The Commentariat -- September 18

Just when you think Newt Gingrich can't get any crazier.... Kasie Hunt of Politico reports, "Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Saturday said Republicans should try to oust Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius because she was acting 'in the spirit of the Soviet tyranny' and represents 'left-wing thought police.'” ...

... The Second Coming, Values Voters, Style. Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "... At the Values Voters Summit, Indiana Congressman Mike Pence..., whose forceful, hard-line speech at the conference Friday drew calls of 'Pence for President,' came in first in the summit’s annual straw poll on Saturday with 24 percent of the vote. He also took first in the poll for vice president:

I guess that would be good — if he died he could replace himself. -- Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, which sponsors the event

       ... Following Mr. Pence was Mike Huckabee (22 percent), Mitt Romney (13 percent), Newt Gingrich (10 percent) and Sarah Palin (7 percent).

They tell us that they they represent America the way it used to be, self-reliant, virtuous individuals and small businesses. And the truth is, what they want to do is dismantle government so corporations, big corporations will control our destiny. -- Bill Clinton, on the extreme right that is taking over the Republican party

Who Do that Voodoo like You Do? Christine O'Donnell cancels her Sunday talkshow appearances -- even the one on Fox! -- after Bill Maher airs her witchcraft video, which is embedded on my post above titled "Woman of the Middle Atlantic."

Glenn Greenwald: at a $30,000-per-plate DNC fundraiser in Greenwich, Connecticut, President Obama mocks the "petulant" left. CW: does he really think this is a good way to energize his base? Here's the money quote:

Democrats, just congenitally, tend to get -- to see the glass as half empty. (Laughter.) If we get an historic health care bill passed -- oh, well, the public option wasn't there. If you get the financial reform bill passed -- then, well, I don't know about this particularly derivatives rule, I'm not sure that I'm satisfied with that. And gosh, we haven't yet brought about world peace and -- (laughter.) I thought that was going to happen quicker. (Laughter.)

     ... Here's Jane Hamsher on the same subject.

Margaret Wheeler Johnson, in Slate, on the history & art of gay-baiting in American politics.

Gail Collins on the Alaskan Senatorial campaign. Collins highlights a candidates' forum: "On Thursday, in the beautiful fishing town of Petersburg, [Joe] Miller and [Scott] McAdams mixed it up in a candidate forum. The organizers seemed unsure about whether Miller would show up, but he walked in halfway through the proceedings to murmurs of excitement in the school gym where people had been listening to a rather unthrilling discussion on a transportation reauthorization act." You can watch the debate here.

On the presidency, Sarah Palin would "give it a shot" if she's "The One":

Surprise! The Republicans Have Been Lying to You. David Kocieniewski of the New York Times: IRS "statistics indicate that only 3 percent of small businesses would be subject to the higher tax, and many studies of previous tax increases suggest that it would have minimal impact on hiring.... Even among the 750,000 businesses that would be subjected to the higher rates in 2011, many are sole proprietors — a classification so amorphous it can include everyone from corporate executives who earn income on rental property to entertainers, hedge fund managers and investment bankers." Ninety percent of these "small businesses" have no employees.

Keith Hagey of Politico wonders if the Jon Stewart-Stephen Colbert Washington rally on October 30 is the Democrats' "October surprise." CW: he has a point. The rally is three days before the election. I'd love to go.

Stupid Secrecy. Scott Shane of the New York Times: the publisher distributed about 100 advance copies of the uncensored version of Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer's Operation Dark Heart before the Defense Department bought & destroyed the entire first printing. Now the second, redacted printing is out, replete with blacked-out text, giving a window into the Pentagon's ideas of what should be "secret." Shane says a lot of the so-called secrets are common knowledge or are available from multiple sources:

There’s smart secrecy and stupid secrecy, and this whole episode sounds like stupid secrecy. -- conservative scholar Gabriel Schoenfeld, whose book Necessary Secrets defends protecting classified information

Nancy Youssef of McClatchy News: "With the U.S. drawdown in Iraq, the Army is finally confronting an epidemic of drug abuse and criminal behavior that many commanders acknowledge has been made worse because they'd largely ignored it during nearly a decade of wars on two fronts.... A 350-page report issued in July after a 15-month investigation into the Army's rising suicide rate found that levels of illegal drug use and criminal activity have reached record highs, while the number of disciplinary actions and forced discharges were at record lows."

Ah, Looking ahead to 2012. Jim Rutenberg & Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "The Republican presidential field for 2012 is beginning to take shape in a period of intensive upheaval set off by the rise of the Tea Party movement, expanding the roster of potential candidates but presenting a more complicated road to the nomination.