Supreme Speculation

"Can there be any doubt that this White House and administration have no desire to work for national unity, even on issue of terrorism? It's MO seems to be division and polarization -- whipping up rage against defined enemies . . . which now apparently include those who compete with it at the ballot box."

But Ankle Biting Pundits calls the Democratic assault "a fairly obvious and lame attempt to retaliate for the Durbin drubbing" that "threatens to overshadow the original story. The Rove speech was reported, sure enough. But it was a minor one day news item. Senate Democrats have now turned it into the controversy of the week. That was stupid. Do they really want to spend a week talking about which party is tougher on terrorists? We just got done having a fight about whether or not Republicans and the U.S. military are too tough on terrorists detainees (and, based on recent polls, the good guys won that debate.)

"This makes no sense to me. It's like the Republicans talking about which party is better at spending money on education programs. It's not in their circle of credibility." What's more, Democrats "are guilty of the same thing. People will abide aggressive partisan rancor, but they won't abide hypocrisy. And for the Democrats to squeal like stuck pigs about this non-issue is the height of hypocrisy."

Add Peggy Noonan to the list of conservative columnists who don't like Ed Klein's book on Hillary:

"Mr. Klein's problem is that he assumes the market is conservative and conservatives are stupid. They're not, actually. They want solid sourcing and new information that is true . . .

"The real problem with Hillary biographies is that the picture they paint, if it is true, is difficult for a normal person to believe. No one could be that bad. No one who has risen so high in American politics could possibly be that bad. To believe is to go to a dark place.

"And the charges seem so at odds--so utterly at odds--with the nice, smiling woman who calls abortion a tragedy and enjoys speaking of how much she prays. This is the problem all Hillary biographers have: It's too grim to believe. To believe that her story as presented by the books so far is true is to believe that she has clung to a premeditated plan for 40 years, that she is ruthless in the pursuit both of her own ambitions and of a deep and intractable leftist political agenda. And that she found her equal in a partner sufficiently hardhearted to stick with the plan, and the secrecy, and the weirdness. It's too over the top. It seems hard to believe, not because it isn't true but because it isn't likely, usual, expected. It isn't the kind of biography we are used to in our leaders. That is her great advantage.

"What is needed is a big and serious book by respected reporters who can dig, think and type, and whose sourcing standards are high and unimpeachable."

Patt Morrison of the LAT scoffs at the flag-burning amendment at the Huffington Post:

"I wonder how this would play in Iraq, where they're still waiting for the constitutional amendment to ban sending soldiers to war with armored equipment not much stronger than a Lurex tank top. GI Joe was better kitted out than some of these folks.

"What delights me about this amendment is that it always arrives just about the same time as the catalogues selling everything you need to celebrate the Fourth of July and the rest of the patriotic summer.

"Check the catalogues, sign on to eBay --- what isn't being hawked with a flag on it? Doormats, handkerchiefs, cocktail napkins, pocket knives, sheets, wastebaskets, dog shirts, chip-and-dip sets, bras, toilet seat covers. You can blow your nose on the flag, sop up your booze with it, sleep on it, stab someone with it, dress your dog in it, dump your trash in it, flush away under it and wipe your feet on it -- but don't even think about setting fire to it."

For a radio commentator to rip off this Slate piece, virtually word for word, can be hazardous to one's career health. The gory details here.

Finally, being a celebrity involves so many trials and tribulations, as the Chicago Tribune reports:

"Hermes has apologized to Oprah Winfrey for turning her away from one of its Paris boutiques last week, saying it was closed for a public relations event when she came knocking.

"The talk show host and an entourage tried to enter a Hermes boutique on Paris' posh Rue du Faubourg St. Honore at 6:45 p.m. on June 14, Hermes said in a statement.

" 'People were in the store and they were shopping. Oprah was at the door and she was not allowed into the store,' Gayle King, a friend of Winfrey's who witnessed the incident, told 'Entertainment Tonight.' 'Oprah describes it herself as one of the most humiliating moments of her life.' "

She must have led a pretty charmed life until now.