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Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures." -- Daniel Webster
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Saturday, August 12, 2006 :::
I may yet post the story of Tom Finneran and Richard Voke, who contended to become Speaker of the Massachusetts House in 1996. But the short version is that Voke won a slim majority in the Democratic Caucus -- about a 15-vote margin out of 130 or so -- but Finneran won on the floor with the help of the 30-or-so Republicans.
I just want that story out there because if Lamont loses this November, I'm going to refer to him as having been Voked. There are some differences between the scenarios -- members of the House have a bigger incentive to support the winner, and the Connecticut electorate is substantially less dominated by Democrats than the Massachusetts House -- but the analogy is pretty obvious if you know the story. As to the probability of Lieberman winning the rematch, I have neither any dispute with nor anything to add to my brother's thoughts.
Meanwhile, Krauthammer says Lamont is less aware than I would have expected: Lamont said in his victory speech that the time had come to "fix George Bush's failed foreign policy." Yet, as Martin Peretz pointed out in The Wall Street Journal, on Iran, the looming long-term Islamist threat, Lamont's views are risible. Lamont's alternative to the Bush Iran policy is to "bring in allies" and "use carrots as well as sticks."
Where has this man been? Negotiators with Iran have had carrots coming out of their ears in three years of fruitless negotiations. Allies? We let the British, French and Germans negotiate with Iran for those three years, only to have Iran brazenly begin accelerated uranium enrichment that continues to this day.
Lamont seems to think that we should just sit down with the Iranians and show them why going nuclear is not a good idea. This recalls Sen. William Borah's immortal reaction in September 1939 upon hearing that Hitler had invaded Poland to start World War II: "Lord, if only I could have talked with Hitler, all this might have been avoided." It's an interesting article in general.
::: posted by Steven at 12:51 PM
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