by TChris

As TalkLeft noted here, it's difficult to understand the logic behind the claim that federal funding of stem cell research would promote the "murder" of embryos without objecting to the fertility clinics that discard embryos or the private researchers who use them. Tony Snow has, um, clarified the president's thinking, noting that the word "murder" was Snow's, not the president's. The president merely believes that stem cell research results in "a destruction of human life." See the difference?

Robert Elisberg gives Snow some of what he deserves, while Joe Gandelman annoints him as Tony Shmo. Yet Snow's fuzzy articulation of the president's view probably reflects the president's own fuzzy thinking, blissfully uninformed by science. The funniest take therefore belongs to Tom Teepen, who says the president wants to make the destruction of a stem cells a hate crime:

(Guest post by Big Tent Democrat)

Update: The person who interviewed Lakoff understands my point. I agree with his post.

My post of a few days ago on George Lakoff's comments on the 2006 election has set off a number of Lakoff supporters, who have argued that I have misread Lakoff. Curiously, Lakoff's defenders do not cite to the text of what Lakoff actually said, instead explaining to me what they believe Lakoff meant. I suppose it is possible that Lakoff did not say what he meant, and if that is the case, then perhaps Lakoff is not as inept on political advice as he appears from those comments. But I am a mere mortal and can only glean Lakoff's meaning from his actual words. Most importantly, Lakoff's defenders have no acceptable answer for my principal critique; Lakoff's rejection of the power of negatively branding the Republicans, for its own purposes and to assist in the definition of Democrats.

Bump and Update(TL): Bush has vetoed the stem cell research bill, exercising the first veto of his presidency.

Action Alert: Sign this petition by Progress Now .

Override the President's veto of HR 810, Stem cell research support

More than one year ago, the House of Representatives passed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (H.R. 810). This bill would override President Bush's 2001 decision to limit federal funding of embryonic stem cell research and take the first step toward providing potential cures for many debilitating diseases including Parkinson's and diabetes.

Unfortunately, despite the support of 72% of Americans and overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress, President Bush used the first veto of his term against this life saving research. We urge the US Congress to step in and override the President's veto. Doing so would truly demonstrate compassion for the largest number of Americans.

(TalkLeft Guest Commentary by Big Tent Democrat)

In an interview with Baltimore Group Blog, highlighted by majekthise, George Lakoff says:

AE: Let's talk about the underlying debate that is happening. There is always debate in Congress between Democrats and Republicans, but let's talk about them in terms of frames. Are there major opposing frames that you see at work in today's debates?

GL: Well, I do, but what has happened in a lot of cases is that a lot of the frames that determine how progressives come down on a particular issue are unconscious. What happens in Congress very often is that the Democrats go on the defensive and accept the other side's frames.

This seems unquestionable to me. It is the principal political flaw of the Democratic Party. Interestingly, when asked about Barack Obama, Lakoff says:

Barak Obama: Star pupil

AE: You're a professor. Thinking about the Democratic Party as your class, who's your star pupil? Where are you seeing success on the Democratic side in speaking in the proper frames?

GL: I think the person who best understands this is Barak Obama. There are a number of reasons for this.

(Guest posted by Big Tent Democrat)

Richard Hofstadter was the most perceptive observer of our political history since DeToqueville. So perceptive was Hofstadter that even though he passed away 36 years ago, he still is more clear headed and penetrating than some of our finest current historians. Professor Sean Wilentz, one of our finest living historians and an extremely gifted writer, has written a wonderful quasi-review of a newly released biography of Hofstadter by David S. Brown that demonstrates his gifts while also showing that even the best we have today do not measure up to Hofstadter. Even Wilentz graciously recognizes this:

David S. Brown claims in this illuminating biography, Hofstadter retains an enormous mystique today, thirty-six years after his death from leukemia at the age of fifty-four. Phrases and concepts that Hofstadter invented to describe and to analyze American politics--"status anxiety," "the paranoid style"-- remain in currency among high-end journalists and pundits. His best books, The American Political Tradition and The Age of Reform, remain on graduate reading lists decades after their publication, models of dazzling prose and interpretive acuity. All but one of his half-dozen other major works remain in print.

In some respects, indeed, Hofstadter's standing has risen since 1970. His fascination with the history of what he called "political culture," the quirks in American politics beyond official platforms and speeches, is now very much in vogue. And no historian of the United States with the same combination of intellectual heterodoxy, literary brilliance, and scholarly sweep has replaced him. Amid the current dizzy political scene--with its snake-oil preachers, and anti-Darwinian Social Darwinists, and Indian casino rip-off artists, and a president whose friends say he thinks he is ordained by God--Hofstadter's sharpness about the darker follies of American democracy seems more urgently needed than ever.

Indeed, understanding Hofstadter is desperately needed. And not just by historians. By pundits, politicians, bloggers and citizens. Because failing to understand Hofstadter's analysis causes us to fail as analysts, historians, pundits and, most importantly, as politicians, especially politicians like Barack Obama.

by TChris

An amusing jab at Vice President Cheney from President Putin:

Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out at U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney ahead of this weekend's G8 summit, calling his recent criticisms of Russia "an unsuccessful hunting shot," according to a television interview broadcast Wednesday.

The National Journal has published the newly released list of White House salaries. The big guys get $165,000.

In 2003, they made $151,000.

Not on the list: Cheney chief of staff Dave Addington. Why not? His predecessor Scooter Libby was on the 2003 list. [Via Tim Grieves at Salon's War Room.]

Karl Rove spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival Sunday. Aspen Daily News reporter Troy Hooper has the full run-down. There's vintage Karl:

Karl Rove praised the military and civilian leadership's flexibility in managing the Iraq war, which has required field commanders to adapt to unconventional combat styles and means of rebuilding communities. Rove noted that his own cousin has served three tours of duty over there.

There's Rove in spin mode on Iraq:

"You know it's not going to be U.S. style. It's not going to be a Midwest small-town atmosphere. It's going to be Iraq with deeply felt sectarian strains with bad guys and people with lots of guns, but it is going to be a functioning society. It already is a distinct improvement on the society that existed."

Good news for Democrats in Texas: a federal judge has ruled Tom DeLay must stay on the ballot, even though he isn't running for Congress.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, a Republican appointee, ruled that DeLay must appear on the Nov. 7 ballot as the GOP nominee for the congressional seat that DeLay abandoned last month. Sparks ruling was confirmed by Texas Democratic Party spokeswoman Amber Moon.

Republicans will now appeal to the 5th Circuit.

Government officials must report gifts from foreign governments. The Washington Post details some today. George Tenet made out pretty well while working for the CIA. In some cases, the gifts were turned over to the GSA or the CIA. The Post outlines the rules for keeping gifts from foreign governments. Here are some tidbits of who got what:

Italian President Silvio Berlusconi gave $540 in silk ties to senior presidential adviser Karl Rove on June 4, 2004. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) received a Versace leather wallet and purse from Shobha Oza, secretary of the Madhya Pradesh Mahila Congress in July 2004. (The purse and wallet were turned over to the secretary of the Senate.) Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, gave the New York senator a rug -- value unknown -- that is displayed in her office.

Pretty funny.

In 2004, in noting that one of Rudy Giuliani's last acts in office was to rename the Manhattan Detention Complex (better known as 'The Tombs') the "Bernard Kerik Detention Complex," I wondered if Rudy would ever live down his endorsement of Kerik.

On Saturday, one day after Kerik pleaded guilty to two corruption-related misdemeanors, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered Kerik's name removed from the complex. Within hours, it was physically stripped from the building, which will again be known as the Manhattan Detention Complex.

As for Kerik, he's "unfazed." [More...]