If Huckabee wins the GOP nom, he has a blowjob to thank for it.

Joan Didion, writing in "Clinton Agonistes" in her excellent book, POLITICAL FICTIONS:

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That a majority of Americans seemed capable of separating Mr. Clinton's behavior in this (Lewinsky) matter from his performance as president had become, by that point, irrelevant, as had the ultimate outcome of the congressional deliberation. What was going to happen had already happened: since future elections could now be focused on the entirely spurious issue of correct sexual, or "moral," behavior, those elections would be increasingly decided by that committed and well-organized minority brought most reliably to the polls by "pro-family," or values," issues. The fact that an election between two candidates arguing which has the more correct "values" left most voters with no reason to come to the polls had even come to be spoken about, by less wary professionals, as the beauty part, the bonus that would render the process finally and perpetually impenetrable. "Who cares what every adult thinks?" a Republican strategist asked The Washing POST to this point in early September 1998. "It's totally not germane to this election."

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The Right Wing -- which is to say the entire controlling personnel of the Republican Party -- and the right-wing talk hosts and the corporate media in general (which most certainly includes Cokie Roberts) pimped Bill Clinton's "moral failures" as pretext to eviscerating debate on the truer matters of a Constitutional Republic generally and how those Constitutional matters were to be threatened or undermined especially. Didion casts Kenneth Starr as The Inquisitor, an apt invocation from the Dark Ages, IMO.

Didion asserts that when you make the subject "moral failings" instead of health care or education, or foreign policy for that matter, you have blurred the screen, you have melted the scaffolding where all of us stand to build, maintain, and restore our republic, in brief: removed the context for democracy.

It's a compelling essay. Not a Clinton Democrat now or at any other time, I feel that the Lewinsky affair became the definitional smoke-and-mirrors strategy the Right Wing used for altering the atmosphere for political discourse. Not the only one, certainly. But a definitional one in the snake pit of political strategies.

Huckabee is the most recent beneficiary of this skullduggery, even if as progressives we regard him as a malevolent clown.

It's important that New Hampshire Republicans reject his candidacy. If Huckabee's candidacy fails, we have held the fort in a significant battle, since libraries, schools, and reproductive rights are at stake. If Huckabee, slick and crafty as he is, cannot ride the post-Lewinsky wave of "moral failing" to the White House, there remains no discernible national rationale for fundamentalism in the public square. The more local defeats it suffers, the healthier the national Constitutional republic is, and the more national defeats it suffers, the healthier our local democratic climates will be.

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(On the DU Spellcheck, 'Huckabee' had not been heard of. The system offered 'Hackable' and 'Suckable' as alternatives. Neutral on the first option, and I'll definitely pass on the second.)

But when she dives into politics, she's unbeatable.

and digest your affinity for Didion.....and her proclivity for the flowery.

In one of her recent pieces for the NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, she took Dick Cheney apart with a scythe.

Will its mighty powers ever cease?

role and the hoped-for impact held out by the Republicans.

While they did not prevail in the Congress and Bill was acquitted, the climate for democracy was changed. Didion asserts that this climate change was the real goal and not the "moral" emphasis.

Needless to say, that viewpoint was not advanced in the corporate media.

climate! I'd never thought of it in those terms except with the results. It's all political and it all matters. I defended bill clinton and couldn't care less what he did in oval office except I didn't want him starting any wars but his attitude since then has left me wishing he he did have ethics and morals when it came to our Soldiers lives.

People like to dismiss the mighty clenis but unfortunatly it has consequences.

become the president.

In real life, I'm glad to be beyond Bill Clinton's time in the White House. It was a low time for progressives, who often saw the chief tenets of their ideology compromised during that time. Mario Cuomo had been planning a run for the White House in 1992. I wish to hell he had gone for it. We'd be living in a far different America than we are right now and there would be no Justice Roberts or Justice Alito, etc.

But we are where we are. Iowa Democrats turned out on a chilly evening to say they were not all that keen on a Hillary Clinton presidency. I think New Hampshire Democrats are about to second that motion.

poignant words on the historical what might have been. It is what is, but looking back and learning from our mistakes can only help us in the unpredictable future.

Now if only we could accomplish the monumental task of getting back a free press(if there ever was one) in America.

John Edwards did great last night and I read he's in it all the way to the Convention in Denver so YAY!

Huckabee's rise should make people realize the rank anf file Republicans
are sick of being thrown some red meat and a few crumbs while their
Representatives (Senators and House Members) worship at the alter of
Big Busines. Listen to Huckabee, He is a populist. He is saying
the GOP has to consider some basic needs, poverty health care, jobs iet.
Of course, Huckabees solutions will not be the same as a Democrat would
offer. Nevertheless this is an earthquake in GOP.

Huckabee does not have to resort to this silly stuff, All he has
to do is make a decent showing in NH and he will probably do well
in SC.

I'm for anyone and anything that reduces the rationale for a Huckabee presidency because it would become the scaffolding for fundamental cultural regression on many fronts.

She is always a great read. Off topic a little...I saw Vanessa Redgrave do The Year Of Magical Thinking while in New York last summer. I heard good and bad things about it but VR blew my mind. We were sitting up front and I swear she smiled at me when I started to cry at one point.

Yes, stay away from that last one, ewwww. :hi:

No fair!

I have no more living relatives in New York City to go see and slip in a theater trip or two in the process, as you have. Congratulations for the acknowledgement from Ms. Redgrave, a titan of stage and screen if ever, ever there was one. And about as progressive a soul as anyone on earth could hope to find.

Howdy right back, happy new year, and now it's on to November and let's end the Bush administration once and for all.

It was exciting just to be so close to her and be so spellbound. Her history has always made me very fond of her, it was such a bonus to our trip.

I'm serious.

You have the best travel plans of anybody goin'.

Run ads! Lead tours! Have fun!

Wanna help? You know more about it than I do and our tastes seem to coincide more than not, we could make a great team. Just think of all the theater we could cover! Opera, ballet on and on..........wheeeeeee!

sign up for one of our knock-out tours, they have to agree to change their voting registration first.

That seems fair.

and we should charge them an extra fee for supporting the bastard that took a wrecking ball to our constitution. We could use that money to run a campaign to get rid of the names Reagan and Bush from any and all institutions, highways and airports. Now that would make my life so much better. You too?

Seems fair to me as well. :)

public buildings etc?

I'm in.

Better than a picnic!

At a celebration of, by, and for pro-Impeachment Conservatives, Didion describes Hyde at the table during the dessert phase of dinner as:

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"...doggedly continu(ing) to spoon up his dessert, chocolate meeting mouth with metronomic regularity, his perseverance undeflected even by Bob Barr, leaning in to make a point."

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If Huck wins the nomination and brings this issue up in the general election it will be very funny with all the serious issues flouting around these days.

Senate, even after Lott et al warned him in advance that the votes were not there.

But the dark back-alley strategy of removing serious issues in favor of "moral" issues is what has fueld a lot of the fundie influence.

I would love for New Hampshire Republicans to bury Huckabee alive.

And vote against him as well.

I have not posted for a while but its nice runnin into you. Thanks for the history lesson which some Republicans refuse to learn.

want. Always a pleasure.

This is high season for political junkies. And the 2008 election, start to finish, is shaping up to be one for the historians to slobber over.