Klein’s Quips

In the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll for the 2008 Republican Presidential Nomination, Giuliani does slightly better than McCain with all other possible candidates far behind:

Rudy Giuliani 34 %

John McCain 31

Newt Gingrich 8

Bill Frist 5

Mitt Romney 3

George Allen 3

Sam Brownback 1

Other (vol.) 2

None (vol.) 2

Unsure 11

But when asked who they would definitely NOT vote for Giuliani fares much better than McCain:

Newt Gingrich 21 %

John McCain 19

Rudy Giuliani 8

Bill Frist 5

Mitt Romney 3

Sam Brownback 2

George Allen 1

None (vol.) 26

Unsure 17

Now obviously, the 2008 race won’t get serious for another two years. But it is interesting to note that for all the conventional wisdom saying that Giuliani’s liberal social views on abortion and gay rights make it impossible for him to win the nomination, he really isn’t looking that bad in this poll.

Is Andrew Sullivan really trying to uphold Abraham Lincoln as a defender of civil liberties? Need he be reminded that Lincoln instituted the draft, declared martial law, suspended habeas corpus and jailed dissenters during wartime?

Now, I’m not going to sit here and defend all of Bush’s actions. And certainly I’m not implying that Bush is the leader that Lincoln was. But the point in bringing this up is that both leaders were/are fighting wars that made them do things that we’d be morally uncomfortable with under normal circumstances. Lincoln took extra-constitutional actions, but today he is considered one of our greatest presidents because he ended slavery and saved the union. Would we have been better off if Lincoln hadn’t taken those measures, and our government fell apart and blacks remained slaves in the South? It’s not something people may want to discuss in polite company, but the question is, given the brutal nature of the enemy we face, is it necessary to resort to harsh measures in some circumstances?

You can criticize Bush for the treatment of detainees, but the point is that Sullivan has made the detainee issue his number one cause, leading him to lose any sense of balance. I just don’t know how he reconciles this with his declaration that Lincoln was his favorite president, because “He saved the Union.”

UPDATE: Sullivan clarifies himself here and here.

The Washington Post has this story on the growing rift between conservative and moderate Republicans in Congress, which was highlighted yesterday when the $54 billion budget-cutting bill was pulled.

What is the point of voting for Republicans, if they’re gutless?

Democrats have won the governors’ races in both Virginia and New Jersey. No doubt the media will try to portray this as a referendum on President Bush, who is fighting record low approval ratings. I’m not saying that Bush is in great political shape, but I just don’t think you can read too much into these governors’ races. Both states had weak Republican candidates in Kilgore and Forrester and neither candidate was closely associated with Bush. Furthermore, let’s not forget that both states elected Democratic governors in 2001, when Bush’s approval ratings were at post 9/11 highs in the 80s.

As usual, Charles Krauthammer makes the most sense–this time on the torture debate. I am all for clarifying our policy on the treatment of detainees to avoid situations such as Abu Ghraib. But at the same time, there has to be some leeway to allow interrogators to use whatever means necessary to extract information from high level terrorists who may have knowledge of an impending attack. The challenge for lawmakers is to craft a law that allows for torture in these specific cases without it turning it into a loophole that can allow widespread torture.

Having sucessfully defeated Social Security reform, liberals are ready to block efforts to fix the tax code. No surprise that Rep. Charles Rangel has written against eliminating the state and local tax deduction.

As a New York City resident, I benefit from deducting local and state tax payments from my federal taxes. But in no way is the deduction fair. New Yorkers elect politicians that keep tax rates sky high, so they should bear the full consequences of that decision, including watching people and businesses move away. Why should citizens of a state like Florida, who have the sense to keep rates low, be forced to subsidize tax-and-spend New Yorkers?

UPDATE:

Chuck Schumer does an even better job demonstrating this:

“Nothing could stifle growth and slam hard-working families in New York and around the country more than the repeal of these deductions,” Schumer said. “Thousands of dollars in added taxation will create a giant sucking sound as the best and brightest workers, and the most productive companies, face incentives to move to lower-tax jurisdictions.”

Silly me. The Eurabian civil war appears to have started some years ahead of my optimistic schedule.

Mark Steyn.

You’d think that by now people would be more careful about what they send via email, but not FEMA chief Michael Brown, whose already bad reputation got even worse with the release of emails he sent during the Katrina crisis.

Some of the better ones:

“Can I quit now? Can I come home?” Brown wrote to Cindy Taylor, FEMA’s deputy director of public affairs, the morning of the hurricane.

A few days later, Brown wrote to an acquaintance, “I’m trapped now, please rescue me.”

Melancon said that on August 26, just days before Katrina made landfall, Brown e-mailed his press secretary, Sharon Worthy, about his attire, asking: “Tie or not for tonight? Button-down blue shirt?”

A few days later, Worthy advised Brown: “Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt, all shirts. Even the president rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this [crisis] and on TV you just need to look more hard-working.”

On August 29, the day of the storm, Brown exchanged e-mails about his attire with Taylor, Melancon said. She told him, “You look fabulous,” and Brown replied, “I got it at Nordstroms. … Are you proud of me?”

An hour later, Brown added: “If you’ll look at my lovely FEMA attire, you’ll really vomit. I am a fashion god.”

I’m always interested in what he has to say, but can just see leftists getting riled up that Alito was endorsed by Robert Bork.