Sunday opinion. And do something nice for a mom today.
Frank Rich:
Then again, as egregious as Fox’s factual liberties may be, it’s often a pick-your-poison situation: on Saturday night CNN was as slow as MSNBC to jump from the revelers in Washington to the emergency in New York. The choice between news with distorted "facts," Fox style, and the news-free "news" that can subsume its rivals is a lose-lose proposition, especially for a country at war. As we venerate the heroic street vendors who gave America its reality check last weekend, we should remember that they were the first to report what was happening in Times Square and that those covering and attending the White House Correspondents Dinner were the last.
Gerard Baker:
One of the rarer pleasures of British general elections is the opportunity they present to watch a particular species of buttoned-up Brits releasing their inner extroverts. Up and down the country, hundreds of oddballs, representing such interests as the Monster Raving Loony Party, bedecked in funny hats and wigs, stand smiling beside would-be prime ministers as dignified local government officers read out the election returns on national television.
More often than not they are pure eccentrics, men like Mad Cap'n Tom, a self-declared pirate, who contested the Westminster district of London in this week's national election, on a platform of teaching the virtues of swordsmanship in schools.
Tom Friedman:
Sitting in America, it’s hard to grasp the importance of the British elections and the Greek riots. Nothing to do with us, right? Well, I’d pay attention to the drama playing out here. It may be coming to a theater near you.
Peg McIntee:
Even though the polls had taken a hard right turn against Bob Bennett, it still was a bit surreal to see him knocked out of the U.S. Senate race.
This is a guy who took the office in 1992, the same year Bill Clinton did, and was twice re-elected. I can't say I agreed with his politics, but I do think he's an honest Republican who stuck to his principles.
All that was undone during Saturday's Republican state convention, which seethed with an anti-incumbent, anti-Obama-Reid-Pelosi rancor. When Bennett lost, the yips and howls from thousands of delegates sounded like coyotes going after one of their own.
Left standing were Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater, both Utah County Republicans who like the tea partiers and 9/12ers just fine. Both claim to be strict constitutionalists who will free Utah from an oppressive federal government, take back federal lands in Utah and repeal health care reform.
Good luck with that.
The inmates are running the asylum.
Ruth Marcus:
The most disturbing aspect of Bennett’s defeat is the chastening effect it is likely to have on nervous GOP lawmakers. They are already hardly profiles in courage -- just take a look at the campaign positions adopted by ex-maverick John McCain, facing a primary challenge in Arizona from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth.
Seeing Bennett’s scalp is not apt to strengthen their spines.
AP:
While the Obama administration has faced second-guessing about the speed and effectiveness of some of its actions, a narrative pieced together by The Associated Press, based on documents, interviews and public statements, shows little resemblance to Katrina in either the characterization of the threat or the federal government's response.
And check out corroboration from this Rasmussen poll (only one done so far.)