Tarballs in Key West

This has been a rough year for my favorite places. Volcanos in Iceland, earthquake in Haiti, and now tarballs in Key West as the oil spill makes its way into the Gulf Stream. The oil spill is now bigger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined and is now producing several Valdez' every few days. It will soon rank as the biggest enviromental disaster in American history.

Early reports from the primary in Kentucky have Rand Paul campaign workers being arrested for intimidation and several complaints about vote-buying. It's beginning to sound like Iraq, where the recount showed that Maliki didn't win as he had asserted. So far we don't have a clue what will happen either in Baghdad or Kentucky.

Loved the Republican attempt to block the Obama Administration from helping to bail out the Europeans. The whole point was to ensure that the Eurozone would have sufficient dollars. If it stopped trading in dollars, we would all be back in the soup again with a freeze in the financial markets.

Conservatives are all up in arms again because Donald Trump's Miss America pageant chose Rima Fakih as the new Miss America. Rima is a Muslim. You would think having a Muslim woman act in a liberated Western way might be inspiring. But No. Donald Trump obviously has gone pinko and embraced the politically correct. Especially vindictive have been the women conservative pundits like Michelle Malkin, who complained about any Arab ( actually a Lebanese woman of both Muslim and Christian descent) winning. Daniel Pipes noticed that Muslim women have also won beauty pageants in Europe, indicating a creeping political correctness. I guess Pipes misses Bess Myerson, who actually was a lovely person. The Christian right was upset because Rima Fakih supported health insurance for contraceptives and was against the Arizona immigration law. Egged on by the conservatives, Fox dug out the fact that Ms. Fakih won a Stripper contest in her native Detroit, although she kept her clothes on. This contrasted with born-again darling Carrie Parjean, who made eight sex videos before she won her contest. Another conservative woman columnist complained that Rima Fakih supported Hezbollah and that she had goons that harassed any of her critics--who mysteriously just appeared within a week. since no one knew who she was.

John McCain obviously is up against the wall. He fired his campaign manager and the person who advised him to cut the "Fix the Danged Fence" commercial which led to national ridicule.

Clunk, Clunk, Clunk, the financial reform bill is heading to an end. At this rate, it will be stronger than the bill as originally proposed. Still outstanding is the issue of derivative trading. Senator Dorgan on the Democratic side has threatened to filibuster if it's not to his satisfaction. Dorgan has some street cred on this because he valiantly fought to kill the repeal of the Glass-Stegall bill during the 1990s. As imperfect as it has to be, the bill will be the most dramatic reform of our financial system since the Depression. Senator Kaufman of Delaware still is balking about provisions concerning the size of American banks. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

What will the primaries today indicate about our political life? Who knows? I'm tired of all the do-or-die rhetoric on every election and every bill. Will Obama be crippled if Specter loses? The RNC has already sent out a press release, saying that Obama is already weak because there have been primary challengers against Democratic incumbents. The question will be how many Republican incumbents go down because of the teabaggers.

Contra Charlie Cook, I believe Burr in North Carolina will be vulnerable in November against Elaine Marshall (in all probability). Republicans are still asking what Burr has done in the Senate. I couldn't tell you. I also think that the Democrats have a solid chance against Rand Paul. Remember this is Paul's first race for a political position. Do you want to risk having a novice in the Senate? There are a few more surprises I'll write about as we get closer to November.

The Democrats may have blown a Senate seat in Connecticut. Attorney-General Richard Blumenthal was a lock on the seat against World Wrestling Federation's Linda McMahon. As Attorney-General, he has leading the nearest Republican by 66 to 34. The New York Times reported today at length and on the front-page that Blumenthal lied about his military service and having been in Vietnam. This is so bizarre because no one was voting for him because of his service. Now the question is whether the Democrats have time to find a suitable candidate.

Jonathan Alter's new book on Obama's first year in the Presidency details how Obama was the only one in his Administration who wanted to tackle Health Reform in his first year and how Rahm Emmanuel fought to have Obama embrace a more incremental strategy. Also Alter details how the military establishment "tested" Obama and actually were insubordinate. Alter said the confrontation was perhaps the most heated since Truman fired MacArthur.

Our distinguished Attorney-General "The Cooch" looks like he is under federation investigation because he received about $200,000 from a military non-profit for his campaign funds.

Fast Eddie Rendell was on Rachel Maddow urging Democrats to make Republicans the issue and tagging them with the teabaggers. He said that the positives from the stimulus, healthcare reform and financial reform will only gardually dawn on voters because the conservative fog machine was successful in spinning them--for now. He talked about the stimulus actually having saved or created 50,000 jobs in Pensylvania alone. He also pointed to the fact that Republicans can kiss off the Hispanic vote for the next two elections because of the Arizona fiasco. He said he shut down talk of similar legislation in Pennsylvania by coming out and saying he would veto it.

Montana Governor Schweitzer was also on last week. He had been one of my favorites for Obama's VP choice. He downplayed the teabaggers, who just get up in the morning and e-mail each other, and said that if you just focus of governing--keep bad guys in jail, provide healthcare for the neediest and make sure education is fully funded--you'll be alright. That advice seems to have taken with some of the Democratic incumbents at the state level, who are exhibiting a calm (fatalistic?) about the upcoming elections.

Rand Paul came up with a new innovation in American politics. He wants to outlaw the Disabilities Act and have local government decide whether the disabled should have rights.

Also contra Cook, I believe Chuck Grassley in Iowa is going to have trouble being re-elected. People in Iowa have gotten wise to his bragging about what part of the health reform bill was his creation--he voted against it--and his taking credit for the stimulus projects in the state--he voted against it.

And Today is the re-release of Exiles on Main Street. Which leaves me with this puzzle for you: Who is a better role model--Keith Richards or Bristol Palin?