Hillary's Choice...

With the announcement of a GOP opponent for her Senate seat yesterday, Hillary has a decision in front of her.

Should she stay or should she go? At first look, most folks would pick Hillary to win in a cakewalk. But not so fast. Jeanine Pirro may be low on name recognition now, but her resume is quite impressive as a District Attorney in Westchester County who is originally from upstate. Conservative on fiscal matters, but Liberal on social issues - particularly on abortion - Pirro is a woman who can take away the "poor me" victim role that Hillary usually plays in the face of any opposition.

Initial polls have Hillary up to 63%, but that's mostly because Pirro is not that well known. This will change in the heat of a campaign. While Hillary is still likely to hold the seat, the feisty D.A. could give her a real run for her money.

At the very least, Jeanine Pirro is an aggressive campaigner who exudes confidence and a firm grasp of the issues. Such a persistent and articulate opponent could bloody Mrs. Clinton on the debating stage and pin her down on her Liberal voting record. But the Washington Prowler report in the American Spectator poses the real conundrum that she faces.

What Hillary has to consider now is whether it is worth it to win a Senate seat by five percentage points and break a promise to voters about serving a full term if re-elected, or whether it will be better simply to be honest with the voters, and choose not to seek re-election and instead begin an early campaign for the presidential nomination many Democrats expect her to seek.

The more I think about this, the more I love it. It's likely Hillary was expecting a quick reelection for very little expense against some token GOP candidate without a prayer. Maybe she was even hoping to spend some of 2006 campaigning for other Senators or rubbing elbows with the unwashed masses in Iowa or New Hampshire.

Well, if she decides to bow out, that's exactly what she can do. But she loses the advantage of all the free media coverage she could get as a sitting Senator. The plot thickens...

Oh and BTW, it doesn't exactly hurt that Pirro is much easier on the eyes. As the Museum of Left-Wing Lunacy points out.

UPDATE: 5:00pm
A man who knows her all too well weighes in.

Hillary would love to cloak her Senate re-election as a necessity in the face of a determined GOP effort to overturn Roe vs. Wade and to roll back the clock on gun controls. But against Pirro, she will be disarmed of all her best issues. She will have to run on her own record, which is limited at best.

Posted by: Gary at 03:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 471 words, total size 3 kb.

Dean To Dems: "We need a message"...

DNC Chairman Howard "Old Yellar" Dean is still out stumping for his party, throwing red meat to the loony Left that makes up its base. His new pitch? Dems need to take the offensive. As if he and and the other moonbats in the party haven't been offensive enough.

At a party fundraiser, Dean talked about needing a message and of being "out there" and being "vocal". Well, Chairman Dean is definitely "out there" and he's been nothing if not "vocal".

The problem for the Democrat leadership is that they just refuse to grasp the concept that the majority of Americans - the "mainstream" - don't agree with their half-baked ideas. They can't accept the fact that the reason they are no longer the majority is because they've marginalized themselves into Liberal and Uber-Liberal factions that can't even agree on what the party should stand for.

There are a bunch of pull-quotes in the article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but this one says it all: "We need to position ourselves as the party of change." The problem is that the primary change Democrats are focusing on is trying to remove George W. Bush from office before the end of his term. The kind of change that Americans favor only angers this loose coalition of single-issue special interest groups.

The Democrats have become the party of the status quo. Tax reform? No way. Social Security reform? Fuggedaboutit! A proactive foreign policy to fight terror? Give me a break. Tort reform, Medicare reform, Education reform, Bankruptcy reform, ANWR drilling, Free trade...? No, No, No, No, No, No!

The "message" that the Democrat party currently has? Change is bad, especially if it's good for the country. Start voting for us before things get better! Here's hoping that they stick to it.

Cross-posted at The Llama Butchers

Posted by: Gary at 09:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 317 words, total size 2 kb.

Another Bush in the White House?

Boy that would piss off the Left. But apparently, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has publicly taken himself out of the running. And much of the political punditry can't get their heads around the idea that the voters would elect another man named Bush because they will either have Bush-fatigue or they are too deeply suspicious of dynasties. I admit I've accepted this conventional wisdom pretty easily.

However, Brent Miniter of OpinionJournal.com argues against this thinking. He points out that George W. climbed a steep hill to overcome the legacy of his father's defeat for reelection in 1992 - running on ideas that won over voters. Like his brother, Jeb has been building an "antitax bedrock conservative record" since 1998. The younger Bush could seize the mantle of Social Security reform now that his brother has succeeded in finally making the issue debatable. And of course, everything would depend on how popular the Bush name is three years from now. As Miniter explains:

Perhaps the most compelling reason why Jeb Bush shouldn't be written off just yet came Friday with the Labor Department's latest jobs numbers. With some 200,000 net new jobs created in July and some 3.5 million new jobs over the past two years, it's getting harder to deny we are now in the midst of a Bush boom. John Kerry's claims of a jobless recovery notwithstanding, every job lost after the dot-com crash and the 9/11 attacks has long since been replaced. True, the housing market may yet tumble. But the Fed keeps raising interest rates out of fear the economy will get too hot, not too cold. If we get three more years of solid economic expansion, voters may decide that keeping a Bush in the White House is good for their wallets. After all, the Bush tax cuts are now set to expire in the middle of the next president's first term.

I still remain skeptical, however, there is one other condition that might make Jeb Bush a stronger candidate in 2008 - Hillary. Imagine if the country is forced to choose between another Bush and another Clinton. I think in this case the result would definitely favor the Florida Governor.

Posted by: Gary at 07:40 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 376 words, total size 2 kb.

Say "Ahhhhhhh"...

Posted by: Gary at 04:15 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 15 words, total size 1 kb.

How Do I Fool Thee? Let Me Count The Ways...

Deroy Murdock lists the reasons why "Senator Fake", as he calls Hillary, is no moderate despite her attempted self-makeover (and it all comes from her voting record).

H/T: The Anchoress

Posted by: Gary at 03:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 50 words, total size 1 kb.

Scumbags Go Googling...

Vince Aut Morire got a hit off some perv doing a search. Sick, man.

Posted by: Gary at 02:53 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 20 words, total size 1 kb.

AL TV Launches...

The latest Al Gore-backed project - a glorified public-access channel called Current TV - hit the airwaves last Monday. Coincidentally (or not) the launch date coincided with the original MTV premiere date from twenty four years ago, Aug. 1 1981. The only thing the two networks have in common however is the target audience: 18-34 year olds.

Check that. That's the only thing the original MTV has in common with this mess. You remember the days when MTV actually played videos? Current TV and today's MTV also share another common characteristic: they're both unwatchable - for the target audience and anyone else for that matter.

Human Events' Christopher Flickinger reports:

Here’s a little taste of what I had to endure for 90 minutes: a bizarre documentary about a couple and their emotional pregnancy; a story about people in Japan who want to commit suicide with others they meet over the Internet; a video titled “The Perfect Egg” that describes the unusual characteristics people desire in women who donate their eggs to ovum centers; a cultural piece featuring a man in Paris who jumps over fences, on trees, and off staircases, artwork and buildings; a segment on the history of skateboarding; and, a video-essay from a third-world country, which focuses on the tradition of cremation and literally answers the question, “how long does it take for the average human body to burn”.

Wow. Great stuff, huh? Pretty def, Al. You're so dang hip it's frightening!

Posted by: Gary at 12:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 249 words, total size 2 kb.

No ANWR drilling in the Energy Bill? No problem...

Posted by: Gary at 10:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 259 words, total size 2 kb.

Multiculturalism...Phooey!

Michael Barone chronicles how multiculturalism is (literally) killing us.

Multiculturalism is based on the lie that all cultures are morally equal. In practice, that soon degenerates to: All cultures are morally equal, except ours, which is worse. But all cultures are not equal in respecting representative government, guaranteed liberties and the rule of law. And those things arose not simultaneously and in all cultures, but in certain specific times and places -- mostly in Britain and America, but also in various parts of Europe.

Bingo.

Posted by: Gary at 09:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 86 words, total size 1 kb.

Announcement...

The guys over at The Llama Butchers are away on some much needed R&R and have graciously asked me to guest blog on their site. So if posting seems a little light, you can always hop over there and check out their terrific site.

Posted by: Gary at 06:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 46 words, total size 1 kb.

NARAL thugs behind latest Roberts dirt-digging...

The Washington Prowler section of the American Spectator Online is reporting that the goons from the pro-abortion group NARAL passed on info from their opposition research to get reporters to look into the adoption records of John Roberts' children. The organization, terrified of losing their "right" to abortion-on-demand, are desperately pushing whatever they can to derail the nomination.

Liberal groups and Democrats are finding a tough time attacking Roberts any other way. A Democrat source told the Prowler:

"There is a lot of Roberts writing, but there isn't anything much to hang our hat on. He's clean, and it's frustrating our ability to paint him anything other than what the White House put forward: a smart, sharp and fair legal mind."

Their desperation is obvious. It's sad that they have to resort to such bottom-feeding and unfortunate that Roberts and his family must endure this crap. But reporting it only makes Democrats look bad by association.

Posted by: Gary at 06:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 167 words, total size 1 kb.

Breaking News: Men have a hard time listening to women!

C'mon, they actually needed to do a study to come to this conclusion?

Apparently, men have to use a special part of their brain to figure out what the hell women are saying.

Men deciphered female voices using the auditory part of the brain that processes music, while male voices engaged a simpler mechanism, it said.

The Mail quoted researcher Michael Hunter as saying, "The female voice is actually more complex than the male voice, due to differences in the size and shape of the vocal cords and larynx between men and women, and also due to women having greater natural 'melody' in their voices.

"This causes a more complex range of sound frequencies than in a male voice."

Ladies, don't take this the wrong way. But it's a whole heck of a lot more likely the problem is that unless women are talking about sports, food, bodily functions or sex men are too busy exerting all their mental energy just trying to pay attention to whatever you're saying much less understand it.

No need to think of us as more complicated than we really are.

Posted by: Gary at 10:50 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 206 words, total size 1 kb.

Diane Lane Photo of the Week...

Posted by: Gary at 07:16 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 25 words, total size 1 kb.

New in the "Featured Time-Waster" Section...

Shoot the beer into the mouths of the thirsty Germans. Warning, if you speak German, I've heard some of the words are naughty: Play

H/T to K-Lo at The Corner

Posted by: Gary at 04:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 42 words, total size 1 kb.

Fear the 'stache...

Several diplomats at Turtle Bay are already sucking up to new U.N. Rep. John Bolton.

Several ambassadors, including those from Algeria, Argentina, France, Russia and China expressed welcoming wishes and expressions of enthusiasm to working with the former State Department undersecretary.

And I'm sure Sec. Bolton is well aware of the Godfather wisdom that says "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."

Posted by: Gary at 03:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 68 words, total size 1 kb.

"Another Nail In My Heart", no longer just a song by Squeeze...

A British man, Nigel Kirk, was repairing floorboards in his home when he had a little accident with a nail-gun.

[H]e was working in his bathroom when he lost his footing on a towel, stumbled backwards and turned the pneumatic gun on himself as he fell.

He accidentally pulled the trigger, shooting himself at point-blank range in the chest. The nail embedded itself in the wall of his heart, with the tip poking into the heart muscle, but missed the vital arteries.

Mr. Kirk survived the ordeal after undergoing major heart surgery. Doctors had to work carefully as one wrong move would have resulted in blood pouring out of his heart like air from a punctured tire.

And I cry like a baby when I get a torn cuticle.

Posted by: Gary at 11:40 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 153 words, total size 1 kb.

207,000 new jobs in July...

Posted by: Gary at 10:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 23 words, total size 1 kb.

Damn, Liberals didn't move to Canada after all!

Bush-hating Liberal weenies who threw a hissy-fit after the 2004 Presidential election and vowed to move to Canada in protest apparently were not serious about their intentions. Despite the Canadian immigration website being slammed with visits from U.S. surfers, the "move to Canada" movement never really took off.

Data from the main Canadian processing center in Buffalo, NY shows that in the six months up to the U.S. election there were 16,266 applications from people seeking to live in Canada, a figure that fell to 14,666 for the half year after the vote.

Crud, and I was all excited about the idea back in February. Too bad. They wouldn't have been missed.

UPDATE: 10:38am
From Betsy Newmark: "They're all like a French movie -- all talk and no action."

Posted by: Gary at 10:15 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 144 words, total size 1 kb.

Is the Ohio special election a bellwether?

ABP's Patrick Hynes does some analysis of the results of last Tuesday's Congressional election in the Ohio 2nd district. First, the Democrat opponent:

"[T]he Democrats pulled out all the stops to win the seat. Hackett is a Marine just back from Iraq who sometimes sounded like he was running against George W. Bush himself, rather than Jean Schmidt, so critical of the president was he (he openly called the president a "chicken hawk" on the stump). Hackett is tall, good-looking, and smart. Jim Carville and Max Cleland trekked to Ohio to help him raise money. The leftwing blogosphere, still chasing the idea that if they just hate George W. Bush enough they will eventually win something, helped Hackett raise tens of thousands of dollars."

Ohio seems to have become the new Florida - a "Red" state closely won by Bush that the Republicans must have "stolen" in order to win the White House. So Democrats desperately wanted this seat as poke in the eye to Bush (again, it always comes back to Bush). But more importantly for the Dems, they desperately need any seat they can possibly get. Looking at the political landscape for 2006, it doesn't look like there's much in the way of potential for taking back the House.

With a 233-201-1 current advantage for Republicans, Hynes notes that political analyst Charlie Cook sees only 8 competitive (i.e. toss-up) races next year. And of those eight, five seats are currently Democrat-held and need to be defended. And what of the financial resources for the these races?

"According to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission through the month of July, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has raised a total of $24,070,752.10 so far this year. The National Republican Congressional Committee has raised $39,984,494.62. The DCCC has only $8,544,288.27 cash on hand compared to the NRCC's $16,377, 230.66. The DCCC has $3,666,666.67 in outstanding debts. The NRCC has no debt.

Put simply, Democrats have fewer dollars to defend more seats, which limits their ability to create a greater number of competitive races by recruiting rock star candidates."

For Dems, the future's so dark, they're gonna need seeing-eye dogs.

Posted by: Gary at 09:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 373 words, total size 2 kb.

There is just no low to which the MSM will not stoop...

Digging into the adoption records of John Roberts' children? Disgusting.

Michelle Malkin has a good round-up on this one. As Bob Novak would say - this is bullshit.

Posted by: Gary at 06:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 52 words, total size 1 kb.