You know, speaking of unjustified self esteem and overpraised Senators, like royalty, I suspect that members of “the world’s greatest deliberative body” (OK, I’ll wait a few minutes for you to stop laughing)…often cocoon themselves with such simpering sycophants as staff that they have no concept of how idiotic they can come off when performing unscripted. George Voinovich being a case in point. When a dim bulb like Sean Hannity can make you sound like a fool, you’re a blithering idiot.

Well, at least he didn’t cry, as he did during the Bolton nomination.

That creatures like this get elected to such high positions is a shameful commentary on the state of the nation’s electorate.

[Update a few minutes later]

Speaking of overpraised Senators, Jonah Goldberg makes a good point about fluffy, meaningless political rhetoric (in this case, from the Great White Whale of Massachusetts):

Sen Kennedy just shouted that the choice before the Senate on the immigration bill is between “voting for our hopes, or voting for our fears!”

I don’t quite understand why voting your fear is obviously wrong or why voting for your hopes is necessarily right. Fear is often quite reasonable. I have a reasonable fear of alligators. Hopes, meanwhile, are often irrational and goofy. I hope eating lots of cashews will give me laser-vision and super-strength.

Yes, phrases that seem to sound good in an impassioned speech often break down under even a trivial analysis. My pet peeve on this score is Kennedy’s “not because they are easy, but because they are hard…” in explaining why go to the moon. I’ve discussed this in the past.

[Update a couple minutes later]

By the way, just in case no one noticed, for the clueless, I’ve been bashing Republicans today. Not that that’s in any way unusual for me, but some myopic people seem to only notice it when I go after Democrats.