…and it’s permanence:

A big part of the problem is our outmoded civil-service system that makes it too hard to hire good employees and too hard to fire bad ones. The bureaucracy has become gargantuan, making accountability and reform very difficult.

Faced with this managerial swampland, the number of talented executives willing to come to Washington continues to dwindle. Those who do accept the challenges usually want to tackle big national goals in the few years they spend in public service instead of fighting their own agencies. So the bureaucracy just keeps rolling along.

And anyone who thinks that things would be better if we changed parties in the White House are deluding themselves.

Apparently it was a “someone else’s culpa.” I always love that passive voice. It takes me back to the nineties.

Cliff May:

Bill Clinton lied to a grand jury. As a result, he did not lose his job, did not go to jail and soon thereafter became a multi-millionaire, lionized and celebrated in his party and around the world.

If that

Rich Lowry:

The jarring spectacle of jurors expressing support for, or at least indifference toward, an executive act to wipe away the conviction that they just handed down is a damning statement about Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. It means that he had sufficient evidence to convince a handful of people drawn from Washington, D.C.

Rich Lowry:

The jarring spectacle of jurors expressing support for, or at least indifference toward, an executive act to wipe away the conviction that they just handed down is a damning statement about Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. It means that he had sufficient evidence to convince a handful of people drawn from Washington, D.C.

Rich Lowry:

The jarring spectacle of jurors expressing support for, or at least indifference toward, an executive act to wipe away the conviction that they just handed down is a damning statement about Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. It means that he had sufficient evidence to convince a handful of people drawn from Washington, D.C.

There’s been a lot of Buzz about Fred Thompson getting into the race, and some have been talking him up as Reagan reincarnate (though I think that a stretch). I think that he’s got a very big skeleton in his closet, though, that he’d have to exorcise to have a chance:

Thompson was one of only four Republican senators to endorse McCain

DC gun control laws have been stricken down, in accordance with the (properly interpreted) Second Amendment. It’s probably a good bet that this will go to the Supreme Court (which may get an opportunity to clarify Miller so that we can finally put a stake through the heart of the nonsensical “collective right” argument). This seems like a pretty big deal to me.

[Via Instapundit]

[Update a few minutes later]

If Giuliani has any political acumen whatsoever, he will laud this ruling, and pledge to nominate judges that would uphold it.

[Update after noon]

As Kathryn Jean Lopez notes, it would be useful to hear from all of the presidential candidates (both parties) on this issue.

[Late afternoon update]

For those who (like people in comments who shall remain nameless…errrr…unless you read the comment) are concerned that this won’t be heard by the court, Glenn Reynolds has a roundup of links on the subject, some of which lead to arguments that it’s very likely to (by Volokh, at least).

Of course, going to the SC is a double-edged sword. Given the current composition, be careful what you wish for…

The WSJ has a piece today on the continuing decline of my home state, where I still have family. It really makes all that nonsensical talk a few years ago about trying to amend the Constitution so that Granholm could run for president seem even more absurd.

Greyhawk explains why Walter Reed was underfunded. It wasn’t in anyone’s congressional district.