Congress is expected to approve less forceful air bags. They already exist-they’re called Republicans.
In Lolita, the delusional Humbert Humbert resolves to kill one of his imagined persecutors-but can’t manage to do a decent job of it. Humbert shoots him once, and then again, and again; only after much comic absurdity does his target finally die. Unfortunately, it is a scene reminiscent of the GOP’s attacks on CIA nominee Tony Lake. It was clear from the beginning that Lake, a traditional 1960s liberal deeply distrustful of American power and its uses, was not up to the job. But Senate Republicans—always unwilling to criticize Clinton nominees on the basis of their ideas-talked instead about Lake’s stocks and his involvement in Bosnian arms deals. Even when the disastrous breakdowns in Lake’s National Security Council staff came to light (supposedly no one thought to tell his superiors that the Chinese were trying to buy the U.S. election), Republicans still seemed destined to confirm Lake. It was finally a Wall Street Journal report on how Lake’s NSC got rolled by the Democratic National Committee over a Lebanese donor’s access to the White House that finished Lake’s nomination. The good news is that Lake is being kept from a job for which he is so obviously ill-equipped. The bad news is that Republicans are as squeamish about taking on Clinton nominees as ever. The day after Lake withdrew, the Senate began hearings on Labor Secretary-designate Alexis Herman, a woman who has made a dishonorable career out of cynical racial politics and insider connections. She can expect soon to have a seat at Cabinet meetings-courtesy of a Senate Republican majority that not only lacks the courage of its convictions, but seems actively afraid of them.
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