Why buy a Senate seat when you can rent to own?

• The lesson of the Blagojevich scandal is, ultimately, not going to be about the importance of integrity and the rule of law. The real lesson will be that if you have to bother to ask someone to determine what a Senate seat is worth to them, then you're really too stupid to belong in government in the first place. Blagojevich is obviously a bungler since he got caught. Obama, on the other hand, is proving to be more skillful. First Ted Kennedy endorsed Obama against challenger Hillary Clinton in the Democratic party nominating election. Then Obama nominated Hillary Clinton to be his secretary of state after winning the election, and Hillary Clinton accepts. Now, Caroline Kennedy, of all people, wants to "pull an Obama" and jumpstart a political career by being appointed directly into the Senate to replace Clinton.



• In another suspicious deal, it has been reported that Eddie Murphy got cast as the Riddler in the upcoming sequel to "Batman Returns". Although, I suppose that Murphy might have been given the role because he was a good actor; perhaps "stand-up comic turned film actor who specializes in fat jokes" is a perfect fit for the role of a villain who uses mindbending puzzles to taunt and torture Batman.

A few easy pieces

• An Iraqi reporter threw shoes at President Bush during a press conference in Iraq. This is actually a sign that Iraq might be well on its way towards becoming a stable, democratic country. Think about it: here is a country that has suffered sectarian violence, street-level terror, and government-sponsored pogroms for decades. Now a reporter can throw a shoe at the leader of the free world and suffer, say, the leader of the free world laughing in his face about it. That seems like progress.
  
  Or put it this way. American Democrats have been waging a cold, civil guerilla war against President Bush from Election Day 2000 to the president. If the Democrats were to stop their relentless campaign to poison public opinion against Republicans and merely resort to throwing shoes at the President to register their disapproval, we'd be calling the Bush years another "Era of Good Feelings".



• It should be clear now that the Republican party has developed a serious case of Tyler-Fillmore disease with the rise of John McCain to de facto party leader since 2000. True conservatives knew that if Senator McCain lost the 2008 election to Senator Obama, McCain would take it upon himself, as a true Republican moderate, to enact President Obama's legislative agenda in 2009.
  
  Thus, in a sign that the Blagojevich scandal is politically damaging Obama and helping Republicans, Senator John McCain thinks that the Republicans should "lay off" of the Blagojevich scandal. That the Republicans should be doing the opposite of what John McCain advises would make a sound rule of thumb at this point.

The Blagojevich scandal

Obama is possibly implicated in an impeachment level scandal and he isn't even president yet.

Here's a game to play: ask your liberal friends about the scandal and watch them squirm. One of my liberal friends have already tried to explain to me that auctioning off a United States Senate seat to the highest bidder is just "politics as usual" because "everybody does it".

The election is over and Obama won. Let the fascism begin.

Senator Chris Dodd issues a preliminary order to GM in preparation for the upcoming auto industry diktat:

U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd called on a top auto executive to resign in exchange for bailout money from the federal government.

Dodd said General Motors' chief executive officer Rick Wagoner -- who has been with GM since 1977 -- should be replaced if the faltering auto company is to receive any money from the government.

The Democrats spent a great deal 2008 patiently explaining which rights they were going to take from the people. Dictating the choice of CEO to a private corporation is just the beginning.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining.

Saxby Chambliss won re-election to the Senate in George, thus denying the Democrats a filibuster-proof majority.