RE CONDEMING THEIR NEIGHBORS TO THE CONTINUED THREAT OF WAR AND TERROR AND INSTABILITY.

• DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE MORAL.

• YOU'RE NOT.

• YOU'RE IMMORAL COWARDS.

APPEASING THESE THUGS IS COWARDLY AND IMMORAL.

POST-GITMO RECIDIVISM: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPED HOT AIR, GATEWAY, JAWA, AND LONG WAR JOURNAL AND LGF

WHAT HOT AIR AND GATEWAY AND LGF AND JAWA AND LWJ POSTED TODAY...

WE POSTED YESTERDAY.

REGULAR READERS KNOW THAT THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.

IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME BECAUSE THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS DOESN'T JUST FOLLOW THE PACK; WE SCOUR THE INTERTUBES FOR ALL THE LATEST NEWS AND GIVE YOU EXCERPTS AND LINKS TO YOU WITH A NO-HOLDS-BARRED COMMENTARY.

SPREAD THE WORD. BOOKMARK US. BLOGROLL US.

Is Barry Working for OPEC?

You have to wonder if Obama is taking orders from OPEC when you read this:

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he is nullifying oil and natural gas drilling leases on about 130,000 acres in Utah because they are near national parks and questions have been raised about environmental reviews.

It's back to Dhimmi-Carteresque appeals to turn down the thermostat, inflate the tires, and continue to refuse to allow our own American oil companies to develop our own American oil resources.

Epic fail.

Worst. President. Ever.

Egyptian President Mubarak: Hamas to blame for spilled Arab blood

A Muslim leader has sided with Israel against another Muslim organization.

It looks like the walls may close in on Hamas.

From Haaretz:

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak voiced harsh criticism against Hamas on Wednesday, accusing the Islamist Palestinian movement of being responsible for the shedding of Arab blood. 

"How long will Arab blood continue to be spilled, only to hear those who admit to miscalculating the scope and scale of Israel's response?" Mubarak asked in a speech marking Egypt's national day to honor its police force. 

Mubarak's comment came in reference to remarks reportedly made by Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal, who admitted at the end of the three-week Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip that he did not anticipate the scope of Israel's operation. Similar sentiments were expressed by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at the end of the Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006. 

Mubarak went on to say that resistance movements must take responsibility over the welfare of their people. "The resistance must take into account victories and losses. It is responsible for the people, who in turn should settle the score [with the resistance] over the gains it has achieved, but also the sacrifices, the pain and the destruction it has caused," he said. 

The Egyptian president also hinted that Hamas and other militant Palestinian factions are serving the Iranian agenda in the region, especially since the fighting in Gaza ended. "They are trying to take advantage of Israeli aggression to force a new reality on the current Palestinian and Arab situation. A new reality that will alter the equation and reorganize the balance in favor of known regional powers and will serve their agenda," Mubarak said. His comment came in response to Meshal's recent calls for the establishment of an alternative Palestinian body, to rival Fatah in representing the Palestinian people. 

Mubarak also hinted that he rejects calls to freeze efforts to advance the Saudi peace initiative, which offers Israel normalized relations with the Arab world in exchange for Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders. "Egypt made peace publicly with Israel, and some of those who criticize us maintain warm relations with Israel behind closed doors, and others dearly desire peace with Israel," Mubarak said. 

HUMAN RIGHTS IN TURKEY ARE STILL A DISASTER

You would think that in Turkey, things are civilized enough for a country of their sort, right? Not so according to this item by Steven Plaut on FPM, which talks about Tayyip Erdogan's sick assault on Israel at the UN:

Brutal force has been used against Kurdish separatists and other political groups. Indeed, the operations of the Turkish military against the Kurds make Israel's recent incursion into the Gaza Strip (in Operation "Cast Lead") look like a May Day picnic. Until 2003, it was forbidden to speak Kurdish on the radio or television; the Kurdish alphabet still cannot be used. The state of human rights in Turkey, according to numerous human rights NGOs, continues to be atrocious. Women in Turkey are mistreated; until very recently women students applying to universities had to pass a virginity test. The Turkish military police routinely kill civilians. Journalists have been assassinated.

One such reporter was an Armenian named Hrant Dink. If you're one of those who didn't know about this before, now you do - how a country once thought to be a decent tourist attraction is really a nightmare behind the scenes.

I think the time has come to stop paying money to Turkey's tourism, though I got a feeling that, with dictatorships making a comeback, that may be moot already. Turkey's future does not look bright.

Barack Obama Has Come Up With His First Good Idea

I support this idea wholeheartedly. 

From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON – Call it the maximum wage. President Barack Obamawants to impose a $500,000 pay cap on executives whose firms receive government financial rescue funds, a dramatic intervention intocorporate governance in the midst of financial crisis.

The new restrictions, described by an administration official familiar with the new rules, are to be announced Wednesday morning at the White House. The steps set the stage for the administration's unveiling next week of a new framework for spending the money that remains in the $700 billion financial rescue fund.

"If the taxpayers are helping you, then you've got certain responsibilities to not be living high on the hog," President Barack Obama said Tuesday.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the plan had not yet been made public, said the most restrictive limits would apply only to struggling large firms that receive "exceptional assistance" in the future. Healthy banks that receive government infusions of capital would have more leeway.

Firms that want to pay executives above the $500,000 threshold would have to compensate them with stock that could not be sold or liquidated until they pay back the government funds, the official said.

The great thing about this idea is it will effectively put an end to the Federal bailout of corporations. It is a negative incentive (an incentive from Socialism). 

Executives simply will not agree to this (and why should they), so they will refuse the bailout funds and figure out how to fix their companies on their own dime, WHICH IS WHAT CAPITALISM IS ALL ABOUT, after all.

If an executive team can not figure out how to bail out it's company, then the company is not a viable entity, and it is best for everyone that it go onto the ash heap of history. 

That's tough stuff to endure, but that is the reality of the world. Propping up weakness in business does nothing more than breed more weakness.

Thank God Obama has come up with this idea.

STATS SHOW THAT THE ONCE LAUDED SAUDI "JIHADI-REHAB PROGRAM" FAILS, MISERABLY

A MISERABLE FAILURE. A MISERABLE FAILURE:

NYTIMES: Saudis Issue List of 85 Terrorism Suspects

Eleven Saudis who were released from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and then passed through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists are now believed to have fled the country and joined terrorist groups abroad, Saudi officials said Tuesday.

The 11 former detainees include two who were already identified last month as members of a Yemeni terrorist group. Their names were on a list of 85 wanted terrorism suspects made public Tuesday by the Saudi Interior Ministry.

The announcement further underscored the difficulties faced by the Obama administration as it prepares to close the Guantánamo detention center. All told, 14 Saudis now appear to have rejoined terrorist groups after their return from Guantánamo, including the 11 living abroad and 3 who were rearrested in Saudi Arabia after their return.

Any perceived weaknesses in the Saudi program — widely viewed as a successful model — could pose problems for the return of the remaining Guantánamo detainees.

CLOSING GITMO IS STUPID.

CAMPAIGNING ON IT WAS IDIOTIC.

BOTH MCCAIN AND OBAMA DID IT.

BOTH MORONS. LIBTARDS.

• IF OBAMA DOES THE RIGHT THING FOR THE NATION, THEN HE WILL BECOME LESS POPULAR, (BECAUSE HE'LL LOSE HIS BASE) - SOMETHING BUSH DID ALL THE TIME.

• IF OBAMA'S EGO IS STRONGER THAN HIS MACHINE-CONNECTIONS, THEN HE WILL SOON DECOUPLE HIMSELF FROM THE UNPOPULAR REID AND PELOSI AND THEIR INCREASINGLY UNPOPULAR LEFT-WING AGENDA.

• I DON'T THINK THIS WILL HAPPEN UNTIL OBAMA'S NUMBERS GO BELOW 40% - AROUND JUNE.

MORE GOVERNMENT FAVORITISM

HERE.



HEH.

"B.H.O.": "BOTCHED HAPLESS ONE-TERMER"

IT'S BECOMING PAINFULLY OBVIOUS
TO MORE AND MORE PEOPLE
THAT OBAMA AIN'T GOT
WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A GOOD PRESIDENT.

NOT ON DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, AND NOT ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
THAT DOESN'T LEAVE MUCH FOR HIM TO BE GOOD AT. SIGH.

• WE CAN TURN THIS THING AROUND IN 2010 BY GETTING A NEW CONSERVATIVE GOP CONGRESS.

• UNTIL THEN, WE GOTTA DO TO OBAMA'S AGENDA WHAT WE DID TO DASCHLE.

WE GOTTA "DASCHLE IT".

MUST SEE ATLAS-TV: VENEZUELANS PROTEST HAMAS-CHAVEZ AXIS IN NYC

CLICK HERE.

HERE'S PROOF THAT BIN LADEN IS THE TRUE FACE OF ISLAM

• WHEN THE OIC ANNOUNCES THAT BIN LADEN IS AN APOSTATE SLANDERING ISLAM AND THEN LAUNCH A JOINT MILITARY ATTACK ON AL QAEDA IN AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN REGION THEN-AND-ONLY-THEN WILL I BELIEVE THAT BIN LADEN AND AL QAEDA ARE ANATHEMA TO MUSLIMS.

• I WON'T HOLD MY BREATH. THEY'VE HAD SEVEN YEARS TO DO SOMETHING.

• THE PAST SEVEN YEARS ARE NOT AN ABERRATION; THEY ARE MORE LIKE THE PRECEDING 1400 YEARS AS FAR AS ISLAM IS CONCERNED: IT'S A "RELIGION" FOUNDED ON WAR AND TERROR.

• ATTACKING BIN LADEN IS ANATHEMA TO ISLAM - OR THEY'D HAVE DONE IT ALREADY.

AND DON'T TELL ME ABOUT ALL THE HOUSE OF SAUD HAS DONE: THEY'RE JUST TRYING TO PROTECT THEIR OWN ASSES.

(DITTO THE RICH PAKISTANIS, RICH EGYPTIANS, RICH MOROCCANS AND RICH ALGERIANS. THEY DON'T WANT TO ERADICATE JIHADISM; ALL THEY WANT IS FOR THE JIHADISTS TO ATTACK ELSEWHERE.)

ANOTHER PALLYWOOD LIE LAID TO REST: UN: "IDF NEVER ATTACKED GAZA SCHOOL"

HAARETZ:

The United Nations has reversed its stance on one of the most contentious and bloody incidents of the recent Israel Defense Forces operation in Gaza, saying that an IDF mortar strike that killed 43 people on January 6 did not hit one of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency schools after all.

It seems that the UN has been under pressure to put the record straight after doubts arose that the school had actually been targeted. Maxwell Gaylord, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Jerusalem, said Monday that the IDF mortar shells fell in the street near the compound, and not on the compound itself.

Gaylord said that the UN "would like to clarify that the shelling and all of the fatalities took place outside and not inside the school."

UNRWA, an agency whose sole purpose is to work with Palestinian refugees, said in response Tuesday that it had maintained from the day of attack that the wounded were outside of the school compound. UNRWA said that the source of the mistake in recent weeks had originated with a separate branch of the United Nations.

• TOO BAD IT TOOK SO LONG FOR THEM TO SET THE RECORD COMPLETELY STRAIGHT.

• AND TOO BAD THE MSM HAS A PREDISPOSITION TO BELIEVE ANTI-ZIONISTS AND ANTI-AMERICANS.

• THAT'S PART OF THE REASON A LIE TRAVELS AROUND THE WORLD FIVE TIMES BEFORE THE TRUTH HAS A CHANCE TO PUT ITS PANTS ON.

IF THE MSM WAS UNBIASED THE ENEMY WOULDN'T STAND A CHANCE BECAUSE THE ONLY PLACE THE ENEMY EVER WINS IS IN THE MEDIA/INFO WARS.

IN AN UNABASHED AFFRONT TO OBAMA AND USA, PUTIN FLIPS KRYGYSTAN

READ ALL ABOUT IT HERE, AND BE SURE TO READ THE GREAT COMMENT THREAD; EXCERPT:

Biden predicted that world leaders would challenge Obama and his inexperience within the first few months of the administration, but they’ve already started to line up in the first few days.

Iran launched a satellite on an ICBM to show they could go ballistic once they have nuclear weapons.

North Korea reportedly has set up another ICBM for a test to threaten Seoul.

Now Russia has flipped an ally in the war on terror — and all of this in the first 14 days of Obama’s presidency.

THINGS ARE JUST GONNA KEEP GETTING WORSE, TOO.

THESE ARE THE FRUITS OF APPEASEMENT.

RTWT.

EVEN THE LEFTIST WASHINGTON POST ADMITS THAT THE DEMS' NEGATIVITY IS TANKING THE ECONOMY

Obliquely, of course.

From this article on February 3, 2009:

Consumers in December scaled back on spending for the sixth month in a row -- even though they had slightly more to spend -- in a sign that Americans remained nervous about the future.

...The savings rate rose to 3.6 percent from 2.8 percent.

Consumers decided to hang onto more of their money even though disposable income rose slightly when adjusted for inflation.....

"It really helped the average American that gasoline fell back this past fall and winter, but that's basically behind us," said Stuart Schweitzer, global markets strategist at J.P. Morgan's Private Bank....

The falloff in consumer spending has cut off oxygen to countless retailers...

The downturn we're experiencing is being made worse as the Dems beat the drum so as to advance socialism as rescuer of our nation's economy.

Talk about a vicious cycle!

TOTALITARIANISM IS MAKING A COMEBACK

Claudia Rosett warns in Forbes that totalitarianism is on the rise again in the 21st century (via Hot Air):

Dictators are making a comeback.

Just four or five years ago, the headlines were full of democratic movements, notably the yellow, rose and cedar "revolutions" in the Ukraine, Georgia and Lebanon. The Taliban had been toppled, Saddam Hussein overthrown. Democratic stirrings were heralded from the streets of Iran and China to promises of reform in Saudi Arabia and Libya. Freedom was continuing a roll begun way back in the Reagan era. Tyrants were on the outs with polite society.

These days, dictators are on a roll. Among the many signs was last week's op-ed in The New York Times by none other than Muammar Qaddafi, unrepentant and brutal tyrant in Tripoli for the past 40 years--though, for the purposes of this piece, the Times identifies him politely as "the leader of Libya." I am still pondering that article, and not solely because this is the same New York Times that last fall rejected an op-ed by John McCain when he was running for president. Qaddafi used his patch of American editorial space to float a plan that would demographically blitz democratic Israel out of existence by setting up a single combined Palestinian-Israeli state, which he suggests we call "Isratine."

It's tempting simply to dismiss such stuff as unintended self-parody--whether on the part of Qaddafi, the Times or both. But it is also a token that tyrants are back in style, not only feeling safe to venture out of their spider holes but preening as elder statesmen and increasingly welcomed back to the parlors, editorial pages and negotiating tables of democratic high society. [...]

Freedom House Research Director Arch Puddington highlights Iran, Russia, Zimbabwe and Venezuela as showing "enhanced anti-democratic tendencies." But these are surrounded as well by a scene of broader decline.

Freedom House attributes part of this slide to "gathering authoritarian pushback against opposition parties, nongovernmental organizations and the press." It might be tempting to blame such pushback on President Bush's democracy agenda. Except, coinciding with this decline, Bush dropped the dead-or-alive approach to terrorists and their state sponsors during his second term, and soft-pedaled the democratization push. Increasingly during his final years in office, he relied on soft power, talks at Annapolis, talks with North Korea, talks via the European Union and the mechanisms of the predominantly undemocratic United Nations.

I'm glad to see that she's acknowledging Dubya's betrayal of principles that really took effect during his second term of office. But she's wrong that there's ever been any real democratic push in Lebanon, and come to think of it, in Iran or China either. And Russia is certainly moving back to totalitarianism, and has been ever since Vladimir Putin took office.

The Cold War, it's sad to say, has returned, mainly because would-be democratic leaders failed to make any convincing effort to ensure that democracy would hold steady.

And one more note: to think that the House of Saud could be so easily persuaded to allow democracy is simply missing reality.

TERRORIST CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA

Disgustingly enough on January 5th in St. Paul, Minnesota a conflagration ensued between supporters of the Hamas terrorist organization and Fatah partisans.

In the middle of this insanity was none other than Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison, who took his official congressional oath of office using the Koran, and, evidently, but NOT surprisingly likes to interact with enemies of the United States of America in a time of war!

WAKE UP AMERICA!!!

CEASE THE DHIMMITUDE...

Hat Tip: Flopping Aces

ANOTHER OBAMA PICK HAS PROBLEMS WITH THE LAW: HILDA SOLIS, NOMINATED TO BECOME LABOR SECRETARY

YORK/NRO:

... she [SOLIS] did not list it [HER POSITION ON THE BOARD OF A LABOR GROUP] on the disclosure forms she was required to submit to the House of Representatives. It was an unpaid position, so there is no problem with income.

But there are questions about whether Solis, as Treasurer, played a de facto role in the group's lobbying activity; if you're a member of Congress, you're not supposed to simultaneously lobby Congress. (Solis has told the Senate that she did not take part in the group's lobbying activities.)

In any event, you're required to list your affiliation on disclosure documents, which Solis did not do.

ANOTHER LAW-BREAKER SELECTED BY OBAMA. SHEESH.

AT THIS RATE, OBAMA MIGHT BREAK CLINTON'S 8 YEAR RECORD IN THE FIRST 100 DAYS!

OTHERS AGREE OBAMA IS ON THAT PACE!

UPDATED Tom Daschle. On Video. 1998.

President Obama is not exactly batting 1.000 on his Cabinet nominees. As Mark Levin pointed out today (download audio here), Al Capone did not get a cabinet post for his tax "forgetfulness"; yet Geithner has already been confirmed to LEAD THE IRS--even though he himself sheltered taxable income and got caught doing it. Nice role model, Mr. President. Sort of analogous to nominating Timothy Leary as Drug Czar.

And so now we have the Daschle matter before the Seante, more tax evasion, which is particularly ironic considering this video of a Tom Daschle floor speech excoriating tax cheats surfaced today. Embarrassing to say the least. But considering that Daschle is also in the pocket of many health care special interests, putting him in charge of HHS is a huge conflict of interest. This is the guy who wants to push through single payer, which would be an unmitigated disaster.

But (when it comes to taxes) Americans do this kind of thing all the time--the point is that all of us want to hold onto as much of our earnings from the confiscatory government as possible. But Democrats don't seem to espouse that view (do as I say, not as I do...). For example there is the loudmouth Biden's infamous quote paying taxes being our "patriotic duty". Somehow when I write that big check every quarter, it isn't quite the same patriotic feeling as watching a B-2 flyover at the Rose Bowl. But what do I know...

In any case, Obama's nominees for Treasury and HHS hardly seem to be poster children for paying our "fair share". The message seems to be: Republicans should pay their taxes, but Democrats will be allowed to skate if they avoid paying theirs (ask Charley Rangel). Because, after all, they are so critical to our recovery.

Al Capone should been a Democrat politician.

The thing that is most hypocritical about the events are playing out in the Senate is that it is the weak-kneed Republicans who seem to be falling down on their job of Advise and Consent. Do not forget that over 40 Bush nominees to the Cabinet and Judiciary were filibustered by a Democrat minority--some were held up for over two years and never made it to the floor, even though virtually all of them would have been confirmed had the Dems not obstructed the nominations; yet the Senate Republicans, "led" by Mitch McConnell seem to be cowering away from showing the Democrats that this sort of thing works both ways.

For example, the Senate confirmed the reprehensible Holder today at Justice, despite his horrific track record as an Assistant AG under Janet Reno and his blatant disregard for the Second Amendment.

Taking the so-called "high ground" is one thing, but Republicans seem to have not groked in the last 8 years that their opponents see politics as bloodsport. If Republicans are not prepared to take principled stands to keep our country from becoming another UK, then we are putting people in office who are ill-equipped to fight on equal terms with the opposition. And that is a losing proposition.

From where I sit, the Republicans appear to be shaking in their collective boots about opposing any nominee (no matter how tainted) that the Obama Administration wants to conjure up. Hell there were Clinton AG nominees who were nixed just because they had undocumented housekeepers. The Daschle (and Holder and Geithner) track records of tax evasion and pardoning terrorists seem to be much more aggregious than a former Clinton nominee paying a woman to clean her house. Yet Republicans are for the most part cowering in the shadow of Our Lord and Savior Barack Obama, who 46% of the public voted against. Why??

If Republican Senators will not do the job we elected them to do--which is to fight for OUR principles--then we need to find Senators who will do so. So far I am as upset at Republican Senators as I am at the partisan Democrats--who after all are just doing what they have always done: put their party and Marxist ideology before the good of the country.

As Sun Tzu said, a decision to do nothing is still a decision. Ramesh Ponnuru seems to have sensed the rising discontent amongst Republicans about the Senate Leadership--it remains to be seen if Michael Steele can right this ship before it sinks altogether. So far the party of Lincoln seems to be more concerned with appeaseing the (already hostile) media, than to stand up for principle.

It is time for us to speak up; it truly is now or never. Call your Senators NOW. Tell them if they vote for Daschle, you will not support them. Period. We need all 40-41 Republican to hold serve here. But they won't do it if you don't push them. Today only 21 voted against Holder. That is shameful. We have to do better to bring more pressure to bear, and that is up to you.

UPDATE: Cold Fury says "Serf's Up!":

Maguire says that the WSJ is scathing in its editorial response to dirtball Daschle’s near-criminally offensive excuse-making for his outright criminal tax evasion - -and he’s right. But he doesn’t exactly pull any punches himself:

I am sooo looking forward to April 15 (that’s tax-filing day for the Democrats out there). Instead of vexing myself with hours of tedious record-review I’ll just put down any numbers that pop into my head, secure in the knowledge that a simple apology will suffice if I’m ever questioned. Well, first I have to change my party registration to “D” and mail that check to Obama…

Can you say “incipient tax revolt?” I knew you could.

Update! From another equally scathing post: “Don’t ask, don’t tell on taxes - that’s change we can believe in.” Whoa, that’s good Squishy.

UPDATE: Rich Lowry may have summed it up best:

Geithner’s nomination was deemed “too big to fail.” If Daschle gets the same treatment, it will mean whoever Obama wants for a given position is ipso facto too important to be expected to abide by the tax laws. Daschle, the former Senate majority leader, has no management experience to prepare him for running a 60,000-person department and has no greater expertise in health care—he’s co-authored a book on the subject—than any number of other possible nominees.

Daschle is exceptional only insofar as he’s such a perfect representation of the Beltway culture of easy enrichment for former officeholders.

Bingo.