Super Sunday!

So, did anything happen yesterday?

I was watching the press exhibition by embattled Governor Northam and thought I had tuned in to the longest cold open in the history of Saturday Night live.

Eugene Volokh is his calm and sensible self on the question of long-past misbehavior. His respondents at Reason also raise reasonable objections to being even-handed and sensible, arguing that Democrats won't stop and "The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly?".

IMHO, if the apology for the picture on Friday and the disavowal of the picture on Saturday are baffling. If people think that on Saturday morning the governor decided on a strategy of bald-faced lying, well, yes, then you have to believe he is psychotic and delusional.

If, on the other hand, you think he panicked on Friday and realized he needed to pound the table in defense of his once-good name on Saturday, well, maybe. Obviously, politicians lie, but they also panic.

My question is, what's the rush? Is the governor signing controversial bills this weekend that the Lt. Governor would veto? I doubt it.

Only two weeks ago the right was enraged that the media piled onto the Covington kids with no atempt to gather facts and reflect. Two weeks later, here we go again.

Of course, the right could thunder away to their heart's content about Northam and nothing would change, as we saw with the controversy about his abortion comments. Democrats are happy to pile on because (a) they are in a furious contest to be Wokest Democrat EVER and (b) this is a free shot at the hoop since Lt. Governor Fairfax is totally acceptable ideologically and cosmetically.

ON THAT ABORTION BILL: I concur with David French about the real problem with that bill - moving from three doctors to one and removing a standard of harm to the mother are disturning:

The bill reduces the number of doctors required to certify the alleged medical need for an abortion from three to one, and — critically — eliminates any required showing of severity before the doctor and mother can determine that the birth would impair her physical or mental health. Under the bill’s actual text, virtually any claim of impairment would suffice to meet the act’s requirements. Anxiety? Depression? The conventional physical challenges of post-partum recovery? Any of those things could justify taking the life of a fully formed, completely viable, living infant.

However, although I rarely agree with NY Times columnist Michelle Goldberg (and disagree with her conclusions in this linked piece) her summary is fair: Northam's comments were taken out of context:

Things only escalated on Wednesday, when Gov. Ralph Northam was asked about the uproar during an appearance on a radio show. Northam, a pediatric neurologist by training, spoke about what actually happens when a woman goes into labor with a fetus that has severe deformities and may not be viable. The infant, he said, would be delivered and kept comfortable, and the family would decide about resuscitation.

Northam appeared to be pointing out the absurdity of Gilbert’s hypothetical, since even in grave circumstances, no one gets an abortion on the delivery table. But as a clip of the interview went viral, conservatives, including the Republican senator Marco Rubio, began accusing Northam of supporting the murder of newborns. It was the right-wing version of an online outrage mob, warping the governor's innocuous comments into a callous declaration of evil.

His actual comment was this (my emphasis):

When we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of the mother, with the consent of physicians, more than one physician by the way, and it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities, there may be a fetus which is non-viable. So in this particular example, if the mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if this is what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physician and the mother.

The discussion would NOT be about whether to kill the infant; the discussion would be about what heroic interventions would be employed while a severely deformed infant with a life expectancy of minutes or days managed to survive. In that sense it mirrors end of life discussions for the elderly and ill. Do Not Resuscitate? Electroshock to restart a failing heart? Feeding tubes? When should the family and physicians let nature take its course with a ninety year old or a nine-minute old?

And one never knows - this baby held on for a week and the family was happier for it.

Look, I have no problem bashing Northam for the actual abortion bill. However, his critics don't need to gild the black rose by misinterpreting his comments, willfully or inadvertently. And as was emphasized yesterday, Gov. Northam may not be the best spontaneous communicator of the current political class.

OK, THAT was a cheerful post to start the latest holiday. I suppose the national hatefest can resume just before gametime when we see whether the network broadcasts the national anthem and we can boo/cheer whomever is kneeling/standing. Then we'll pick it up again at halftime when Maroon 5 panders to the crowd that thinks they should have joined the boycott.

This will be the first game where I look forward to the endless booth reviews.

Comments

[Dave (in MA)]

Heh,

CH, I composed my 12:08 when MM's 11:59 was the last comment showing.

[James D.]

Ig @ 12:09

I was about to post exactly the same thing.

[Captain Hate]

At the request of some Powerful Journalists, I reviewed the claims against our very articulate Governor-In-Waiting (whose trouser legs also, I would note for the NYT and David Brooks, are perfectly creased!) and I can assure my fellow conservatives this claim appears to have sprung from the fevered imagination of a drug-addicted trailer park dweller who was PAID to defame this fine young sculptured figure of a man.

Or, something like that.
Posted by: Jennifer Rubin, conservative icon at February 04, 2019 12:14 PM (Z216Q)

[henry]

new fracking thread.

[President-Elect Jim,SunnyvaleCA]

Heh