THE WEEK THAT WAS

What is another week in Obamaland without new accusations against the President? A few that I like concern his plot to close all the farms in California so he can control our food supply like Zimbabwe's Bob Mugabe. Another is that he is responsible for the drought in the Southwest--it has been going on for three years--because his administration wants to protect the minnow. The esteemed member of the evangelical group,The Family, Senator Ensign of Nevada says that if you don't buy health insurance under Obamacare you will be jailed. AEI's Michael Ledeen claims that Obama actually likes dictators and tyrants and Fox News made a fuss that the President would be sitting near Muammar Qaddafhi at the United Nations. Better yet Senator DeMint, famous for his Waterloo quote, says that Obama spending all this time on healthcare threatens the safety of our troops in Afghanistan. Eric Cantor over at the House says that the people are concerned about jobs and Afghanistan and not healthcare reform.

It has been a strange week listening to the healthcare debate. For the first time in my life, I heard elected representatives from both parties actually say that "we must preserve the profits of the health insurance industry." Senator Roberts(R-Ks) stunned me when he asked for a 72 hour delay in the health care debate so that "health-providers" ( code word--insurance lobbyists) could read the bill and submit their suggestions. Senator Jim Bunning(R-Ky) didn't surprise me when he fell asleep for the Finance Committee debate. For the most part, the efforts to stall by the Republicans is not working and polling suggests that they might pay a price if they actually stop a bill.

It's been a wild week for the birthers, who are now fighting among themselves. Orly Taitz responded to Judge Land's dismissal of her case and his rebuke of her conduct by asking him for reconsideration and in her petition launched into an ad hominem attack on the judge appointed by George W. Her clent either fired her or didn't depending on whether you think her petition for a forgery. Other birthers have weighed in, slamming Orly Taitz' professionalism. Even the guy who forged the Kenyan birth certificate has bowed out because he claimed she wanted him to commit perjury, an MO she tried to use with the guy who claims to have had gay sex with the President. She wanted him to testify that President Obama actually killed people. The old Bill Clinton trail of bodies motif. But never fear--the birthers claim that the Democratic Party only certified Obama's qualifications in some, not all of the states for the 2008 election.

At least lifelong Yankee fan Judge Sotomayor got a chance to throw out the first pitch at the Yankee-Bosox game. Judge Sotomayor has distinguished herself already by raising questions about whether the Court didn't make an error when it afforded corporations rights like individuals. I remember William Douglas in his later radical years complaining about this doctrine and wondering whether we couldn't sue to give trees rights.

Depending on your point of view, President Obama was either masterful in handling the news of the Iranian's construction of a new underground nuclear testing site or a naive man caught off-guard after he gave away the store like the Stars Wars plan for Poland and Czechoslovakia. I tend toward being masterful in creating the framework for a full court diplomatic press against Iran with the support of Russia and China, two countries who have been cold to any sanctions against the regime. It was clear that Iran was caught flat-footed by President Obama's announcement about the facility. Even the French who like doing business with Iran have given Tehran until December to respond. Now the U.S. is pushing for the Europeans and the Americans to be able to inspect the nuclear facilities.

President Obama won a unanimous vote at the UN Security Council on a resolution toward a nuclear arms free world. This measure also racheted up another pressure point on Iran, as well as North Korea. It should be remembered that the last nuclear-free idealist was Ronald Reagan, who sparked a revolt among conservatives when he voiced these suggestions.

However, the meeting with the Israelis and Palestinians was a bit of a dud. The Israelis are in the mood to test Obama, especially on the issue of the settlements and Iran, and Abbas can only come to the table with half a loaf since Hamas controls Gaza.

Conservatives have been a bit rough on Glenn Beck, self-described "rodeo clown", recovering alcoholic and drug addict. Within this squabble the most fun has been the debate between David Horowitz and David Frum over whether Beck is good for the conservative movement. Horowitz, still sporting his instincts from his radical Left days, thinks Beck has the feistiness needed to combat the swarms of leftists taking over our nation. Frum thinks Beck marginalizes conservatives and republicans and cuts off all policy debate. A number of paleo-conservatives raise the question about what does Glenn Beck actually believe. They cite his crazy quilt history of moving from one political hero to another. They were particularly miffed by his comments to Katie Couric that either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama would be better for the country than John McCain. Despite the Right's disdain for McCain, to say this about Barack Obama was heresy. Salon did an excellent series of articles on Glenn Beck's history with his days of excess and his conversion to Mormonism and his professional trajectory. The Left like Glenn Greenwald sees Beck as a type of populist, favoring none of the parties and basically voicing the age-old complaint against government in general. Others charge that Beck is really picking up on the heels of George Wallace fanning racial animosity and pseudo-populism despite his new, immense wealth. Take your pick.

Glenn Beck infuriates me in his willful embrace of ignorance. If his idiocy about the art in Rockefeller Center wasn't enough--it gave Keith Olbermann a couple of good shows--, his new book actually claims people like Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt were worse than Pol Pot. For all its warts, American history has not produced its Pol Pots, Adolf Hitlers or even Mussolinis. I understand why Glenn Beck might want to liken Keith Olbermann to Adolf Hitler for personal reasons but--really?! Olbermann actually shot Beck right between the eyes with his exposure that the section of the Constitution which Beck suggested governed some type of tax on immigrants was nothing more than the regulation of slavery.

This is the type of ignorance that is very dangerous coming from someone who has an audience of about 3 million people. In the last several months, we have had a frontal rhetorical assault on the Constitution from the Right and the religious Right. The Tenth movement is one of my favorites with the threats by states to secede from the union or the assertions that states can turn down any national healthcare reform or even stimulus monies. No less a constitutional scholar than Michelle Bachman from Minnesota claims that healthcare reform is unconstitutional. So why should we bother? Or course, some paleoconservatives argue that the income tax, social security, medicare and government regulation of business is unconstitutional. At the Values Voter Summit, panelists argued that the most important words in the First Amendment were that Congress could make no law,etc. but that any other level of government could. But, unfortunately,we have a history of court decisions on all these things and they don't give much hope for these people. But we will be hearing more about the Constitution for the next 3 and half years and none of the discussion will be informed.

I received my fund-raising letter from Joe Wilson for Virginia Republicans. First, Joe the Plumber, who recently got in a fist-fight with someone at a tea party; now Joe Wilson, a member of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, his South Carolina branch having been taken over by racists a while back. Now, this is supposedly the ticket to ride. The anger and rage of the grassroots will bring the Republicans back to power--at least in the House--so they can impeach the Great Pretender, Barack Obama--this is really the dream. And it looks like it will remain a dream. The Washington Post reports Democratic fund-raising is lagging, but a comparison of all the party committees, the RNC and the DNC show both parties are pretty even in cash on hand. For Republicans to start roaring back, they need a fund-raising edge of 2-1. I still say the 2010 election will be a normal by-election, despite the noise. The President's Party will lose 15-20 seats in the House, generally should lose in the Senate but here I see Democrats gaining. So far the rumbles from the jungles do not indicate Newt's wetdream of a replay of 1994.