Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

At the moment, the odds of the GOP taking back the House and Senate in 2008 are roughly equivalent to Lindsay Lohan's job prospects at a driver’s ed school.

Nevertheless, the Republicans in Washington will try their best to rally their base voters, and sway swing voters, by painting the majority Democrats as stewards of a "do-nothing Congress."

. . . The record certainly shows that the Democrats have failed to force President Bush to change course in Iraq; and, at this writing, the Democrats have only been able to enact two of the six priorities they announced last winter (a minimum wage hike, and 9/11 domestic security reforms), with the others stuck in the Senate machinery.

. . . So it would appear that, for the Democratic politicians who long yearned to be back in charge, this is a classic case of "be careful what you wish for." And it would seem to suggest that the congressional GOP is poised for an ’08 comeback.

But not so fast. Remember the Lindsay Lohan rule.

The public is ticked at the Democrats, but they’re more ticked at Bush and his supine Capitol Hill enablers. The polling evidence suggests that voters are disenchanted with the Democratic Congress primarily because it has not done enough to thwart a president who is widely perceived as a failure. Unlike in 1980 or 1994, when congressional Democrats were punished at the polls because the electorate was more in sync with the GOP, this time congressional Democrats have the electorate on their side. They are mainly being faulted for failing to take the fight to the party that was already rebuked in 2006 and seems poised to be rebuked again in 2008.

-- DICK POLMAN

By most reasonable standards, the existing presidential primary system is pretty tough to defend. Unless you live in Iowa or New Hampshire — and for some residents, even if you do — you know your state’s influence matters quite a bit less, and in some instances, not at all.

According to an outline of the plan obtained by The Hill, this new system would “encourage the greatest number of good candidates to enter the race, allow voters an opportunity to hear all candidates’ ideas [and] ensure more Americans a chance to cast a meaningful vote.”

-- STEVE BENEN

A Republican-backed ballot proposal could split left-leaning California between the Democratic and GOP nominees, tilting the 2008 presidential election in favor of the Republicans.

-- MICHAEL R. BLOOD

Ron Brownstein seems really mad that Bush is blocking this S-CHIP expansion. I'll even defend Bush a little. Brownstein writes that Bush is "portraying it as the first step on a slippery slope toward 'government-run healthcare,' as if senior senators in both parties were conspiring with Michael Moore to import Cuban doctors to inoculate and indoctrinate American children," which seems to harsh.

Bush, more realistically, is just worried that expanding S-CHIP will make the country a much better place, and build political support for further expansions of S-CHIP and similar programs. He's worried that people won't think it's just bad for kids under 18 to have no health insurance, but probably bad for young adults, middle aged people, and, indeed, everyone.

-- MATTHEW YGELESIAS

America's most notorious fraudulent voter, Ann Coulter, is still being investigated.

-- AVEDON CAROL

. . . (Rudy) Giuliani might be the first presidential candidate whose entire candidacy is based literally on optics and nothing else. I don't think he's offered one single substantive proposal in the entire time since he announced his candidacy. Rather, he's marketed himself exclusively as a tough guy who knows how to kick butt and put liberals in their place. That's it. There really isn't anything more to the man.

Like I said, nothing original about this. But still. The purity of his persona-based candidacy is almost majestic.

-- KEVIN DRUM

Our generation is at risk of being lost forever. After years of scandalous behavior in our nation's capital and suffering under what the liberal media has termed an “unwinnable” war led by Republicans, our generation has moved away from the center-right and towards the liberal-left.

-- CHARLIE SMITH