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John Edwards Quitting 2008-01-30 09:07:00 Wow. So much for my punditry status. I did not see this coming at this time. I would have bet that Edwards was in at least through Super Tuesday, and I found the arguments that he would stay in all the way to the convention to be pretty persuasive. CNN and the AP are both reporting, though, that:Democrat John Edwards is exiting the presidential race Wednesday, ending a scrappy underdog bid in which he steered his rivals toward progressive ideals while grappling with family hardship that roused voters' sympathies .... The two-time White House candidate notified a close circle of senior advisers that he planned to make the announcement at a 1 p.m. EST event in New Orleans that had been billed as a speech on poverty, according to two aides. The decision came after Edwards lost the four states to hold nominating contests so far to rivals who stole the spotlight from the beginning — Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.The former North Carolina senator will not immediately endorse ...

A Very Brief Hiatus 2008-01-29 23:14:00 I write in a room that is on the second floor, in the back, of our townhouse. Deliverypersons typically ring the doorbell, then immediately try to flee, which means I hurtle down the stairway at great risk to life and limb. So today, when I was expecting the arrival vial UPS of a new computer for my wife to replace the one that committed seppuku some days ago, I therefore spent almost 12 contiguous hours downstairs... from where I hoped to be able to tackle the fleet spirit to made the pro forma attempt at delivery.Finally the computer arrived, but so late in the evening that I had no will left to do the set-up. That must come in the morning.So, tonight, congratulations to McCain, condolences to Romney and especially Giuliani (who scuttlebutt says will quit the race tomorrow and endorse McCain), and a wave of the hand toward Hillary who wants to make her victory in the Democratic non-primary more than it was.And to all, a good night. ...

A Drinking Game for Tonight 2008-01-28 15:40:00 I had been pondering how I was going to maintain my current positive emotional state with Bush's final (I hope) State of the Union address looming only a few hours away this evening. Thankfully, I came across this. Hat/tip to Hotline, via Shenanigans at Politico:Drink if you see: Joe Lieberman doing unsanctioned standing up and clapping, Tom Coburn scouring the audience for lobbyists, Barbara Mikulski reading a book and ignoring everyone, Ben Nelson annoying the person to his left and/or right, Robert Byrd fact checking his pocket Constitution and Daniel Akaka... Yeah, just if you see Daniel Akaka.Take a sip when Bush calls out the local subway hero and whatever athlete is taking a principled stand against steroids this year.Take another sip if you suspect Cheney is muttering something about Pat Leahy under his breath.Chug every time you catch an audience member sleeping. Oh wait, is Bill Clinton going to be in the audience? Pace yourself.Take a gulp every time a member shamelessly ...

Interesting Endorsements 2008-01-28 12:21:00 It was an apolitical weekend for me. Frankly, by Friday I found myself actively avoiding the news... not a good thing for a political blogger. But I had reached a point where one more sound bite from Hill or Billary, or one more clip of Obama attempting to counter their savage insidious attacks would have made me physically ill. I knew it would pass. It always does. Still, it has been some time since I have felt so utterly turned-off by politics.Thankfully, for me and for this nation, things were coming together over the weekend that would go beyond restoring interest to the point of restoring hope. Endorsements.First there was Caroline Kennedy's Op-Ed piece yesterday in the NYT in which she offered this:OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in ...

Food Porn 00006 2008-01-27 15:20:00 Marbled Cream Cheese Brownies - Sheer Chocolate Indulgence ...

Kucinich Surprise 2008-01-24 15:50:00 This really comes as a surprise. I honestly thought Dennis Kucinich was in the race until the bitter end, but perhaps it got too bitter already. He's been in the news lately for remarks he made about the "state of the union," and for preparing to try launching a Bush impeachment -- classic Kucinich stuff. But here's this from the Associated Press just minutes ago:Democrat Dennis Kucinich is abandoning his second, long-shot bid for the White House as he faces a tough fight to hold onto his other job — U.S. congressman.In an interview with Cleveland's Plain Dealer, the six-term House member said he was quitting the race and would make a formal announcement on Friday. "I will be announcing that I'm transiting out of the presidential campaign," Kucinich said. "I'm making that announcement tomorrow about a new direction."Kucinich has received little support in his presidential bid; he got 1 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary and was shut out in the Iowa caucuses alt ...

It's Alive? 2008-01-24 03:22:00 These days it's kind of a given that any pundit (professional or amateur), any student of American political history, wants to watch a "brokered" national party convention at least once before dying.Oh, for the good ol' days... the bartering and pleading and threatening and cajoling, the horse-trading, the endless series of deals resulting in ballot after ballot after ballot. And those marvelous rooms, so thick with cigar smoke that if you walked across, your wake stayed visible for minutes. It's been a very long time since we had one of those, but there's nothing to absolutely prevent it from ever happening again.Steven Stark at RCP has been doing some delightfully entertaining thinking outside the box this morning. Here's what he is suggesting:If John McCain can win the Florida primary on January 29, he'll be the clear front-runner heading into Super Tuesday a week later.[....]If McCain loses in Florida, the Republicans may well be headed to a deadlocked race and convention. ...

Harry Reid 2008-01-23 16:05:00 It took every bit of restraint I possess to not complete the above title with some thoroughly obscene descriptor for that name. I can't promise I will be as successful at self-censoring in what follows.Only yesterday, I pointed to Glenn Greenwald's eloquent analysis on Monday of the imminent FISA fight in the U.S. Senate and tried to call attention to the fact that: "Potentially the three individuals who have the best chance of being this country's next President are the three lining their pockets the most with telecom contributions." Those three, of course, being McCain and Clinton and Obama.Greenwald yesterday reported on the results of an ACLU poll which shows voters vigorously opposed to warrantless wiretaps and immunity for telecom companies.For apologists of Democratic Party passivity, who claim endlessly that Democrats can stand for nothing because they'll lose elections if they do, such a claim is not only craven and self-destructive, but factually inaccurate as well. Fr ...

In Your Heart You Know He Would Love To 2008-01-23 15:20:00 O.K., it's from The Onion, so it's satire, alright? And as with most of their work, it's hilarious and dead on target. I speak of today's Bill Clinton: 'Screw It, I'm Running For President'. It's an inspired send up of what you just know still burns white-hot within the former President's heart.Bill Clinton announced Monday that he is joining the 2008 presidential race, saying he "could no longer resist the urge.""My fellow Americans, I am sick and tired of not being president," said Clinton, introducing his wife at a "Hillary '08" rally. "For seven agonizing years, I have sat idly by as others experienced the joys of campaigning, debating, and interacting with the people of this great nation, and I simply cannot take it anymore. I have to be president again. I have to."He continued, "It is with a great sense of relief that I say to all of you today, 'Screw it. I'm in.'"[....]Clinton told reporters Tuesday that seeing so many "Clinton '08" posters "really got [him] think ...

U.N. Nuke Overseer a Russian Spy 2008-01-23 10:11:00 CQ Politics had the story over the weekend. I found it only yesterday thanks to Danger Room. This is good news for the neocon bomb-Iran cabal and bad news for everyone else in the world.The top U.N. official responsible for monitoring the clandestine nuclear programs of Iran and Pakistan is a Russian spy, according to a new book on Moscow’s espionage operations in the United States and Canada. The official is identified only by his Russian code name, ARTHUR, but other sources identified him as Tariq Rauf, 54, a Pakistani-born Canadian who is chief of verification and security-policy coordination at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). [....]The allegations appear in "Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia’s Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War" by former Washington Post reporter Pete Earley, author of two previous books on Russian spying in the United States.The book amounts to a blistering memoir by Sergei Tretyakov, a former top Russian intelligence ope ...

Money Talks, Big Money Has Been Listening In 2008-01-22 23:26:00 Glenn Greenwald did his typically impeccable job yesterday, analyzing the impending fight over the so-called "Protect America Act," FISA and retroactive immunity for the telecom giants who have dirty hands from Bush's warrantless wiretap atrocities. This is must reading for anyone interested in these issues, and even more so for everyone who has not been actively interested.The only way for there to be any prospect of impeding Bush's most extreme demands for vast warrantless eavesdropping powers and immunity for lawbreaking telecoms is for the presidential candidates -- Obama, Edwards and Clinton -- to demonstrate (rather than speak about) real "leadership" and take a stand in support of Chris Dodd and his imminent filibuster. There will be campaigns beginning this week to persuade and pressure them to do so -- I will be posting extensively about them here. Any efforts to stop warrantless eavesdropping and telecom immunity is almost certain to fail without the active support of the p ...

Hillary and John in Post-Game Huddle 2008-01-22 15:22:00 CNN is reporting that John Edwards and Hillary Clinton met privately in Edwards' green room following Tuesday night's debate, saying that sources within both campaigns conform that it happened.One of the sources said the meeting happened by chance and the conversation consisted of light chatter. The source added that Clinton did jokingly take a jab at Edwards about his beating up on her during the debate. In fact, the real fireworks were between Clinton and Barack Obama.An Edwards source noted that it was not surprising the two senators met backstage. "That happens back there," said the source, who said it has happened "more often" with Obama. "It’s tight quarters – we’re all on top of each other."I'm not going to touch that last line at all, but the Edwards source's comment smells like an attempt to defuse speculation on what might actually have been discussed. If there was more to this than a simple brief accidental crossing-of-paths, we are not likely to know what was talk ...

Freddie's Finale 2008-01-22 14:06:00 As expected, Freddie Dalton Thompson's bid for the presidency has ended. CBS reports:"Today, I have withdrawn my candidacy for president of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort," Thompson said in a statement. "Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people."Thompson's fate was sealed last Saturday in the South Carolina primary, when he finished third in a state that he had said he needed to win. Fred Thompson will no doubt now take a long, well-deserved nap and then start hoping for a quick end to the writers' strike.Two questions now arise. Who will benefit most from Thompson's resignation? Who will be the next to drop out?The answer to the first may not be as clear as it initially seems. Thompson apparently thought that he was competing with Mike Huckabee for much the same segment of the GOP base, but many of the votes Thompson received in South Carolina are pro ...

Debate or Bar Brawl? 2008-01-22 00:29:00 Minutes into watching CNN's coverage last night of the Democratic presidential debate sponsored by CNN and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina it began to feel as if I'd tuned in to a cage-fighting match by mistake. This was simply the ugliest, most vicious excuse for a debate that I have ever tried to watch. By 20 minutes in I began switching back and forth between the debate, MSNBC's Countdown and a documentary on The History Channel.This debate was supposed to have been largely about the economy, but what little substantive time was spent on that or any other real issues was horrendously overshadowed by repeated, intense, prolonged, heated exchanges between Senators Obama and Clinton. Former Senator John Edwards jumped in at one point, saying "Are there three people in this debate, not two?"Though Edwards sounded Kucinich-like at times with his frequent protests throughout the evening, demanding to be given equal time and attention, I though ...

Awkward Much? 2008-01-21 23:55:00 Mitt Romney has polyester in his veins. The supremely phoney pandersaurus today hit a new low. Via CBS News:Romney was greeted warmly by a largely African-American crowd at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Parade in Jacksonville. He shook hands with several dozen parade-goers and even hugged a few of them.[....]As he posed for a picture with a group of young people, the typically old-fashioned Romney was relaxed enough to quote from a popular hit single from a few years back."Who let the dogs out?" he called out, as he stood there beaming in his shirt and tie. "Who! Who!"First of all, CBS, The song was a hit for the Baha Men back in 2000, more than a few years ago to me, but I quibble. Since then it's been so overplayed and overused that it placed just behind Los Del Rio's Macarena in a list of the Top Ten Most Annoying Songs put together by Rolling Stone last year.My first question to Romney is WHY??? In what possible context is this a viable line to come from the mouth of a pres ...