The dog days of summer are here. The Senate is recessed until September 13th (may there be substantial recess appointments) and the House is out, too (although they’ll be trotting back to the Capitol tomorrow to vote on a bill to give money to the states union members and the indigent). People are on vacation and the political news cycle gets very, very slow. Traditionally, this is when the blogosphere goes meta in order to keep the interest up.
I woke up this morning still smarting from the unexpected loss of a cherished family pet, so I’m definitely not in a sunny mood. One of the first things I read was from an unexpected source. Famed New York Daily News sportswriter Mike Lupica turns his sights from the Jets’ preseason to talk politics with Rep. Bob Inglis of South Carolina, who was recently tea-bagged out of Congress for insufficient wingnuttiness. Here’s something important that Inglis had to say that we often say ourselves:
“What we are seeing these days is so much misleading. They say one outlandish thing after another about the President and that gives license to others to say even worse things.
“When you have one of our so-called leaders saying that Obama is a socialist, then others feel empowered to dial up the rhetoric and call him a Marxist. Or a Communist. Then you have something worse than words, you have the dehumanizing and demonizing of the President of the United States. And when that happens across history, scary things can happen.”
Of course, that quote is pregnant with meaning no one wants to plainly articulate. The next article I read provided me with a troubling sequitur.
Texas has mainly provided a thorn in Barack Obama’s side. The governor taunts him. The senators defy him. He lost the state by nearly 1 million votes in 2008.
When the president lands today to raise campaign cash in Austin and Dallas, even the Democratic nominee for governor will make himself scarce.
One can only hope that the same cannot be said for the Secret Service. It’s bad mojo all around. Consider the context of the times:
NRA, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin Plan Rally at Lincoln Memorial on Day of King March
The National Rifle Association, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are using the anniversary and site of Dr. Martin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington for what they are calling a “Restoring Honor Rally.”
Calling the date of this rally “divine providence,” Beck, the talk show host, has partnered with the NRA and Palin to help him generate interest in the August 28 event.
Yes, the National Rifle Association is sponsoring an event on the same day that Martin Luther King Jr. (allegedly killed with a Remington 30-06 rifle) gave his most memorable speech at the memorial honoring Abraham Lincoln (killed with a .41-caliber pistol).
Yeah, none of this puts me in a good mood. And some people wonder why I am not too interested in focusing on the left’s shortcomings at the moment.