A round up of recent reporting and commentary by a few centrist, moderate, and independent bloggers.
To start it off: Pete Abel published an interesting post at his own blog about corruption in Washington. “Cynics regarded everybody as equally corrupt… Idealists regarded everybody as equally corrupt, except themselves.”
Dick Polman on Matthew Dowd’s interview with the New York Times in which Dowd turns against Bush.
Jet at the Gun Toting Liberal on Vermont which “is talking secession”. She comments / concludes: “We can learn from our tiny neighbor to the north. “My way or the highwayâ€? has got to go. There is no perfect political philosophy, but there are good ideas to be gleaned, if we are willing to drop our fists and talk. Vermont has done it for 216 years. I’d call that a believable precedence.
Wouldn’t having your voice matter again in your democracy be worth it?”
Andrew Sullivan wonders whether Islam can reform itself. Moneyquote: “Excessive hope, perhaps? Naivete even? Only if we have no real confidence in freedom and the West’s astonishing power to take the material of illiberalism and bribe and coax it into something more tolerant. Yes, even that most determinedly illiberal of entities: Islam.”
Michael J. Totten links to a must read essay by his friend Noah Pollak, about their visit to Beirut and South Lebanon.
Obsidian Wings’ Publius supports and defends the Equal Rights Amendment. Moneyquote: “There is a serious point here though – the reason why I support enacting the ERA is because of the weaknesses of the current equal protection doctrine. In particular, because the doctrine lacks a clear textual foundation, it’s an unstable protection for women (particularly if Republicans keep winning presidential elections, which they may very well do).”
PAST CONTRIBUTOR.