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Home Front: Politix

Senate Republicans elect John Thune as leader, succeeding Mitch McConnell

2024-11-13

[NYPOST] Senate Republicans tapped John Thune of South Dakota to lead the conference for the next two years and succeed Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving leader of either party in Senate history.

Thune, who has served as the Republican whip since 2019, edged out John Cornyn of Texas 29-24 on the second ballot.

Rick Scott of Florida, a late favorite of hard-right members, was eliminated on the first ballot after receiving just 13 votes to 15 for Cornyn and 23 for Thune.

Come January, the 63-year-old Thune will be the first non-McConnell GOP Senate majority leader since Bill Frist of Tennessee, who held that post for four years before giving way to McConnell (R-Ky.) following the Republican wipeout in the 2006 midterms.

Courtey of Skidmark: Thune elected Senate majority leader, says his GOP leadership team 'united' on passing Trump agenda

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Science

Tennessee Data for Masked vs. Unmasked Counties

2020-12-29

[Townhall] Here in Tennessee, one of the few states without a statewide mask-mandate, much pressure has been placed upon Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to "do something." Since lockdowns are thankfully for the most part out of the question here, the pressure has centered on establishing that mandate the mask-Karens have been longing for. Even former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a medical doctor, has gotten in on the action, begging Lee to pull the trigger in a Facebook post earlier this month that blamed rising case numbers not on the winter months when such viruses always tend to spread, but on supposedly unmasked rural counties.

Over the allotted period, counties with mask mandates saw 4.7% of their population infected while those without them saw a 4.6% infection rate. Interestingly, Hawkins County, which let its mandate expire at the end of September, had 4.3% of its population infected, while Carter County had 5.1% infected with a mandate in place. Both have nearly identical populations.

When you combine this Tennessee data with Rational Ground's data from Florida and masked vs unmasked states nationwide that I wrote about in last week's column, the picture is increasingly clear. It's time to face the fact that mask mandates DO NOT WORK to stop or even slow the spread of COVID-19.

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-Short Attention Span Theater-

Senator Dikembe Mutombo Blocks Record Amount Of Legislation

2010-02-26

From The Onion...
Sen. Dikembe Mutombo (R-CO) showed that he is still one of the most dominant big men in Congress Thursday, blocking a record 16 bills in one legislative session.

The 7-foot-2 senator, who broke the record previously held by Sen. Shawn Bradley (D-NJ), Rep. Arvydas Sabonis (D-OR), and current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), batted away legislation left and right, sometimes swatting bills so hard that they were sent flying all the way back to committee.

Mutombo punctuated his final block, a clean rejection of the Criminal Justice Reinvestment Act, with his signature finger wag.

"He stuffed the new jobs bill right back in Harry Reid's face," Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told reporters. "And then when Reid tried to put the bill back up for consideration, Sen. Mutombo blocked it a second and then a third time. That's when I knew he had a chance at the record."

"He just completely dominates the Senate floor," McCain added.

His biggest rejection came 20 minutes into the first half of the session when 5-foot-10 Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) had his Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act emphatically slapped away by a leaping Mutombo. Following the rejection, Mutombo glared at Dodd from the Senate podium and said, "Get that weak-ass legislation out of my house," in a yell that was reportedly heard in the top rows of the Senate Chamber.

"You don't mind giving up the blocks record to a talent like Mutombo," said Sen. McConnell, who is still considered the Republican floor leader. "Some say he's too centrist, and he may take that position at times, but the fact is he can get stuff struck down like nobody's business."

Mutombo, who has been called a "force" by his Republican colleagues and is a key player in their legislative game plan, had a career-best nine blocks during the first half of Thursday's session. He easily rejected several appropriations bills, barely even getting off the Senate floor on two of them. For his 10th block of the day, he also got a piece of the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act.

"He's like a brick wall out there," a visibly tired and sweaty Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) told reporters. "Sen. Mutombo's arms are so long that if legislation is introduced anywhere in his vicinity, he's probably going to knock it away. There's no way we are going to get health care through with Mutombo out there."

"You can try and alter your legislation or fake him out by attaching a rider to a bill, but in the end he's just too big," Kerry continued. "And fast. He's got surprisingly quick footwork."

Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo started his political career as a city councilman in Denver, quickly gaining a reputation as an elected official focused on getting that stuff out of here. Campaigning on a platform of defense, defense, defense, the popular Mutombo was elected to the State Legislature in 2002 and then to the U.S. Senate in 2006. According to Senate sources, the rookie lawmaker came out of nowhere to stuff Ted Kennedy's Vaccine Access and Supply Act "so far down the late senator's throat" that he easily won the respect of his Republican colleagues.

"He reminds me of myself out there, just rejecting stuff left and right," said former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), who retired in 2007. "Even when he gets called an obstructionist, or for goaltending, he's established psychological dominance and made his point: You don't come through his part of the floor."

Though many Democratic senators have called Mutombo's legislative style extremely partisan, one-dimensional, and completely unfair, some of his colleagues across the aisle have praised Mutombo's willingness to assist them in getting their legislation through Congress.

"The thing about Mutombo is that, for a big man, he can actually pass bills really well," Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) said in reference to their bipartisan work on the Trade Act of 2007 and the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008. "Because he's so tall, he sees the perimeter of the entire Senate floor and knows when a senator from the left or right might offer some weak-side help."

"Reminds me of a young Bill Bradley," Baucus added.

Such praise from Democratic lawmakers is rare, however, with many saying that Sen. Mutombo is directly responsible for the gridlock currently facing Washington.

"Sometimes I get the impression that he'll block something just because it's introduced by a Democrat or, quite frankly, just because he's taller than the rest of us," Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) told reporters. "Why else would he reject a resolution supporting stability in Sudan?"

Specter went on to express concern for the future of his party, saying that the only hope for getting meaningful legislation passed through Congress is to make sure Rep. Greg Ostertag (D-UT) is elected to the Senate during November's midterm election.

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Home Front: Culture Wars

Poets are Reds/Their home states are "blue"/They hate the conservatives/Like me and you

2008-01-28

James Taranto, Wall Street Journal

At the poetry reading in New York
a guy in Armani shouts:
I came for poetry, not your politics --

She says --
Global warming, this green morning . . .

She spells out the scientist's name.

I am the "guy in Armani," and I feel I must respond.

The passage above is from a recently published poem, "A Fissure in the World" by Joan Bauer. It describes an incident that occurred at an October 2005 reading from "Only the Sea Keeps: Poetry of the Tsunami," a collection edited by Judith Robinson.

It was not a love of verse that brought me to the Bowery Poetry Club. I was the guest of Heather Robinson, Judy's lovely daughter. . . . The mistress of ceremonies, poet Daniela Gioseffi, opened the proceedings with a vulgar rant about Beltway politics -- specifically, her glee over the "fall" of Tom DeLay and Bill Frist, then the Republican congressional leaders. (Rep. DeLay had just been indicted, and Sen. Frist was under investigation for insider trading.)

It was then that I said I came to hear poetry, not politics -- although according to a contemporaneous account I emailed to a friend, I said it in a mutter rather than a shout. Evidently I muttered loudly enough to get Ms. Gioseffi's attention, because she replied, expressing incredulity that not everyone at the Bowery Poetry Club would share the same political outlook. I believe I repeated that I came for poetry and not politics -- possibly shouting, as Ms. Bauer reported. Ms. Gioseffi said, "You can't be politically disengaged and be human."

At this point I definitely shouted: "Oh, so people who disagree with you aren't human?" She answered that this was neither the time nor the place for such contention. "I agree," I said. If only she had thought of that before opening her mouth.

The poets got on with their poetry. Midway through, however, Ms. Gioseffi returned to politics, this time in a zanier vein. She blamed global warming for the recent Asian tsunami, whose cause actually was geologic, not climatic. Then she claimed the government was "fussing with the weather" and blowing up "neutron bombs" in order to use the Earth as a weapon. "This isn't paranoid," she assured the crowd, citing a book by someone she kept emphasizing was a doctor. . . .

At the reception after the reading, Heather wisely tried to steer us clear of Ms. Gioseffi, but this proved impossible. The peremptory poet confronted me and demanded: "Are you the man who was laughing rudely while I was talking?"

"I'm the man you said was subhuman."

"There has never been a Republican in here before," she informed me. It seems I had broken a barrier.

"Well," I asked, "if there had never been a Jew in here, would that make it OK for you to say anti-Semitic things?" She told me she was Jewish, which rather missed the point.

Then she said, "You have to be politically engaged if you know the truth, like I do." I started to reply, but she interrupted me, declaring triumphantly: "I won two American Book Awards for writing about these topics!" Case closed. She walked away. . . .

Actually, I doubt that Ms. Gioseffi was right when she said there had never been a Republican in the Bowery Poetry Club. Probably there are a few Republicans with a love for poetry and a high threshold for abuse who endure the latter in order to enjoy the former.

But no more than a few, and you don't have to be a Republican to be put off by crude and hateful political rhetoric. Sure, there is a market for it, or Keith Olbermann and Michael Savage would be out of their jobs. But why must one who seeks elevation from verse be subjected to the degradation of the adverse?

And just for the record, I was not wearing Armani on that day in 2005. My tastes run more to sport jackets from the Syms discount chain and slacks from the Gap. But I suppose "Armani" better fits Ms. Bauer's political stereotype. That's what they call poetic license.

This inspires me to respond in haiku:

D. Gioseffi, poet
"Republicans: inhuman!"
She boldly declaimed

Add your own poems in the comments box.

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Home Front: Politix

Boehner: Immigration Bill Is "Piece Of Sh*t"

2007-05-23

House Minority Leader John Boehner, speaking to a private gathering of Republican activists last night, called the Senate's immigration compromise bill a "piece of shit" but said that he had promised President Bush earlier in the day that he would let his teeth be a barrier to such thoughts in public.

Boehner spoke last night at a small reception for the Republican Rapid Responders on Capitol Hill. "I promised the President today that I wouldn't say anything bad about ... this piece of shit bill," he said, according to two attendees.

Earlier in the day, Boehner released a statement saying that "The Senate agreement appears to recognize that additional border security measures and more effective immigration law enforcement must come before any other issues are addressed, but I have significant concerns about parts of the Senate proposal -- particularly provisions that would reward illegal immigrants who have consistently broken our laws."

A senior Republican official said yesterday that while the chances of the bill, which opens pathways to citizenship for most of the U.S.'s 12 million illegal immigrants, are "50/50" in the House and that the White House would spend its time lobbying Democrats, rather than Republicans, to achieve a majority.

Yesterday, the Senate beat back an amendment by Sen. Byron Dorgan that would have scrapped the bill's new guest worker program. The defeat of that effort was interpreted as a sign that a solid majority of Senators are prepared to support the bill's main tenets, for now. What happens when they hear from constituents over Memorial Day is unknown and unknowable.

A Boehner spokesman was not able to comment.

Boehner's tendency towards candor occasionally irks his staff, a fact that Boehner brought up with last night's audience. In 2006, Boehner called an idea put forth by then. Sen. Maj. Leader Bill Frist to provide Americans with a $100 rebate on gasoline "stupid."

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Home Front: Politix

David Broder blasted for criticizing Harry Reid

2007-05-01

Editor & Publisher

David Broder said he wouldn't change anything in his April 26 column, which angered many readers and caused 50 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus to write a letter criticizing Broder in Friday's Washington Post.

In that Thursday piece, Broder criticized Harry Reid for saying the Iraq War is lost militarily, compared Reid to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and concluded: "The Democrats deserve better, and the country needs more, than Harry Reid has offered as Senate majority leader."

Broder was "astonished and delighted" that 50 Democratic senators "spontaneously" came up with the letter.

"I still think the Democrats can do better, and should do better," said Broder, when reached today by E&P. . . . Broder told E&P that he was "astonished and delighted" that 50 Democratic senators ~~and their PR consultants~~ "spontaneously" came up with the letter (adding that he was being "tongue-in-cheek"). The columnist also said he was "not surprised" that his Thursday piece drew such a negative reaction from the 50 senators and most of the many ~~mind-numbed robots~~ readers who flooded washingtonpost.com with comments ~~because Kos ordered them to~~ . . . .

Hat tip to the Instapundit, who has this to add:

UPDATE: Reader James Somers emails: 'If, in 2005, 50 Republican senators had written a letter to the New York Times excoriating Paul Krugman for criticizing Bill Frist, and conservative blogs had incited their readers to bombard the Times with angry e-mails complaining about Krugman, wouldn't this have just been one more example of the RethugliKKKans' crushing of dissent?"

Well, yeah.

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Europe

U.S. campaign Pros give French counterparts a lesson in spin

2007-04-16

PARIS: A crew of American campaign strategists came to town last week with some unsolicited advice for France's presidential candidates. Ségolène Royal, the stylish Socialist who wants to be the first woman to move into Élysée Palace? She should not have posed in a bikini.

"You want to look like a commander in chief, especially as a woman," said Barbara Comstock, who helped George W. Bush get elected president. "The only candidate who could get away with being photographed in a bikini in the United States," she added, "is Barack Obama," a senator who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president.

Brillo pad, meet eyeballs ...

Nicolas Sarkozy, the hard-line former interior minister and center-right front-runner? He should stop trying to soften his tough-guy image.

"People don't vote for him because he's smiling," said Michael Murphy, who helped put Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, into the governor's mansion in California.

He tried smiling once, came off as a sneer. That's why he keeps doing it, makes him look French ...

Comstock, Murphy and their colleagues were invited to Paris by the French-American Foundation to learn about the Internet strategies employed by the different camps. But with the first round of the tightly fought French election little more than a week away, their four-day tour was also a vivid illustration of a trans-Atlantic clash of political cultures, and not just because three of the six Americans were black and two were women.

Oh no, not just because of that ...

The first stop was the Socialist Party headquarters on the Left Bank.

Where else?

After a lengthy presentation by a Royal adviser on her flagship idea of "participatory democracy" (illustrated by a cardboard chart of web connections titled "Ségoland"), David Mercer, a fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton, put up his hand and asked, "How are you going to translate that into votes?"

Leave it to the American to poop in the punchbowl ...

The spokesman gave an uncertain smile and said he did not believe in opinion polls, which have shown Royal trailing Sarkozy for three months.

"Non, non, certainement pas!"

Jamal Simmons, who worked on Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign, looked puzzled and asked, "But what voter groups are you targeting in the last 10 days? Urban voters? Rural voters? What age groups?"

The socialists. The ones who aren't Stalinists. Or Trotskyites. Or Bolsheviks. Or Mensheviks. Or Maoists. Or Sindero Luminosos. We know there's one or two ...

Another uncertain smile: "We're talking to all the French people," said the spokesman, Arnaud Montebourg, explaining that Royal had compiled 100 presidential proposals from millions of contributions on the Web and in town hall debates. "That's 99 too many," Murphy grumbled later. "What you need is one message."

Tell that to Al Gore, he'd have been president today if he'd figured that out.

These scenes were repeated at the campaign headquarters of Sarkozy and François Bayrou, the centrist upstart who is challenging the other two by promising to heal a fractured France. All three candidates have published books in the past two months, but none has used U.S.-style focus groups?

"It's a very different way of running campaigns," Mercer said. "And why are they all so calm?" he added, eyeing Bayrou campaigners enjoying coffee outdoors in the late morning sun.

Because they never let work get in the way of a coffee and a good smoke ...

There was disbelief when the Americans were told that there were three Trotskyist candidates, a Communist, and an anti-globalization campaigner, and utter astonishment when they learned that all 12 candidates had been allotted the same amount of airtime during the last two weeks of campaigning: 45 minutes each. The content of television ads is also regulated: Candidates are not allowed to attack their opponents or show French symbols like the flag or the presidential palace.

Wouldn't want to appear too patriotic, ya know ...

"And do you use text messaging in your campaign?" Simmons asked a member of Sarkozy's campaign team. They did, until it was banned Jan. 4.

"There are a lot of rules in this country," remarked Whitfield Ayres, a Republican pollster who has worked on the senatorial campaigns of Bill Frist and Lamar Alexander, both of Tennessee.

You're just figuring that out?

Perhaps the biggest culture clash involved money. French candidates may spend no more than 16.2 million, or nearly $22 million, before the first round on April 22, and a substantial part of that sum comes from the state.

In the United States., candidates tend to forgo subsidies that come with strict limits, and stick to private donations that are not subject to a ceiling. Hillary Clinton raised $26 million in the first quarter of this year alone, a fraction of the sum she is likely to have spent by the election in November 2008.

Here, candidates must collect 500 signatures from elected officials to qualify for the ballot. "That's our proxy for popularity," said Olivier Piton, a public affairs officer at the French Embassy in Washington, who accompanied the American group in Paris.

As opposed to getting signatures from actual ~~leetle people~~ voters ...

France's tough financial restrictions and broadcasting rules may have an up side, contributing to better use of the Internet. Sarkozy's Web site in particular impressed the American visitors with its 17 video channels featuring everything from Sarkozy's speeches to a YouTube-style section with homemade videos from singing supporters.

Sort of like American Idol without the talent and the boobs ...

"This is the most elegant Web-television strategy I've seen," said Murphy, who immediately sent the link to his colleagues in Washington. "It's one click ahead of where we are. And, yes, I will steal it."

Bring elegant back to the States, that's the ticket, that's what Hillary is missing ...

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Home Front: Politix

Thompson Bid May Fill a Void for the GOP Base

2007-04-05

Hat Tip to instapundit.com for the link to the story. Story runs long; see more at link.

When George Allen fell to Jim Webb in the Virginia Senate race, it opened up a slot in the upcoming Republican presidential primary: the role of the reliable longtime lawmaker who has no serious disagreements with the conservatives who make up the party's base.

That slot is moving closer to being filled by a former senator of Tennessee, Fred Thompson. The potential candidate is about "5050" on running "because the polls have caught his eye," a source close to Mr. Thompson told National Review. The AP suggested this week that a bid by the former "Law and Order" actor would be hindered by "a shrinking pool of campaign professionals" not yet affiliated with GOP candidates.

But a longtime Thompson associate said the former lawmaker has received many calls from veteran Republican campaign staffers expressing interest in working with him if he decides to run. At least one high-level staffer of another Republican presidential candidate has expressed concern about running against Mr. Thompson, citing a long personal connection to him. And last week, Alex Castellanos, a press strategist for a former Massachusetts governor and Republican White House hopeful, Mitt Romney, was seen with Mr. Thompson at a restaurant in Alexandria, Va.

Mr. Thompson's powerful friends in Tennessee may also help assemble a viable campaign staff. A former Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, once considered his own bid for president but has endorsed Mr. Thompson and would presumably put his network of supporters, fund-raisers, and strategists at Mr. Thompson's disposal. Another retired Tennessee senator with extensive ties in Republican circles, Howard Baker Jr., also has been nudging Mr. Thompson to run.

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Iraq

The Overrated General Petraeus? ~~Ok, you decide.~~

2007-01-07

The prospective new commander of U.S. military forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, is being hailed in these pages and elsewhere in the news media as just what the doctor ordered.

Petraeus "gained fame for his early success in training Iraqi troops," The Washington Post says on the front page. He "helped oversee the drafting of the military's comprehensive new manual on counterinsurgency," the New York Times adds, admittedly in a less fawning review.

I've never met Gen. Petraeus and in fact have heard nice things about him from friends and national security professionals.

But still I ask, why the optimism? Though Petraeus may be an intellectual and promotional wizard, I have a hard time seeing any true success and product from his early work in or on Iraq. And why besmirch the career of Gen. George W. Casey Jr., whom Petraeus is scheduled to replace, just because the Bush administration wants to create the aura that it is doing something in its rearranging of the deck chairs?

Balance at the link, additional below from Powerline:
Perhaps the most remarkable test of his luck and physical rigor came on Sept. 21, 1991. Shortly after taking command of a battalion in the 101st, Petraeus was watching an infantry squad practice assaulting a bunker with live grenades and ammunition. Forty yards away, a rifleman tripped and fell, hard. Petraeus never saw the muzzle flash. The M-16 round struck just above the "A" in his uniform name tag on the right side of his chest, and blew through his back. Had it hit above the "A" in "U.S. Army," on the left side over his heart, he would have been dead before he hit the ground.

He staggered back and collapsed. Standing next to him was Brig. Gen. Jack Keane, the assistant division commander, who by 2003 had become the Army's four-star vice chief of staff. "Dave, you've been shot," Keane told him. "I want you to keep talking. You know what's going on here, David. I don't want you to go into shock."

Keane later described the day for me. "He was getting weaker, you could see that. He said, 'I'm gonna be okay. I'll stay with it.' We got him to the hospital at Campbell and they jammed a chest tube in. It's excruciating. Normally a guy screams and his body comes right off the table. All Petraeus did was grunt a little bit. His body didn't even move. The surgeon told me, 'That's the toughest guy I ever had my hands on.'"

A medevac helicopter flew Petraeus, with Keane at his side, to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, 60 miles away. "It was a Saturday and I was afraid the top guys wouldn't be on duty. I had them call ahead to make sure their best thoracic surgeon was available," Keane recalled. "We got off the helicopter and there's this guy they'd called off the links, still in his golf outfit, pastel colors and everything." It was Dr. Bill Frist, who a decade later would become majority leader of the U.S. Senate. More than five hours of surgery followed.

"Petraeus recuperated at the Fort Campbell hospital," Keane continued, "and he was driving the hospital commander crazy, trying to convince the doctors to discharge him. He said, 'I am not the norm. I'm ready to get out of here and I'm ready to prove it to you.' He had them pull the tubes out of his arm. Then he hopped out of bed and did 50 push-ups. They let him go home."

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Home Front: Politix

Why it will be 'President Obama' in 2009

2006-12-05

By Kevin McCullough
Barring several series of near seizure-like corrections, Barack Obama will take the Presidential oath of office in January of 2009. It will be a cold January morning, his beautiful wife and daughters will be by his side and they will shiver as he places his hand on the Bible and swears to uphold the Constitution of the United States. His presidency that will follow, if reflective of anything at all of his legislative record, will then seek to dismantle that same Constitution.

I have a long track record of predictions on Obama, and all of them have come true. I have no reason to believe that this one will conclude any differently.

There are reasons that this event is destined to take place, and given the option of knowing them but remaining silent, or mentioning them in the hope that the scene I've just mentioned never comes to path - I choose the latter. If any of these were to take significant turns, the formula might collapse. This is given the fact that the nation will be in a holding pattern for the next two years with absolute gridlock on pretty much everything (with the possible exception of amnesty for illegal aliens.)

RAGING LIBERALS - In 2006 the message of the voters was not Ned Lamont. Rather it was the "Crash Dummy Class of '06." Democrats who looked, and tried to talk like people of faith - at least long enough to get elected. George Soros, the Daily Kos, Al Gore, Susan Sarandon, and not to be forgotten Howard Dean, have made their go at it. They failed. But since their party won the midterms - they believe they've been justified. Their anti-American rhetoric will increase. They will express dissatisfaction with Pelosi/Reid and demand an increased presence in the 2008 picture. The democratic primary voter will reject this increased extremism and look for a "consensus builder." They will long for someone who is "above the frey." Obama will fit that profile and will bring "together" the left and right in his own party. He will do it with a sense of style, smoothness, and humor - a stark contrast to Hillary, Gore, Kerry, et al.

DIGUSTED CONSERVATIVES - Still reeling from the "ginormous" let down of the Senate under Bill Frist, and the second term Presidency of George W. Bush, normally energized conservatives will look to a field that offers a pro-choice/pro-gay mayor from New York, a Mormon from Massachusetts - who was pro-choice/pro-gay but genuinely seems now not to be - but may have hired illegal aliens, blah blah blah, or John McCain (whose single biggest problem is that he IS John McCain.) Normally eager "tax-cutting, government shrinking, let's defend our nation, pro-life, pro-family" voters, organizations, and leaders will be assaulted with speeches on Romney's health care reform, or Giulianis crime initiatives, or John McCain. Whoever emerges, will have not one tenth the oratory skills of Obama and they will come off looking as tired, dry, and stale as day-old toast.

EXHAUSTED MODERATES - They are tired of the stale toast, and will be looking for anything exciting. Mind you, moderates by definition don't truly stand for anything so it doesn't really matter what the candidate stands for. These people voted for Kennedy, Reagan, and Clinton all based on one thing, "how does he make me feel?" Realizing this Obama will be a lightening rod on the campaign trail. He will draw record crowds for every appearance he makes (something he's already begun to do.) Money will flow in as a result. Obama's strategy of talking about cooperation, sounding bipartisan, and seeming to curtly rebuke both sides of the aisle will seem to validate his "ability" to "stay above the frey."

ENERGIZED BLACKS - The true voice for alternatives for black voters will not be heard because the voices of great men like Bishop Harry Jackson will not yet have become distinct enough within American media, and because the media, in ignoring the Bishop, will instead return again and again to the altar of Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson. Instead, as the media is already doing, there will be near non-stop fawning over the Senator from Illinois as he flashes the big smile. Black voters, who in the majority vote for party and not conviction anyway, will see Obama as the personality that no one since Dr. King has been able to live up too. Obama will be invited to each and every significant black pulpit in America. He will rail with poetry, sing with soul, rhyme when appropriate, and never will the IRS even think of threatening even one of these houses of worship for illegal political action.

GULLIBLE EVANGELICALS - The most reliable base of voters for the Republican Party since the days of President Reagan have been the social conservatives. Church-going born-again Christians who believe in God, the importance of His word, and the significance of living out their faith in an open and compassionate way every single day have been the backbone of the GOP. This past Friday Rick Warren, through the implied endorsement of allowing Obama to speak at one of the largest evangelical churches in America gave Obama the opportunity to split evangelicals who will be misled by Obama's words instead of opening their eyes to his actions. In my gentle admonition to Rick Warren over the past couple of weeks I reiterated time and again that it was this opportunity being extended to Obama that would be manipulated by both the press , and Obama himself to pose as a "person of faith." Warren's stubborn action of insisting upon having Obama speak at Saddleback Church in southern California has had that exact effect .

From this point forward should the trend of any of these five areas shift significantly Obama's chances could be compromised. But there are credible reasons to believe that they won't be.

So mark this date down, because it is the first time anyone accurately predicted that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States.

And you have no idea how much I hope this prediction does not come true!

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Home Front: Politix

Vanquished Republicans elect Senate leaders

2006-11-16

Senate Republicans narrowly elected Sen. Trent Lott to their new leadership team on Wednesday, re-embracing a lawmaker who earlier had been forced to step aside as their leader over racially charged remarks. The 49-member Republi

can caucus selected Lott to be the party's new whip, their No. 2 job in the chamber, as they sought to regroup with new leaders after last week's elections brought Democrats back into control of the U.S. Congress.

Lott will replace Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who was elevated to the top job, Senate Republican leader, succeeding retiring Bill Frist of Tennessee, for the 110th Congress set to convene in January. "We want to work with the Democrats. Our preference is to accomplish things rather than block things," McConnell told reporters after the party's secret balloting.

In returning to leadership, Lott brushed off questions from reporters. Standing beside McConnell, he said: "The spotlight belongs on him."

Lott had been viewed as an effective Republican leader, one who was able to rally his colleagues and skillfully use the chamber's rules to move or stop legislation. Lott was also seen as an articulate speaker, at least until December 2004 when he made a racially charged remark in a 100th birthday salute to then retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, a former segregationist who ran for president in 1948.

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India-Pakistan

Biden set to move on India nuclear bill

2006-11-09

WASHINGTON - A key Democratic senator on Wednesday said he was ready to have the US Senate act quickly to approve a landmark nuclear deal with India but other congressional sources said much depends on Republicans who suffered major defeats in mid-term elections. I think were ready to do it. Im ready to go on the India bill, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware told reporters.

The initiative would allow nuclear-armed India access to US nuclear fuel and reactors for the first time in three decades. It has been hailed by President George W. Bush and others as the core of a new US relationship with India after years of estrangement, and a financial boon to American business.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the bill in July. But despite more than a year of upbeat assessments by administration officials and the intervention of Bush and other top officials, the Republican-led Senate let the India bill languish when the congressional session ended last month.

Whether there will be time for the Senate to act on the India bill, then have the House and Senate resolve differences in their respective versions of the legislation, then cast a final vote, is unclear.

Biden says he believes final passage is possible but it depends on the mood of defeated Republicans and whether they are mature enough to say the voters have spoken. A spokesman for Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senates No. 2 Republican, told Reuters: Theres a very good chance the India bill will come up in the lame duck session.

But an aide to Senate Republican leader Bill Frist said Republicans are still insisting Democrats reduce the number of amendments to the bill that would have to be taken up in Senate floor debate. Biden said he believed the number of Democratic amendments is manageable but the Frist aide said: We still need them to cut their amendments.

If the Senate fails to pass the bill in November, the entire process must start again the bill will have to go through the just-elected new Congress, whose new session starts in January.

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