Am I missing something here? Sully has given an Yglesias award to someone saying that we need to cut Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and defense. That person is Kevin Williamson of the National Review. I thought the Yglesias Award was for becoming increasingly indistinguishable from Mickey Kaus going against “your side,” which is understood to be an inherently principled thing in the eyes of the Beltway. (In reality, bullshit.) But a person at NRO calling for cuts to the three pillars of our social safety net (PPACA is on its way to becoming the fourth) seems like a dog bites man story to me, even if its ostensibly criticism of Romney. Yeah, I get that he threw in defense, but nobody believes a Republican president is going to sign any bill that throws cuts at the Pentagon. I’m not sure I get the reason for the award.
Perhaps the reality is just that, in today’s climate, a Republican saying “three for us, one for you” is about as close to cooperation as the GOP’s ever going to get.
mistermix
The simple trick of not reading Sullivan anymore has cleared my mind of these kinds of questions. You might want to try it.
Brachiator
@Freddie deBoer:
Nah, you’re not missing anything. Sully will give awards to people who whip his favorite dead horses.
As an aside, an interesting short piece in the New Yorker on The Cost of College. You anticipated a hot topic.
Zifnab
Republican spouts hot air, pounds the table, and preens himself while being very serious. Other Republican gives him an award.
That’s just how the game is played, John.
Freddie deBoer
Truly, the whole “shared sacrifice” routine is kind of the Platonic form of contemporary political bullshit.
Hey, we’ve all gotta have sufficient virtue, and really suffer….
cmorenc
Sullivan is a confused ass-hat who cannot intellectually or emotionally come to grips with the fact that practical on-the-ground conservatism is malignantly unlike his ideal concepts of it, as well as the fact that most conservatives viscerally hate gay pseudo-intellectuals like Andrew Sullivan and would gladly butt-fuck him with a rusty pitchfork if they could get away with it without going to jail.
George Tierney of Greenville, South Carolina
Hey Freddie, don’t you deserve an Yglesias Award for saying you won’t vote for Black Metrosexual Abe Lincoln?
The Other Chuck
Saying that, maybe. When it comes to honoring the deal, it becomes “three for us, one for us”
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
You’re flaw, Freddie, is that you are looking for consistency. That is a Democratic trait, not a Republican one. The only consistency require by people like Sully is that it advance their worldview.
Mike Goetz
I think the Yglesias comes in when Williamson says that anybody who refuses to cut defense is not serious about the budget or the deficit.
You know, agreeing with what we say all the time. Thus the award.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
Reading the NRO guy’s full quote, he’s basically saying that if Romney’s true intent is to gut the social safety net, then he might as well run on his plan to do that. That counts as ‘insightful’ for the RW now.
That said, in reading between the lines over the past week or so, Sullivan seems to have decided that Obama’s going to lose. Hence the new ‘seriousness’ of the idea of a Romney administration.
This started right about the time BHO came out for same-sex marriage BTW. (I have no ideas or thoughts as to whether or not these two things are connected, but that was the timing I observed).
Brian S
Forget it Jake. It’s Sullivan.
Zifnab
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Oh please. Let’s not get too cheerleader-esque here. Obama was on board with benefit cuts not more than a few years back. The only difference between Democrats and Republicans is that when something appears intensely unpopular, the Democrats back away from the issue rather than doubling down and calling everyone that disagrees with them stupid.
Left to their own devices, I have no doubt you could round up 4-5 Senators necessary to hit the magic “51” and pass all sorts of horrible safety-net slicing.
beltane
The only thing that matters to Sullivan is that Kevin Williamson did not use vulgar language in proposing a plan that would reduce millions of Americans to destitution, humiliation and physical suffering. The only thing Sully cares about is that his beloved wolves have the decency to dress as sheep because he finds the sight of their fangs to be somewhat disturbing to his delicate sensibilities.
Heliopause
Your first mistake was reading Sullivan. Your second mistake was expecting coherence.
George Tierney of Greenville, South Carolina
Freddie, explain to us why anyone should care what Sully says?
dedc79
The funny thing is, that’s not even what’s happening. This is a pundit suggesting that a Republican do that. Which is a far cry from an actual republican politician doing it. Which is still a far cry from anything approaching a real compromise with Democrats.
Freddie deBoer
Well, yes, I’m coming around to that, guys.
Carbon Dated
Why are my comments being deleted?
They’re not spam. They’re trenchant, damn it!
Violet
@cmorenc:
Since these days it seems like most male conservatives are closeted gay men, this part of your post is very true.
Freddie deBoer
@Carbon Dated: Hey Carbon, I’m afraid that I know nothing about the comment moderation here. I’m certain it’s automated and WordPress just thinks they’re spam. Sorry about that.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Since Williamson is bold and bipartisan in suggesting cutting defense does that mean the cuts he is calling for are in the VA?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Carbon Dated:
Because a cat in upstate New York doesn’t like them. Got to pass the pet test here.
velouria
@mistermix: Yep. I deleted him from my RSS reader a few months ago and haven’t missed him at all.
David Hunt
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Actually, I expect the cat is in West Virginia. What do you think Tunch is doing all day while Cole is at work at [undisclosed location] doing [undisclosed job]? He gets cranky if he isn’t furminated enough.
Mark S.
How are we going to defeat the Taliban if we cut military spending?
Suzan
Shouldn’t we have a “donate” thread for Barrett in Wisconsin? Maybe I missed it? And yes, I need someone to remind me.
Two weeks to go and clear out here in Utah we don’t hear much about it. Latest poll (according to TPM) shows Walker is only 3 points ahead so maybe the good guys can win one?
Linda Featheringill
@George Tierney of Greenville, South Carolina:
What a delightful nom-de-whatever! :-)
George Tierney of Greenville, South Carolina
Freddie, you’re nauseating.
slag
Yeah. But maybe he used words of more than one syllable. Sullivan’s a sucker for polysyllabic poppycock. And vacant blue eyes, apparently.
kindness
Consider the source. It’s Sully. I read him every day but 13/16th of what he writes is a crock o’ crap.
Barry
Andrew Sullivan is a rather dishonest piece, with only one redeeming feature (he doesn’t like torture). Otherwise, he’s a classic Republican with only one problem, that he’s gay, and so takes a personal interest in gay rights. Otherwise, he’d be a bog standard Republican.
kc
Andrew Sullivan needs to just shut his god damn dick su – sorry, I’ve been exposed to a little too much George Tierney, Jr. of Greenville, South Carolina.
Stuck in the Funhouse
When it comes to Sullivan, some days you ride the unicorn, other days you gotta shovel the elephant shit.
Steeplejack
As we have discussed here ad nauseam, Sully is
increasinglyirrelevant. So why torture yourself trying to make sense of this?Schlemizel
Why is this so hard for people here to get? Little Andy is a Republican cock sucker. Any Republican, any time. He has never been anything else and he repeats his pathetic performance time and time and time and time and time again.
Yet you guys on the front page insist that he has some value to actual people and actual political debate. He very well might some day but it is impossible to understand him with that Republican cock in his mouth.
BTW – this is not a reference to Mr. S. homosexuality but to his desire to service those who will gladly push him into the ovens once they get a chance.
Mark S.
This just in
George Tierney, Jr. of Greenville, South Carolina is tight with Mick Jagger.
Villago Delenda Est
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Not even that. Their own short term gratification is what needs to be advanced.
PeakVT
Fuck Colin Powell. If you’re listening to NPR about now you’ll understand why it needs to be said again.
Stuck in the Funhouse
Join the club. If you aren’t confused, then you don’t know what’s going on.
Such as wingnuts hollering ‘coverup’ cause Mr. B-ker got read the riot act by the Obama campaign, and that is why he “clarified” his remarks. That is like a Romney flip flop ten thousand times over.
Mark S.
We are still awaiting confirmation if George Tierney, Jr. of Greenville, South Carolina has got the moves like Jagger.
(sorry for putting that song in everyone’s head)
danimal
@David Hunt: To be fair, said cat is rather large, and could conceivably be located in West Virginia AND upstate New York.
Mark S.
Does anyone know anything about shallots? They’re not supposed to be green and mushy, right?
Citizen_X
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:
Ahh. There’s the reason that this guy stands out as a mavericky maverick: he’s a Republican that suggests Republicans should actually tell people what they are going to do.
That is different, you must admit!
bemused
@Mark S.:
I hope that’s not a serious question.
Peregrinus
@Brachiator:
The Frank Bruni article FdB eviscerated came up the other day at my girlfriend’s diploma ceremony – because a faculty member proceeded to deftly shred it with a few well-placed remarks about the status of the humanities. Truly it was a spectacle of beauty.
Anyway, on the subject, Sullivan needs to check himself. Even when I thought some of his stuff was very much on point and necessary, the awards crap seemed pointless at best and at worst legitimately destructive to discourse, at least as far as he was concerned.
eemom
@Steeplejack:
Much as I agree with this sentiment, “ad nauseum” really doesn’t do justice to the matter. We’re gonna need a new phrase. What is Latin for “never in recorded history have so many words been expended on so stupid of a topic”?
eemom
@PeakVT:
It also needs to be emphasized. Fuck Colin Powell.
He’s as despicable of an enabler today as he was in 2003.
Peregrinus
@eemom:
Personally, I think “ad nauseam” is more or less right, but that might just be too much pita-and-hummus for lunch.
As for your Latin, while I think the language handles some of that differently, I’d say this is a serviceable translation:
Nunquam in scriptā historiā tanta verba sumpta sunt in materiam tam stultam.
If DXM or someone else with some Latin expertise is around, we can debate a few things about it, but I think that should work.
Yutsano
@Mark S.: Survey says no. Store run for you good sir!
danimal
OT rant to follow:
Oh my God, if I stroke out, I’m blaming you, Freddie deBoer. After reading this post, I decided to check out Sully’s blog and found a little ditty by the self-proclaimed “fiscal conservative” demonstrating that deficits are a Republican phenomenon. He’s right, of course, but my blood pressure surge is due to the utter lack of contrition that Mr. Sullivan shows for his complicity. I have a functioning memory, so I remember that Sully’s fiscal prowess is only rivaled by his diplomatic prowess (see War, Iraq).
HE SUPPORTED THE BUSH TAX FRAUD. Vociferously. Smugly. How in the world does he get a free pass here? He backed the profligacy he now deplores. When he was in a position to do something about it, he chose wrong. I regard the Bush Tax Fraud as the greatest error (among many-it’s a target-rich environment) unleashed during the Bush Regime, and I remember how impervious Sully was to logic and math at the time. He doesn’t get to tut-tut anyone when he was a Bush ring-leader at the time. Gawd, what an ass.
ETA: link http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/05/if-you-want-a-debt-and-spending-binge-vote-gop.html
Suffern ACE
@danimal: At the time, he had only been in the country a decade or so, and didn’t realize how deep the Straussians ran.
Villago Delenda Est
@Citizen_X:
Honesty is the best policy?
This from a Rethuglican?
I need a fainting couch. Stat!
Villago Delenda Est
@eemom:
Well, you really need to go after his “investigation” of My Lai to get the full picture. So 1970, at least.
daverave
Any blogopundit that eschews reader commentary on all of his/her postings gets no clicks from moi. Why do you think everyone hangs around this joint? It ain’t always about the front-pagers, Sully.
dedc79
to put it in education terms, what we have here is some serious grade inflation. Soon republicans will be getting awards for not foaming at the mouth when they speak.
Older_Wiser
I always thought the “Iglesias” award was for sheer Republican double-speak fuckery.
Meanwhile, they’ll get my SS and Medicare only from my dead, cold fingers. Meaning: they’ll have to kill me. And I have no doubt they would.
Peregrinus
@dedc79:
I thought we were already at that point.
PeakVT
The Secretary of Blameshifting’s interview on NPR.
kay
@eemom:
Jeffery Toobin just mournfully wrote that they’re going to get rid of section 5 of the VRA when it gets to SCOTUS. He KNOWS it. Can FEEL it.
So I of course thought of you :)
He’s having a breakdown right before our eyes, eemom. I can’t look away.
Brachiator
@eemom:
And yet it also appears that Cheney used Powell’s credibility to push the lie about WMDs. I get the impression that Cheney didn’t think that Powell would just go along with a blatant lie, and so had to be manipulated.
And Cheney had no problem if Powell’s reputation was later damaged, making sure that he could not get any significant political recovery within the GOP.
And the under-investigated story is why Powell didn’t not have, or did not trust, resources at State that might have alerted him to Cheney’s BS.
Shorter, OK, fuck Colin Powell, but Cheney fucked him good already.
Davis X. Machina
@Peregrinus: Impeccable, mostly. materies is usually fifth declension , though it has a first-delclension doublet. And with macrons no less.
Come screw up my curve sometime. My typical student copies words from the dictionary and strings them together, uninflected, and then looks hurt when I announce, “That’s a list. That is not a sentence”.
Peregrinus
@Davis X. Machina:
I’d love to screw up your curve, even if that sounds like an educator’s favorite pickup line. The only problem is that actually, my curves get screwed as well – I teach Latin, and Spanish, for a Jesuit school in Rochester. :-)
(And, of course, my typical student does more or less the same thing.)
To be honest, I had no idea about materiēs. We learned the first-declension version last semester and William Whitaker seemed to like it. My Spanish side would argue for thema, as well.
Omnes Omnibus
@dedc79: Isn’t that how Romney became the frontrunner?
eemom
@kay:
Thanks. I do love a good train wreck. :)
Omnes Omnibus
@kay: What happened to him? He has become Chicken Little.
Davis X. Machina
@Peregrinus: That’d be McQuaid. I taught high school for the Jesuits until the Bush I recession — and I’d go back in a heartbeat, except for the public-schools pension and such, now I’m in golden handcuffs.
Peregrinus
@Davis X. Machina:
I call it The School when I’m online, but yes. Much different place when you stopped working for the Jesuits, I would imagine.
TenguPhule
U’re doing it Rong!
You pry it out of THEIR Cold Dead fingers. After you’ve hit them with a truck, backed up and then run them over again to be sure.
TenguPhule
Less Sex, More Death. Its the American way.
kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
I don’t know. I really think he’s in a kind of mourning.
His post ends “it will be up to the majority white legislatures in southern states to protect voting rights” ( words like that, but I’m close).
Now I’m afraid he’s going to get fired from CNN.
Omnes Omnibus
@kay: I guess I would wait to mourn until the decisions are actually in. I really doubt that he has sources who can give him a hard vote count an Court decision.
PST
I don’t think it is difficult to understand what Sullivan is saying. Williamson is of the school that thinks reducing the deficit is the top national priority. Republicans are touting Romney as the candidate who can do it. But Romney has not promised in any concrete way cuts in any of the big four: Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, or defense — the last of which he has instead promised to increase. So Williams is telling what is, from the point of view of his camp, an uncomfortable truth. If Romney won’t campaign on cutting these items, then he probably won’t cut them, so the Republican candidate cannot actually be relied on to solve the deficit crisis. People commenting here seem to assume Romney would gladly cut the first three, but Williamson, who thinks he should, doubts he will. Williamson is probably right. By National Review standards Romney is a squish who won’t touch Medicare or Social Security except in minor, symbolic, or distant-future ways. So Williamson is criticizing his side for nominating a useless wimp and is going against the current conventional Republican line of rallying around Romney.
kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
Maybe it’s advocacy? He’s getting absolutely killed by conservatives on election law blogs for his Citizens piece, so they must feel threatened, which makes me like him :)
We can’t compete in the marketplace of ideas, Omnes, which is why we’re ATTACKING Citizens.
I swear. Conservative lawyers are such priggish Weenies.
Omnes Omnibus
@kay: Fair enough. Of course, Unlimited Corporate Cash + Citizens United = VICTORY!
Kevin D. Williamson
The usual correction: I am not a Republican.
Best,
Kevin D. Williamson
RandyH
People still read Andrew Sullivan? Really?
gocart mozart
Oh oh, Sully is being obtuse. Must be a Tuesday.
SoINeedAName48
Damn that Sully …
He is just SPOT ON!!!
(What the HELL do you adolescent juveniles have against Sullivan? And w/e it is – GROW UP & GIVE IT A FUCKING REST!)
kth
Kevin Williamson also wrote a piece making the argument that Republicans are, with unbroken continuity going back to the civil war, the party of racial equality, and the Democrats, similarly, the party of white supremacy to this day. Obviously no less trite or dishonest for this being the 20th iteration of the argument. Jon Chait reduces this argument to rubble here. (OMG, looks like the man himself popped in; no offense taken, I hope!)
George Tierney of Greenville, South Carolina
@kay: well, electionlawblog was saying the same thing.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/18/1092902/-Divided-D-C-Circuit-panel-upholds-Voting-Rights-Act-Supreme-Court-next-nbsp-stop-
so Toobin isn’t the only one who sees the Robert Courts for what it is.
Chris Grrr™
Waiting for Tunch to get his Yglesias award. Or George Tierney, Jr. of Greenville, South Carolina.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kevin D. Williamson:
Oh, so you’re an outright fascist? Do we have that right?
Applejinx
(and a little test to see if it’s my website link that’s making everything I post be deleted)
How is “CUT FUCKING EVERYTHING” in any way counter to what the Republicans are all about, today?
(bingo, that was it)
sherparick
Yep, with the George Tierney Jr. of Greenville, South Carolina, types running things, the Black and Hispanic voters of the Palmetto State (Unofficial State Slogan: “To small for a republic, to large for an insane insylum.”), will have nothing to worry about. States Rights!! is the Battle Cry of the Roberts Court, except of course when it comes to marijuana, civil liberties, and regulating campaign finance.
By the way, if you don’t think Romney and a tea bagger Senate and House won’t do all they can to disenfranchise potential Democratic voting blocs, one simply has not been paying attention the last 12 years.
sherparick
Since this blog started out as post on social security, have you ever notice that when VSP people write about social security, they never mention the actual benefits people receive (whether it is the Petersen Institute, Matt Miller, David Brooks, Robert Samuelson, Sully, etc.)? In 2012, the average benefit for all retired workers is $1,229.00 a month.http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/colafacts.htm
Now if you are a member of the uppper .5%, like most of our media elite, and are retiring with a net worth of around $10,000,000, you might not miss amount from your monthly budget. Hence, no big deal to cut it right. Also, although these facts are amazingly easy to find, the VSP always prefer to keep it the talk about benefits abstract and while always pulling figures out about the “Deficit,” never bother with the huge contraction in demand. They also routinely forget that one of their favorite suggestions, raising the retirement age, has already been put into effect. See http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/colafacts.htm. Finally, they also routinely treat one kind of Treasury bonds as sacred, those held by Foreign central banks and domestic investors, but those held for the Social Security trust funds are just a bunch of IOUs to be welched on.
It is a very dishonest argument and it is all about shifting wealth from the 99% to the .1%.
Hunter
Do you mean to tell me that someone still reads Sullivan? Why?
gaz
@SoINeedAName48: Hello Andrew.