Hewitt Blog

Today's show will feature a leading thinker of the right --Mark Steyn-- and of the left --Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig-- assessing why President Obama's first year in office has been such a failure.

Professor Lessig's critique is in the new issue of The Nation, and is titled "How To Get Our Democracy Back." 

In the course of his article, Professor Lessig conducts a drive-by on my friend and frequent guest Congressman John Campbell  As Campbell is among the most ethical and honorable of men I have ever met in public life, Lessig and I will certainly have much to talk about.  Including why the constitutional convention Lessig is calling for is the worst idea of a generation.

Duane will post transcripts of the Steyn and Lessig interviews here, and the audio of the Lessig interview in this post later tonight.  Your reactions to both are welcome at my blog at The Hughniverse.

02-04hhs-lessig.mp3

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My friend Rhett Smith is headed next week to Haiti with a team from Adventures in Missions.

Rhett was an early participant in the Godblog conferences while college pastor at Bel Air Presbyterian Church in LA.  He now lives in Texas, and I can guarantee you that the reporting of his team will be as accurate and as different as that of Team Rubicon's was from much of MSM's over the past month.

Rhett's post has the team's Facebook and Twitter feed --the hashtag is #ymath-- so follow both for continued focus on the victims of the earthquake.

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An e-mail from an experienced prosecutor:

There is an aspect to this debate that is being wholly overlooked, and   this aspect 100% undermines the proposition that it was "right" or 
"necessary" to Mirandize Abdulmutallab once he was taken into custody.

 Read More...

I will interview Team Rubicon founder Jake Wood on today's show in the third hour. 

Here is the audio of that interview.

02-03hhs-wood.mp3 

Today President Obama told Senate Democrats that they had faced "enormous procedural obstacles that are unprecedented.."

"You had to cast more votes to break filibusters last year than in the entire 1950s and 1960s combined.  That's 20 years of obstruction jammed into just one."

This is astonishing.  A filibuster is the successful use of 41 or more votes to prevent the closing of debate.  There wasn't a single filibuster in 2009.  Not one.

The president will say anything to advance a narrative that makes him a victim of obstruction.  It is clear that 2010 will be spent pivoting from his 2009 mantra of Bush's fault to his campaign year blasts at the "do nothing Republicans."

His advisors must foresee grim news on jobs to offer up such a transparent and unpersuasive, indeed almost purposefully alienating argument. 

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This little exchange took place on the floor of the House of Representatives.



If the leadership has no idea what's going on when they're naming a post office after someone, how are they going to successfully get Obamacare right? 

From the in-box:

I am a avid listener from Canada. You may be interested to know that my sister in British Columbia got an appointment for April 2013 to see a surgeon about a reduction mammoplasty.

Another reason to visit TearUpYourCard.com and join the conservative alternative to AARP, which is pushing for the resurrection of Obamacare.

The president was campaigning for Obamacare yesterday, asking Republicans "You got a better idea?"  The answer should be, "We gave them to you on Friday.  You still haven't read them.  And they begin with serious tort reform.  No health care reform without serious tort reform.  No punishing seniors and doctors without reigning in plaintiffs' lawyers."

 

Former Indiana congressman and senator and Ambassador to Germany Dan Coats has entered the Senate race against Indiana's Evan Bayh.  (HT: Chris Cillizza.)  Though he is far behind Bayh in money raised --and Roll Call has a chart of where every Senate candidate stands on fundraising here-- Coats is the sort of conservative who can tap into the Tea Party energy and immediately draw close to Bayh, whose support for Obamacare was decisive throughout 2009.

 

Many will be suspicious of the timing of these leaks, coming as they do against the backdrop of mounting criticism of the Obama Administration's terror policies.

To assure the public that the Mirandized Abdulmuttallab is cooperating, AG Holder or FBI Director Mueller should make some general statements to that effect while testifying to an oversight committee.  A simple statement confirming that he is answering all questions fully and that his answers are consistent with all other information available to counterterrorism experts would put that issue to rest without any damage to national security.

I discussed this case with Newsweek's Michael Isikoff and the Council on Foreign Relations' Max Boot on today's show.  (Isikoff transcript here and Boot transcript here.)  Boot and I also discussed Iran, and here is that exchange:

HH: Ahmadinejad made one of his crazy talk statements yesterday about on February 11^th, the world will see that you can’t mess around with me, or something like that. What did you make of that?

MB: More bluster from Ahmadinejad. I mean clearly, he is a leader who is prone to extremist rhetoric, who is in the throes of this millenarian religious ideology, and who is hell bent on having Iran go nuclear, and ultimately wind up eradicating the state of Israel. I mean, that’s what we know about him, based on his public statements and his actions. The question is what are we going to do about it? And the Obama administration’s overtures to the Iranian leadership have been rudely rebuffed, and the Obama folks that promised that there would be “serious consequences” forthcoming, but I have yet to see any of those consequences. And part of that has to do with the fact that they thought that they could charm Russia and China into signing up for serious Iran sanctions at the U.N. Security Council. And again, that’s another foolish illusion they came into office with, which they have been rudely disabused of by the reality they have found in the past year.

HH: Now what about the idea that we are sending a lot of missile defense to the region? Does that indicate a level of fear about Iran’s willingness to initiate attacks that did not previously exist? Or is it a continuation of long standing deterrent policies?

MB: It may be an attempt to send a signal to Iran, but it’s not clear what that signal is, because it could be interpreted either as a warning that we will not tolerate Iran going nuclear, or conversely, it could be interpreted as preparations for dealing with a nuclear Iran, and trying to contain a nuclear Iran. It’s hard to know which it actually is. In either case, it’s hardly a substitute for the kind of tough sanctions that are necessary to really punish Iran for its nuclear weapons program, and also for, it’s not a substitute for really backing the Green movement, which is ultimately the best way to deal with the Iranian nuclear program, by trying to encourage and help the people of Iran to change their own regime.

 

Best wishes to Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams as he heads to our country for his heart surgery.

Many ironies here, especially as President Obama was in New Hampshire today to declare that it is overtime, and health care is on the five year line and that "we need to punch it over."