Cruising the Web

Daniel Henninger looks at Charlie Rangel and the idea that long-term incumbent politicians seem to get that they can do what they want to simply because they're just such "great guys." Ruth Marcus takes the same approach. Perhaps if these politicians didn't come from gerrymandered districts so that they don't have to worry about reelection that they stay around forever thinking they're above standard ethics rules.

John Podhoretz looks at the parallels between the Republicans in 2006 and the Democrats this year. They are both similar in their surprise that people don't seem to like them very much and are blaming for conditions in the country. And if the Republicans regain power this year, some analysts may be writing similar stories a couple of elections down the road.

Despite President Obama's pretense that, on health care, he is standing with the people against the special interests, it seems that the hospital lobby in Missouri spent $400,000 opposing the Missouri proposition against ObamaCare. Democrats want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to pass their desired policies and rake in money from special interests and then turn around to pontificate about how they're the ones fighting against the very interests that are supporting their positions.

The newest bailout bill to send $10 billion to public school teachers will also end up sending about $40 million to the public teachers unions. That's a nice payback for the millions that the teachers have and will spend to elect Democrats.

James Pethokoukis warns of a possible plan by the Obama administration to have Freddie and Fannie forgive the mortgage debt of millions of Americans that are underwater.

Allahpundit calls this web ad from Allen West the best campaign ad of the year. See what you think.

The report from Senators McCain and Coburn on the wasteful spending in the stimulus bill is well worth perusing. It is clear that the thing was just stuffed through with special requests from the Democrats and had absolutely nothing to do with job promotion. Adam Freedman points to some of his favorite research grants

*Over $700,000 for Northwestern University researchers to develop "machine generated humor."
* The emotional response of monkeys to inequality,
* Improved methods to predict the weather on other planets,
* Brand new sidewalks, to be built by a convicted felon.

Yup. All this will help people find jobs.

David Freddoso looks at Newsweek's coverage of Tuesday's elections and finds that it was overvalued at $1.

A.B. Stoddard anticipates the battle of think tank reports as the Democrats and Republicans get set for the debate over extending the Bush tax cuts. There is a study to support everyone's arguments.

Rob Port is impressed by the "incoherence" of Kent Conrad who likes to pretend that he's a deficit hawk except for when he's voting for big spending today. Right now he's against either cutting spending or raising taxes. That's a way to be popular with everyone no matter what this does to his fiscal cred.

Ah, what cameras in schools can find out. It seems that a Brooklyn teacher faked a fall down the stairs to avoid a classroom observation by her supervisor. And the school video cameras caught it all on tape.

Jeff Jacoby notes the media double standard in how they treated Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic rants and that of Oliver Stone.

Susan Estrich worries that the President just doesn't get it. The upcoming vacation at Martha's Vineyard is just the last straw for her.