Links and coffee

I slept for 11 hours last night so I'm a bit groggy and I have a dentist appointment today that is likely to be long so just a few links to get us started this morning. The first two via Avedon who of course always has much more on the homepage. I also like the Secret Service code names for the Obama family and find Bush's name particularly apt.

And I'm apparently the very last to hear that Krazy Kristol may be losing his prime real estate at the NYT. That would certainly be a gift to journalism.

Moving on, under the heading tone deaf, conservative pundit Michael Barone firmly inserted foot in mouth with this remark.

A roomful of academics erupted in angry boos Tuesday morning after political analyst Michael Barone said journalists trashed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republicans' vice presidential nominee, because "she did not abort her Down syndrome baby."

Barone said in an e-mail that he "was attempting to be humorous and ... went over the line."

Who in their right mind "jokes" about Down's babies? And speaking of that baby, Barone would have done better to "joke" about how Palin hauled that poor infant around like a sack of flour, shamelessly using him as a stage prop. Not to mention her ruthless exploitation of the youngest daughter Piper. If Palin was a black woman on welfare, DSS would taken those kids away for conduct like that.

And finally Joe Lieberman's fate still hangs in the balance. Steve B reiterates a point I made earlier.

Look, the proposal that's on the table is a "compromise." In fact, for Lieberman, it's a generous compromise. In one side, we have the possibility of kicking Lieberman out of the caucus. On the other side, we have the possibility of doing nothing, effectively rewarding Lieberman's betrayals. In the middle, we have Harry Reid's offer: Lieberman stays with the caucus, keeps his seniority, but gets a different committee to lead. This really isn't complicated. [...]

In other words, what Lieberman is asking for here is special treatment. Worse, he's asking for special treatment he hasn't earned, as evidenced by his awful two-year tenure as the chairman of the committee he wants to keep.

That's the real issue. It's not like he was doing such a great job as Chair of DHS committee. There's no reason he should keep that gavel. I sincerely hope the full caucus also notes as Steve does, that there's plenty of precedent for stripping him of his Chair. Rewarding Holy Joe for his betrayal to the party hardly seems like a good precedent to set.

[More posts daily at The Newshoggers and The Detroit News.]