1) Mr. Mental Case: Mr. Phil "ready money [is] the most reliable friend you can have in American politics" Gramm will forever live out the maxim that academics teach and pols do. Why not send him off to Dayton, Ohio, to open a McCain campaign office among all those foreclosed homes abanoned by all the "whiners."
2) Mark Penn hires Karen Hughes: Have you no sense of common decency...uh, I mean timing? The Washington Post recently called the two "PR wizards." When exactly does the magic start? Have they been waiting for something important to come along?
3) Why people still read Novak: Love him or hate him, Robert Novak can still cut through the crap of Washington. On the recent Obama meeting with Clinton big-money people: "But, in the opinion of the Clintonites, he [Obama] did not open the door to his campaign, because he asked nothing of them. Big-money Democrats who could have expected to be named U.S. ambassadors by President Hillary Clinton realized that they would get nothing from a President Obama. The train had left the station, and they were not aboard." The whole problem explained in three simple sentences.
4) Dead Man Running: Jack Kevorkian has collected enough signatures to get on the ballot for the 9th Congressional District race in Michigan. He'll be the independent candidate facing Republican incumbent Joe Knollenberg and Democrat Gary Peters. Wouldn't it give you the creeps if your neighbor had a "Kevorkian for Congress" yard sign? Or a Kevorkian house party?
5) Psychodrama qu'est-ce que c'est? Creepy Bill Clinton returns to the Aspen Ideas Festival to remind the crowd: "If you know anybody who was a POW for any length of time, you will see, you go along for months or maybe even years and then something will happen and it will trigger all those bad dreams, and it will come back." And the next thing you know it's World War III!!!! Hey, I'm just sayin'.
6) Hot Mic! Comin' through here! Hot Mic! Rev. Jesse Jackson, the latest in the long line of clergymen imposing themselves in the middle of the 2008 presidential contest, blames his coarse message to Obama on a "hot mic." Now that would make for a great new reality show. Get Hulk Hogan's kid to host it.
7) Jesse Helms R.I.P.: Equally scorned and worshiped, an American original and a successful pol. As Ferrel Guillory, a figurehead of NC political journalism put it in the NYT obit [7-5-08], "He was a very polarizing politician. He was not a consensus builder. He didn't want everybody to vote for him. He just wanted enough." And what's so wrong with that?
8) Two political guys with fistfulls of cash walk into a bar: The news out of New York this week is that Rochester billionaire Tom Golisano, himself a three-time loser for governor of that state, will spend $5 million on this year's state legislative races in an effort to push a "reform" agenda. If a candidate agrees with his views, he'll pony up the cash. In a more traditional move, House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel has so far this year handed out $849,392 to Democrats running for Congress. Obviously planning for a rainy day.
9) Hey Joe, where you goin' with that nominating speech in your hand? The new website LiebermanMustGo.com has irked the Senator and his staff with their petition drive to get theDemocratic leadership to strip him of his rank in the party caucus and deny him a committee chairmanship. Lieberman spokesman Marshall Wittman said that the drive was the product of "old petty partisan politics." Aren't they the best kind?
10) From the folks who brought you the guillotine: Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's new CD, laced with love songs to her husband the President of France. Sample lyrics: "You're my orgy....I am burning for you like a pagan woman." Further evidence that French politics is not really politics. More like a fancy lunch. Name one American political spouse who could get away with saying this stuff in public. Mrs. Kucinich does not count.
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