Read today’s Lileks, which has an intriguing discourse on storming the beaches at Normandy in a computer game — “this really happened, and no one got a second chance. Some didn�t even get a first one” — Lileks sets the point up well enough to make you think, without really connecting all the dots on this one. Then, he does an abbreviated version of the Full Lileks on Tom Daschle; as usual the whole thing is worth reading, but the conclusion is lethal:
“It�s telling that Daschle finally showed �passion� when he felt the Senate was being attacked. . . .Zell [Miller] made a speech as equally impassioned as Daschle, but the subject was the injuries of the nation, not the tender sensibilities of the Senate. I was walking Jasper when he ran down the litany of horrors that might make people look back and wonder why the Senate dragged its heels. ‘Will it take a smallpox outbreak that wipes out the twin cites of Minneapolis and St. Paul?’ he asked.
For a moment I had a vision of queuing at the clinic, Gnat in my arms, waiting for the prick and the hiss, wondering if we�d be among the ones who reacted badly to the vaccine, wondering if the disease would spread to Mexico, and how many there would die, and how many more would pour north in search of a shot.
Two Democrats, two views. Senator Miller�s comments focussed my mind the nation, on a future I�d like to avoid.
Senator Daschle�s comments focussed my mind on Senator Daschle.”