Various & sundry

Mob action in Madison: 

The scene: The Madison, WI state capitol grounds.
The target: Wisconsin state Republican Sen. Glenn Grothman.
The mobsters: Anti-Scott Walker agitators shouting “Shame! Shame! Shame F***k you! F***k you!” while beating their tribal drums, blowing their horns, and hounding Sen. Grothman into an alcove.
First, they back him up on the side of a building, chase him across the lawn, and then corner him.
Sick to my stomach.

Click above for the video. Shameful. In an interview, the mobbed state senator mentioned something I've been thinking: most people, including those polled on the subject, don't know what "collective bargaining" means.


William Jacobson on what may be an illegal insurrection:

I wrote this weekend about the Madison, Wisconsin policeman who appeared in front of the protesters in the Capitol rotunda, while wearing police insignia, and announced that he would side with the protesters against the Governor, and how other policemen announced that they would not obey the legislature if the order came to remove protesters from the building.

Now this insurrection gets even worse, as Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney pulled his deputies from guarding the Capitol  [. . .]

It is unclear whether Mahoney's refusal to have his deputies act as "palace guards" contributed to the incident yesterday when a Republican state Senator was cornered by a crowd of protesters as the attempted to enter the building, until a Democratic legislator intervened and held back the crowd until help arrived.

Mahoney's explanation that he removed his deputies from the Capitol in order to maintain peace is non-sensical.  It was not Mahoney's call to make.  It is clear from Mahoney's use of the phrase "palace guard" that this was a political move in which he disagreed with the Department of Administration as to how many points of access there would be to the building.

Mahoney is an elected official, so he can't be fired.  But it is just another indication of the dangers of police unions acting as their own authority on polical grounds.

Read the rest.


Liberal columnist Ruth Marcus (and not for the first time) expresses profound disappointment in the liberal messiah: "Barack Obama can be a strangely passive president" and "Yet the dots connect to form an unsettling portrait of a "Where's Waldo?" presidency: You frequently have to squint to find the White House amid the larger landscape."


Budget "cuts," Washington-style:

As Duncan tries to make the case for more spending, Sessions interjects: “Why don’t we just spent three times as much? Won’t that just help us fix it all?”

Duncan responds by arguing that when in comes to Pell grants, the administration “made some very tough cuts,” i.e. asking for a $5 billion increase while “reducing costs” by $20 billion:

Sessions: “This is Washington math. You haven’t cut Pell grants. Pell grants are increasing dramatically, Mr. Secretary. The numbers are plain.”

Duncan: “That’s correct, and they would have increased even more substantially, even more significantly did we not made the tough painful decision to eliminate…”

Sessions: “You’re proposing they be increased that much, they’re not going to be increased that much because we don’t have the money!”

Video at link. That last sentence is one that just does not compute in the liberal mind.

***

A Draft Chris Christie for President movement? Laura Ingraham, Bill Kristol, Rich Lowry and others argue that all viable candidates are morally obligated to run at this critical point in American history. What Christie said to Lowry about winning:

I asked him whether he knew that, given the moment, there is a serious chance he could win the Republican nomination if he ran. This is what he said in full:

Yes. Believe me, I’ve been interested in politics my whole life. I see the opportunity. But I just don’t believe that’s why you run. Like I said at AEI, I have people calling me and saying to me, “Let me explain to you how you could win.” And I’m like, “You’re barking up the wrong tree. I already know I could win.” That’s not the issue. The issue is not me sitting here and saying, “Geez, it might be too hard. I don’t think I can win.” I see the opportunity both at the primary level and at the general election level. I see the opportunity.

But I’ve got to believe I’m ready to be president, and I don’t. And I think that that’s the basis you have to make that decision. I think when you have people who make the decision just based upon seeing the opportunity you have a much greater likelihood that you’re going to have a president who is not ready. And then we all suffer from that. Even if you’re a conservative, if your conservative president is not ready, you’re not going to be good anyway because you’re going to get rolled all over the place in that town.

Hard to imagine that. RTR.

Bill Kristol has gone so far in his wooing of Christie as to post an anonymous poem persuading Christie to run. Andrew Marvell may be spinning in his grave but I have to admit, it's well done.

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