Another Senator Kennedy? The crazy speculation about Hillary Clinton's Senate seat may not be so crazy after all. A Democrat who would know tells ABC News that New York governor David Paterson has talked to Caroline Kennedy about taking the seat, which was once held by her uncle, Robert F. Kennedy. It’s not exactly shocking that Paterson would reach out to one of the most highly respected public figures in New York, but this is: Sources say Kennedy is considering it, and has not ruled out coming to Washington to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate.
Nice to see another hat tip to the "ruling class". Wonder if we'll hear any claptrap about Ms. Kennedy being the "most qualified" to hold the post or anyone wondering how many better qualified were passed up to tap her?
Chris Matthews has always admitted that his life dream was to be a senator. But now that the MSNBC host is actively exploring a run in his native Pennsylvania, he has created a thorny dilemma for his network.
The article discusses the network's dilemma, of course, but for pure entertainment's sake and a large dose of schadenfreude, I would love to see Matthews on the receiving end for a while, not to mention watching him explain all the YouTube clips of past utterances which may, to say the least, end up being embarrassing.
A missing envelope containing about 130 ballots has stalled the recount in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken.
The state canvassing board appeared likely to postpone its unofficial Friday deadline to finish the recount because of the missing ballots from the city of Minneapolis.
Because of the "extraordinary circumstances," said Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann, the city has until December 16 to locate the votes. The canvassing board is set to meet that day and take further action in the recount process.
"We won't meet our goal to have all ballots hand-counted by the end of the day [Friday] unless the envelope returns in the next 24 hours," Gelbmann said.
Minneapolis Elections Director Cindy Reichert said she's "not sure where [the missing envelope] would have gone" but that her staff is "in the process of looking under everything."
Coleman holds a reported 300 vote lead and the 130, even if they all go for Franken, won't make a difference at all - but suddenly, after discovering ballots in trunks of cars and other odd and assorted places, this 130 is critical to the count. And don't believe Al Franken's claims that he's leading. That's all propaganda to allow him to claim "he wuz robbed" and appeal to the Senate.
I'm not sure what the Senate can do, but if it can do anything, Democrats better tread very carefully. What can be done to political opponents now can, in time, be done to thee.
And as an aside - if ever there was an issue that needs addressing, the integrity of the voting system would seem to be screaming for attention. My guess is 350 votes will somehow be found in Al Franken's briefcase and the Secretary of State will insist they be counted.
This one will be settled in court.
Mel Martinez of FL is not going to run again for his FL Senate seat (good riddance). Apparently Jeb Bush is interested. Great - more of the ruling class. At least, however, he's going to run for the seat.
As for all the excitement about the Saxby Chambliss win in GA that supposedly averted the dominance of the Democrats by ensuring they wouldn't have a filibuster proof majority - get real:
And while Senate rules permit greater resistance, reality suggests it won't be that easy. A main reason is that the 41 or 42 GOP senators include hard-line conservatives from heavily Republican states in the South and moderates from predominantly Democratic states in the Northeast.
At least for the first year or two, it seems unlikely that moderates like Maine's Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, Ohio's George Voinovich, Minnesota's Norm Coleman and Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter would try to prevent votes on major Obama proposals and nominations.
Other Republicans - like Texas' Kay Bailey Hutchison and, more importantly, Arizona's John McCain - are likely to reflect public disdain for seeking political gain with confrontational tactics.
Interestingly, Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the only remaining major GOP officeholder in a state once solidly Republican, has seconded the Democratic call for a large-scale stimulus program.
One of the oddest things about New York State now is that though the Democratic Party controls it, they are a net minus in the political personality department.
Hillary, of course, is just a carpetbagger who wound up here because she could get an easy win for her Senate seat.
But after her, there’s virtually no one. Eliot Spitzer was the big comer, but he all gone now.
David Paterson, the now governor, is a cipher.
The Reprehensible Schumer, everyone knows what that is.
Andrew Cuomo is made of the stuff of New Jersey, not New York.
The Grand Slob Michael Bloomberg, once a Republican, is now a man without a party.
From there it’s just a long, long drop down to the echoing bottom of non-entityville.
Caroline Kennedy, who didn’t seem to even have a personality until recently, would infuriate the Party regulars, I bet, because what did she ever do.
If you want a dark horse it would be the speaker of the state assembly, Sheldon Silver, a guy who just reeks of the odor of the City’s backroom politics.
New York is a state run by toads and lizards, of the commie variety, who keep a dominatrix around (the teachers unions) to get them aroused.
Once a vote makes it to the trunk of a car, not only should the votes be null and void, but whoever put them there should go to jail for 1 year per vote found in said trunk.
The media, as usual, has written this one off as "no one is interested so we won’t cover it," although if a Republican-run state had done this to, say, an Obama supporter, there would be national calls for that Governor’s resignation, not to mention a federal investigation.
"Attorney General-designate Holder says he will call for the investigation of the widespread use of illegal records accessing in regards to an Obama supporter in Ohio whose personal records were illegally looked at by state officials, many of whom gave money to the presidential campaign of John McCain."
Yep, if that was the way it was, you would be hearing about it. But since the guy being investigated made Obama look like the Clown that he is, and since Democrats did the accessing of records, covered-up by a Governor who is also a Democrat, the media waves its arms and yells, "Nothing to see here. Move on, please. Back to covering the lights and color scheme for the Obama inauguration."
