THE POOR MAN ON CARNEY ON PICKERING AND HATCH

Read it here. When you're finished laughing, consider these points:

Carney is described as a "reporter" at NRO's site, which is odd since Carney can call Democrats "the enemy" without a hint of ironic distance. Strangely, though, this blurring of the lines between journalism and punditry is. . .well. . .how shall I put it?. . .so European. European papers are generally less apologetic about the relationship between journalism and political advocacy -- you wouldn't expect the same story from the conservative FAZ and the leftist taz. I thought that American "reporters" were at least supposed to attempt to have a kind of neutrality related to a pride in their craft, which I understood to be something like "getting the truth on paper." Neutrality might be an elusive goal, of course. A skeptical view on neutrality is also pretty "European," though, or at least one might expect Carney and his ilk to believe that it is, that a rejection of neutrality is tantamount to an embrace of "relativism" or some other such word in scare quotes. Oh well. We become that which we have rejected but not transcended, I suppose.

As to substance, and from a purely partisan standpoint, I hope conservatives keep up the attack on Hatch, Specter, and other folks who are not Rick Santorum or Tom Delay. Republicans are already in danger of putting themselves out of the electoral reach of a closely divided electorate. Like the folks at Claremont, I hope that the Republicans do try the "nuclear option," for example -- see R.J. Pestritto's post here -- but I want them to make the attempt because the attempt will probably hurt them more than help them. The more the Reps pursue these kind of hardball tactics, the more Dems will experience the wonderful resentment that accompanies being part of an unjustly treated minority party, and the more they will be able to claim that the Reps are pushing a radical, right-wing agenda that is untethered from a popular will that remains evenly divided between the parties. The current response from the Republicans ("don't worry, be happy" updated for 2004) probably won't cut it if Republican Senators continue on their current course. A majority of Americans do not want the (temporary) current ruling party to remake American politics and political institutions for the next generation, especially not for the sake of an anti-abortion, anti-gay, imperial-presidency politics. Reps should try to remember that hubris is a serious sin in American politics. Fortunately for the Dems, hubris is a vice that tends to get in the way of its own cure.