Friday Night Wrap-Up

Well, our Attorney General "Cooch" Lysensko has been denounced by the Washington Post, the ACLU, the American Association of University Presidents and the University of Virginia for his attempt to go after climate scientist Michael Mann's research. It seems this is particularly sensitive because all his writings were "peer reviewed" so the Cooch must be an extraordinary mind to evaluate the research. Or perhaps the "Cooch" is doing the bidding of the Massey Energy company, which has been responsible for all the coal mine disasters in West Virginia and here in the state. The owner of Massey Energy called President Obama evil the other day because the Administration is spot checking all his mines for safety violations, which show up by the score in each facility.

The Democrats are trying to shed light on the mysterious and secret holds on over 100 nominees for posts in the Administration. At this time in the Bush Administration there were only eight. One of the stranger holds is Tom Coburn's hold on Dana Perino, Bush's press secretary, who has been nominated to the Broadcasting Board, which oversees things like RFL,VOA and Radio Marti.

Michael Steele fired his finance director and his deputy today over the Lesbian strip club incident. As he said about the incident,"This happens in business."

Ken Blackwell, the former Attorney-General of Ohio, who was instrumental in ensuring Bush's 2004 victory in the state, has a new book out Blueprint about how Obama plans to subvert the Constitution and create an imperial presidency. Why does he have to have a blueprint, he inherited one.

Teabagger and Republican congressional candidate in New York Kristia Cavere, who gained national attention for her claims to have raised a record $400,000 within moments of announcing her candidacy, released her financial reports today. She has $12. in the campaign account. Hmmm.

Democracy was dealt a severe blow today in Florida. The Florida legislature failed to pass an anti-bestiality law.

Elsewhere in Florida, Rev. Rekers has found a new friend. Male escort "Chaz" has surfaced to identify the Baptist minister as a client, who said he liked "vanilla"--no oral or anal--light body massages. Shouldn't sex workers be unionized? "Lucien", the minister's baggage handler, only received $75 per day for his services. Should he sue?

5 Middle-aged Georgians--not from the country but from redneck land, were arraigned today for making pipebombs. State police found a trunk full of the pipebombs. They told the judge that they liked making them and exploding them for fun. Included in the group was a 62-year old woman.

Meanwhile, General Petraeus said that Faisal Shahzad was a "lone wolf", who tried to emulate the Taliban. The Taliban itself at first claimed credit, then backed off knowing Faisal but praising his actions. Time magazine links Faisal Shahzad to the American Yemen preacher and a whole network of terrorists. Since the American Spectator has backed Petraeus as the next Eisenhower, he must be right. Stay tuned on this because at the end of the day very few people are going to be right.

Bristol Palin, now a paid political consultant for SarahPac, was spotted at the 1Oak Club in Mahattan trying to be a naughty girl. One problem is that she is underage and club owners are concerned they'll get into trouble.

NPR had an interesting discussion between E.J. Dionne and Doug Brooks about the British elections and the lessons for America. Both men agreed that the Republican Party could learn from the changes in the British Conservative Party. E.J. said that Cameron took the hard edges off conservative ideology to win the upper middle class suburbanites; while Doug said that he was quite right in abandoning the "economy-centric" ideology of Margaret Thatcher as Republicans should with Reaganism. Doug emphasized that Cameron claimed the problem of Britain was that society was failing apart and hence he talked about community-oriented policies rather than the economics of old. E.J. said that the Conservatives had to try to win moderates and independents in England and Republicans should do the same here. Doug said flat out that Republicans should but they wouldn't. And then Doug launched into the possibility that America might see the development of a third party. This is what David Broder has been writing about recently in his columns trying, I think, to draw a false moral equivalency between the Charlie Crist situation and that of Joe Lieberman, showing the disintegration of parties in the United States.

Mark Lilla writing in this issue of the New York Review Of Books tries to deal with the tea party phenomenon as a serious issue, reflecting the logical conclusion of ideological individualism, a libertarian Jacobinism that has emerged as a result of twenty-five years of Americans hyping maximum individual freedom as the prime value in our society. When I fully digest the piece, I'll report further.

As a consequence, Bob Bennett is likely to go down to defeat tomorrow in Utah because of the teabaggers. Bennett, a solid conservative, even more right than that, is being accused of working on the TARP legislation, which he did 24/7 in those fall days of 08, and willing to compromise with Democrats on health reform legislation. Adding more insult to injury, he attacked Glenn Beck and Beck has responded in kind. Utah has not elected a Democrat to Congress since the early 1970s and it was Bennett's seat for the asking. The teabaggers have taken over the state's Republican Party ,which operates on a caucus system. By every outside observer, Bennett would win the general election by a landslide. It will be interesting to see what he does when he loses. Will he run as an independent? And can he? The best comment I heasrd on NPR by a teabagger against Bennett was " The government should have absolutely no role in the economy at all." Best of luck, Bob.

Meanwhile the geniuses at Joseph Farah's WND website have produced a new book-length attack on Obama as the Manchurian Candidate and pretending to document his vast ties to the radical Left.

Huffngton Post did an excellent wrap-up on the head of the Tea Party Express and his failed career in right-wing radio. Apparently, he got his beginnings as part of Richard Nixon's dirty tricks department and was thought not to have any morals and lacked judgment. Also, he was a notorious stoner and a big counter-culture maven.

Strongest rumors in town are that Elena Kagan will be Obama's choice for the Supreme Court. While I would have liked one of my two lesbian Wasp choices, she would be satisfactory. She will be attacked for her stance against military recruitment at Harvard because of her belief the military discriminated against gays. And she will be attacked because of her past statements that these confirmation hearings are a charade. There have already been rumors floating around the media that she is gay, which she denies. I have doubts about her record on policies concerning detainees and other issues pertaining to anti-terrorism. She is an expert on the law as it pertains to the Presidency and I am afraid will reinforce the powers of the executive. However, she is fully qualified and has a long history of distinguished public service and, for Obama purpose, has already been approved by the Senate first under Clinton and then last January.