Rudy, down home and stay the course

After a weekend's appearance at Nascar events, unsurprisingly it was his first time, Candidate Giuliani, according to the NY Times, started working in a new section in his stump speech.

“I ask you this question: If America is going in the wrong direction, where is the rest of the world going?” he said at a town hall meeting on Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla. “Where is Russia going? Where is England going? Where is France going? Where is Africa going? If we are going in the wrong direction, the rest of the world is falling off a cliff.”

Apparently, the reception was less than enthusiastic. Rudy has tried to portray himself, in his 12 Commitments--not a bad name for a band, by the way--and in other ways, as a new voice in the Republican party. Does he think he'll win even the nomination with a bland and wide-ranging approval of where the Bush Presidency has led us?

He might be trying to channel the spirit of Reagan who famously used a positive and optimistic message to defeat what was perceived as the pessimism of the Carter years. But Reagan--not the great President people like to make him out to be now--had a positive message about change, not just an "aren't things dandy" position. Good luck, Rudy!

The wages of sin are too excessive

"I respect the jury’s verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison."

Will the President be reviewing all legal proceedings and sentencings throughout the United States' Federal Court system, or only those of men who fell on their swords for his Vice President? I suppose it is unfortunate that Cheney's recent attempt at defining himself as outside the obligations of the Executive Branch qua President of the Senate and outside those of the Legislative Branch qua Vice President have failed; perhaps from his location in the no-man's land in which all power is located--note that Cheney practically identifies himself with God, who is both everywhere and nowhere, whose motives are unquestionable, who brooks no opposition and who is always in an undisclosed location--he could have simply have classified the whole proceeding and made all Americans forget that it ever happened.

I guess in Bush's defense, at least he did it in the midst of his term and did not wait for a last minute pardon.

Any guesses on how long it will be before Libby--unless the President figures out a way that he can save Scooter's law license--is a commentator on Fox?