Legal only in the sense of not being against the law

Here is a hilarious passage from a typical regurgitation of DNC talking points by the New York Times wing of the party, in this case on Tom DeLay:

Mr. DeLay, the Texas Republican who had been the House majority leader, crowed that he had been "found innocent." But many of Mr. DeLay's actions remain legal only because lawmakers have chosen not to criminalize them.

Well, the Times editorial board certainly nailed this one.

I had grilled chicken breast for dinner. It is only legal for me to eat grilled chicken breast because lawmakers have chosen not to criminalize eating grilled chicken breast. Indeed, you might as well say that I am guilty of a crime, when you really think about it. For me to claim to be "innocent" would not really be honest, now would it?

Not to the editors of the Times, anyway.

A rare bit of candor

In case you missed it, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs got caught being honest in an article that appeared yesterday:

"I hear these people saying he's like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested," Gibbs said. "I mean, it's crazy."

The press secretary dismissed the "professional left" in terms very similar to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying, "They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we've eliminated the Pentagon. That's not reality."

Of those who complain that Obama caved to centrists on issues such as healthcare reform, Gibbs said: "They wouldn't be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president."

Not surprisingly, he was blistered by the, uh, professional left for his apostasy. Interesting that he was not there today, I guess they are trying to decide whether or not to cave in to the hard left's desire to Shirley Sherrod him.

Review and preview: Adam Morrison

Strengths: Scoring, at the college level.

Weaknesses: Basketball, at the NBA level.

Last year: In 7.8 mostly garbage minutes over 31 games, he put up 2.4 points and rebound on awful shooting (.418 TS%) shooting, which combine into a 7.4 PER that was actually better than the year before. Played 13 minutes in 2 playoff games, and was actually pretty effective (8 points, 5 rebounds).

Next year: Is an unrestricted free agent who will look to keep his NBA career alive, with the D League or Europe also being possibilities. He will not be back with LA.

Morrison was apparently the funniest guy on the team, worked his ass off in practice, did not complain, was in all aspects a good soldier. He’s just not any good.

An unstoppable college scorer, he is one of those guys who are just not athletic enough for his game to hold up on the next level. His ability to come off screens, jab step, drive, the multitude of ways that scorers free themselves, they all disappeared when the defenders got a step quicker and jumped a few inches higher. Since he was always more scorer than shooter, that left him with nothing to fall back on offensively.

Defensively, he had never been asked to play any his whole life, but once asked the lack of athleticism and knowledge of technique doomed him from the start. Similarly, despite his height he was not going to get many rebounds that didn’t come right to him.

In an ideal world, scouts would have recognized him limitations and he would have been a late first round draft pick. Instead, his accomplishments at the college fooled Michael Jordan into taking him with the third pick, and after a disappointing rookie season he blew out his knee, ending any realistic chance that he could develop into a bench scorer of some usefulness.

Now, at the end of his rookie contract, his career may be over. At best, he will hang around in that end of the roster/D League zone for a while, or perhaps end up in Europe, where he still might be able to carve out a decent career.

Since he seems like a good guy and was popular with the team, I wish him the best, but I’m glad I don’t have to see him in a Laker uniform again.