Hulings Scholar Reappears

I received an email today from the American Politics Journal, email edition. Here are a few paragraphs:

Two days before the August 8 Connecticut primary, Corinne Boggs “Cokie” Roberts reflected on ABC’s c“This Week” that it would be "a disaster for the Democratic Party" if Joseph Lieberman were to lose that primary election to Ned Lamont. "I think”, she said, “ that ... pushing the party to the left, which is what's likely to happen, is pushing the party to the position from which it traditionally loses ... presidential elections.”

I suspect that Ms. Roberts was less concerned about the future of the Democratic Party than she was about the seating arrangement at Steve and Cokie Roberts’ New Years Eve gala. After all, Joe and Hadassah are such fine folks, and DC High Society simply would not be the same without them.
....
Read closely both on and between the lines of Washington (so-called) “journalism,” and you will find evidence of an unelected “shadow-government”of comfortable, self-appointed and self-satisfied DC elites, composed of lobbyists, pundits, publishers, diplomats, military, and, of course, politicians. This is the Washington “snobocracy.” It decides, through its “establishment” media, what news, information and opinion are worthy of the public’s attention. And it determines if a politician’s life in the nation’s Capital will be comfortable and productive or an unremitting misery, as Bill and Hillary Clinton were to discover.
....
Thanks to the 2006 election, the snobocracy may be losing its grip on Washington. But it remains a significant player in our politics. For despite the clear message from the voters that it is past time for progressive reform and renewal, the snobocracy is pulling hard to the center. Again, just read and watch the mainstream media. The Democrats, inside and outside of Washington, must resist this pull persistently and forcefully.

Emphasis added.

The author: Ernie Partridge, late of Northland College. You can find out more here. His position, when he wasn't falling asleep in class, an eccentricity not fully appreciated by his colleagues, was once independent of the rest of the full time faculty. Now because of money problems, they give it to one of the faculty. That's too bad, since new blood is something Northland College could use. This year, Northland College gave the professorhip to a woman that is, frankly, an embarrassment. These highly educated, highly paid (relative to the far north of Wisco) apparently think that someone with an accent is an intellectual. It reminds me of this episode of Seinfeld, only not nearly as funny. It's too bad about Northland College, it had an opportunity & maybe, just maybe, it won't have to be like Iraq, although a thinking woman might not agree with me.

Full disclosure: I'm a grad-u-ate of Northland College.

Northland College Falls Behind

Here's a college that's taking it's environmental ethos seriously. Here in America's Dairyland, aka Wisco, Northland College apparently can't even imagine this sort of energy production. It does have a windmill that produces, frankly, not much, energy. But what do I know? I don't have a PhD. My loss, I guess. Granted, the farmers & energy company took the lead in manure electricity. Since we don't have that sort of thing going on here, Northland ought to be pushing hard for just such a facility. They would be walking the walk, as they like to say, when they are not re-inventing the curriculum

Full Disclosure: I'm an alumnus & mostly disgruntled ex-employee of said college. Once in a while I gruntle, but not that seriously.

Earl Audet stands with one of two generators on the Audet's Blue Spruce Farm in this June 23, 2006, file photo in Bridport, Vt. Cow manure is not often thought of as a fount of higher learning, but for students at tiny Green Mountain College, it's lighting the way. The 760-student school in Poultney, on Vermont's border with New York, signed up Thursday to get half its electricity from farms that extract methane from manure and use it to generate electricity for their local utility. The farm is the site of the electric company's first cow power generator, which its owners, the Audet family, fired up nearly two years ago. (AP Photo/Alden Pellett, File)