Stand Us On Our Heads ...

When I was in high school, a common insult was:"You'd look better if you shaved your rear and stood on your head." That's about as naughty as we got. On a little more sophisticated level, Richard Hofstadter proved in his brilliant biographical sketches for The American Political Tradition that leading figures in American political history looked pretty much the same if you stood them on their heads to take another look. Now comes Christopher Hitchens with"Bush's Secularist Triumph: The Left Apologizes for Religious Fanatics. The President Fights Them." It's classic Hitchens, with enough in what he says to offend almost everyone.

Sara Boxer at the New York Times has a very funny story about what happens when the demos writes history. (They behave like bloggers!) Thanks to Orin Kerr at Volokh for the tip.

Hugh Hewitt may be a political conservative and you may even disagree with Glenn Reynolds, but they are leading the charge against the National Review Online's campaign to prevent Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter from becoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Give the Republicans 55 Senators and the long knives come out. Threaten a half dozen Republican moderates with reprisals and you might no longer have a majority. I suspect that every one of them is strong enough, if necessary, to switch parties and win re-election with little difficulty.

I had a problem yesterday with Simon Schama's ranging the"Godly" against the"Worldly" in American politics for the Guardian. Neither do I find much consolation in Howard Zinn's"The Optimism of Uncertainty" for Znet, but it's worth a look.

Finally, the American Studies Association convention begins here in Atlanta today. Here's the program, if you want to have a look at it. ASA used to be a fairly highbrow outfit, so much so that it generated a reaction in the 1960's that created the Popular Culture Association. The distinction between the two no longer prevails and ASA now offers grist for gentle spoofing: sessions with titles like"Bodies at the Crossroads: The Corporeal Terrain of American Colonialism,""E/Race/ings: Gay Melancholia and Male (Homo)sexual Identities in Recent American Fiction," and"American Kitsch: Souvenir Culture". It's probably a good thing that Scott McLemee won't be there, but some historians will be and I look forward to seeing those who are.