The Pendragon's Hall

Ann Coulter hit the nail on the head this week. The Pendragon has been ignoring the hooplah over Bush's firing of several US attorneys because as always it is overplayed. But the fact of the matter is, Presidents are political creatures and them acting in a political sense is by no means illegal. US attorneys serve at the behest of the President and may be dismissed at his pleasure as well. I would think the Democrats would want to bolster this tradition on the off-chance they win the White House next year. Plus, it is also worthwhile asking what happened to Republican staffers when the Democrats took over Congress? I'd be willing to bet some of them were fired for being Republicans. And when Clinton came to office in 1993 he fired a whole slew of White House staff who'd worked there for years so he could replace them with his own hippy-go-free-free fruitcakes. What was that if not political patronage for his workers. It's true: in Washington being a Republican is now a federal offense, while being a Democrat excuses everything.

The Pendragon grows weary of the whining of small-minded men. Hoping to get a break from the nastiness at the national level, I turned to the local level only to find people are just as stupid, maybe more so. Perhaps all governments should be monarchies. I am beginning to doubt the people of any nation on this planet have the necessary brains to govern themselves. The annoyance this time concerns a race for town council in a nearby town (names withheld to protect the stupid). Apparently a week or two before the election the citizens of this fair town awoke to find a letter in each mailbox purportedly from the challenging candidate, in which his entire career was cast into doubt by noting certain unsavory stances he had taken in the past. On election day, said candidate was narrowly defeated. Now the town is up in arms and screaming about how they would have voted for the other guy if they knew that negative letter wasn't really from him.

Maybe the New York City crowd is right and people in the country really are idiots. Let me tell a little story: Once a cat killed a bird. The people of the town seeing this all began to kill birds until all the birds were gone. Then they began to complain against the cat, saying, "The cat killed a bird and now all the birds are gone." Am I rambling? No! Politics is dirty. If a politician behaves like a politician and you follow along, you cannot blame the politician. Think for yourselves next time. You deserve everything you get.

As much as the Pendragon has growing respect for Mitt Romney and likes the momentum his campaign is gaining, the 2008 election has me profoundly depressed. Even if Romney wins the nomination, will conservative Christians have the same sense they did in 1980 when they picked the issues over theology in a president and voted for Reagan instead of Carter? It seems unlikely. No, they'll stay home or skive off to support third-party candidates that claim to be Christian. Or, which is more likely, they'll scuttle his quest for the nomination either by supporting no-chance candidates like Sam Brownback or choosing to back someone like Giuliani who claims to be Catholic but whose faith does not inform his decision-making. Even the Pendragon remains uncertain of my course should Giuliani be nominated. Hillary of course would immediately unite the Republican Party and any right-leaning independents behind her opponent, whoever he would be. But what if John Edwards or Barack Obama were to run against Giuliani or McCain? The only basic difference between these candidates is the letter that would appear after their name on the ballot. Would the Pendragon vote Democrat? I am not willing to entirely rule it out. Or would I dare to split for a more conservative third-party candidate, knowing I could be helping to elect a Democrat? Well, I did that in 2002 for the governor's race--voting for an independent over so-called Republican George Pataki. All in all, the candidates assembled for next year's election are a rather lackluster group divided between the unthinkable (Hillary), the unworkable (Brownback, Obama), the stupid (Edwards), and the just plain blah (Giuliani, McCain). This is the reason above all for my endorsement of Romney--electability (if the Christians insist on substance rather than name) wedded to unimpeachable conservative credentials. Plus, of course, it is a way for Republicans to note themselves as the first party to nominate someone not claiming to belong to any Christian denomination without sacrificing their position on the issues. Will voters be smart enough to seize the day? Probably not.

Yesterday Americans marked a somber occasion: the 4th anniversary of the war in Iraq. The Pendragon remembers he did not go into work today because I was up all night celebrating and watching the news. I was so psyched to see one brutal dictator getting what he deserved. I remain so to this day. It is disgraceful that the country that saved the world twice during the last century now debates the worth of the sacrifice of less than four thousand brave men and women over a four-year period. In World War II we lost hundreds of thousands per day. And while we're at it, for the most part, that war was also a pre-emptive strike. When Japan finally retaliated for FDR's covert operations, it brought us into a war against Italy and Germany who had never attacked us, but who we feared might someday want to do so. By today's logic, we should have bombed Japan and overthrown the Emperor, but left Hitler and Mussolini free to do their will in Europe until we had a smoking gun. The Pendragon is actually sympathetic to the idea that we should have backed up Britain but let Stalin and Hitler duke it out on the Eastern front. Whoever won would be so spent we could take them out easily if we needed to. But I digress. The war in Iraq has been the closest thing to bloodless since the Spanish-American War and while we have suffered losses, the enemy has suffered far more. Let the wienies shut up, let History render its judgment: the Iraq War is a resounding success!

Mitt Romney is rising in my estimation. At the Miami-Dade Lincoln Day dinner on Friday he laid out a seven-point plan for US relations with Latin America. His suggested stratgies include continued isolation of Castro's regime in Cuba, US support predicated on return support from the nations we aid, use of our media to properly instruct public opinion throughout Latin America so they don't have to hear it from blowhards like Chavez, improved free trade relations with Latin American nations, we must bolster relations with friendly Latin American nations, a crackdown on illegal immigration while encouraging the legal alternative, and finally, never to forget our friends in the hemisphere. Romney correctly lumped Hugo Chavez, who even now is showing his true colors as a dictator, with Fidel Castro and called for an end to both regimes, not necessarily through military involvement but through aid to those resisting them and diplomatic pressure on their tottering autocracies. Strength in the face of noise from the leftwing nutbolts now in power in Cuba and Venezuela is an absolute must in Washington. Mitt Romney continues to demonstrate his remarkable fitness for the nation's highest elected office. Let's hope the voters, Republican and otherwise, see it this way.

"It is the strength of our military, the strength of our families, the strength of the American people, the strength of the many Americans who trace their roots to the soil of Cuba and Latin America, it is all this strength that gives me such confidence that someday, soon, the people of Cuba will be free. I look forward to the day when the stain of Castro is rinsed from the Cuban soil, when the Cuban people can stand with their American brothers and sisters and say these words - Libertad, Libertad, Libertad."

The Pendragon is a deeply-conflicted conservative at times. Committed to a Madisonian view of the world, that reason should prevail over mindless passion, I nevertheless find colorful political figures attractive. I mentioned to a fellow student at the University of Rochester that I regretted not living in the Progressive Era (1890-1920) or even the Age of Jackson (1824-1850ish) because then politics was very exciting. Despite the fact that I disapprove wholeheartedly of his Indian removal policy, I find it thrilling when the Supreme Court demanded one course of action, that an elected official responded, "John Marshall has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it!" And who could not love Theodore Roosevelt with his determination to break the huge corporations and make life easier for the little man? Let's face it--politicians today tend to be kind of boring. I do not intend by this to announce my formal endorsement of Rudy Giuliani but to introduce my thoughts on the recent debacle concerning fiery conservative commentator Ann Coulter, who apparently is in hot water for referring to Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards as a "faggot." Republicans and Democrats alike are scrambling to repudiate her, even my man--Mitt Romney. But the Pendragon is of two minds about this. On the one hand, Coulter, please stop shooting off your mouth so much. You're making us all look bad. On the other, well, it would explain a lot about John Edwards. Just kidding. Seriously though, how many Republican lawmakers have been mocked in terms of sexuality, race or any other thing you can think of? Senator Santorum, even in defeat, was mockingly referred to as "Rick the Dick" by liberal commentators and nobody on either side of the aisle scrambled to disassociate themselves. Let's face it, despite our constant plea for no name calling, it makes for a more fun election. Plus, if the ambulance chaser and the wicked witch are going to be involved, it makes sense. I do not hold any hatred for the homosexual community, though I strongly disagree with their lifestyle, and certainly we should not be using derogative terms for them as the worst insult leveled against someone with whom we disagree. Nevertheless, this is politics and those who can't stand the pressure should get out of the race. John Edwards went weeping to his homosexual base to ask for $10,000 "Coulter cash" to help win the nomination. I almost donated. He's a moron, but he's the least scary of all the presidential candidates on the Democratic side of the aisle.