My thoughts for the day...

1) I'm really tired of hearing about Sarah Palin. She seems like a nice enough person, is probably not as dumb as political opponents claim, and is probably someone I wouldn't ever vote for (barring her demonstrating clear expertise in pertinent areas, anyway). But why does every Sunday Morning News Show feel the need to talk ad nauseum about her, as if she is the only Republican (or Conservative more importantly) in the country?

2) The "scandals" surrounding Rahm Emmanuel are ridiculous. His use of "retard" was definitionally correct and non-offensive, but even if it wasn't why must every opposition party feel its their place to call for the resignations of their political enemies? I don't care if he uses offensive language (particularly such a mild and ubiquitous word as "retard"). He serves at the leisure of the President; not ours. Let him help the executive govern and let us judge him on those actions. Not on pseudo-issues designed to create political environments. (From a policy standpoint, Emmanuel also strikes me as a moderate in comparison to most of Obama's leftist support; I'm not sure what conservatives would gain by removing  a comparitavely sane voice in the White House [even if I thought his line about not wasting a crisis to be disdainfully cynical.])

3)I really like Rep. Paul Ryan. It's refreshing to see someone in government who clearly takes the time to understand the ins and outs of policy, as opposed to seemingly working solely off what aides tell them (or worse, what political aides tell them). I haven't had the chance to go through that link totally, btw. I'm basing my impressions off of watching him in interviews and reading his detailed columns and other works.

I'd like to dump the Republican leadership and replace them with Paul Ryan and others like him. One senses he's not a fan of leadership either. In an excellent interview/opinion piece with Ross Douthat from the NY Times that you should read, Ryan suggests:

"At the same time, [Ryan] allowed that “the problem in the minority [is that] you sometimes revert into a posture where ‘I don’t have to do anything controversial, I just can be against that and win by default.’ I’m not interesting in winning by default. And I’m worried that if we get the majority back by default, we’ll screw up again.”

Me too. So far, they offer nothing to be excited about. But I am excited by the hope of Ryan will have great influence over the party in the future.

(Btw, regarding his webpage...I'm glad to see that a Republican finally found a web-designer who wasn't using Microsoft Frontpage at best).