Unca Darrell

JULY 13 / Dear Congressman Jeb Hensarling:

UNCA D recently got a letter dated "Thursday Morning" from Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), finance chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

"Dear Friend," it began:

JULY 9 / Remind you of Congress?

THE PRESENT House of Commons is probably the first in which every member is a professional politician whose parliamentary salary and allowance are his or her main source of income. The great majority of members have never been in any other trade or profession.

JULY 6 / The end of the free market?

IAN BREMMER, "State Capitalism Comes of Age," Foreign Affairs, May/June 2009:

Until very recently, New York City was the world's financial capital. It no longer is even the financial capital of the United States. That distinction now falls to Washington, where members of Congress and the executive branch make decisions with long-term market impact on a scale not seen since the 1930s. A similar shift is taking blace throughout the world . . . .

JULY 1 / The glory of a good concession speech

IN THE YELLOWING pages of history, political succession usually required a death, natural or induced by poison or sword. Kings died or were killed, then were succeeded by the political heir next in line or by the usurper. In literature, think of Hamlet, MacBeth, Richard III.

JUNE 22 / Stuart Taylor, Jr., on Sotomayor on Race

BUT CONSERVATIVES and like-minded centrists can win the political debate [sparked by the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court] if they focus not on buzzwords but on in-depth, civil discourse about the very big issue on which Sotomayor and her liberal supporters are most at odds -- and the conservative justices most in tune -- with the vast majority of Americans.

JUNE 19 / When even your friends start talking about your love affair with the first-person singular pronoun

STANLEY FISH, "Yes I Can," New York Times, June 9, 2009:

By the time of the address to the Congress on Feb. 24, the royal we has flowered into the naked "I": "As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress." "I called for action." "I pushed for quick action." "I have told each of my cabinet." "I've appointed a proven and aggressive inspector general." "I refuse to let that happen. "I will not spend a single penny." "I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves." "I held a fiscal summit where I pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term." The last is particularly telling: it says, there's going to be a second term . . . .

JUNE 4 / The Gipper, unveiled

CLICK HERE t0 see yesterday's dedication of the statue of Ronald Wilson Reagan in the U.S. Capitol.

MAY 29 / Swift writing

Victor Davis Hanson Davis, "President Palin's First 100 Days," victorhanson.com, May 15, 2009 

MAY 21 / Barone on global warming and religious faith

FOR LIBERAL elites, belief in . . . global warming has taken on the character of religious faith. We have sinned (by . . . driving sport utility vehicles), we must atone (by . . . recycling), we must repent (by supporting . . . cap and trade schemes). You may notice that the "we" in question is usually the great mass of ordinary American citizens.

MAY 21 / Stuart Taylor on Supreme Court nominee

STUART TAYLOR, Jr., is "cautiously betting that Obama will choose a moderate liberal who believes in judicial restraint."