Something is happening here, and you don't know what it is. Do you,Mr. Jones?

Today the RNC is supposed to elect a new chairperson. I've been told the election process will take several rounds. I've also been told that Ken Blackwell isn't even in the game. So,let's see what happens. The Washington Times says the election has been marred by graft, racism and corruption. I thought that election ended in November.

For a superb analysis of the strange Republican behavior in the House, Nate Silver at www.fivethirtyeight.com goes into the various permutations of what Boehner and Cantor were thinking in last night's vote. He also points out that the so-called Base of the party--Hmmm, Base isn't that Arabic for Al Qaeda--represents only 20% of the American electorate and as that shrinks, the message will get more shrill and more shrill, dooming the party further.

The Unions seem to have their mojo back after all these years. Rolling out of the production studio are ads keyed to all the Republican Senators, urging them to vote for the stimulus package. High production value and a quiet message. Nice job.

The Wall Street Journal today publishes an op-ed by John Yoo, author of the torture memos in the Bush Justice Department. He blasts the Obama Administration for eliminating "the only effective weapon we have in fighting terrorism." Instead of letting my mind cave in refuting his nonsense, check out www.dailykos.com today where his article is parsed and gutted bit by bit. Also included is a snippet from the interview between Keith Olberman and an Air Force interrogator, who busted Al Qaeda in Iraq using his brain and not muscle.

Karl Rove has said he will not honor the subpoena and Bill O'Reilly has offered him a place to hide.

And, yes, Obama is right. Washington,D.C. residents are cold weather wimps. His joke about this after his children's school was cancelled yesterday provoked radio discussions and a letter to the Washington Post from Sidwell-Friends, his childrens' school, rationalizing their policy. Boy, sensitive, sensitive. It was only a one line quip.

The Washington Post announced it was cancelling publishing the Sunday Book World supplement. It was usually about six months behind my own reading but it was redeemed by its poetry section. That leaves the New York Times Book Review, which also suffers from lengthy delays in its reviews. I guess no one reads anymore.