Rod Dreher: August 2008 Archives

In the name of all that is good and holy, won't somebody go to the Abita Brewery and guard its precious stores of beer from the storm and the marauding postapocalyptic hordes?! How stupid was I to come to St. Paul, when clearly I am needed in Abita Springs. I do hope that some men and women of valor from the region will hack through post-Gustavian downed trees and whatnot to reach the brewery's sacred confines.

Everybody go to the Daily Mail and see the photo of the GOP's vice presidential nominee with the bloody caribou she killed. I certainly hope the left-liberal blogosphere will rise up in one to condemn this hideous expression of violence, and talk at the top of its lungs about how the American people cannot let this bloodlusty gun nutter near the White House.

Verily, more people need to hear about the awful, terrible, no-good beauty queen crazy Christian governor who packs heat and brings down caribou. I bet she ripped the poor thing's heart out and ate it raw, right there in the snow. Don't let the Republicans hide this damning information, people!

Hee hee hee.

[H/T: Andrew]

Steve Waldman foresees that some liberals won't be able to keep themselves from making fun of Sarah Palin's views sympathetic to intelligent design, thus leaving Obama's outreach to people of faith in tatters:

In fact, this is almost inevitable that some liberal bloggers will do just that and the Republicans will gather up every one of those Christian-mocking quotes to prove that the Republicans respect them and Democrats don't. For Obama to avoid this fate, he's probably going to do a Sister Souljah on those Democrats who mock Palin, specifically coming to her defense on matters of faith.

P.Z. Myers, this is your chance!

I made a new friend on the flight up: Rob Schlein, head of the Log Cabin Republicans of Dallas County. Rob and his partner flew up as guests of the GOP. As he explains in the short video interview below, the Log Cabin folks are no longer kept at the GOP's margins for the first time -- and this is because of John McCain reaching out to them.

This, I think, is a very good thing. Rob is still pro-Bush, and in some ways is more conservative than I am. I told Rob I take a contrary view to his on gay marriage, and that my chief concern was on the matter of religious liberty. I told him, and I think he agrees, that there are areas of agreement social conservatives and Log Cabin Republicans can find on more pragmatic concerns, e.g., hospital visitation rights, property rights and other things same-sex couples face. Rob said he'd like me to come speak to his group, and I told him I'd be pleased to. We both agreed that Sarah Palin is the bomb.

Watch this short interview I did with Rob. I ask him why he's as a gay man who's active in the GOP:

UPDATE: Looks like YouTube for some reason is having problems with the video. I'll see if I can fix it. Sorry!

Spoke with former Sen. Phil Gramm in DFW Airport this morning. He was last in the news for saying America has become "a nation of whiners" for poormouthing the economy. That caused him to exit the McCain campaign as an adviser, as you'll remember. But some folks, including center-left syndicated columnist Froma Harrop, said that Gramm had a point. Given the recent positive economic numbers, the former Texas senator is claiming vindication. Here's what he told me on the record this morning (he wouldn't let me Flip him; "I don't want to be on camera. I'm too ugly."):

There were two points. I'm not in public life so I don't have to defend myself. But the first point was that we were letting the media and our fears talk us into a mental recession. Now, almost every economist on earth was saying we were going to have negative growth in the second quarter. We had 3.3 percent growth. I don't remember anybody coming up and saying, 'I'm sorry, you were right, Gramm. You said we were talking ourselves into this. I was wrong, you were right.' Obama's never said this.

The second point was that in the process of making excuses, we were becoming whiners. What is driving the recovery now? Exports. Look, any time anybody running for president uses your name, it's good. A good friend of mine called me up and said, 'Barack attacked you in his speech, but he didn't use your name.' I said, 'Please tell him use my name.' (laughs). I don't take it seriously.