Something to remember about John McCain going foward...

He really is a tempermental SOB.

This passage is particularly interesting:

McCain is fully capable of freezing out someone who has disappointed him. After the Arizona Republic, for instance, published a harsh editorial cartoon making light of a scandal involving painkillers his wife stole from a charity she founded, McCain refused to talk to the newspaper for more than a year. He regularly yells at or ignores fellow senators when he thinks they've done him wrong.

Okay to Chris Matthews and Tim Russert and Maureen Dowd for that matter, the guy is a hero, but who the hell wants to work for someone who POUTS like this? In the real world, this is the sort of behavior that seriously degrades one's performance review and leads to a leveling off of income at a relatively early age.
But if you are Chris Matthews' Dream Man on Horseback, Senator John McCain, it is a martial virtue in extremis.

In the 23rd Middlesex special election for state representative....

The Chimes at Midnight proudly endorses the candidacy of Jeff Thielman.

Arlington has just passed thru what amounts to a golden age in terms of representation in the Great-n-Gen'rl Court, Bob Havern and Jim Marzilli in their own way lived up to very high expectations on the part of the electorate.
Now with Marzilli ascension into the state senate the Town of Arlington needs to find a rep with guts, brains and stamina...someone who brings real life experience and a proven record to the sinecure.
Someone in short, who will make their mark and do right by the Town...and that person is Jeff Thielman. He has been a active member of the school committee, an attorney, vice chair of the local democratic committee and the executive director of the Cassin Education Initiative Foundation. Jeff's hard work helped save North Cambridge Catholic as well as other imperiled working-class parochial schools from closure.
He is a serious man with a real record of energy and accomplishment, he will do honor to the district.

The other two democratic candidates are good people, Sean Garballey is also a member of the school committee, but at age twenty two he is nowhere near as seasoned as Jeff Thielman, ditto Andrew O'Brien who seems well informed and is otherwise something of an obscurity in the race.

To Humble Elias, Jeff seems born to the job, but that is just his opinion, the democrats of the 23rd house district get their say on Tuesday, don't forget to vote!

Two Sturdy Pundit-Pathologies...

Confront us in this presidential contest, the first asserts that John McCain is either a godly man or a manly god, the likes of Chris Matthews are undecided on this point, the second asserts that Hillary Clinton is a false wicked woman whose downfall cannot come soon enough for the cackling magpies at the kewl kids table.
The inability for the Senator from New York to get even the illusion of fair coverage from the press is evidenced by the current "Newsweek" which tries to gin up another impending crack-up of the Clinton campaign complete with swipes at the former President and nasty quotes from Maureen "Bush is just SO comfortable in his own skin" Dowd.
Well I dunno, the last time all these a-holes were this worked up and dead certain it was curtains for Hillary she went on to win the New Hampshire Primary.
All this has direct implications for us all if the fall race becomes a John versus Hillary contest (and it may not, but yuh never know), it will be a given under those circumstances that the kewl kids table will reach new and dangerous heights of bias and distortion.
The Senator from New York should consider herself duly warned and ought to consider framing a strong argument against press bias going forward.

Hell, it worked for Nixon.

My question is...why the hell do they all hate her so? Most of her most zealous press adversaries are themselves aging boomers who apparently have decided to project onto Hillary Clinton all of their own generational fear, guilt and paranoia.
It is like they are afraid of her or something.

Former Secretary of Educations "Dollar" Bill Bennett,

in an appearance on CNN not two hours ago, gaseously reassured the fretful legions of conservatism that even if Mitt Romney changed his mind about gays, abortion, women and Darwin's theory of evolution, that he has been "consistent" on the subject of taxes.
What the bloated virtue Pimp is trying to spin here, is that Romney didn't raise taxes as Governor of Massachusetts, however what Bennett DECLINES to note is that Mitt and his shitheel crew raised every single fee they could find sans recourse to the State Legislature.
THAT is the sort of feckless manipulation that passes for learned commentary on CNN.

Oh and By the Way, the Former Viceroy spent millions and millions of dollars to LOSE Florida tonight, beaten by a penniless, tempermental and slightly senile gasbag from out the US Senate.
Sad end for Brian McGrory's fabled Man on Horseback...still for the purposes of sheer schaedenfreude, I do hope Romney battles on thru Super Tuesday and beyond. I'm beginning to enjoy these weekly humiliations that are inflicted on Willard by a frantic and vengeful electorate.

The Last State of the Union Speech....

unless of course La Famiglia Arbusto declares martial law and proclaims GWB "Top Swank for Life".
Ah but what self respected corrupt malevolent inhabitant of the White House can resist the urge to anesthetize congress and the nation one last time with one's turgid lies and delusions?
Bush Jr. goes out the way he came in, a craven punk who needs bullies and criminals around him to accomplish the simplest tasks.
He he still pretending to be a shrewd shitkicker who is putting something over on the city-slickers...and he still enunciates simple three syllable words like "potential" as if it was the first time he ever saw them on the teleprompter.
Not much has really changed since those halycon days back in 2001 when Bush gave his "groundbreaking" speech on stem cell research complete with bats flapping around behind him at his Crawford Texas ranch.
Nope it is like the whole country is in suspended animation...

Edward Maximus....

is endorsing Barack Obama later today.
With Senator Kerry (AKA "Th' Tall Guy") and the Governor all signed off on Barack, the Massachusetts Presidential Primary long a laggard sort of show at best is suddenly becoming more interesting.
The last poll done here called it for Senator Clinton, but that was before South Carolina...the numbers might be in flux now.

Just sayin'...

Joanie hearts Sal?

So when did Globe columnist Joan Vennochi become seemingly so palsie-walsie with House Speaker DiMasi?
Because every time she writes about state politics lately, it's all Sal, all the time.
They really are a match made in heaven they both view Governor Patrick with some ill disguised loathing and since no one in the Admin will talk to Joanie, she has perhaps cultivated the House leadership by way of compensation.

Now of course, Vennochi is prattling on about how Deval Must Deliver Massachusetts to Obama Or Risk Becoming Irrelevant!
Last year she said the same thing about the Anti Gay Marriage ballot measure, next year who knows where she will set the bar and how high?

Which leads me to a simple axiom of politics, don't let your enemies define what constitutes success.

Of course, I'd be on firmer ground if I knew WHY Joanie loathes Patrick so? After years and years of reading her column I'm no closer to understanding Joanie's politics, the best I can come up with is that she didn't think Patrick would win, and when he did that made her look bad and Joanie Doesn't Like That One Bit.
The rest of them are a transparent as glass, Jacoby, Lehigh etc...but Vennochi nothing a complete mystery.