I Would Respond to Neil's Pro-PETA Observations, but The Onion Did It For Me

Advocacy Group Decries PETA's Inhumane Treatment Of Women

RSS readers: click the article to see the video.

The problem with PETA's increasingly chauvinistic advertising is that the degree to which it's "sex positive" is utterly dwarfed by the degree to which it perpetuates both the commoditization of sex and unrealistic expectations of female beauty. Now, how we get "there" (to a world that doesn't shame women for "sex-positive" behavior) from here is an open question, but I'm pretty sure this won't work.

It's Time

Time, that is, for Olympia Snowe to become an independent-who-caucuses-with-Democrats.

At this point it's becoming clear Snowe is the only reachable Republican on health care. Susan Collins is out. Chuck Grassley is out. Other players who might have been involved at one point or another appear to be out. It's Snowe, or it's nobody. And even if she does vote for the health care bill, she'll get reamed in her own caucus. But at this point, Snowe has much more in common with moderate Northeastern Democrats--people like Tom Carper, Joe Lieberman, and Arlen Specter--than she does with most of the remaining Republicans. So why stay? Does she enjoy commiserating with Collins and George Voinovich that much?

A few weeks ago, commenter "low-tech cyclist" made a very good point: "At some point, the Dems have to stop listening to their inner David Broder and realize they are both the liberal party and the left wing of the opposition party, rolled into one - so that sufficient Blue Dog support makes a bill inherently bipartisan". The health care bill is making this very clear. It's basically been a negotiation between the left-wing party, which would like single-payer but will settle for full coverage and a robust public option; and the centrist party, which is to varying degrees skeptical about the public option and whines about cost. The right-wing opposition party, meanwhile, has decided that the best political course of action is not to govern the country responsibly, but instead to fling feces from the sidelines. Booting Snowe from the GOP would make it clear that that's the current state of play in Washington.

The Senate Gerontocratic Caucus

I can't believe that I didn't know about this about the Senate until the past couple weeks when Matt started blogging about it, but it explains a heck of a lot:

Democrats hand out committee chairmanships by a blind seniority rule. Republicans do not. Chairman need to rotate out of their positions after fixed terms, which then gives the caucus as a whole input over who takes over next. Consequently, the Senate leadership has some meaningful leverage over Republican Senators—even Senators from liberal states. If they’re really determined to make Snowe (and Collins) vote “no,” they have tools at their disposal to make that happen. By contrast, the Democratic leadership heads into tough fights basically disarmed with no real tools of discipline and leverage at their disposal beyond the vague risk of a primary challenge.

The incentives here extend well beyond people who are already committee chairs. If they want to chair committees someday, Republicans need to be team players and do things that advance the interests of their party as a whole. You can't get in the way of legislation that the bulk of your party supports, and you have to act in ways that will retain the approval of mainstream conservatives in your party, or else you'll never get a gavel.

Meanwhile, if Democrats want to chair a committee, they just have to survive long enough. If you think that obstructing progressive legislation and practicing diabolical Liebermania on cable news shows will help you get a moderate reputation and keep your seat, there's really nothing your colleagues can do about it.

Claiming Credit

Via Ezra, it looks like it's dawning on Max Baucus that Enzi and Grassley are not going to play ball, among other things, because there's no way the GOP will let them. Clearly, my webcomic lampooning him as a failed superhero is responsible for this change in strategy.

Shorter Ross Douthat

If only Americans in general and Ted Kennedy in particular expressed more qualms about abortion than they already have, America would have fewer abortions and policies that gave poor women even worse access to family planning services than they already had ... AND A PONY.

One of the unfortunate consequences of Douthat's move to the Times seems to be that he's representing the social conservatism part of his Grand New Party vision more and more, and the more moderate economic views less and less. Of course, it's the mix of the two that makes GNPism politically attractive. Given the choice between debating a libertarian/nihilist party about what the top marginal tax rate should be, and debating Mike Huckabee over whether or not the public option should include reduced-priced condoms, I'll take the latter eight days of the week.

(Hat tip: Ursula, in further proof she is the best choice among all Possible Girls).