McCain to Democrats:

"I see your pantsuits and raise you one corsage."


John McCain just announced Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his VP pick, to the surprise of many. (WP) He is sure gunning for Hillary Clinton supporters and I imagine this choice fits into that plan.

Palin is young (44), anti-corruption, firmly anti-abortion, has posed for Vogue, and differs with her new running mate on the subject of drilling in the Arctic Refuge.

She also really likes to wear giant flowers on her lapel, a la Carrie Bradshaw in 1999. I thought the pic above, from her gubernatorial inauguration, was an anomaly, until I ran across this one too.

If you happen to have any other documentation of Governor Palin's floral fashion statements, send them my way. It is certainly a distinctive calling card.

Merry Christmas from Ted Stevens

House Backs Arctic Drilling at End of Marathon Session (NYT).

So, to bring everybody up to speed, this is the result of the latest attempt to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development. Senator Ted Stevens* (R-AK) got drilling language attached to a bill to fund the Department of Defense and Katrina reconstruction. Very difficult to vote against. Dirty, dirty, dirty.

I want to be pissed at the House, but hell, if I had to work until 5 a.m. on a Sunday night, I might vote away my own mother. Actually, it gets even worse for those hard-working public servants, because this is what they were voting on at 6:20 a.m.:

H.R. 4510: to direct the Joint Committee on the Library to accept the donation of a bust depicting Sojourner Truth and to display the bust in a suitable location in the rotunda of the Capitol.

*Who, I recently learned, frequently wears an Incredible Hulk tie to work