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I've been meaning to post about this all day... yesterday, actor Ron Silver passed away at age 62 in New York.


Hubby and I had the good fortune to meet Ron at the 2008 Republican National Convention. We both thought he was a very nice man-- and we also both remain huge fans of his work on the West Wing. He'll be missed, but his work will not be forgotten.
See also Roger Simon's farewell post-- well worth a read, not least because of the unique friendship these two...

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There's been a ton of back and forth about Michael Steele today. I've updated my previous post repeatedly, and don't care to say too much more on the subject. However, I will say this, briefly.
I continue to be glad that we have an RNC Chairman who is open and accepting of moderates and libertarians in the Party. I am glad that Steele said what he did in the GQ interview about homosexuality not being a choice (I agree). I would very much like it, personally, if his abortion position...

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Phil Klein at the AmSpec blog digs up the transcript from that Michael Steele Meet The Press appearance that I mentioned in my post last night. Here's the relevant bit:
MR. RUSSERT: Would, would you encourage — would you hope the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade?
LT. GOV. STEELE: I think that that’s a matter that’s going to rightly belong to the courts to decide ultimately whether or not that, that issue should be addressed. The, the Court has...

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Uh-oh. Newly installed RNC Chairman Michael Steele went and gave an interview to GQ in which he said some stuff that's likely piss off social conservatives, in particular.

Now, everyone's going nuts about it, meaning another case of moderate-friendly Steele being chastized by some conservative voices online and becoming topic of the night on cable news channels. Teh awesome!
Seriously, though, what did Steele say? Well, for starters, re: homosexuality, he said these...

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8 Republicans voted for cloture on this, which apparently ultimately passed on a voice vote.  3 Democrats voted against cloture: Bayh, Feingold and McCaskill.  Interesting stuff.

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Longtime readers will know I haven't traditionally considered myself a big fan of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. You can find columns on this site dating from 2006 and 2007 in which I criticized his health care plan harshly. Recently, items like this and this have appeared, which testify to ongoing problems. RomneyCare has, indeed, historically been the policy most associated with Romney with which I have taken the most issue-- though there are also others I find problematic, and...

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Last month, I posted briefly about the prospect of a Chris Dodd-Rob Simmons matchup, noting that Simmons, someone for whom I have a great deal of personal respect, appeared interested in taking on Dodd, who has been plagued by controversy regarding, er, housing issues for many months now.
Today, we learn via the AP that were Simmons to take on Dodd, he'd start out just about evenly matched (in fact, slightly ahead) against the incumbent:
A new Quinnipiac University Poll shows U.S....

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Andrew Sullivan posts:
"What attracted me to conservatism as a young person in the early 1980s was its challenge to engage and understand some real thinkers -- Hayek, von Mises, Kirk, Buckley, Friedman, Chambers. You didn't have to be an intellectual, but you needed to understand them. Reagan did. Now, instead of intellectuals, we have clowns like Joe the Plumber and Limbaugh getting all the attention. Conservatism is overopinionated and undereducated, proudly intolerant and insular --...

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So, chatter continues about the apparent "snubbing" by President Obama of UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. I haven't written about this as yet, but as one of a handful of US-UK dual national bloggers, I keep getting asked to weigh in. So, here goes.
First, here is some of what has been written about the apparent snubbing-- note that the below comes from journalists with British broadsheet papers, and not their somewhat more excitable tabloid counterparts.
Toby Harnden, writing at...

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Ugh.  Fulham 0-4 Man U (this puts Man U into the FA Cup semi-finals).  Coventry 0-2 Chelsea (this puts Chelsea into the FA Cup semi-finals).  St Mirren 1-0 Celtic (this takes Celtic out of the Scottish Cup).
Arsenal plays Burnley tomorrow.  I'm hoping that will be the bright spot this weekend...
 

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