I’m in the editorial pages of the National Post today, writing about Rob Willington, the man behind Scott Brown’s historic Senate win in Massachusetts. And guess what? He’s Canadian.
Read more:
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=2493174
I’m in Honolulu covering the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting. Check out my coverage by clicking here.
A quick snap shot of the articles I’ve written so far:
No Love for Rubio Amongst Florida RNC Members
RNC Chairman Has Steel Grip on Members
How Scott Brown Stopped Andy Card’s Senate Challenge
My midnight reaction piece to the Brown win is up at FrumForum:
“The Tea Party movement has finally done what FrumForum has long been urging: they supported a less dogmatic Republican in a moderate state. But how long will this detente between moderate and conservative factions in the GOP last?”
Read more:
http://www.frumforum.com/browns-win-a-lesson-for-tea-partiers
For those who need more context on the race, here’s a slightly amended version of my piece at the National Post: Click Here.
We kicked it off here:
http://www.frumforum.com/live-blogging-the-massachusetts-senate-race
We’ll be blogging all night!
Check out our election night coverage at FrumForum.com. I’ll be liveblogging the results as they come in from across the state of Massachusetts!
Click here for the liveblogging page, to start at 7:30 EST!
Don’t forget to follow me at @timkmak and FrumForum at @FrumForum!
FrumForum EXCLUSIVE: My interview with Scott Brown, Republican Senatorial candidate in Massachusetts, paints a picture of a hardworking candidate; a moderate, New England Republican; and, if elected, a senator that will be disappointing to the tea partiers currently backing him.
Read more at:
http://www.frumforum.com/scott-brown-hes-no-tea-partier
I had the pleasure of spending American Thanksgiving dinner with a friend of mine in Northern Virginia. His father was an Army doctor stationed at Walter Reed during the heyday of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and told a simple but insightful story at the table.
As we all know from Charlie Wilson’s War, the United States was supplying a not inconsiderable amount of aid to the Mujahadeen in order to counter Soviet influence in Asia. This aid included medical aid for high-ranking players, and as such, Islamic ‘freedom fighters’ would pass through Walter Reed from time to time for treatment.
My friend’s father describes one such Islamist that he encountered in the 80’s – an obstinately inarticulate man, apparently alive merely for the dual purposes of smoking cigarettes and felling foreign occupiers.
In accordance with Islamic law, he didn’t drink a drop – but smoked like a chimney, I’m told.
I wasn’t there (having not yet been born), but I can imagine the conversation: tobacco wafting through the room, a lit Malboro still burning between the lips of a wounded Afghan man; 1980s hospital decor and the overly sanitized feel of a room only comfortable to those accustomed to regular visits; a gowned doctor leaning over a stubborn, calloused man with a thick Pashtun accent:
-So, what is it that you do in Afghanistan?
-Kill Russian.
-Ah, I see. How about for leisure? What do you do for fun?
-Kill Russian.
-Interesting… Do you have children? What do they do?
-Yes. They Kill. Russian.
I wonder, what would the same militant say today, if he were alive? What would his colleagues-in-arms respond with? Would they answer, “Kill American”? “Kill Canadian”?
The story reminded me of a piece that I read years ago, when I first started getting interested in politics. Jonathan Kay wrote a article in 2006 that has stuck with me since then. It’s still remarkably relevant today:
“At the end of the day, war and politics are both about mobilization. A couple of blunt words from the Pope or some cartoons published in an obscure European newspaper are apparently enough to get mobs of angry Islamists into the street. But here in the West, we can’t even come up with the few thousand extra troops needed to finish off a war we thought we’d already won. We’re fat and lazy. The enemy is mean and hungry.”
As President Obama makes an announcment this week as to troop levels in Afghanistan, we have to consider: do we lack a will comparable to that of the injured Afghan militant?
Our enemies obsess about murdering our soldiers, about ambushes under the coverage of darkness, about improvised explosives on narrow mountain paths. Do we lack the strength to “Kill Al-Qaeda”, to “Kill Taliban”?
Tim Mak at FrumForum:
Are YOU pure enough to pass the GOP test?
Yesterday, it emerged that James Bopp, Jr., a Republican National Committeeman from Indiana, was circulating a resolution to be discussed at the RNC’s annual meeting next January in Hawaii.
The resolution, titled Reagan’s Unity Principle for Support of Candidates, outlines ten principles that the sponsors want Republican candidates to adhere to (see below or click on link above for the list). Candidates who did not agree with at least eight of the ten points would be denied RNC funding and the Republican nomination.
…
Among the many problems in the resolution is the reinforcement of the GOP as the ‘party of no.’ The list focuses mainly on what the Republican Party finds intolerable, rather than what it would seek to achieve.
Seven of the ten policy points are statements of opposition: candidates must oppose future stimulus bills, government-run health care, cap and trade, card check, amnesty for illegal immigrants, and government funding of abortion. That’s fine – but by God, what do you support?
Read more at:
http://www.frumforum.com/are-you-pure-enough-for-the-gop
Tim Mak in the National Post:
“In a rare Saturday night session, U.S. Senators voted strictly along partisan lines to open full debate on health care legislation. With this, the path is cleared for weeks of dizzying debate, hundreds of proposed amendments, and mind-numbing procedural hurdles.
…Already, the cracks are showing. Until mid-Saturday, it was unclear as to whether the Democrats would have the sixty votes needed merely to open debate. Moderate senators such as Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu and Joe Lieberman will be the ones to watch over the coming weeks of haggling. All four Senators indicated they had serious reservations about the bill before eventually voting to open debate.”
Read more by clicking here.
The latest outrage to come from PlaneStupid.com – an ad that is sure to jolt you. If you don’t want to see dead polar bears, then don’t watch.
