There's Manny
By AndrewHyman Posted in Uncategorized — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Jeffrey Toobin has a December 3 article in the New Yorker titled "Where's Manny?" that some of you may find interesting, about Manuel Miranda:
Miranda ... surfaced as the leader of an organization that came to be called the Third Branch Conference—a private lobbying group dedicated to pushing for confirmation of Bush’s conservative judicial nominations. Working out of a Capitol Hill town house, Miranda organized conference calls of conservative activists, sent e-mail blasts to reporters, and regularly appeared on television as a booster for Bush’s judges. In the summer and fall of 2005, Miranda helped orchestrate support for John G. Roberts, Jr., as Chief Justice, and opposition to the short-lived nomination to the Court of Harriet Miers, which Miranda called "a significant failure." As for Samuel A. Alito, Jr., who replaced Miers as the nominee, Miranda called the choice "a grand slam." After that, there was silence from Miranda. (The criminal investigation went nowhere.)
Turns out that, unbeknownst to me, Miranda has been in Iraq for almost a year. Toobin has details. Well done, Manny.
Our very own Quin?
by Classic
Cited in Novak article slamming Huckabee--
Quin Hillyer, a former Arkansas journalist writing in the conservative American Spectator, called Huckabee "a guy with a thin skin, a nasty vindictive streak." Huckabee's retort was to attack Hillyer's journalistic procedures, fitting a mean-spirited image when he responds to conservative criticism.
[I had intuited something of a Nixonian dark side in Huckabee some months ago.]
See my comments after this article linked at Drudge--
Cheney Experiences Irregular Heartbeat
Nov 26 04:51 PM US/Eastern
9 Comments
WASHINGTON (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a history of heart problems, experienced an irregular heartbeat Monday and will be evaluated at George Washington University Hospital.
The condition was detected when Cheney was seen by doctors for a lingering cough from a cold.
"During examination he was incidentally found to have an irregular heartbeat, which on further testing was determined to be atrial fibrillation, an abnormal rhythm involving the upper chambers of the heart," said spokeswoman Megan Mitchell.
She said Cheney would go to the hospital later Monday for further evaluation. She said that if necessary, he would be receive cardioversion, a procedure that involves the delivery of an electric impulse to the heart.
About 2.8 million Americans have atrial fibrillation, the most common type of irregular heartbeat, and cases are increasing the population ages.
The condition occurs when the heart's top chambers, called the atria, get out of sync with the bottom chambers' pumping action. It is not immediately life-threatening, and the heart sometimes gets back into rhythm on its own. Many times, patients aren't aware of an episode of atrial fibrillation.
But if the irregular heartbeat continues, it eventually can cause a life-threatening complication—the formation of blood clots that can shoot to the brain and cause a stroke.
The main treatment is to try an electrical shock to restore normal heartbeat. If that doesn't work, patients may need to take the blood thinner warfarin to reduce stroke risk.
Other options include anti-arrhythmic drugs or, for severe a-fib, surgical procedures to interrupt the faulty heartbeat.
Classic comments: Once again, we all join in wishing the vice president good health and a long life. If he decides to step down for health reasons (which I don't think he will do), I think that would completely through out of whack the entire GOP race. My thinking is this--whomever the president nominates will have a major leg up for the party's nomination. If the Dems refuse to confirm that person, his or her standing might go up even more among Republicans. But, either way, it would radically jumble the pack. I'm writing this as a Romney supporter. But here are some suggestions for vp, should that become necessary for one reason or another: Condi Rice. J. C. Watts. I would imagine some people would want Duncan Hunter, but the president probably wouldn't want to hear his input re immigration, the border, the two agents, the 60 Laredo citizens being held against there will having been kidnapped in Nuevo Laredo, and so on. Do you have any suggestions on this hypothetical possibility that I hope (for the vice president's sake) never happens?