Stanley Kurtz, writing at the Corner: […] Senate Republican’s know that nominating a strong and open social conservative will set off a paralyzing battle, and virtually shut down the rest of their agenda for the duration. The mammoth battle will also turn the pressure now being aimed at the president onto the Senate’s Republican moderates. At a minimum, that would mean exacerbating party divisions and jeopardizing the majority’s congressional agenda

Compare and contrast these two takes on my “Sexing the Sharia” post—the first, from the Moderate Voice’s David Schraub, who argues that “it doesn’t even come from an honest effort to find truth”; the second, from Boston Globe and Reason columnist Cathy Young (who, to my shame, I wasn’t aware had a blog), who sees things a bit differently. My own take is that Schraub, in his rush to show

From the AP: Iraqi leaders reached a breakthrough deal on last minute changes in the constitution Tuesday, and at least one Sunni Arab party said it would reverse its rejection of the document and urge its supporters to approve it in next weekend’s referendum. The deal boosts the chances for a constitution that Shiite and Kurdish leaders support and the United States has been eager to see approved in Saturday’s

Info Theory’s Paul Deignan continues to argue that Miers is a pro-Roe nominee, an assertion he bases on the positions staked out by the President and First Lady: When President Bush says that Miers shares his judicial philosophy, he is not saying that his personal pro-life inclinations extend to overturning Roe. Laura Bush voaches for the veracity of this analysis. The pro-choice First Lady says, about Roe. “No, I don’t

…no little blue pills for THIS Bowflex cowboy.  MY whiskers still get stiff when the wind blows.  Tell me Bolton’s weathered old lip coozie can say THAT with a straight face…

Like me, Jonah Goldberg is unhappy with the way critics of the Harriet Miers nomination have been treated by fellow conservatives.  From the Corner: Fed by what are to me very cheap arguments by RNC spokesmen and independent stalwarts of the administration—chiefly, it seems, Hugh Hewitt—there is now this permanently established belief in some quarters that people around here and elsewhere oppose Miers based purely on bad motives—elitism, cowardice, sexism

From the New York Daily News‘ “Lowdown”: Carmen Electra apparently blurts out the N word during ecstatic moments in the bedroom. So claims ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman – who was married to the “Baywatch” babe for eight days in the late 1990s – in his memoir, “I Should Be Dead By Now,” due out Nov. 1. “Take it, n-! Go ahead, take it!” Electra allegedly screamed during their first romp

Until someone buys me this.  As a gift.  To ward off internet trolls.  And those little club-footed bearded men in the toggle coats who sometimes appear in my dreams and laugh maniacally as they steal little bits of my soul before raiding my fridge and eating the rest of the shaved ham. God, how I hate those little fuckers. (h/t INDC)

Out on DVD today:  South Park Season 6 and High Tension.  You know, it takes a lot to get me excited.  But once I am?  Like, now?  I can cut glass, man!

From The New York Times: Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and several Democrats on the committee said Sunday that they were considering calling James Dobson to testify on what he has been told about Harriet Miers, the president’s Supreme Court nominee. “If Dr. Dobson knows something that he shouldn’t know or something that I ought to know, I’m going to find out,” Specter said Sunday on