Catching up on what has transpired so far: Mr. Limbaugh expressed a wish that President Obama fail. Mr. Shakir said that Mr. Limbaugh is a hypocrite. Mr. van der Galien rebuked Mr. Shakir and defended Mr. Limbaugh on the grounds that it is good to speak from an ideologically pure basis, even if such speech is not politically correct. In turn, I was going to respond to this back-and-forth, but then one of PoliGazette’s assistant editors, who goes only by Claudia, said what I would have said,...

President Obama said: “Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.” Actually, I think it’s 43, since Grover Cleveland’s non-consecutive terms resulted in him being counted as Presidents 22 and 24. Other than that: An excellent speech, as always. I further suspect the error in presidential counting will be forgiven and these will be the words most cited and studied generations from now.

David Brooks expresses reserved hope that Obama’s presidency could be the end of the “Great Disruption,” echoing themes penned by Andrew Sullivan more than a year ago. The following contrast in Brooks’ column rings particularly true. He notes first that, in the late 1960s and beyond, “Republicans tended to win elections because liberals were associated with disorder and conservatives with attempts to restore it.” Later, channeling Time’s Peter Beinart,...

We, the fiscally concerned, will be waiting and watching.

As reported yesterday, the House passed a bill expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), similar to the bills that President Bush rejected last year (twice, as I recall). Though I have not relinquished my fiscally conservative tendencies, I believe this latest House vote on SCHIP was the right thing to do. In fact, of all the types of programs funded by the feds in this country, this one is among my favorites — in part because of its primary beneficiaries; in part...

I’ve never been a fan of the self-righteous Rick Santorum. I celebrated his departure from the Senate two years ago. And today, he does absolutely nothing to convince me to modify my decidedly non-moderate dislike for him. Why the editors of the Philadelphia Inquirer agreed to give Santorum a bully pulpit is a mystery, but they did. And the ex-senator uses that forum to predict that John McCain will finally reveal himself to be the Democrat-in-sheep’s-clothing that Republicans like...

Between Jan. 1 and yesterday, I had published four posts. That’s clearly not my most impressive performance. Worse: I’m no longer convinced the issue is “writer’s block.” Instead, I think this sustained lack of material is the result of nothing more profound than having nothing productive to add to the stream of each day’s news reports. For any writer, especially a blogger, that is a thoroughly non-hepful state of mind. By nature, blogging requires a certain...

Declare a mistrial! My brain can’t decide if I’m a libertarian or progressive or some bizarre, twisted blend of the two. I passionately agree that the most reliable, proven path to economically benefitting the most people is by constructing a society that consistently encourages “the entrepreneur, the risk taker and the cultivator of wealth through human intellect.” That belief leads me to question the skewed schedule of effective tax rates in America — where the...

If Obama’s transition team gets its way, Feb. 17 may no longer be a day-of-worry for those who still get their TV via antenna. Obama Transition Team Co-Chair John Podesta’s letter to the relevant committee chairs and ranking members (Sens. Rockefeller and Hutchison, Reps. Waxman and Barton) — requesting a delay in the scheduled transition from analog to digital broadcasting — strikes me as the ultimate CYA move. Here’s why: I work for a company that has a stake in the...

Chris Cillizza has the scoop. As a lifetime Missouri resident, I’m sure this will be very big news at home. Love him or not, Bond’s one of the Show-Me State’s epic political figures and the first Missouri governor I remember as a child. (He was first elected to that position in 1972, when I was seven.) The Dems will be salivating for the chance to pick up this seat in 2010, which Cillizza’s post makes clear. In addition, the party will have some decent candidates (from...

What do you get when you cross a brief, vegetative vacation with an extremely fast-start to the new year? For me, those circumstances recently combined to create a very bad case of “writer’s block.” Nor was it a single-issue case of writer’s block like Andrew Sullivan experienced after his respite. Mine was a pervasive block; it was the Hoover Dam of writer’s blocks. Thankfully, that block shattered this morning after I read Stephen Chapman’s column, “The...

Per Ben Smith: … a wired Chicago source emails that ’senior administration officials have been coming in to present info in droves since the arrest on 12/9. That’s the primary reason the indictment has been delayed.’ Is anyone naïve enough to think those “droves” of “info” are good news for the Illinois Govenor?

So suggests the Sun Times ed board. H/t Ben Smith.

I wish I had six years to finish work reports. Of course, our reports aren’t 400 pages long. Then again, I have a team of three, and I suspect NASA has a few more. Is this seriously the best the agency can do?

Over the weekend, Becker and Posner took their respective shots at the UAW … and unions, in general. I believe great value can be offered by unions of freelancers — e.g., common artisans whose pay is primarily derived from diverse but finite projects rather than from single-entity employers — but I tend to share Posner’s and Becker’s doubts about the role and value of other unions; namely, those that organize workers at companies that would probably (or already do) offer...

And so we learn that Sen. Mitch McConnell, leader of a declining Republican caucus, wants “a weeklong cooling off period between when the [expected economic stimulus] bill is drafted and when it is voted on, allowing time to dissect it for signs of ‘fraud and waste.’” Good for McConnell. Despite at least one, unkind protest over the Senator’s sudden, rediscovered love for fiscal sanity, I applaud his call for a time out. No matter how much a government jolt to this...

Per my upbringing, I’m instinctively pro-Israel. I’m also terribly un-educated on the names, faces, arguments, and counter-arguments surrounding the current conflict and the history leading up to it. I thus took a few minutes this morning to read several related items: one from New York, one from London, and one from Jerusalem. If you’re similarly seeking perspective, I hope these links are helpful.

It’s that time of year again: Time to promise that we’ll do better in the next 12 months than we did in the prior 12. I won’t bother you with my personal or familial resolutions for ’09, but I do want to share a few blogging-related resolutions. In the past year, I’ve increasingly found it necessary to withdraw elements of, or entirely delete, certain posts — usually because I have either rushed to judgment or proffered a woefully unsubstantiated opinion. Of course, such failures...

One of my former bosses from the late 1990s recently penned a guest commentary for our hometown daily, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It was published yesterday and essentially asked, if certain financial companies have become ‘too big to fail,’ why did U.S. regulators allow them to get that big in the first place, and why do they continue to protect said firms’ disproportionate size? An excerpt: It is disturbing, to put it mildly, that almost everything that’s been done so...

In today’s NYT, Paul Krugman frets about “state governors who are slashing spending in a time of recession, often at the expense both of their most vulnerable constituents and of the nation’s economic future.” Krugman’s worries are sparked, in part, by reports like this one, published in Friday’s WaPo: States from Rhode Island to California are being forced to curtail Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor, as they struggle to cope with the...

Adding to the “reality-stranger-than-fiction” genre, Matthew Parris — who spent some of this childhood in Africa and part of his adult years as a conservative member of the British parliament — argues today in The Times (London) that the value of the work of Christian missionaries in Africa transcends their charitable/civic contributions, that their faith plays an equally critical role in advancing the prospects of tribal Africans. The money paragraph: Christianity, post-Reformation...

In one corner — weighing in as the named leader of Obama’s National Economic Council — is Lawrence Summers, boasting a “have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too” treasure chest of hope. In the other corner — weighing in as one of those lonely voices in the wilderness who predicted the current mess — is Peter Schiff, offering nothing more impressive than a “pain-before-gain” bucket of cold water. I predict this match will go the full 15 rounds with no knock outs. My gut hopes...

At least we hope so. Taking the religious to the secular, FactCheck.org’s Brooks Jackson — whom I had the pleasure of interviewing a year-and-a-half ago — publishes, at Newsweek.com, a summary of claims he and his colleagues have “debunked just since Election Day.” It’s good for Brooks-and-crew, I suppose, that there’s so much bunk around to keep them busy — and good for the rest of us that they’re passionate about (and good at) their jobs. PS:...

Possibly not, per this brief report by Dave Schuler at OTB. For context, Schuler offers the following: Over the period of the last 60 years hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, have died in three wars between the two countries. The most recent of those wars in 1971 was the most severe … Violence and threats of violence are far too plentiful this holiday season.

In case you’re bored by Friday and looking for suggestions, here’s my prospective line up — a combo “wish list” and “catch up list,” for those slow moments between now and Jan. 5. Gary Becker’s and Richard Posner’s respective takes on the Bernard Madoff scandal, published Dec. 21 at their shared blog, one of my newly discovered favorites Various articles from the two most recent print editions of Foreign Affairs and The Economist — plus...