The Washington Times’ Rowan Scarborough has a piece today on how the repeal of DADT will affect cohesion and training in the Special Forces command, the upshot of which is that there will be no end of problems with openly gay Special Operators insisting on the need to where earrings and listen to Judy Garland CDs. What jumped out at me though was the person Scarborough chose to interview as his Special Ops inside expert: a retired Navy Seal named George R. Worthington who retired in 1992 after commanding the Navy Special Warfar Command and now writes occasional pieces for Human Events.

“If an open gay does his job, I think he’ll be accepted,” Worthington told the Times. “I don’t think there is going to be that many of them that want to sign up for SEALs anyway because of the closeness and the tightness of the training. My opinion is that they’re probably more clerical oriented. Medical profession. Corpsmen. Stuff like that.”

Worthington’s bio says he served in Vietnam in 1963, which suggests he’s at least 65 years old, probably at least a few years older. It sounds like Worthington goes into the discussion with somewhat settled views on the topic. But it does not surprise me that an admiral who retired from the Navy twenty years ago and writes for Human Events might come in with a pretty sour take on gays serving openly in the Armed Forces.

In the absence of the routine politics politics, snow politics has rushed into the void. If you’re in New Jersey you’ve probably heard that Gov. Christie and his Lt. Gov Kim Guadagno both managed to be on vacation out of the state during the snow storm that has shut down much of the state. They actually just created the Lt. Governor position because there have been so many recent cases where the governor was gone or resigned or in some other state of disgrace and the Senate President run things.

In New York City, there seems to be some level of scandal brewing over the city being wholly unprepared for the storm.

Key anti-‘gays in the military’ group prepping to open new fight on ‘gays in military showers’ policy.

Incoming House Republicans are turning to a series of K Street veterans to help unravel the Health Care Reform law.

President Obama thanks Eagles owner for giving ex-con Michael Vick a second chance.

In the wake of Haley Barbour’s Jim Crow face plant last week various commentators are weighing in to take stock of whether it’s a bump in the road or the end of his hopes of running for president in 2012.

Back on Planet Earth, though, a different story can be told.

Let’s state it flat out. You have to be deeply, securely, and no doubt permanently encased in the DC cocoon ever to have thought that Haley Barbour was a serious presidential candidate. Really, people. Any number of things would have to change to make Barbour a remotely credible presidential candidate — starting with erasing the image of Boss Hogg from the cultural memory of every American over the age of 30. And that would probably be one of the easier tasks on the list. Read More

From my experience living on the East Coast for going on 25 years and in New York for half a dozen, if there’s a prediction of a colossal snow storm your best bet is to assume it’s not going to happen. I feel like this has become even more the case over the last few years. There’s some sort of weird snow fall prediction grade inflation. But this one actually panned out. At least in New York City, and I’m told in most of the rest of the East Coast too.

There must be a good foot of snow on the ground in lower Manhattan. But what jumped out to me is that usually the major roads in the middle of Manhattan get cleared at an almost comical speed. Part of that is that there is great snow plowing. But it’s also because the streets are just warm. The city itself is warm and the cars warm up the roads. So even the most determined snow just doesn’t stand a chance against the implacable city. Like Broadway for aspiring actors, the avenues of New York crush the dreams of even the most talented snow. But this morning … actually not even morning, but now late morning 6th Avenue, while definitely drivable, is still under a packed couple inches or so of snow.

You got pictures? Send us your pictures of the snow in your neck of the woods.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) warns of “apocalyptic pain” if the federal government doesn’t cut spending.

From Michael Memoli, writing in the LA Times …

Reporting from Honolulu — [Former U.S. Rep.] Neil Abercrombie knew Barack Obama’s parents when the future president was born here in 1961, and he has been aggravated by the so-called birther movement, which alleges Obama was not born in the United States and thus should be expelled from office.

Now Abercrombie has an office of his own — he became governor of Hawaii on Dec. 6. — and he intends to do something about it.

What, exactly, is unclear. But in an interview this week at the state Capitol, he left little doubt that torpedoing the conspiracy theorists was a priority.

“What bothers me is that some people who should know better are trying to use this for political reasons,” said Abercrombie, 72. “Maybe I’m the only one in the country that could look you right in the eye right now and tell you, ‘I was here when that baby was born.’ “

Read the rest here.