Month: December 2003

The Party’s Over.

Reformers rejoice as interest groups on the left and right sputter to make sense of the brave new McCain-Feingold world. Everyone seems to agree that McConnell v. FEC is both a surprisingly bold decision and bad news for the Dems in the short term. Well, so be it. With the Supreme Court finally admitting that dollars debase democracy, the door is now open for tougher campaign finance laws in the very near future.

Know Your Enemy.

“‘He’d be like Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, ‘the operative said. ‘When he’s being questioned, he gets redder and redder, like his head is exploding, and then he blurts out, “You can’t handle the truth.” Dean is just exactly like that. I see it written all over him.'” Dubya’s minions prep for a race against Dean.

Five…

Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly: “All hail The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King! I can’t think of another film trilogy that ends in such glory, or another monumental work of sustained storytelling that surges ahead with so much inventiveness and ardor. The conclusion of Peter Jackson’s masterwork is passionate and literate, detailed and expansive, and it’s conceived with a risk-taking flair for old-fashioned movie magic at its most precious.” And, we’ve got another clip! Gollum connives above Minas Morgul…relatively spoilerish. (If you do watch it, notice how he licks his lips. It’s amazing CGI.)

Shifting Terrain.

As the media parses the meaning of the Gore-Dean union, Dick Gephardt picks up a key endorsement from Jim Clyburn, former head of the Congressional Black Caucus (and the rep of my hometown, Florence, SC.) Hmmm…interesting. If Clyburn can deliver the votes and Gephardt comes up big in South Carolina, it could blunt a Southern Swing by either Clark or Edwards and definitively set up Gephardt as the Anti-Dean. Well, if it comes down to Gephardt or Dean, I’m easily for the latter. Update: Clark fights back with an endorsement by Andrew Young. Oh, and since I forgot to mention it before, Will Saletan is correct in noting that Ted Koppel was a total buffoon at the final Dem debate last night.

Woohoo!

By a vote of 5-4 (Justice O’Connor the swing vote as expected), the Supreme Court upheld the McCain–Feingold soft-money ban today in McConnell v. FEC. Well, Scalia may call this a “sad day for the freedom of speech,” but I for one think this is great, great news. “Money, like water, will always find an outlet,” as the majority put it, but at least the highest Court in the land has now recognized the corrosive impact of unregulated loot on the political process. This decision will hopefully do much to disentangle the pernicious conflation of speech and money in Buckley v. Valeo, and set the stage for continued meaningful campaign finance reform in the years to come. While McConnell v. FEC doesn’t eliminate the bad taste of Bush v. Gore, it is a huge step in the right direction by this Court.

Viagra in every Pot.

“From gratefully accepting a basic level of assistance back in the early decades of Social Security, America’s elderly have come to expect everything their durable little hearts desire.” Steve Chapman of Slate examines the growing problem of the “greedy grandparents”. As I said after passage of the GOP Medicare bill, it’s ridiculous that we’re even considering a prescription drug benefit for the nation’s wealthiest generation, when so many Americans don’t even have basic health insurance yet. And, as Chapman notes, with the retirement of the Boomers, things are going to get worse before they get better.

From Dawson’s Creek to Wayne Manor.

Christopher Nolan and David Goyer think about adding Katie Holmes to the new Batman. (Early word was she might play Talia, daughter of Ras al Ghul, but it sounds like she’s just the love interest.) I’m not sure if she and Bale work together, but hopefully the romance will remain a relatively minor subplot anyway. Update: Viggo as Ras Al Ghul?