Oh Inverted World

Jesse Jackson is sparking cognitive dissonance among those who see the pro-Shiavoites as Jesusland proto-Republicans. Maybe they thought the 'Reverend' part of his title was there simply to promote street cred among churchy African-Americans. Turns out he believes some of that crap.

Meanwhile Hillary Rodham has taken a stance against the videogame Grand Theft Auto by claiming it glamorizes and encourages violence. Is she wisely picking off an easy cultural issue to win Red-state respectability, or selling the party into Republican Lite? These types of quixotic questions will torture progressives until 2008, when they will shrug and resign themselves to the fact that Hillary can win.

Finally, former basketball also-ran Bill Bradley has a piece in today's New York Times suggesting that the Democrats need to place more value on party infrastructure than personalities with Kennedyesque charm. The Dems, he suggests, should put away the hair spray and mimic the nefarious money-and-influence cabal that ties together Scaife, Rove, Limbaugh, etc.

Bradley himself has the charisma of a wet tarp, but he's got a point. Democrats should also practice answering questions about national defense and social security in the affirmative - proposing active solutions instead of deriding conservatives or sputtering about Bush. Or am I expecting too much?