Skip to main content

Childe Roland to take his sword and leave town amid (surprise) no ethics investigation since the administration needs his vote through 2010

A few days ago our friends in the Democratic wing of the Demopublican Party were all rejoicing at the seating of Al Franken in the US Senate to give them a fairly meaningless 60-vote majority (since the idea of any 60 Democrats agreeing on anything is pretty far out there)....

Strangely enough, while they are doing the Franken victory dance and enjoying the bizarre roadshow that is Sarah Palin, they seem quite mum on the fact that their 60-vote majority is also dependent (at least for the next year and and a half) on the vote of Illinois Senator Roland Burris.

Remember Burris? The guy even Dick Durbin said ought to resign? Except that he didn't, and the Illinois prosecutors abruptly forgot about pursuing his corruption case, and the Senate ethics investigation has ... evaporated.

Today poor Roland announced that he's doing a Ted Kauffmann--not running again--only in his case it seems to be because nobody will give him any money.

Strangely enough, it all escapes the notice of our friends that passage of the Obama agenda in health care, cap and trade, yada yada yada is heavily dependent on a handful of Senators who were appointed [one might even say selected] not elected, at least one of whom would be getting prosecuted if the idea of an Illinois ethics investigation wasn't something better suited for Comedy Central than the court system.

Miko--a frequent commenter here--is right: politics in America has now descended into being a professional team sport. As long as your team is winning it doesn't matter if you cheat.

Comments

tom said…
unfortunately the chances of a non-Democrat, who isn't Mike Castle, getting elected to a statewide office in Delaware any time soon are about nil.

Popular posts from this blog

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?

New Warfare: I started my posts with a discussion.....

.....on Unrestricted warfare . The US Air force Institute for National Security Studies have developed a reasonable systems approach to deter non-state violent actors who they label as NSVA's. It is an exceptionally important report if we want to deter violent extremism and other potential violent actors that could threaten this nation and its security. It is THE report our political officials should be listening to to shape policy so that we do not become excessive in using force against those who do not agree with policy and dispute it with reason and normal non-violent civil disobedience. This report, should be carefully read by everyone really concerned with protecting civil liberties while deterring violent terrorism and I recommend if you are a professional you send your recommendations via e-mail at the link above so that either 1.) additional safeguards to civil liberties are included, or 2.) additional viable strategies can be used. Finally, one can only hope that politici

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba