Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up

Wednesday is a good day to abbreviate.

NY Times:

If he is confirmed by the Senate as attorney general, Eric Holder, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for the job, will inherit a Justice Department that has been mired in scandal and that has seriously lost its way in critical areas. Under President Bush, the department has been used to defend the indefensible, like indefinite detention and torture of prisoners, and to undermine rather than protect Americans’ cherished rights. Mr. Holder could be an exemplary choice to face this daunting agenda, but he must answer serious questions before the Senate votes on his confirmation.

Stuart Rothenberg: I don't like bloggers, partisans or Keith Olbermann. In fact, things have been going to hell in a hand basket since the Eisenhower era. And Obama's modest win won't change The Great American Cultural Divide, which I'm betting matters way more than those namby-pamby 18-29 year olds realize.

Things will never change.

Thomas Frank:

Health-Care Reform Could Kill the GOP. Bill Kristol was right to panic.

Can policy be both wise and aggressively partisan? Ask any Republican worth his salt and the answer will be an unequivocal yes. Ask a Democrat of the respectable Beltway variety and he will twist himself into a pretzel denying it.

Ramesh Ponnuru: Suck it up and acknowledge reality: Republicans are stuck with can't win without social conservatives.

There is no question that social conservatism repels some voters. But there is no real reason to think that it costs the Republican party more voters than it brings, or even that the party has overemphasized it.

Because, after all, it's easier to attack Republican wussies than address the issues brought up by Neal Gabler.

Michael Goodwin:

It's official now. George Bush has entered not just the twilight of his presidency, but the Twilight Zone of history.

His interview with Charlie Gibson on ABC News is chock-full of Jabberwocky tangles of the mother tongue. Even on his way out the White House door, you still need a translator to decipher the President's meaning.

Jon Ward: Bush launches campaign to improve image.

As the final 50 days of his two-term tenure expire, Mr. Bush - who has said repeatedly that he would entrust his legacy to historians - has used reflective interviews to tout as accomplishments his fight against AIDS and malaria, the creation of a government-funded prescription drug program for Medicare and his efforts to liberate millions in Iraq.

Good luck with that.

Michael Gerson: The only possible route to rehabilitation is to let Obama do it for us. Disappointed Republicans have little to do but try to stir up triumphant Democrats by not only claiming Obama as one of our own, but by pretending we were centrists and moderates all along. Of course, we don't trust him and never will. And our sniping will start on Jan. 20. But for now, let's pretend we are credible critics, bipartisans to the bone, won over by his cabinet choices.

Trust me on this. I've been right about everything, even more often than Dick Morris. Heh.