Give me that Olde Time Dem

People like their Blue Dog Democrats. Old fashioned Dems in the mold of Truman, JFK, even Clinton. Back in the day we had senators like tough on communism Scoop Jackson, strong on defense Sam Nunn, monetary braniac Paul Simon and civic minded nationalist Daniel Patrick Moynihan, for whom we once voted. Heck, original Algore was a Blue Dog Dem, then his wiring went wrong and he became Box Car Al*.

Anyway, these were steady, responsible men. The country knew Blue Dog Dems wanted social change, but could trust them to keep the nation strong.

When we first got into politics we were a conservative Democrat. Morton Kondrake was our favorite pundit on the old McLaughlin Group.

The country would much rather pass the Oval Office from Truman and JFK to Nixon and Bush the Elder. This rough consensus did some great things between 1945 and 2000. 

Instapundit likes to say that all Dems have to do in November is not be crazy, but they can't even pull that off. Worse for them, the GOP is managing to fight off crazy this time around. See the recent WV Senate primary.

As the left goes really left, the right goes Trump and the center is left to choose. Between San Fran Nan and Trump, the center will choose Trump.

*The man once said that defense of the environment should be the 'central organizing principle' of our society. In other countries people who say things like that heard other people into box cars. Algore is the most terrifying politician of our lifetime.

Bundy Ranch Nullified

We love this:

A federal jury in Las Vegas refused Tuesday to convict four defendants who were retried on accusations that they threatened and assaulted federal agents by wielding assault weapons in a 2014 confrontation to stop a cattle roundup near the Nevada ranch of states' rights figure Cliven Bundy.

In a stunning setback to federal prosecutors planning to try the Bundy family patriarch and two adult sons later this year, the jury acquitted Ricky Lovelien and Steven Stewart of all 10 charges, and delivered not-guilty findings on most charges against Scott Drexler and Eric Parker.

Here's part of the original Bundy Ranch standoff:

We don't pretend to understand Western land management issues but it seems to us the Bundy's are guilty as hell.

We don't care.

Back in our professorial days we used to teach about John Peter Zenger, the great 1730s New York newspaperman who published things that made governor William Cosby look bad. It was illegal to do so. The crown brought Zenger to trial and the jury, determining that Zenger was publishing true facts, nullified the prosecution.

We love jury nullification.

Here is what the great Professor Glenn Reynolds has to say on the matter:

If you are a member of a jury in a criminal case, even if you think the defendant is guilty of the crimes charged, you are entirely free to vote for acquittal if you think that the prosecution is malicious or unfair, or that a conviction in that case would be unjust, or that the law itself is unconstitutional or simply wrong. And if you do so, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

Judges and prosecutors know this. But they don’t want jurors to know it, which is why we occasionally see cases like this one, in which jury-information activist Mark Iannicelli was arrested and charged with “jury tampering” for setting up a small booth in front of a Denver courthouse labeled “Juror Info” and passing out leaflets. Putting up a sign and passing out leaflets sounds like free speech to me, but apparently Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey feels differently.

We welcome more of this and say so proudly, which is probably why we never get called to jury duty.

45 Years On

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