The Age of Permanent Election

If it is just that we have a rerun of the Alaska Senate election," then I'd certainly want some kind of relief for Don Seigelman, but why stop there? Is it really too late to undo Bush v. Gore? And while we are at it, there is much to be said for a second look at this. Harry Turtledove, where are you when we need you?

Come to think of it, the South might not have wanted to secede in the first place, if they knew then what we know now.
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*"Highly unlikely," per today's news cycle.
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Update: My attention is directed to two points. One, Harry Turtledove has indeed dealt with this topic; see link. And two, what I really want is probably not a Tilden win in 1876, but a win by Hayes so big that he wouldn't have had to enter into a corrupt bargain.

Stevens Walks Holder Talks

I had an impulse to treat this as an April Fool's joke, but that is too much of a cheap shot even for this benighted forum. Fact is "corruption of the US Attorney system" was one of the gravest charges you could level against the previous administration (well--at least the seventh or eighth gravest). If the news about Stevens means that Holder is laying down his marker for a new era of professionalization at Justice, then I think we ought to toss our hats in the air.

And on the other hand, I have always felt a little ambivalent about these "corruption" cases in communities where grand theft of public resources is more or less an accepted fact of life (that would be you, Alaska)--where, among other things, the whole point of getting public office is to control the resource flow, and where just naturally the controller gets a taste. My mothers' Scandinavian ancestors would be baffled and outraged, but it is hardly as if anybody in Alaska was the least bit surprised that Mr. Money Man was taking a little off the top for himself. I suspect the general reaction of the populous was more in the nature of a contemptuous snigger than real outrage.

In his splendid history of Bribery, John Noonan makes the point that one of the insidious truths about a culture of bribery is that you are never quite clear where the line is--one man's courtesy is the next man's felony. Ted Stevens' grabbiness may have gotten a bit overipe even by Alaska standards, but if he now shuffles off into the sunset in an atmosphere tainted by public humiliation and ridicule--and if the price is a cleaner, better disciplined, more professional Justice Department--then that is quite enough for me.

The Other Club Fed

Two stories this morning with a common theme: the clubbiness of the Senate.

First, here's Mitch McConnell, Republican majoarity leader, with a heavy case of hurt feelings that Democrats actually tried to win the election in Kentucky (link).

And second, here's Grand Malefactor Ted Stevens getting a round of applause as he prepares to exit the marble halls for, one hopes (but, in fairness, one does not really expect), the stony lonesome.

I suspect the second is more intelligible than the first. In the case of Stevens--awyers who defend murder cases know that longevity breeds forgiveness: the jury is just not going to fry a guy they sat next to months and months. Especially if they can, um, you know, kind of recognize that they might commit the same kind of crime themselves. Remarkable how this works even in the case of a guy who, by all reports, is so deeply disliked among his peers.

McConnell just strikes me as one more instance of the Republican Vast Sense of Entitlement--rules for thee but not for me. Doesn't seem to bother McConnell, that his team worked so hard to blow the head off Tom Daschel a while back, but if you go after one of their own number, why then you should expect to pay.

Still together they recall the old French insight:

There is more difference betwen two socialists, one of whom is a deputy while the other of whom is not

than there is between two deputies, one of whom is a socialist while the other is not.

Afterthought: Yes, I suppose I could throw in the Dem's unwillingness to punish Joe Lieberman (though with the 60-vote goal line in sight, that may be a different issue). And one could contrast the field-dressing of John Dingell. May be a new reminder of the ancient insight that the Senate is a vast marmoreal geriatric center, while the House is just a loony bin.