Sunday, January 29, 2006

Hillary Clinton's Coattails?   Hillary Clinton, not facing serious, or for that matter, even credible opposition, might be in a position to win a landslide reminiscent of that of Senator Obama in Illinois in 2004.  In the governor's race, presumptive Democratic nominee Eliot Spitzer has a lot of money to throw around; he's got $19 million in the bank right now for his candidacy for governor.  This would be a prohibitive advantage in most years, but probably not this year, with an eccentric billionaire, Tom Golisano, seeking the Republican nomination, and claiming he plans to spend $125 million on his campaign.  Even if Mr. Golisano has to spend $30 million to defeat Massachusetts Governor William Weld for the Republican nomination (who has $1.8 million to throw around), that still leaves Mr. Golisano with $90 million-plus to blow on the general election.  Attorney General Spitzer is likely to be outspent around 3-1.  Granted, he has an edge on Mr. Golisano, in that Mr. Golisano has a well-earned reputation (even among Republicans) for basically being a loon, but that's a big financial deficit to overcome. So, the question becomes, will Sen. Clinton's popularity lead her to carrying the entire Democratic slate to victory in 2006?  This is of interest beyond New York.  If she is held responsible for Democrats winning control of the state legislature (where they are a single seat shy of control of the state Senate) and all the state offices in 2006, it will make it even harder to deny her the Democratic nomination for President in 2008.  I confess, I don't really want her to become the Democratic nominee in a coronation.  First of all, there are all the Republicans who will die of apoplectic strokes if she gets the Democratic nomination, and I wouldn't wish that on them.  Second, I'm unsure whether she'd be the best candidate for the Dems.  But mainly, if she were to become President, I foresee four or eight more years when no one of opposing political parties will break bread together in Washington, DC, for fear of someone poisoning their soup.  After eight years like that because of President George W. (the "W" stands for Watching You) Bush, I think the country could use a break. 9:51:55 PM    comment []

Download This!   I'm going to recommend two songs today, one from each of the co-leaders of Rilo Kiley, which is a band that stands as a more credible argument for the existence of God than intelligent design. Jenny Lewis-Melt Your Heart  Jenny Lewis is generally the lead singer of Rilo Kiley.  This is from her first solo album; it's by no means her best work, but it's not half bad.  And, really, no one champions the merely adequate.  No one stands up for the mediocre, the dull, the average.  And I'm afraid this song is just that, though Ms. Lewis's voice is still as almost absurdly lovely as elsewhere. The Elected-Not Going Home  The Elected is the side project of Blake Sennett, the other singer in Rilo Kiley and a man whose parents apparently couldn't afford to give him a first name.  To judge by this song, the financial difficulties continue.  He claims to be homeless.  Maybe he can crash in the recording studio; the instrumentation on this song has a rich, full sound.  It seems like he and the rest of the Elected spent a lot of time there. Incidentally, on a separate topic, people try to get me into the Reindeer Section, and I'm sorry, I don't see it, I don't see it, I don't see it.  I like a lot of mellow bands, but this stuff is only good for one thing and I can already fall asleep. 3:55:44 PM    comment []

The "Plantation" Debate   A number of people are continuing to call Senator Hillary Clinton somehow racially insensitive for comparing Congress to a plantation...her implicit argument that a few people sit in the shade sipping mint juleps and do all the ordering while the rest of Congress are benumbed and whipped into doing the brute labor under bestial conditions.  It sounds to me like the comparison is rather apt, at least in describing the House of Representatives.  (And isn't calling a political leader a "whip" at least as insensitive...so shouldn't ALL the past and present whips resign in disgrace for profiting from that nomenclature?)  However, in 1994, then-Minority Whip Newt Gingrich routinely referred to the House as a plantation.  This despite the fact that Congress was at that time demonstrably less corrupt, with more input from both the minority party and members outside the leadership, than it is today.  I would like to see any evidence that any of the people who are now so deeply hurt by Senator Clinton's words were equally offended by Rep. Gingrich's words in 1994. 10:29:44 AM    comment []