yi yi yi as of D-Day anniversay

As a coworker used to say, this should make you pucker up: impending war, with nukes at play.

HT to instapundit.

Bennett and Matheson

They say Bennett wasn't conservative enough. But it's not a matter of votes; it's a matter of what Republicans have gotten done.

Utah Republicans would like to vote against Orrin Hatch, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and almost all the rest.

That Republicans hold conservative views, but then collaborate with Democrats, that's what drives them wild.

The vote on the bank bailout? They don' care if Bennett voted for half of it or one dollar of it or was just in the room. They aren't rejecting just Bob Bennett; they are rejecting the whole "establishment" GOP, that talks a good came but either cuts a deal with the Democrats or gets hornswoggled by them.

Bennett talked about his experience. But GOP core rejects that experience. He talks about reaching across the aisle. Well, every time they do that, they get their watches stolen, then get punched in the mouth. Democrats laugh all the way home.

And how to you reach out to radicals? Jim Matheson is getting schooled too. A cautious vote against ObamaCare has gotten a perfect personification of Dem special interests to run against him.

Democrats don't want him. And I don't mean that in a negative sense. They want to get rid of him.

For there is no middle ground. The differences are too great, the stakes too high.

For Democrats want to destroy conservatism. That's why the slurs, the union thugs, the vicious rhetoric from the White House on down.

Maybe Bob Bennett is too nice for this game. And, though he's in fine fettle, at 76 he just doesn't have it.

But, by the way, the tea party crowd doesn't want to be a third party. They want to be the conservative party. They want to take over the Republican Party, or else gut it and form a new one. A Conservative Party, a Patriot Party, what.

They're just done with the Republican Party.

Can it cope with that and the end of Reganism too?

Fixing the bill?

From Kausfiles:

I still haven't heard a convincing argument against the Sudden Victory strategy (in which the House passes the Senate health care bill, fixes it later). ... President Clinton endorsed (and signed) the 1996 welfare reform while pledging to correct its excesses (notably its harsh treatment of legal immigrants). .... in fact Clinton was largely successful in going back and fixing the problems he identified, if I remember. ...

Rejoinder:
1. Basically, that bill was wildly popular. The health bill no longer is.
2. The welfare bill needed minor tweaks. This needs big ones.
3. The welfare bill was relatively simple, thus easy to fix. The health bill is very complex. It can't be fixed.
4. Clinton and old-line Dems were competent. Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Coakley (that’s right, diss Catholics, truck owners and Red Sox fans in Massachusetts!) are incompetent.

Behind closed doors

From Kausfiles:

Real legislative deals are always most efficiently cut behind closed doors, where the principals can be candid and concession-minded without fear of embarrassment, and where they can't grandstand. ... That's life. It's not like we don't know what the issues are, or that we won't find out how they've been resolved ....If the Dems let C-SPAN cover the negotiations they'd just have to find another room nearby in which to hold the real negotiations first. ...

Objections:

1. But traditional deliberations are not ENTIRELY behind closed doors. There are public hearings. Mostly they are window dressing, conceded. But in this case? There aren't even conference hearings. Those might be very informative this time. They'd likely add fuel to this debate.

If everything is really done behind closed doors, as cynics say, OK. Let's sell the Capitol then, and have everything behind closed doors. Rent some smoke-filled rooms. No tobacco smoke -- horrors! -- but gently waft some incense in.

2. Previous closed door meetings were at least between the majority and minority. This is just the majority, and even then only a small clique.

3. This isn't about bridges in Alabama and North Dakota. This is about my health care. I want to hear it.

4. So what if it's previously been done in a smoked filled rooms? As the old saying goes, the people have watched this sausage being made so far, and they're about to puke.

5. And O only won because he promised to do something new. OK, do something new.

6. If they can't keep this one promise, why should we believe anything else?