Politics

Hillary’s E-mails: Am I Bovvered?

Mickey Kaus Columnist
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Dept. of Not Excitable: When a public official is caught using a private email account to conduct official business, it’s — well, it’s one of those charges, like the charge of using legislative staff to get reelected — that I can’t get all excited about. It’s insane to expect people to do business knowing all of their communications will be made public. There has to be some place for them to curse, chew people out, be cynical and self-absorbed without worrying about optics, etc. That goes for Sarah Palin as well as Hillary Clinton. …

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Memories: I’ve been going through my archives and came across this impressive piece of partisan BS wishful thinking that was on the front page of the NYT in 2011 — all about how Scott Walker’s legislative victory curtailing the bargaining rights of government unions was really a “big gift” to Democrats. … P.S.: Note the 4th generation Sulzberger byline. It’s enough to give regression toward the mean a bad name. …

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Chelsea Clinton vs. Ira Magaziner. Whom to root for? … I’m thinking ….

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HuffPo‘s Jennifer Bendery writes:

There are more than 134,000 transgender veterans or retirees from Guard or Reserve service, according to a 2014 Williams Institute report. What’s at stake for each of them is the ability to change their name on the military form known as a DD-214, a lifelong document that military personnel receive when they retire or are discharged. [Emphasis added]

Bendery tweets that she was “stunned to learn” about the 134,000 number. So am I! I’m highly skeptical of it. … The study from which it comes

“defined ‘transgender’ broadly to include those whose gender identity or expression differs from those traditionally associated with their assigned sex at birth. This includes, but is not limited to, those who self-identify as transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, and cross-dressers. [Emphasis added]

So it includes cross dressers — or people who identify as cross-dressers — plus some amorphous “not limited to” category. Do cross-dressers really need to get their Pentagon records updated to reflect that? …

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Now He Tells Us — The Education of Ezra Klein Continues: In Vox, Klein argues Democratic health reform efforts shouldn’t focus on cost-cutting. You know who pitched health care refom as a cost-control effort back in 2009 (when it counted)? … And now we wonder why Obamacare isn’t popular. … Luckily, I’m not bitter. …

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Mickey Kaus