Inside the Beltway: Savage unleashes more fury

NEWS AND OPINION:

The inimitable talk-radio host Michael Savage can attack his foes with a quick bolt of vitriol or via long-form insight that is just as caustic. Speaking of long form, Mr. Savage’s sixth political book, “Trickle Down Tyranny: Crushing Obama’s Dream of the Socialist States of America,” will be published Tuesday by William Morrow.

“Economies can be rebuilt, armies can be repopulated, but once a nation’s pride is gone it can almost never be restored. The loss of a nation’s honor is something not even centuries can repair,” the author says. “The USA or the USSA? The United States of America or the Union of Socialist States of America? That is the question.”

READY TO RUMBLE

A confident Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus says eager GOPers have called more than a million Wisconsin voters, opened “victory centers” and established a “sophisticated and aggressive turnout program” across the state in preparation for Tuesday’s primary.

The Grand Old Party is not revealing any concern about Gov. Scott Walker’s upcoming recall election. Polls indicate Mr. Walker could win or lose that election by a slim margin, a phenomenon that may worry Mitt Romney, who has sided with Mr. Walker during his fight with unions in his state.

“By June, when Gov. Walker is victorious again, we’ll have a confident and battle-tested ground organization with four straight victories under our belts,” Mr. Priebus says. “That organization will be ready to pounce on the president and other Democrats on the ballot with him in November. What will the Democrats have? They’ll have the remnants of a dispirited, losing 2010 operation, and special interests who poured tens of millions of dollars in outside cash into the state with nothing to show for it.”

HISTORIC MUDSLINGING

“The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly flat and dishwatery remarks of the man who has to be pointed out as the president of the United States. Is Mr. Lincoln less refined than a savage? It was a perversion of history so flagrant that the most extended charity cannot view it as otherwise than willful.”

(The Chicago Times, in a Nov. 20, 1863, review of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.)

PALIN’S PRIMED

Sarah Palin was civil, good humored and unapologetic as five cackling cast members of NBC’s “Today” show delivered mostly inane questions to the former Alaska governor before her appearance as a guest co-host Tuesday morning. Matt Lauer asked if she was “reading some newspapers” to prepare, referencing Mrs. Palin’s 2008 interview with then-CBS anchor Katie Couric, who was contentiously curious about the same thing.

“That’s a fine how do you do. That’s a great start; here we go,” an unfazed Mrs. Palin replied by phone, later adding, “I appreciate NBC’s boldness in having me on.”

The network advises that she’ll dominate the 8-9 a.m. hour with other “professional” contributors, including Dr. Nancy Snyderman, Star Jones and Donny Deutsch.

FLY ME TO THE MOON

Consider that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and the 1979 Moon Treaty preclude any nation from recognizing private-property claims in space. Who knew? Now Capitol Hill gets an earful from Rand Simberg, a scholar with the Competitive Enterprise Institute who argues that the U.S. should recognize “off-planet land claims” by private parties. His solution, to be presented Thursday: the Space Homesteading Act.

“A legal private property regime for real estate on the Moon, Mars, and asteroids could usher in a new era of space exploration at little or no cost to the U.S. government,” a supporting study says. “Space is rich in valuable resources. But without off-planet property rights, investors have little incentive to fund space transportation or development.”

Mr. Simberg predicts that claim rights would transform our perception of space from “an off-limits scientific preserve to a frontier of possibilities for exploration, resource development, and human settlement.” Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, who pushed entrepreneurial space exploration in his campaign, would love the idea. President Obama, no fan of such things, might shake his head.

“Property rights are at the core of personal freedoms,” says Gary C. Hudson, president of the nonprofit Space Studies Institute. “There’s no reason to believe that they are any less important off the Earth than they are here on Earth.”

See the study here: cei.org/issue-analysis/homesteading-final-frontier.

AND IN SUMMATION

“Don’t panic, Republicans. For the last month or two, news coverage has frequently been hysterical. The Republican war on women! Occupy the 1%! Ryan budget pushes Grandma over a cliff! Again! Trayvon Martin! The Republican war on hoodies! To some extent, of course, the hysteria is intended to stir up the Democrats’ base. But I think it is also intended to demoralize and confuse Republicans, and throw us off our game,” counsels lawyer and policy analyst John Hinderaker, who backs up his conclusions with poll numbers on such issues here: www.powerlineblog.com.

POLL DU JOUR

• 52 percent of registered Wisconsin voters say the nation’s worst economic problems are “behind us.”

• 32 percent of Wisconsin Republicans, 34 percent of the state’s conservatives, 73 percent of its Democrats and 71 percent of liberals agree.

• 52 percent of Wisconsin voters overall would support President Obama in an Obama/Mitt Romney matchup if the election were today; 35 percent of Wisconsin voters overall would vote for Mr. Romney.

• 51 percent would support Mr. Obama in an Obama/Rick Santorum matchup; 38 percent would vote for Mr. Santorum.

• 51 percent would support President Obama in an Obama/Ron Paul matchup; 36 percent would vote for Mr. Paul.

Source: An NBC News/Marist Poll of 2,792 registered Wisconsin voters conducted March 26-27.

(THE POLL: Obama leads Romney in Wisconsin among registered voters, 52 percent to 35 percent, with 13 percent undecided. And he edges Santorum, 51 percent to 38 percent, with 11 percent undecided. The poll suggests, however, that both Romney and Santorum would have room to grow in the general election, given that a substantial portion of the undecided vote leans Republican.)

• Cheers, jeers, understandable fears to jharper@washingtontimes.com