Mid-week Reading

Not the Berks County city where I sometimes work; just some good links today.

First, if you ever watch cable news and wondered what the heck a "Democratic/Republican Strategist" is, read this Politico story about who gets on TV and why. The most funny thing is that none of the people involved think of themselves as strategists. The word "strategist" has really just come to mean "sympathizer" in cable parlance. I will say this, though: I'd rather have something descriptive, even if it's not denotatively accurate, than nothing. Amy Holmes, who they quote in the story, is not a Republican Strategist; she was a speechwriter for Bill Frist. But she is a Republican, and I'd like to know that when she's analyzing issues on TV. On the other hand, I guess you could argue that, if her arguments are compelling (which Holmes' often are), who cares about her personal views?

If you missed it, McCain's Chief Political Adviser, Charlie Black, was a lobbyist for guys like Ferdinand Marcos and Mubuto Sese Seko, and many other African mass-murderers you can think of. Then, this week, he said that a terror attack would "certainly" help John McCain's chances of getting elected. He apologized, McCain said it was a bad thing to say, no one got fired. But he said it in this very interesting story in Fortune, which profiles McCain's evolution from maverick to populist/panderist (depending on your point of view) nominee. This is a pretty good example of how one throwaway line overtakes pages of solid journalism in the public eye. And let's let Charlie Black off the hook: He was just saying what he believes to be true, which I encourage. He wasn't saying he hopes there will be an attack, just that if there were it would probably be good for his candidate's campaign. We can't constantly denounce lying if we get upset when guys like that finally tell the truth. Plus, Charlie Black has something going for him in this regard: No matter what he says, it can not be the worst thing he has said or done. No matter his actions on the campaign, he will have said and done many, many worse things in his career as a lobbyist for mass murderers.

Here's a cute little editorial from the USA Today saying that No Child Left Behind is working, because achievement gaps are narrowing. Puzzlingly, this attempt to defend the policy is draped in acknowledgments of its shortcomings, including - especially puzzlingly - a statement that the system is better at identifying troubles than fixing them. So, then, how did a program that doesn't fix things get credit for fixing things? Okay, let's say I take a baseball team, and I say "You guys stink. We're going to institute standards, and a test, and you all have to pass the test in two years," and I the test I give them is a basic drill of fly fishing skills. Well, if the coach and manager know that their jobs depend on performing well on the fishing test, they'll teach fishing, and the achievement gaps in fishing will close. That does not mean I have created a good baseball team. NCLB does have merits, mostly in its conception. The results you are seeing are not due to any of them.

For those of you looking for something to read, the Washington Post's OnFaith contributors have a list of the best books they've ever read.

For those of you foreign policy wonks, what's going on between Syria and Israel is really, really frikkin' interesting. David Ignatius summarizes how this might work out better than anyone thought.

And for those of you Pennsylvanians, it's that time of year where we have a budget crisis showdown. I'm still about four and a half days from getting annoyed that we don't have a budget.

In many administrations, this would be a new low: When the EPA sent the administration an email containing a policy the Bush team knew it would not like, they decided they had only three options: Break their own law by refusing to follow it, follow the policy and force businesses to spend money regulating greenhouse gases, or just ignore the email. They chose door number three, which is the governmental equivalent of sticking ones fingers in ones ears and screaming "I can't hear you." Sadly, it barely registers as a surprise to me.

Via RCP:

• Free-marketeer John Stossel on why speculating is grrrrr-eat!
  
• Donald Luskin is appalled to find out that Obama's Social Security plan might cause rich people to be taxed on ALL (gasp) of their wages! What do you think we are, poor? Middle class? The cap on S.S. is one of the least fair things in our tax code.
  
• Paul Wolfowitz says the key to getting Mugabe out of power is more carrots, fewer sticks. Insert irony reference here, if you like, but in this case he's probably right.

And, I'm sad to report that I missed this: Independent John Frohnmayer dropped out of the Senate race in Oregon earlier this month. It gives a boost to Democrat Jeff Merkley, who now is close to a coin flip to unseat incumbent Gordon Smith (R). I don't know either as well as I do more local candidates, but I'm frankly unimpressed by either. With both activist Steve Novick and now Frohnmayer out of the picture, Oregonians have a duller race on their hands. Here's hoping John will be back in politics soon; he'd be a good fit for an Obama administration.