McCain and Russert's Wall-to-Wall B.S., Harris' and Suozzi's Shaky Political Futures

I watched Chuck Hagel on TV this Sunday, with Evan Bayh, on Wolf Blitzer's show. What an engaging program. Two smart, reasonable members of the US Senate, having a well-moderated conversation on the issues. (Blitzer may be the best journalist on television today.)

Turn the channel and there is Tim Russert, huffing and puffing, to try to get a lasso around John McCain and his two tons of bullshit about why he no longer thinks Falwell is a nutbag and why the Christian Right deserves inclusion in his upcoming campaign strategy. Clip after clip of McCain telling it like it is about the lunatic fringe of his party. But, I suppose now, that is the old McCain. The McCain who was bitter about how he was treated by the Bush folks in South Carolina. Now McCain is strongly viewed as the presumptive nominee of his party. He speaks more quietly. He's more measured. No problem there, until he starts to snuggle up to Christian conservatives who, no doubt, need to play a role in the '08 campaign. The same people he renounced (view those clips) as dangerous to the future of his party. McCain with Russert...wall-to-wall bullshit.

Bayh and Hagel. They both looked good. Real good.

Other races: let's all sit back and watch that lying, thieving Katherine Harris' political future slowly wither and die as more and more staff and operatives abandon her campaign. Can you think of anyone who deserves this more than her? (Maybe Jeb Bush.)

Schwarzenegger running in an actual campaign for Governor of the biggest state in the country without the benefit of a recall: enough said.

Eliot Spitzer versus anyone: Tom Suozzi, who has been taking one long, uninterrupted bow for fixing Nassau County's finances (which could only go up, by the way) for some time now wants to be Governor. He thinks he's better for the job than Eliot. The difference between Spitzer and Suozzi is the difference between a bazooka and a water pistol. New Yorkers, after THREE TERMS of the inconceivably dull and uninspiring Pataki, are dreaming of Spitzer as Governor. Truly. Eliot Spitzer will make for one of the greatest public servants in NY history. Suozzi should drop out.

A postscript....this past Fall, so many NY Dems caved and ran with Bloomberg. I was not one of them. 212 Manhattanites have developed the bad habit of supporting mayoral candidates who keep their crime down, while they send their children to private schools and never really explore the public school issue that effects the other four boroughs so deeply. Bloomberg, like Corzine, is a rich dude who bought himself another career. Tens of millions out of his own pocket.

Democrat or Republican, the effect is the same. How would either of these men have fared if they had to go out and raise money for a campaign, like everyone else?