The Post’s Fred Dicker is a lot of awful things, but stupid is not among them, so I guess it was the editor of his piece–about a purported effort to throw Pedro Espada out of the Democratic Party–who took out the part about Marty Connor trying to do this to Pedro in 2002, only to have the Courts rule that anything Espada did on the Senate floor was protected under the State Constitution, and thus could not be used in a disenrollment proceeding.
I also wonder what the relevance of possible future criminal charges against Espada is. There is at least one Senate Democrat under indictment today (Kevin Parker –with players to be named later seemingly queuing up at the Courthouse door) and no one, not even his opponent, is proposing to throw him out of the party. Certainly, being the target of a criminal investigation does not disqualify one from being a Democrat, even if Republicans with the title of Majority Leader have been more creative in their efforts at wealth enhancement about than Espada has (poverty pimping is so 1970s).
And, as to Espada’s living in Westchester, lots of Democrats do, including at least three other State Senators. It might be a reason to throw him out of the Senate, but the party?
Conclusion: something else is going on here. Just a seat of the pants guess, but throwing Espada out of the party before a primary would certainly shift the dynamics of the race for his seat. With the moral underpinning knocked out from under her candidacy, would people start to notice Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter's ethnicity, making Gustavo Rivera the new frontrunner? Dems ready to give Pedro the heave-ho – NYPOST.com www.nypost.com
I actually wanted to write a more liberal version of this Jonah Goldberg piece, with a perhaps a bit less emphasis on the Klan (because it has not been totally ignored—though surely, for a dozen different reasons, Byrd was no Hugo Black) and the pork (ditto) and a bit more emphasis on Byrd's role in helping to keep alive and enshrine the sanctity of Senate dysfunction (which has largely been ignored). Sadly, it took an unreliable rightwing gunslinger like Goldberg to do the job. This is almost certainly the last time I will ever link him (as opposed to Brooks or Frum). The liberals' favorite klansman – NYPOST.com www.nypost.com
Rabbi David Wolpe on Hitch: "I would say it is appropriate and even mandatory to do what one can for another who is sick; and if you believe that praying helps, to pray. It is in any case an expression of one's deep hopes. So yes, I will pray for him, but I will not insult him by asking or implying that he should be grateful for my prayers." Should We Pray for Christopher Hitchens? – Personal – The Atlantic www.theatlantic.com
At last, someone says something sensible:
"what we know now is what we knew going in, that Kagan is "liberal in a broad sense" but that where she sits on the a spectrum "from Larry Summers to Thurgood Marshall is likely to remain a mystery." …– but I don't think that's a problem with the process. We don't know, because as s…he approaches a twenty year career on the Court, give or take twenty years, even Elena Kagan probably doesn't know. She's going to evolve and change as she adapts to her new role. And how that happens will be in part her general approach now, in part her specific ideas now, in part unknowable changes in her over time, and in part unknowable reactions between her, the specific cases that the Court will deal with, and her colleagues over time. If we had a nominee with, say, a record of speeches and law review articles stating clear positions on many of the things on which Kagan has no record, the unknowns would still swamp the knowns." A plain blog about politics: Kagan Wrap-Up plainblogaboutpolitics.blogspot.com
Caption contest: my entries:
1) Why do you think she came in from the cold?
2) Is she a natural redhead? Can we even call her a red anymore?
…
3) I can't see her Putin. Nude photo of Russian spy Anna Chapman exposed online http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/news13184.html digg.com
Sopranos fans take note: the Company in the article is in FAIR LAWN NJ (remember the "Pine Barrens" episode?). The only way this could get any better is if Anna Chapman were the company President (though I suppose Kruger could credibly claim it was all business between them) Probed pol's bizarre money trail – NYPOST.com www.nypost.com