Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

A few days ago I mentioned how Bob Novak was hyping Fred Thompson as the hottest candidate in the race for the GOP nomination, and with just cause: Karl Rove has been sticking his electoral feelers out via one of his monkeyboys, and as everyone knows, Karl’s sweaty touch is golden. He’s also got his fingers in the Giuliani campaign, but methinks with all of Rudy’s dirt and skeletons, he’ll be relegated to the VP slot on a ticket headed by Reagan-Bot Thompson.

The lovefest for Thompson continues, with Novak again penning a fellatiop-ed talking up the former senator from Tennessee. Novak needs no Viagra at his late age as mere thoughts of Thompson’s booming monotone are enough.

-- MIKE SHEEHAN

Romney has not the slightest idea what is going on in Iraq.

-- JUAN COLE

Listening to the debate . . . I couldn't help but see the nonsense of the comments by most Republicans that they are Pro-Life and want to consider preemptive strikes with countries like Iran that "may be a threat" to the U.S. How can you be pro-life and be so for war?

-- CHARLES AMICO

One gets the impression that Bill Kristol is heaving a huge sigh of relief. He finally found a reason to reject his man Bush that didn't make himself look like total clueless idiot. He couldn't join the rest of the rats in leaping off the ship on account of Iraq, since he virtually wrote the Bush Doctrine, but Scooter Libby gave him the perfect out.

-- LIBBY SPENCER

I remember after 9/11 trying to explain to some Americans that you can't suddenly upend your existence just because there is terrorism - that that really is letting the terrorists win. People made fun of the use of that phrase - "If you don't shine your shoes, the terrorists win." So then I would tell them that, after all, the British had managed to live life as normal despite the fact that the IRA was using Britain for target practice. And people said, "How do you put up with it?" Which was supposed to mean the British people were foolish not to throw their whole way of life overboard so they could clamp down on terrorism. (In fact, Margaret Thatcher had tried a little of that, and her anti-terrorism laws made a laughing stock of the whole process and actually created sympathy for the IRA. The bombing stopped not because of the laws, but because - after those laws were overturned - the government changed tactics completely and started working for actual peace. By talking to people.) But the point is, you can't live your life in fear, nor do you need to.

-- AVEDON CAROL

The proliferation of celebrity magazines makes Lindsey Lohan’s latest stint in rehab seem more important than what’s happening in Darfur.

The kind of fluff that accosts us on the newsstand may seem like harmless fun, but it should also come with a warning label that says it can rot your mind and distort your values.

-- KATIE COURIC

Oh, Lord, I hadn't realized that big media's hired goons in congress are now busy persecuting college administrators for being insufficiently zealous in their persecution of college students who download stuff.

The whole thing's preposterous. The social value of halting noncommercial copyright infringement by a class of people who overwhelmingly don't have any money is probably negative in the first place, to say nothing of the costs involved in implementing draconian countermeasures.

-- MATTHEW YGLESIAS

According to Gallup, 6 percent of Americans consider adultery moral. Like, morally on par with sheltering abandoned kittens and volunteering in soup kitchens.

Who are these people? I'm guessing they were drunk when they answered the question, and possibly shacked up with their illicit paramours.

But 6 percent? That just seems high to me.

-- SHAMANIC

Fidel Castro was on TV in Cuba last night.

At least they said it was him. I have it on good authority that it’s not really Fidel but his older brother Ramon, who looks amazingly like him. In reality, Fidel Castro checked out sometime last summer and they’ve been using Ramon ever since.

-- MUSTANG BOBBY

Cartoon by Jeff Danziger/New York Times Syndicate