Rumble in the Capitol?

Doubt it will come to this, but Senate leadership is planning to post armed guards to keep Roland Burris out of the Senate, if necessary. (TPM) Rod Blagojevich is a mad, narcissistic genius for this pick.

2009 is going to rock. I can already feel it.

No hablan

All the Democratic candidates, except Biden, appeared last night for a debate on Univision, the nationwide Spanish-language TV channel. (NYT)

The Republican presidential candidates, interestingly, all declined Univision's offer of a GOP candidate debate. You've gotta have a pretty good reason to blow off the nation's largest Latino TV audience when you're running for president of the United States. (A reason that begins with "I" and rhymes with "schmimmigration"?) Doesn't bode well for the R candidates long-term if they all made this choice.

One of many Obama questions

I don't get it.

If elected president, Barack Obama could see invading Pakistan--a state that actually does have WMD, by the way--to root out terrorists.

...and Hillary Clinton is "Bush-Cheney light"?

Texas has officially been messed with

Check out the sweet House committee chairmanships that Texas Democrats would have held the the next Congress, had they not been redistricted out of their seats in 2003:

Rules: Martin Frost, D-Dallas
Agriculture: Charlie Stenholm, D-Abilene
Homeland Security: Jim Turner, D-Crockett

(As reported by the Dallas Morning News.)

What a bummer for the good people of Texas, who can't possibly deserve Tom DeLay any more than the rest of us deserve W.

[insert post about GOP imploding here]

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Here is a place where I could write about how Condi Rice does not take the best notes during meetings (SF Chron). Or about how some congressional Democrats and Republicans seem to be engaged in a breathless struggle to out-scandal each other ("We'll see your bribery and raise you one pedophile!"). Or about the potential for hard-right Republicans to get ousted by the conservative Christian vote that they have so carefully cultivated (WP). But I think the time has come to just sit back and watch Fate spin this one out as she desires.

PS: When did substance abuse stop being reason enough to question a lawmaker's fitness to serve and start being just an excuse for other, worse stuff?

Playing out the rope

Would it really be a problem for the Democrats if they were directionless going into the midterm elections this November?

In The New Republic this week, Peter Beinart postulates that the best strategy for the Dems is to keep any visionary agenda they may or may not have on the DL.

It makes sense. According to recent polling, an awful lot of Americans are pretty pissed at the Bush administration and/or the Republican led Congress right now. If you’re a Democrat, do you really want to complicate that equation? By pushing a bold national platform for voters to consider? (And bear in mind, it’s one thing to have a bold national platform, it’s another thing to push it aggressively.)

As Beinart writes, it seems quite possible that this is, in fact, the agreed-upon D strategy...and that the vagueness of their agenda is intentional.

Wishful thinking?