Respect Street (closed until further notice)

No time for a really decent post, but I want to highlight two things. One, I think digby gets it exactly right when she argues that "Conservatism Is A Luxury":

When things are going well, people have the luxury of being able to argue over lipsticks on blowjobs and whether a blastocyst has more rights than a stem cell. When they aren't, they don't want the blastocyst and lipstick people in charge.

Why would they? Essentially Republicans are entertainers. When times are good, they bring you fun homegrown culture wars and violent foreign shooting wars. (Let's go shopping!.) People barely pay attention and when they can't help watching, as with the impeachment or 9/11, it's turned into a media porn spectacle: Shock And Awe starring Jenna Jameson. It's very cathartic.

But they don't actually govern the country because they don't believe in government (at least for anything but helping them wage their wars for profit and skimming from the taxpayers.) So, when people's lives actually start to become affected by their malfeasance, it's only natural that they get serious. They may just get serious now.

And Two: Obama, finally, has used the unpleasant economic news to hit McCain without the tired old bromides about McCain's "honor" or "integrity" or "service" and instead just goes after him full-bore. Serves him right. John "I was a POW" McCain obviously doesn't respect Barack Obama, and doesn't consider him a worthy adversary, so why should Respect Street always fucking be one-way? Like I said in my last post, why do we have to always be nice and they get to behave like poo-flinging monkeys? Chris Bowers at Open Left gives Obama props for dropping all that homage crap:

The absence of such compliments to McCain is refreshing, and conveys a real confidence from Obama. Back when Obama was prefacing all of his attacks on Obama with a statement on how much he deeply respects John McCain's service to America, frankly it made what he said afterward sound like he was walking on eggshells. Honestly, apart from repeating McCain's message, and apart from irritating many of his own supporters, paying tribute to John McCain before attacking him just made the criticisms that followed sound weak and wimpy. These attacks, by contrast, sound confident, on message, and sharp.

[snip]

I like Democrats when they talk like this. Makes me proud. Wish I would see this side of them more often.

Amen to that, bro. Keep hittin 'em hard, Barack.