I must have missed the big debate!

But Calvin Woodward of the AP didn't - Democrats Drift on Taxes, Trade in Debate

For a brief time in their debate Sunday, Democrats seemed to be hewing to a New Year's resolution to stick more carefully to the facts on taxes, the budget and more. But old habits die hard.

As in the past, Howard Dean declared, "Middle-class people did not see a tax cut," despite the lower tax rates enacted for all income levels and the higher tax credits for people of low and moderate income.

Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri accused opponents on the stage of voting in favor of trade agreements that several had never voted on at all. But in defending themselves against Gephardt's misrepresentation, several neglected to mention that they had voiced support for trade pacts they were now criticizing.

Sounds like a fun time!

Here's my pick for most fun:

The first Democratic presidential debate of 2004 featured a reality-check statement from North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, when he was asked about balancing the budget. "If somebody gives you a straight answer to that question, you can't trust it," he said.

"The reality is, everybody on this stage is talking about spending money," he went on. "There is a tension between spending money and reducing the federal deficit. We should be straight with people about that."

Against the backdrop of that lecture, Dean declared, "I am going to balance the budget, and I'm going to do it in the sixth or seventh year of my administration."

Bwahaha! Don't go out on a limb, Howie!

This, despite the fact he has not worked out his plans for middle-class tax relief, a crucial chunk of any balanced budget plan. "Ultimately, we will have a program for tax fairness," he said when asked what taxes he might lower after keeping his promise to repeal all of President Bush's tax cuts.

Dean repeated his frequent claim that middle-income Americans have not seen their taxes go down under Bush: "There was no middle-class tax cut," he declared.

In fact, their taxes did go down. But Dean went on to explain what he really meant — that most people are worse off because college tuition, health care premiums, property taxes and other state and local taxes or fees have gone up by more than Americans have saved under the Bush tax cuts.

But the head scratching did not end there.

Indeed. Much more fact checking by following the link.

Now for real comedy...

Check out Sen. Zell Miller's column at the WSJ - Memo to Terry McAwful: May the Democratic leaders get the anger they deserve.

Here are some recent headlines as I see them from the Democratic demolition derby: (1) Sharpton "feels good," could feel better; (2) Kerry cusses; (3) Dean gets "help" from Gore; (4) Democrats ask: "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the angriest one of all?"

On the Rev. Al:

(1) First, the Reverend "Ready for Prime Time." Conventional wisdom says native Southerners John Edwards and Wesley Clark and moderate Joe Lieberman will have the edge when the primaries move South. Don't count on it. I'd be willing to bet a steak dinner (mad cow or no mad cow) that Al Sharpton will get almost as many votes as Messrs. Edwards, Clark or Lieberman in this supposedly more friendly territory. (If they're still around, that is.) The last time there was an African-American in the primaries, Jesse Jackson blew everyone away, getting 96% of the African-American vote in the South, carrying Georgia, Virginia, Mississippi and Louisiana, and placing second in North Carolina, Florida, Maryland and Tennessee. It would be a tall order to match that. But Rev. Sharpton could do well because he's even more appealing than Rev. Jackson. While Jesse is sullen, Al is engaging. Can you imagine Rev. Jackson poking fun at himself? Can you imagine him on "Saturday Night Live" belting out James Brown's "I Feel Good" with a few cool moves?

Al Sharpton did a pretty good impression of the "Godfather of Soul." Of course, the rotund reverend has long been the "Godfather of Con." He's slick as a peeled onion. In just one short primary season, his timid fellow candidates and the even more timid media have erased the criminal Tawana Brawley shakedown. They've given this trickster who has never been elected dogcatcher a legitimacy he does not deserve: their Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval as a bona fide presidential candidate. So, get ready to start counting Rev. Sharpton's delegates. They will be impossible to ignore on national TV when the Democrats take center stage in Boston. Memo to Democratic Chairman Terry McAwful: It's called "reaping what you sow."

Of course, the real question is what the Rev. is going to demand from the eventual nominee for his support.

(2) Now to "Cussing Kerry." Like Alice, this campaign gets "curiouser and curiouser." What will those former Gore consultants try next? The electric blue spandex surfing bodysuit didn't work. The jeans and Harley Davidson didn't work. Chet Atkins turned in his grave at the senator's guitar picking. And now comes the F-word in Rolling Stone. My mouth ain't no prayer book, but John Kerry could have asked his pal Tom Harkin of Iowa how cussing went over with voters in 1992. Like a lead balloon. It's as if Mr. Kerry will do anything to appear the "coolest" in the Our Gang crowd. What's next? John Kerry wearing a baseball cap sideways?

Zell, don't give him any ideas!

More by following the link.

Wesley Cracks Up The Crowd

Clark Says His Dean Joke Fell Flat

A comment by retired Gen. Wesley Clark that seemed to chide fellow Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean for skiing as Clark recovered from Vietnam War wounds amounted to nothing more than an attempt at humor that fell flat, Clark said Sunday.
...
Clark's comment came in November on WNTK radio in Manchester, N.H. "I didn't have as much practice skiing as the governor did. He was out there skiing when I was recovering from my wounds in Vietnam," Clark said.
...
"Politics is easy, but humor is tough," Clark said.

Don't quit your day job, Weasley!

But in related news, the best headline award goes to the NY Post - Wes: Monicagate Was Overblown.

He makes everybody nervous

Dean's holiday gaffes have Democrats worried

Steve Murphy, Rep. Richard Gephardt’s campaign manager, last week professed to being baffled. How is it possible, he wondered, that Howard Dean’s bizarre comments about Osama bin Laden attracted so little news media attention? The answer is that apart from being obscured by the holiday season, the Democratic presidential front-runner’s words got lost in his own stream of unusual remarks.

That's a new ploy!

Dean’s post-Christmas comments that he could not suggest a penalty for the terrorist leader and author of the 9/11 catastrophe until he was judged guilty had no time to sink in before he began saying things that stunned his party’s faithful. He sniped at Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe for not protecting him from the party’s other candidates, and warned of his 1.5 million supporters defecting if any other Democrat is nominated for president.

Dean’s holiday performance reflects the yearlong pattern by the former governor of Vermont. To characterize Dean’s remarks as leftist tilt that can and will be corrected by a quick pivot to the center is a faulty diagnosis of the doctor’s disease. James Carville last week summed up the Dean problem: “He seems to not appreciate the glory of the unspoken thought.”

That's pretty good. I didn't know the Ragin' Cajun had it in him.

For Carville to make this comment on national television gets the attention of Democrats, including Dean and his campaign staff. Carville, making no pretense at objectivity, is a passionate partisan emotionally committed to George W. Bush’s defeat. As architect of Bill Clinton’s 1992 election victory, he is in demand for party functions nationwide and a vigorous fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Carville, neutral in the race for the presidential nomination, rarely speaks ill of a fellow Democrat. But he did on CNN’s “Crossfire” last Monday: “I’m scared to death that this guy just says anything. It feels like he’s undergone some kind of a political lobotomy here.”

That's more like the Carville we know.

Maria Echaveste, a Dean adviser who was President Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, sat across the table from Carville looking like a deer caught in the headlights. “Not every candidate ends up being President from the day he walks out there,” she said. “They mature. And this is what this man is doing.” Off camera, she suggested Dean needs a little rest.

More like a long rest.

Message from SPECTRE HQ!

MOVEON.ORG FEATURES AD COMPARING BUSH TO HITLER...

Today's Hoot

Mark Steyn says Don't leave Saddam trial to the 'jet set'

Well, it's January, December's come and gone, so let's add up the final score:

Coalition of the Willing: Saddam captured, Gadhafi neutered.

The ''International Community'': Milosevic elected to Parliament in Belgrade.

Yes, indeed. On the last weekend of the year, Slobo won a seat in Serbia's legislature, as did his fellow "alleged'' (as Wes Clark would say) war criminal Vojislav Seselj, and Seselj's extreme nationalist Serbian Radical Party won more seats than anybody else.

But hang on a minute. Aren't Milosevic and Seselj in jail at the Hague and facing the stern justice of an ''international tribunal''? Why, yes. Slobo's been on trial for two years already, and they're only just wrapping up the prosecution. Among the witnesses was, of course, Gen. Clark, who couldn't resist boasting that he's the only Democratic presidential candidate ''who's ever faced a dictator down. I'm the only one who's ever testified in court against one.'' Au contraire, right now it looks like Slobo is the only Serbian parliamentary candidate who's ever faced a U.S. general down.

Anyone who goes goo-goo at the mention of the words ''international tribunal'' -- i.e., Clark, John Kerry, Howard Dean and the rest of the multilatte multilateralist establishment -- should look at what it boils down to in practice. Even though the court forbade Milosevic and Seselj from actively campaigning in the Serbian election, they somehow managed to. In other words, ''international law'' is unable to enforce its judgments even in its own jailhouse.

More by following the link.

Pundits amazed by market at work!

After the Possum post, I thought I'd drop by my favorite North Carolina paper, the Raleigh News and Observer (aka The NOBS), and see what was roiling the turgid waters of the "liberals with a twang". Aside from some continued whistling past the graveyard where Sen. John Edwards presidential campaign is buried, there were the following gems. I lack the gumption to comment on 'em in detail, but you'll get the idea.

Upstart brands hurt Big Tobacco: As cheap cigarettes sell, states' tobacco payments drop

KEYSVILLE, VA.--Mac L. Bailey's cigarette manufacturing plant, a one-story building longer than two football fields laid end to end, looks out of place next to a country road in the middle of nowhere. But for two 10-hour shifts a day, four days a week, this plant hums, making up to 20,000 cigarettes a minute.
...
Across the United States, there are hundreds of other little cigarette companies like these. In four years, their market share has multiplied more than tenfold, from 0.5 percent of cigarettes sold in the United States in 1998 to 6.5 percent in 2002, according to the National Association of Attorneys General, which says the numbers for 2003 will be more startling.

Their growth, driven primarily by low prices, is causing consternation not only in Big Tobacco boardrooms but also in state capitals, because it is eroding multibillion-dollar payments the states won as part of a historic settlement with the industry in late 1998.

The "Tobacco Settlement" was basically a judicially imposed selective tax on large cigarette makers for the benefit of state governments (not to mention the windfall for trial lawyers). But small cigarette companies that sell in only a few states were imperfectly covered in the agreement that the great legal minds came up with, and they are now blowing past the big companies by means of lower prices. But not to worry:

The big tobacco companies and attorneys general across the country are now working feverishly to close the loophole with new legislation.

I.e. what was a selective tax will become a general tax. But there are some problems along the way - RJR bill doesn't get far. Of course, the best part was the lip service that the settlement cash was to be used to pay smoker's health bills and fund smoking cessation campaigns. That went by the wayside as soon as the governments got their hands on the cash.

What's the solution for the shortage of shots? A scarcity of flu vaccines has brought intense scrutiny to a problem-plagued immunization system.

Part of the problem is that low profit margins, complex manufacturing and a challenging regulatory environment have driven vaccine makers from the business. Thirty years ago, there were 25 vaccine makers. Today, there are five.

The major purchaser of vaccines is the Federal Government, thanks to Hillary, and guess what? They decide what the "fair price" for vaccines is. We all know how well that works. So what to do:

Among the recommended remedies: requiring health insurers to provide vaccine benefits, government vouchers for the uninsured, and new federal incentives to spur vaccine production.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pursuing a similar path. It has asked Congress for $100 million for reforms aimed at seeking faster ways to make vaccines, better estimating of how many shots are needed, and persuading more drug companies to make vaccines.

Snort! The "incentives" are amusing though. "You can't charge more than a fixed price, but here are some bucks on the side." Leave it to the government to create a problem where none existed previously and then try to fix it with layer upon layer of bandaids.

UPDATE: And speaking of which - check out the Curmudgeon's Dumb Stuff.

I missed that one!

Dean's Favorite New Testament Book is Bhagavad-Gita

Howard Dean, the Democrat presidential frontrunner, told an African-American congregation at a prayer breakfast this morning that his favorite New Testament book is not Job, as he had stated earlier this week.

"I misspoke on that one," said Mr. Dean. "We all know that Job is in the Old Testament. What I meant to say was that my favorite New Testament book is the Bhagavad-Gita. In fact, this morning I was handed a copy of it in the airport by a fine young Christian wearing a saffron robe."

It's ScrappleFace.

There's always a wet blanket

Threat of lawsuit takes life out of Possum Drop

BRASSTOWN, N.C. -- For the past 12 years, on New Year's Eve, this Appalachian town has lowered a possum in a Plexiglas cage from the roof of a gas station at the stroke of midnight. It is called the Possum Drop, and hundreds of people pack downtown Brasstown to see it.

Yeehaw!

With just hours to go before the festivities, Clay Logan, host of the Possum Drop, said he got a call from a national animal rights organization threatening to sue him for animal cruelty if he used a live possum.

Oh, puhleeze! You can just imagine the little wankers hovering over the phones on New Year's eve.

Since 1991, Logan has used live possums, trapped by hunters, fattened on cat food and turned loose after they are lowered slowly by a rope from the roof of his gas station.

On Wednesday, the day the New York Times published a piece on the Possum Drop, Logan got a call from a man who said he represented People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, headquartered in Norfolk, Va.

Debbie Leahy, director of PETA's captive animals and entertainment issues, said she did not know which member made the call, but she said the event was "perverse, reckless and terrifying to the possum."
...
"But I can't fight these people," he said. "Not with lawyers and all."

Typical. And the country cousin wasn't savvy enough in city ways to call their bluff.

However, anyone who has had any first hand experience with possums knows that they aren't, shall we say, too "sprightly". Even more than cat food, what they mostly like is a good snooze. So Clay had a solution - roadkill:

So, with hours to go and the crowd building, Logan put the word out: Find me a possum, a dead one.

The drop has had setbacks before. Snow, rain, lighting problems. But there had always been a possum.

Finally, Logan's friends found a downed possum in pretty good shape and quickly hoisted it up to the roof of the Citgo station. Most people thought it was alive, even after Logan announced it was roadkill.
...
As fireworks popped and lovers kissed, the dead possum swung from a Citgo sign. And as the festivities ended, many revelers trudged away, saying their small-town fun had been spoiled by big-city ways.

"Hell of a way to start the new year, saluting a dead possum," said Steve Barringer, a blacksmith.

You can visit the Brasstown folks at http://www.clayscorner.com/. Watch out for the Hillbilly Bubble Bath though.

"What me worry?"

Dean Was Warned on Lax Vt. Security

Presidential hopeful Howard Dean, who accuses President Bush of being weak on homeland security, was warned repeatedly as Vermont governor about security lapses at his state's nuclear power plant and was told the state was ill-prepared for a disaster at its most attractive terrorist target.

I liked Howie waxing lyrical the other day about security precautions over the holiday showing that the war on terror had failed. I guess his view is that we don't need no stinking security precautions.