There are a lot of dim bulbs in the Senate, and there’s a lot of competition for the dimmest (Patty Murray, Babs Boxer, Jim Jeffords, Susan Collins come immediately to mind, and I’m sure that there are others), but my impression from every interview with him that I’ve ever heard is that Lincoln Chafee is not qualified (in Jonah Goldberg’s famous quip) to be a spell checker in an M&M factory. The Conways have a roundup of his political prospects this fall, including some other oatmeal-brained commentary from him:

Laffey described Chafee’s views on the region as “two standard deviations outside of American and Rhode Island thought.” In an effort to make the point, he quoted Chafee’s own words questioning the legitimacy of what the senator termed American “gripes” with Iran’s nuclear program…Chafee, he said, “doesn’t get it at all” that “there are some really bad people in the world.”

They’re upset that the National Republican Senatorial Committee continues to support him against the much more conservative Laffey, presumably on the assumption that he’s the only Republican (to the infinitesimal degree that he is) that can win Rhode Island. But here’s where the dim bulbedness comes into play. According to them, if even with the support of the NRSC, he loses the nomination, he’ll run as an independent.

But that would seem to me to result in a Republican win, because an independent (and liberal) Chafee would split the liberal vote with the Democrat candidate, whereas the Republicans would coalesce around Laffey. So this really is a fight worth waging, and it not only doesn’t necessarily risk a Senate seat for Republicans, but it might be an opportunity to replace Chafee with a real Republican, and provide a lesson to the other RINOs.

He should be. John Bolton has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. By a Swede.

Boy, that one’s going to piss off the TSA…

It shows a woman TSAer faking a wanding at the security line to steal a passenger’s soft drink.

…that John McCain is trying to rehabilitate his image with conservatives, in preparation for a run for the White House, this should put it to rest:

Sen. John McCain, who is to endorse Rep. John Shadegg for Maj Leader at a 3:15 Capitol presser, has already started calling around to some of his GOP pals in the House.

One thing to offer an endorsement to his fellow AZ’an and pork-buster, but quite another to actively whip support for his bid.

A Canadian who doesn’t hate the US has a response to Michael Moore’s idiocy:

Michael, even though you are highly political and rub some folks on the other end of the political spectrum the wrong way, we do appreciate your unabashed enthusiasm for our country.

You might be surprised to know that there are a considerable number of us who have kind thoughts and feelings toward Americans and America, even when we differ on some the policies coming out of Washington.

We wanted to elect people to national office who reflect that view and not the American-bashing one that the Liberals have spewing out for 13 years. That is why we sent the Conservatives to Ottawa.

Brian Anderson has a long, but frightening essay in today’s Journal about the steady deterioration of our First Amendment rights to free speech under the steady pressure of campaign finance “reformers,” spending millions of their own money to ensure that we won’t be able to express our political opinions on line.

If we don’t do something to arrest this, the political blogosphere will be shut down by the election season of 2008. I, for one, say that they’ll take away my keyboard from my cold, dead fingers.

Jim Bennett has some advice for the incoming Canadian Prime Minister:

…the Prime Minister’s office is a pretty good bully pulpit, and he would be smart to use it to start deconstructing the Trudeavean deconstruction of the old Canada. He should make sure the Canadian troops in Afghanistan are decorated in a visible and public ceremony, exactly what has been denied to them to date. He should make a show of honoring the Canadian WWII veterans conspicuously and repeatedly, and having a substantial ceremony on every one of the big Canadian military anniversaries: Vimy, Dieppe, D-Day, etc. He might bring back the Red Ensign in a historical context — ordering it flown as a “veteran’s memorial flag” on select days like D-Day, and for Canadian ships to fly the Blue Ensign on a suitable day as well, maybe November 11th. It would be very hard for people to criticize him for remembering the veterans more conspicuously. And perhaps he might even consider a surprise visit to the forces in Afghanistan.

In foreign policy, he and his external affairs minister can do a lot to change the tone without legislation. Rather than being conspicuously closer to Bush, (which the media is waiting to jump on him for) he should become buddies with John Howard of Australia and to a lesser extent Tony Blair (while inviting the new British Tory leader Cameron to Ottawa for a visit. Cameron might spend some time thinking about why his party is now the only major Anglosphere right party to be out of power.)

From Mark Steyn.

The Conservatives have won, though it looks like it will be a coalition government. And it looks like Belinda will keep her seat, so she may have some bargaining leverage to keep her cabinet post if she wants to ditch her new-found Liberal friends and become a Conservative again.

Also, this will give Alberta and Saskatchewan a lot more clout in Ottawa.

Arnold Kling talks about folk Marxism, and its unfortunate hold on much of the public, particularly in Europe, but also, sadly, in the US.

Under folk Marxism, the oppressed class has inherent moral superiority to the oppressor class… Class membership trumps individual character in determining moral standing. It should be no surprise that this belief could lead to tyranny and wanton murder by government. It should be no surprise that this belief has failed to improve the lot of those regarded as “oppressed.” It inverts Martin Luther King’s call to judge people by the content of their character.

Even when Marxism does not lead to tyranny, it retards economic growth, as the stagnation of continental Europe indicates. If you believe that the poor are oppressed and the rich are oppressors, then your impulse is to penalize work, risk-taking, innovation, and saving — the engines of economic progress.

Well, at least the Canadians are on the verge of throwing off their true oppressors today.

…Joe Biden, usually a fixture on Sunday morning, wasn’t on any of the political talk shows. Maybe he’s figured he already said enough on television this week to last for a couple weeks. The questioning from Chris Wallace or Tim Russert would have no doubt been amusing, and not of much value to his presidential ambitions. I suspect he’ll lay low for a while, and hope that people forget.