Morning Reads

A few of the things I found interesting reading this morning:

- Dahlia Lithwick's second dispatch from the Roberts hearings yesterday, which she begins by noting of Roberts "Here's a man long accustomed to answering really hard questions from extremely smart people, suddenly faced with the almost-harder task of answering obvious questions from less-smart people. He finds himself standing in a batting cage with the pitching machine set way too slow." Her final paragraph is classic:

"It is an immutable rule of nature that every sadist needs a masochist, every leader needs a follower, and every addict needs an enabler. So, too, every egomaniac needs someone humble, and that's why, in the end, these hearings are so perfectly matched. Roberts wants to say little and literally fade to black. The senators want to give speeches and seize the limelight. It's a match made in heaven. It's just the watching it that's hell."

- Tom Friedman's column in the Times, juxtaposing the response to Katrina with what the crisis management might have looked like in Singapore, and offering some views of the way the American government's response was viewed outside our borders. He quotes a columnist in Singapore's The Straits Times, who wrote "If America becomes so unglued when bad things happen in its own backyard, how can it fulfill its role as leader of the world?"

- Senator Joe Biden has an op/ed essay in the Washington Post, offering yet another possible blueprint for a course-change in Iraq that might actually make some sense. He sums his plan up this way: "Successfully involving moderate Sunnis, sharing the burden with the key international players, getting support from the region, setting concrete goals with timelines and insisting on regular accountability from the administration would bring our troops home sooner and safer. It's also the best way to leave Iraq with our most fundamental security interests intact," but offers further thoughts on each of those areas in the larger piece. I can't find anything in there that seems disagreeable.

And some earlier blog-posts I've been meaning to link to:

- Alan Stewart Carl, a kindred centrist and founder of The Yellow Line ideablog (which unfortunately I have been all too lax in my participation with lately) is packing it in. I'm sad to see him go - he's one of those rare voices of reason out here in blog-land, and I'll miss his wise counsel and probing insights. I hope he rejoins us again in the future.

- Charles Amico over at We The People is calling for a national gas boycott on September 22-23. He says he won't be driving for those two days, and urges others to do the same. Certainly a worthy goal, and I'd urge anyone who can to participate. I don't drive as it is, but I'll be boycotting in spirit.