Mark A. Kilmer (the weblog)

Ben Domenech is succinct at RedState.

This is a sad day, but it is to me something similar to the passing of the late President Reagan. Buckley, like Reagan, was a giant, but for both men, their passing seemed more a completion than a tragedy. Both men had been absent from their conservative constructions for some time, and their creations suffered because of it. The Republican Party had been less than it was before Reagan passed, and it remains so. The intellectually honesty and optimistic enthusiasm which should accompany conservatism had been missing from the GOP, just as I think it had been missing from National Review.

Nothing can right itself without a good physic; for that, we can hope. And we can soldier on, without that particular greatness but with our own visions.

It is Tuesday already, and I have nothing new political about which to comment. Between pain and pain killers and a very simple apathy for the “still-going but barely” Dem race, there’s not much to say for a while.

Hillary and Barry debate tonight on MSNBC. Hillary’s desperate, and she will lose the race for her party’s nomination, but she can run against McCain in 2012

Stephen Hayes in WSJ warns Republicans not to underestimate Barry and the power of words, pointing out that the Dems made a mistake by dismissing Ronald Reagan in 1980. Two points: the Dems did not dismiss Reagan in the proper manner; they merely put on a show, poking fun at him where possible. The second point should be obvious: Barack Obama is no Ronald Reagan. He lacks the communications skills, the ideological certainty, and the political know-how which Reagan possessed.

On TW, Joe Biden said that the situation in Kosovo was “not as dire” as the media is making it out to be. He added that it has long been U.S. policy to invade Pakistan without warning Pakistan if we felt Osama bin Laden were hiding there.

Next on TW, Kay Bailey Hutchison said: “I don’t want to be vice president.”

On MTP, Ralph Nader said that he will run for President. Russert complained that he might again throw the election to the Republicans, but Nader countered that Obama supports Israel.

On FTN, host Bob Schieffer talked first to Governors Janet Napolitano, an Obama supporter, and Jenn Granholm, a Hillary girl, about Hillary going ballistic on Barry about a few old fliers the campaign had mailed. Only Granholm was able to spit the platitude about “two wonderful candidates,” but only after taking a few shots at Obama. Napolitano says that she will use her superdelegate vote for Obama even though Hillary won Arizona.

Next on FTN, McCain advisor Charlie Black brushed off the NYT hit piece after calling it a smear. He said that McCain had not even begun to think about who would be a good running mate.

First on LE, John King played a tape of this morning’s interview with Mike Huckabee. Huck thinks Nader draws votes from the Dems and that there will be no significant challenge from the right. Huckabee wants Fair Tax and Human Life Amendment.

Next on LE, Tim Pawlenty said that he expects Mike Bloomberg will support John McCain.

Third on LE, Chuck Hagel said that he’s out of the process but that he would not support anyone until some later date. (He used to follow John McCain around like a puppy dog but now has wrested the maverick mantle away from the GOP nominee.) He wants to negotiate and to trade with Cuba, calling it a “great country” and comparing it with Vietnam and the PRC. He wants to negotiate the future of Iraq with Iran, and he’s backed away from his QUAGMIRE, QUAGMIRE, VIETNAM rhetoric regarding Iraq, but he refused to say that the surge has worked.

Read the show-by-show review over at RedState.com.

Drew Peterson evidently murdered his third wife, Kathleen Savio, in 2004 so he would not have to divide their property in a divorce settlement. He got everything and married his young love-bunny, Stacy, who has been missing since the end of last October. She might also be dead.

Some liars also kill. Others also edit Newspapers very poorly. Others run for President. Barack “Barry” Obama.

What is Barry? He’s not yet a juggernaut so much as a nifty media story. He’s charmed some of the dimmer bulbs with the franchise by talking about some “change” he plans to enact, from what to what, who the hell knows? Not even he knows.

This is a time of grave danger, and the American people know this. Barry’s “words as opiates” act won’t change that, and when it comes down to life-or-death, they will feel more comfortable with the veteran who will protect them rather than the counterculture poetaster promising to take them down to Strawberry Fields. As I’ve said, if McCain’s peeps don’t screw this one up, McCain should win. And it’s why, when all is said and done, we’re fortunate that McCain trounced Huckabee and Romney. He’s the one to defeat Barry, who could have been huge if the United States weren’t under attack and at war.

Now’s not the time for a liar.

For Sunday, February 24, 2008

FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace sits down with Republican Governors Tim Pawlenty (R-Minnesota) and Mark Sanford (R-South Carolina), and Dem Governors Time Kaine of Virginia and Jon Corzine of gangsterville New Jersey.

This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos talks to Senators Joe Biden, Dem, and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

Meet the Press (NBC): Tim Russert talks to Ralph Nader.

Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer chats with McCain strategist Charlie Black, and Dem Governors Jenn Granholm of Michigan and Jan Napolitano of New Mexico.

Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer talks to Admiral Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence; Dem Governors Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania for Hillary and Kathy Sebelius of Kansas for Obama; Chuck Hagel; Governor Pawlenty; and Bob Bennett, a Democrat lawyer who defended Clinton (Bill) in the matter for which he impeached.

= = = = =

FNS is into the veepstakes, Sanford and Pawlenty, Kaine and Corzine, although I’ve not heard Corzine mentioned in that regard and I imagine he has a lot of organized baggage. On TW, Biden was just shot down grounded in Afghanistan, so it will be his first appearance since his triumphant return to the States after his harrowing ordeal. Steph talks to Senator Hutchinson, who was soundly rejected by RedStaters as a possible McCain running mate.

McCain op Black is going to talk about the NYT bit. Granholm and Napolitano are doing FTN for Hillary and Barry respectively.

More Hillary vs. Obama surrogacy will take place on LE, between Rendell (Hillary) and Sebelius (Barry). Ed’s increasingly ineffective and he’s still talking a lot about nothing. I liked Sebelius better when he spelled his surname with an “I” and wrote such as the tone poem Finlandia, but that’s someone else entirely. Never mind.

I have no idea what’s on Russert’s mind with Ralph Nader. He has me puzzled. Even a Presidential announcement from the old man isn’t news.

I’ll have the review of these shows live over at RedState tomorrow afternoon.

The New York Times attempt to smear Republican Presidential nominee John McCain with unsourced, antique innuendo has so far been a miserable failure.

The extensive coverage of Sen. John McCain’s denunciation of the New York Times story about his alleged links to a female lobbyist underscored the united front by the McCains — who appeared together in Toledo, Ohio — and the reaction of the GOP’s right wing, which appeared energized by the story. In addition, the McCain campaign’s use of the story to spark a new fundraising campaign, doubts among non-conservatives about the anonymous sourcing of the piece, and Times executive editor Bill Keller’s mildly phrased defense of the story received prominent coverage. Relatively little reporting was devoted to the actual allegations of McCain doing favors for the lobbyist’s firm.

Speaking for myself alone, here on the right, I was a nominee-supporter before this, relearning the conservatism of John McCain which had been pushed aside while he pursued his campaign finance reform/speech control bit and his stubbornness about AGW and drilling in ANWR. Now, with a loathsome rag like The New Republic bullying the old, gray drunk lady into publishing a piece of unsourced crap, the McCain is One of Us fire can burn.

The Times reported McCain’s denial of their front page story, but they buried on page A20. What craven little specks of detritus, and I mean Keller, Pinch, the lot of them.