Judging and budging
Things sure can change in just one or two generations. In 1960, Candidate Kennedy, a practicing Catholic, had to promise the American people that his religious beliefs would not impede his ability to uphold Constitutional principles. Fast forward nearly half a century and it's now seemingly impossible to gain confirmation to the nation's highest court without proving an abiding and overriding loyalty to Christian scripture.All this has Christopher Hitchens pissed off.
I see the Harriet Miers nomination as another "integrity moment" for Senate Democrats. This woman is clearly underqualified for the Court. The threat to the government's balance of power (due to her close relationship to the President) should be reason enough to cast a 'nay' vote. If the Dems support her nomination simply because they view her as the best candidate they're likely to get from Bush, they will once again prove they're willing to put politics ahead of the good of the nation-- and it's some bad politics to boot. Bush can't afford to pick a fight with an extremist candidate right now, having drowned all of his "political capital" from the 2004 election in the Gulf Coast.
I must be naive because I've never understood why you treat the nominee of the other party's president any differently than you would treat your own. If you're a liberal and you're not convinced that the candidate in question is committed to civil rights and liberties, and the concept of a living, breathing Constitution, than vote no. What part of "vote your conscience" don't you understand? Besides, there's an entire constituency out there desperate to know what you stand for.
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There was some bad news out of the New York tabloids last week. The film studio, Warner Independent, cancelled the planned release later this month of "Strangers With Candy," based on the cult TV comedy of the same name. "It's off our release slate," said a studio rep, though an insider says the film, which was a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival, is still likely to be released, most likely now by a different studio. The film's cast is led by the TV show's regulars, Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert, and also features Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Allison Janney, and Kristen Johnson. Producers still hope to get the film released in time for the Moeller TV Festival, November 5th and 6th, an event in which one of the "Strangers" TV episodes is considered likely to appear.
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Here's my two minute argument in favor of last year's National League Championship Series between the Cardinals and Astros as the greatest league playoff in baseball history:
Though the world was fixated on the Yankees and Red Sox AL Series, the NL series stretched a dramatic seven games. Games 1 and 2 were won by the Cards' daunted offense, Game 3 by the Astros' legendary pitcher Roger Clemens. The Cards blew three different leads in Game 4, causing Cards' relief pitcher Julian Tavarez to break his glove hand punching the dugout wall. The Cards' Woody Williams threw seven innings of one hit ball in Game 5, but the Astros won it on a walk-off, ninth inning home run by Jeff Kent. Game 6 was an epic in St. Louis with Tavarez returning to the mound to get some big late-inning outs. The Astros tied it in the ninth, but Jim Edmonds hit a two run bomb in the 12th for the series' second walk-off winner.
Get this now: The series went to Game 7 with each team having scored 29 runs, each team having an ERA of 4.80, and each team having a batting average of .246. Each team's top slugger (Albert Pujols and Carlos Beltran) had hit four home runs. Unbelievable. The Cards won Game 7 in David and Goliath fashion-- Jeff Suppan vs. future Hall-of-Famer Clemens. Future Hall-of-Famer Pujols hit a game-tying double in the 6th inning, and future Hall-of-Famer Scott Rolen followed with a two run laser-beam home run that proved to be the difference for St. Louis. Good times.
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ESPN.com's Buster Olney thinks the ALCS should be delayed a day because of Saturday night's rainout in New York, which has caused a quick turnaround flight to Chicago for tonight's winner between the Angels and Yankees.
First, let me say this about Buster Olney... when ESPN.com brought him on last year, he filled a glaring hole at the media outlet. Many times I had asked myself, do you know what this website is truly lacking? The answer each time: a baseball contributor who has covered the New York Yankees locally for six years.
I never want to hear the Yankees bitch about playoff scheduling. Every other team gets whiplash from being flung around the TV schedule to accomodate the Yankees. I shouldn't have to remind Olney that delaying the ALCS by one day would put it on the same calendar schedule as the NL Series, causing baseball to lose as many as two nights of television revenue. Some playoff teams-- though, not the Yankees-- count on that national TV revenue to make up for the money they don't make in local TV revenue. Hmm, maybe the National League could delay their entire series by a day also, just to help out. Just like the Red Sox delayed the World Series by a day last year to allow the Cardinals more than one day to recover from that epic NLCS. Just so you know: I blame that World Series on the Yankees, too. Their historic collapse created the Red Sox monster.
posted by CM @ 8:39 PM
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