I’m sorry to say I forgot this saint’s day in earlier editions. I’m correcting this shortly before noon. It is the Feast of Saint John Francis Regis*
Thoughts While Shaving: Temperature in Hell Hits 20 Below Zero as Chris MSNBC’s Matthews, Olbermann and Fineman Blast Obama Speech. More.
Obama’s speech last night wasn’t very good…was vengeful and sophomoric…but the real point of interest for me was the savage critiques of his performance by the MSNBC oracles: Chris Matthews…Keith Olbermann…and Newsweek’s Howard Fineman.
Something indeed has happened to the lip-synch liberal media. First last Sunday with a tough, very tough, New York Times editorial on Obama’s handling of the oil spill. The next page: the oldest adolescent writing, 50ish Maureen Dowd, ripping Obama for hauteur and aloofness to the press. Now MSNBC.
What’s with the liberal media dissatisfaction? Has he not been liberal enough? When I read The Daily Kos I think that could be it. Seemingly, the only liberal organ that has not waded in criticizing Obama is The Capitol Fax blog. Too busy trying to rehab Giannoulias by trying to bring down Kirk, I guess. But the publication is one of the very best compendia I read every day. The work involved is stupendous. I don’t know how they do it….really don’t.
Big Switch Coming Up?
A little noticed Wall Street Journal Op Ed by Leslie Gelb, the emeritus scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations who has decades of experience in government with several administrations—principally Democratic ones—is at last starting to perk along.
Gelb says that the Democrats must…simply must…do something to add verve to the 2012 national ticket. He says he’s heard that a transition will begin fairly soon. Bob Gates, the Bush holdover secretary of defense, originally told Obama that he…Gates…would be moving on shortly. Gelb says…and I can’t tell whether this is just his idea or whether it’s bubbling on its own around the White House…that:
Hillary Clinton will be induced to leave State and become the first woman secretary of defense. I would imagine that would be attractive for Hillary because as a member of Senate Armed Services she got along very well with the military brass. Who would be secretary of state? Who else but the guy who has lusted for it for years, Richard Holbrooke who is special emissary to the Middle East theatre?
According to Gelb, Hillary will use Defense to further burnish her credentials to become…tah-tah!...the Democratic nominee for vice president with Obama in 2012! Gelb sees this as necessary to give a shot in the arm to the ticket and send armies of women enthusiasts to the polls…the import being that Hillary would be hands down the very next Democratic candidate for president in 2016 when she will be…let’s see…69. Sixty-nine used to be regarded as too old to begin a presidency but not so since Ronald Reagan was exactly the same age when elected president in 1980.
What then would happen to hapless Joe Biden? There would be an understanding that Holbrooke would move out after…presumably…Obama and Hillary would be elected in 2012. And Biden would get what he really always wanted: Secretary of State.
What would happen to Holbrooke? Who the hell cares? He’s an ambitious bureaucrat but not a political figure. My Democratic sources (yes I have some) say this: He’d be damn lucky to become secretary of state. Having been born in 1941 he’d be well in his 70s when his secretary of state job would be pulled out from under him.
Actually I’m not going to vote for them, of course…but objectively I think it’d be a good idea to rev up the Dem ticket in that way. Frankly, though, I don’t believe there’s much of a chance that Obama will be elected.
What about Hillary challenging him for the nomination in 2012? Not in the cards. Blacks are the Dem party’s single most influential bloc vote. They are also indentured to the Democratic party. Meaning that Barack will always have them no matter what he does and the challenger to Obama will be bereft of black support totally because of the challenge.
______________________________
*: Saint John Francis Regis [1597-1640]. He was born at Fontcouverte in the diocese of Narbonne, France. He was educated by the Jesuits and sought admittance to the Order. In 1628 he was sent to Toulouse for theology; a companion who shared his room told the Superior that Regis spent the greater part of the night in the chapel, at prayer. “Take care not to disturb his devotions,” said the Superior, “nor to hinder his communion with God. He is a saint and if I am not greatly mistaken the Society will one day celebrate a feast in his honor.”
Ordained in 1631, his Order sent him to missionary work where he addressed himself to helping the poor throughout France. He distinguished himself in converting many Huguenots and lax Catholics, formed a committee to minister to prisoners. He was then sent to the area of France in the southeast known as the Vivarais and the Velay. Law and order were absent, the poverty-stricken peasantry lapsed into savagery and the nobles were no better than brigands. In three years Regis brought back religious observance and made many converts. Word of his sanctity spread and when he arrived for Mass as a visitor to Le Puy, the church was found to be too small as the crowd assembled to greet him numbered 4,000.
Regis had wished to be sent to America to convert the Indians where he expected martyrdom but that was not to be. Instead his work in France continued until 1640 when he began to realize that his days were numbered. He was due to give a mission at La Louvese toward the end of Advent. There he died at age 43. His body remains to this day at La Louvese and his tomb is visited by many each year. He was canonized in 1737.
No comments:
Post a Comment