Don't Go Away Mad...
Colbert King

Sheila rounds up a Lott of columns

New York Post
...Just GO AWAY!

FBI reportedly didn't act on Ptech tips
There were earlier stories about the BinLaden Family escaping, and the FBI messing that up. Our local talk show had a caller who had tried to deal with the FBI when his phones were hijacked one night. The numbers dialled were all Pakistani addresses and other Mideast locations. The Fibbies didn't want to know. They would rather pick low-hanging fruit and not have hard investigations, which might be understandable but could be fatal.

Frank, who to replace Lott?

Michelle Malkin, Vacant Lott.

Christopher Johnson,

To hell with the party, to hell with conservative principles. I'm not giving up my Meet the Press time. If this were the first time Mr. Lott had ever said something like this and, more importantly, if Mr. Lott was an effective Majority Leader, I would say that everyone says and writes stupid things now and then so move on. But it is not. Lott has been far too careless for far too long.

David Frum points out that conservatives are most upset:

For eight long years under Bill Clinton, conservatives incessantly argued that character counts. “You can’t be one kind of man and a different kind of president,” said Lynn Martin at the 1992 GOP convention, and conservatives have been repeating the point ever since. When one of their own does something they consider seriously morally wrong, the conservative impulse is not to rally ‘round and pooh-pooh the offense. (“Everybody lies about segregationism.”) The conservative impulse is to question whether a moral offender can continue as a political leader.

Lott's Go!

Should he stay or should he go now?

Instapundit is all over this story, and says it may have reached the tipping point. (And that was before Bush reamed him.)

Scrappleface on Dems.

Midwest Conservative Journal:

And we on the right, who have driven the anti-Lott sentiment, can at least brag about this. The left was willing to go to any length to keep a president in office who had committed felonies. We conservatives, though, have much higher standards for our leaders. We are eager to dispense with a mere congressional leader for a careless and tone-deaf opinion.

Christmas at the White House

Rainbow Food Cooperative. Unfortunately, they've blinked again and caved to the Islamists.

Pilgrim means peace, Islam means disorder (via Cal Ulmann.)

National Review editorial on Daschle and Rush and Uncle Tom Cobley and all.

Kill Kurds, Not Mumia.

First an Archbishop Druid, now this.

Buckley on Algore.

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

Geitner Simmons.

The Times, they are a'changing.

Instapundit:

If Raines wanted to launch a big crusade, worthy of the Times -- and one that would even hurt Republicans -- he could devote the New York Times' vast reportorial resources to unravelling the web of Saudi financial influence in Washington. Instead, he's worried about golf.

Little More on Lott:

Bill Quick:

I still think he should go, (not from the Senate, but from the leadership) because this latest contretemps demonstrates a problem with Lott that has existed for years: He's stupid.

Also, he lacks a spine, but that's a whole different issue.

Which elicited this comment:

The Dems and their friends in the media could be making a mighty stink about this but they aren't. In fact, Daschle was downright forgiving. Why? They like him exactly where he is and want him to stay on as majority leader because he's such a dimwit and so easy to roll.

David Frum:

Kerry’s entry into the race – and his choice of issues – is an early hint that the Democrats as a party are not taking seriously their defeat in the ’00 and ’02 elections. Of their top possible candidates – Gore, Kerry, Lieberman, Daschle, Gephardt, Edwards, Davis, Dean – all but Edwards have made clear that they are going to campaign on what might be called the Sorehead Platform: We were robbed in 2000! Roger Ailes wouldn’t let us get our message out in ’02! No to everything that has happened since – no to tax cuts, no to military action in Iraq, no to homeland security, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, and we almost forgot: all that talk about increasing energy production here in North America? No to that too.

Also:

The Koran itself tells us that Muhammad had a lively appreciation of feminine beauty. On a visit one day to his adopted son Zaid, Muhammad was struck by the loveliness of Zaid's wife, Zainab. Soon afterward, Muhammad announced that he had a revelation from Allah: Zaid and Zainab must divorce -- and Zainab must then remarry Muhammad. (The Clans, 33:37). The incident caused another of Muhammad's wives, Aisha, to observe: "I see your Allah quickly grants your desire."

Muhammad possessed somewhere between 10 and 12 wives over his lifetime. Other Muslims were allowed no more than four, but Allah waived the restriction in Muhammad's unique case. (The Clans, 33:50).

Lileks:

what will probably happen anyway: the separation of that intangible bond between America and Europe. They’ll be just another continent, like South America, neither friend nor foe. And should their bacon need saving - bacon from pigs fed only non-GM feed, hand-trimmed by butchers to EU specs - then the American response would probably be a short bark of humorless amusement: as if.

By “Europe” I mean Western Europe. Eastern Europe is probably much more dependable and friendly.

Wonder how that happened.

Whole Lott of Trouble:
David Frum.

Arthur Silbur:

And one last, perhaps comparatively minor, but related question: to borrow the old cliche, would you buy a used car from Lott? I sure as hell wouldn't. Lott has always struck me as incredibly smarmy, and I can easily imagine him draping his arm around someone's shoulder in his overbearingly friendly manner, smiling that nasty little smile (which seems to imply that he's sharing a very unpleasant dirty little joke with you), and slowly but surely sliding the knife into the other person's back.

Virginia Postrel also describes him as smarmy. She also says:

Where's Howell Raines's crusading southern liberalism when it's needed? (Mark Kleiman notes that the NYT is AWOL on the story; I guess country clubs are more important than the Senate.)

(Via Glenn), who later quotes reader Greg Barto:

As a Republican who has watched Trent Lott excel even Bob Dole in flushing my party's opportunities down the toilet, I'll shed no tears if he's ousted.

Andrew Sullivan:

And where's the New York Times? Howell Raines is so intent on finding Bull Connor in a tony golf club that when Bull Connor emerges as the soul of the Republican Senate Majority Leader, he doesn't notice it. And where's the president?

Rand on Trent Lott:

I believe that he should resign for the same reason that I've thought that he should resign ever since he took the post six years ago--he's a politically tone-deaf idiot, a gutless wonder who presided over and enabled the sham trial in impeachment, and let the Democrats roll him time and time again. If he stays in power, he's quite likely to continue to do and say stupid things that will lose him the Senate, or at least more likely than most of his probable replacements.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Affable and inept.

Josh Chavetz:

LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT ... At the same time that the UN is telling the US that it needs to be more multilateral, at the same time that the UN is begging the US for a $1.3 billion interest free loan to renovate the buildings on formerly US sovereign territory -- buildings which, by the way, sit on obscenely expensive land that was given to the UN by an American philanthropist -- UN weapons inspectors are telling the US that it will only get to see a bowdlerized version of the statement Iraq released yesterday. Is that about right? Explain to me again why this whole UN thing was a good idea ...

(via Instantman, of course.)

It's OK, though. Al is on the case.

Cardinal Law is back in Rome. The Pope better do the right thing this time. (He's probably more upset about the impending bankruptcy. Morals, not money, is where they're most bankrupt.) Boston SHOULD be Lawless!!

Steve Gigl fisks binLaden:

Worst. Civilization. Ever. Oh thank you, Osama, for making us see the light! You can be certain that I'll get right on that whole setting-up-sharia-in-America thing, just as soon as I stop GUT-LAUGHING, you spoiled little rich brat from Saudi FREAKING Arabia. When we start stoning women for getting raped in the US, I'll be sure to be less sarcastic about this.

Joshua Furgusen on who really made the binLaden tape. This is a pretty good theory. (via Instantman, of course.)

Bigwig:

Despite the now-increased threat of bankruptcy that has dogged the company all year long, United Airlines managed to find $192,275 to give the Democratic and Republicans parties in 2002.

So, from a shareholder's point of view, is that money well-spent if it buys enough influence to keep the company from going under? If it's not, how much money should United have spent? Would five hundred thousand dollars have been enough? As big as amount as that is, it's a drop in the bucket for a company with a billion in cash reserves. If you're an an American citizen as well a shareholder in United, do you celebrate the rise in value of your stock given the parlous economic times, or do you decry the influence of big money on the government, even though that influence has benefited you personally?