Friday, June 08, 2007

Two unrelated points ...

I know that Publius has raised the issue the Corner's Rudymania in the past, I still tend to think that the Rudymania mainly comes as a result of their search for an alternate leader in the absence of George Bush. What I think will be the key moment is whether or not the Rudymania continues to its current degree once Fred Thompson jumps into the race. I've still yet to see any particularly compelling evidence that Giuliani would be so much better on terrorism than any of the other candidates other than that he was tough on crime in New York City and that he happened to be mayor when 9/11 occurred. The latter argument in particular is starting to annoy me to the point where it has become the rhetorical (as opposed to moral) equivalent of John Kerry's argument that he would make a better president than Bush because he "served in Vietnam."

One other thing I might add is that there the Corner has had some pretty screwed up comments recently. From Derbyshire's argument that Scooter Libby just needs to suck it up and take it when it comes to doing hard time because he was a senior government official (guilt or innocence appear to be a secondary matter to Derbyshire) to Mark Krikorian's uncovering subversive meanings in the phrase "nation of immigrants." Thankfully both of these remarks were quickly repudiated by their colleagues, but somebody needs to get NRO some better quality control.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Along the same lines, Linda Chavez's piece today is very, very good.

Here. Incidentally, I am way too into intramural political arguments... I should have that checked out.

Anonymous said...

The Blackadder Says:

The whole "nation of immigrants" thing on the Corner gave me the creeps, as do the links between the Center for Immigration Studies and the Zero Population growth folks. Derb, on the other hand, is known for being utterly heartless. It's kind of his thing. I take it that most of the folks at the Corner just ignore him.

torquemada05 said...

I have always seen Derbyshire as kind of the crazy uncle over at NRO that everyone tolerates while being aware that he is nuts. The Krikorian comment and his refusal to back down on it was just crazy however and makes me extremely leery about listening to anything else he has to say on the issue. I think that there are more than adequate ways to talk about the issue of immigration while staying well clear of that kind of insanity.