It’s not only godless liberals who want Sarah Palin to depart from the political stage.

That was Peggy Noonan. For those of you who don’t know her Peggy Noonan is currently a conservative columnist for the Wall Street Journal, a solid supporter of the Republican Party, and a former speech writer for Ronald Reagan. While Peggy Noonan and myself go our separate ways when it come to the Right-To-Life issues, there are many areas of agreement.

People who do not know me may assume from my frequent and sharp criticism of the GOP, Repiublicans, and the Conservative movement that my political leanings are to the left. This is not so. I personally favor small and less intrusive government. I think that many solutions can be found better in the private sector. I have a real repulsion to identity politics. For many years and several election cycles I voiced support and often voted for Republicans. (I have never voted a straight ticket for any party and I am very unlikely too.) My criticism of the right side of aisle develops from a greater expectation of that side. I am hurt and angry that the right has wandered off into a crazy land where image matters more than substance and that they have so casually abandoned their principles.

Peggy’s closing sentiments on why it is good that Palin should leave the political scene are dead on in my opinion.

It’s not a time to be frivolous, or to feel the temptation of resentment, or the temptation of thinking next year will be more or less like last year, and the assumptions of our childhoods will more or less reign in our future. It won’t be that way.

We are going to need the best.

So here are a few of the stories popping about in the political realms and my thoughts on them…

San Diego Sheriff’s Office Responds to Political Fundraiser with multiple cars and a Helicopter.
This is a fun one. Some reports have as many as eight squad cars, and a helicopter used when someone called in a noise complaint about a fundraiser going on in an upper-scale area of San Diego County in the later afternoon early evening. Reports are that some of the Democratic fund raisers were pepper-sprayed and treated roughly by the deputies.

From a fund raising email after the events.

It’s the 11th hour to show that you have the courage and the commitment to stand with me
against the strong forces that are gathering against us. It’s also the 11th hour for you to join
with over 650 supporters to help me reach my goal of raising $200,000 by tomorrow. Don’t rely
on others to do this. I need YOUR support to show that we have what it takes to fight and
win. I am asking you to please go to now, before
Tuesday’s deadline expires.

I don’t agree that this represents ‘gathering forces.’ I don’t doubt that the original call was motivated by politics, but I think what the upper-political classes have tasted here is the usual police powers over-reach. I don’t think the Deputies though “Hey, Let’s bust up a Democratic Fund raiser!” but rather expected to find young and noisy kids and college students whom they are used to pushing around. The police in our country still get away with far too much abuse of their powers and positions.

The Democrats move up to 60 seats in the Senate. Al Franken has now officially won his Senate seat. This would have normally made him the 59th Democratic Senator in the current Senate. (The Democrats lost the Georgia seat they needed for a clear sixty.) Thanks to Pat Toomey and the Club For Growth though the Democrats were gifted their sixty seat filibuster-proof margin when Arlen Specter was chased out of the Republican Party and into the Democratic Party to survive. Have no illusion about this, Specter did this to stay in the Senate, he doesn’t want to be looking for work in this recession. Having abased himself by switching parties purely to survive, Specter now appears to be doing whatever it takes to make the Democrats happy. So with Cap-and-trade coming up and Health care and all sorts of other big issues, the republican Base has proved itself the Democratic Party’s best friend.

A Magazine Profile of Sarah Palin ignites a crap storm in the blogosphere.
Vanity Fair published a profile on John McCain’s ex-running mate, Sarah Palin and it was not a flattering one. If you were inclined to not like Palin this article is likely to confirm what you though about her, if you are a fan of the Governor you;re likely to to find fault particularly with a lot of un-named sourcing. What the article has stirred up is all the bad blood between faction of the GOP who love her and who hate her. Personally I think she was not ready for the national stage and she is one of the reasons I simply could not vote for McCain. She was a bridge too far for me and I have never regretted that call. Still she has her supporters I know I have gotten the dirty looks for voice my opinions on her.

So you’ve seen me bash the right and the GOP here, but when they get something right, I’ll owe up to that as well.

Here’s writer Michael Goldfarb on the Democratic idea and bill for Cap and Trade carbon pollution.

Basically, cap and trade strikes me as the Iraq war of the Democratic domestic policy agenda. It’s the overreach moment. It’s a massive program that, unlike health care reform, no one is demanding, no one understands, and no one can explain. Cap and trade may be the only thing that can save the Republican party from eight years in the wilderness.

I do think he’s got a very valid point on this. This is a choice not something we are forced into doing. This is a policy that we really can’t know the final outcome on. I’m reminded of what Gen. Patraeus said at the start if the Iraqi War “Tell me how this ends.”
We didn’t have a clue about what was going to happen after we defeated the Iraqi military. Our poor planning was criminal in that regard. I don;t think the democrats have fully thought this out either. I think it is vast overreach and something that can really bite them on the ass.
Sadly if it does help the Republicans come back from the wilderness that is not necessarily a good thing. It does not mean that the republican have learned anything in the wilderness just that Democrats will have pissed off a lot of voters. We need smarter parties not just an angry electorate.