| Today on NRO VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Facts now pale in comparison with the higher truths of progressivism. Our Make-It-Up World. KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON: The case for the six-figure shoeshine artist. Shine On. JILLIAN KAY MELCHIOR: A White House electrician ran up a $1,550 bill on personal calls — and taxpayers covered the costs. Hold the Phone. CONRAD BLACK: Tell the Turks to stop supporting terrorism — or get out of NATO. Get Tough with Turkey. SLIDESHOW: The War of the Worlds. | Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty October 30, 2014 Hey, Who’s Going to the Ebola Nurse’s Halloween Party on Friday Night? What a peach, huh? Not long ago, Kaci Hickox was fighting Ebola in West Africa, doing what she could to treat those with the deadly disease. Now, she's in the middle of a different fight — this time, in Maine. Maine health commissioner Mary Mayhew said late Wednesday afternoon that, even as it continues talks with Hickox's representatives, the state is in the process of filing a court order to require the nurse to abide by a 21-day quarantine. Mayhew cited concerns about Hickox's hands-on role in dealing with Ebola patients, as well as "concerns about the lack of reliability and the lack of trustworthiness in the information that has been received." "You need to be able to have trust and credibility in that information," the state health commissioner said. "That makes her a higher risk." Mayhew’s got a point here. We have a pattern of patients not being honest and upfront about their exposure to their disease and their actions after exposure. Thomas Eric Duncan lied. Dr. Nancy Snyderman broke quarantine to go out for some soup. Dr. Craig Spencer lied about how much he traveled the city. 
Didn’t anybody watch House? Back to Maine: The health commissioner said she "did not understand" why Hickox is challenging what she calls a "common-sense approach" of staying home for three weeks. (That amount of time is significant because it may take that long between when a person gets Ebola and shows signs of it.) "I don't plan on sticking to the guidelines," she said Wednesday on NBC's "Today" show, referring to Maine' officials' plan for her to remain quarantined at home through November 10. "I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me." Then, Wednesday night: "I remain really concerned by these mandatory quarantine policies for aid workers. I think we are only adding to the stigmatization that again is not based on science or evidence and if these restrictions are not removed from me from the State of Maine by tomorrow morning, Thursday morning, I will go to court to obtain my freedom," Hickox said. Good luck, judge! Somehow, I suspect the judge will not ask her to approach the bench. Ma’am . . . get in the farshtunkin tent. I understand it’s quite inconvenient to have to stay home and minimize your interaction with people for a three-week period. But it’s less inconvenient than giving other people Ebola. See, your ability to live your life “normally” with access to bowling and your favorite soup and all that stuff is a high priority to you, but it’s not a particularly high priority to most of the rest of us. Not getting Ebola is an extremely high priority to the rest of us. If she’s right, and she doesn’t have Ebola, we’ve forced her to waste three weeks of her life. If she’s wrong, and she has Ebola, she runs the risk of exposing other people to it. The scenario that includes her sitting around bored for three weeks for no good reason has the advantage of no one enduring liquefying internal organs. Lest I be accused of fear-mongering, note I’m writing this in New York City and next Tuesday I’ll travel to Dallas for The Blaze’s Election Night coverage. From one hot zone to another! Hillary, Too Busy Posing for Vogue to Tape Ads for Vulnerable Democrats There are a lot of reasons why Hillary Clinton is more vulnerable than the conventional wisdom thinks — although I suppose the conventional wisdom might be catching up. Bloomberg News observes: Though she's traveled the country for Democrats, headlining rallies from Colorado to North Carolina, Clinton has not lent any of her star power to any televised campaign ads. It's a strange discrepancy: While Clinton is one of — if not the most — requested surrogates for Democratic congressional campaigns, many seem far less seem eager to put her in their television ads. Even the spot for Grimes, a long-time family friend of the Clintons, was online-only—a far less expensive proposition for a campaign than actually buying time to place an ad on television. And it used footage captured two weeks ago at a rally Clinton held for Grimes in Louisville, rather than any new video... Hillary Clinton's spokespeople refused to comment on her ad appearances, or lack of them. But people close to the former first couple say they've been turning down requests from candidates to star in ads, fearing that if they cut a spot for one, they'd have to do them for everyone who asked. Those people say former President Bill Clinton is annoyed by several unauthorized usages of his image in ads. So what is Hillary doing with her time these days, instead of cutting ads? Is Hillary Clinton about to make her return to the cover of Vogue? Confidenti@l has learned that the presumed presidential candidate and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour visited Michael Kors’ studio for a fitting. We’re told the power trio huddled in Kors’ office at his Bryant Park HQ, studying a “rack of clothes.” Clinton (l.), who was with longtime aide Huma Abedin and a person our spy describes as a “huge bodyguard,” has graced the cover of the fashion bible once before. She was on the December 1998 cover, in velvet Oscar de la Renta, as First Lady in a shoot by Annie Leibovitz. Last year at an opening for a de la Renta retrospective at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Ark., Wintour said, “All of us at Vogue look forward to putting on the cover the first female President of the United States.” Democrats are on the verge of an awful midterm election, gobs of Democrats are hanging on by their fingernails, and Hillary’s getting ready to pose for Vogue. If you’re one of those dedicated, door-knocking, flyer-distributing rank-and-file grassroots Democrats, how does it feel to have a front-running nominee who’s less dedicated to electing members of your party than you are? Like the giant speaking fees (for Chelsea, too!), the gargantuan wealth built during a life in “public service”, the backslapping deals at the Clinton Foundation, these little anecdotes add to the narrative that the Clintons are dedicated first and foremost to “Clintons Inc.” and to others — even political allies — second. What’s working for Hillary this coming cycle is that it’s hard to see any of her potential rivals turning into the next Barack Obama. Even if there’s an argument to be made to Democratic presidential primary voters that Hillary is too old, too establishment, too tied to Washington, too tied to the Obama administration’s failures, not sufficiently connected of the party’s vengeful populist id the way Elizabeth Warren is… who, other than Warren, could come along and play Obama next year? Martin O’Malley? Brian Schweitzer? Joe Biden? Come on. How Significant Is It that Democrats Are Worried About These House Races? Recall yesterday’s competitive House race roundup and note that the Associated Press confirms that Democrats are increasingly nervous about seats they never thought they would have to defend: Desperate Democrats are rushing to save suddenly vulnerable House incumbents, even in states where President Barack Obama cruised to double-digit victories, amid fresh signs of Republican momentum less than a week before the midterm elections. The once friendly terrain of New York, California, Obama's native state of Hawaii and adopted state of Illinois all now pose stiff challenges to Democrats who are determined to limit their losses next Tuesday. Both parties agree the GOP will hold its House majority; the question is whether Republicans can gain enough seats to rival their post-World War II high water mark of 246. In one sign of Democratic concern, Vice President Joe Biden was heading to Massachusetts on Wednesday for a rally with Seth Moulton, who is trying to hold onto a Democratic seat against Republican Richard Tisei. Then Biden was traveling to California on Saturday to campaign in an open-seat contest east of Los Angeles that surprisingly looks closer than a sure-fire Democratic gain. Think about it -- we’re a week away from Election Day, and the White House is sending Biden to Massachusetts. The committee also reserved $360,000 in air time for ads for first-term Rep. Steven Horsford in his central Nevada district north of Las Vegas after the Karl Rove-founded group Crossroads GPS made a late ad buy of $935,000. The good news is Democrats apparently forgot to get out the vote this year in Nevada. The bad news is if they lose as bad as the current outlook suggests, they probably won’t ever forget to do that again. And In Hawaii, the Democrats are spending $200,000 on television ads and voter outreach for Mark Takai, who is locked in a tight race with former Republican Rep. Charles Djou in an open Honolulu-based district that Obama won with 70 percent of the vote. In one example, the Democratic committee has bought $99,000 in radio ads for eight-term Rep. Lois Capps in her Santa Barbara-area race against Chris Mitchum, the son of the late actor Robert Mitchum. The GOP candidate has relatively little money still on hand for his campaign — $96,108 — but the contest is considered close. ADDENDA: A wonderful night in New York City Wednesday, as the National Review Institute held the first annual William F. Buckley Jr. Prize Dinner, honoring the DeVos family with the Buckley Prize for Leadership in Supporting Liberty, and Charles Krauthammer with the Buckley Prize for Leadership in Political Thought. In case you’re unfamiliar with it, the NRI is a nonprofit institution devoted to “policy development, public education, and advocacy that would advance the principles William F. Buckley championed.” (It’s the deliberate nonprofit, in contrast to the rest of us.) You know how we know Charles Krauthammer is dedicated to the vision of Buckley and National Review? He attended his awards dinner on the night of Game Seven of the World Series. That’s devotion! This week’s edition of the Jim and Mickey Show involves no politics — all Halloween talk, from how to handle awkward costume pictures on social media, speculation about the existence of ghosts, Halloween apps to find the houses with the best candy, bad dates, and romantic encounters gone terribly wrong. From Our Sponsor:
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