Blogabout #4

If it's Friday it must be time for our Blogabout. So without further ado here are ten of the best we read this week.

• Ezra Klein questions ethics in the Republican party after a purge in the House ethics committee was timed to be covered by the far bigger story, the SotU speech.
  
  
• Talking of the SotU speech, No More Mr. Nice Blog takes us to the comments section of one rightwing blog where they are all breathless about the sex appeal of Dick Cheney (no, really!!, I'm not making it up!).
  
  
• Rising Hegemon is absolutely spot on when it notes Condi's prevarications about the White House's agenda over Iran and wonders how long the invasion plans have been on the drawing board.
  
  
• The Sideshow puts it straight. Joe Leiberman and five other Dems who voted for Gonzales shouldn't be re-elected.
  
  
• Kevin Drum has consistently been the best pundit on the Social Security shakedown - now he notes that even the White House admits private accounts won't solve the "crisis", and will actually make it worse.
  
  
• Matt Yglesias has a message for Republican Senators - remember you will have to deal with the fallout of Bush's reforms long after the man himself is back on his ranch.
  
  
• Unfair Witness reminds us that the Iraq election, which Bush has been busy taking credit for, was opposed by the White House and was forced on the US administration by Iraqi clerics.
  
  
• Mr M, writing for his own Left of Center blog, introduces the term "practical liberal" into the lexicon in the hope that the Democrats can continue to be a political force rather than a focus group.
  
  
• PSoTD suggests categorising rightwing blogs emotive anti-liberal writing by using a "liberal terror alert" colour code.
  
  
• Harkonnendog suggests that liberals expect emotive language to count in arguments, while conservatives don't. Then he and our own Mr M. have a great discussion in comments.
  
  Yes, I am aware of the implicit irony in putting those last two posts together.