1:42 pm | Washington DC

We have no heart for the chase today, easily-befuddled readers. Spring is steadfast in her refusal to arrive, and the days have been gray and cold here in the federal city. As our regular readers know, we pride ourselves on pointless snarkiness and trivial gibberish, but the political news of late has been a heavy downer. Washington reeks of war, and there is a heavy ugliness in the air and lead in the water.

We cannot be of good heart on a a day such as this. Instead, we will rant and jabber.

ITEM: Edwards was on CNN yesterday, telling anyone who would listen what a saint John Kerry is, what a humanitarian, what a hero, what a strong-jawed, iron-willed, handsome, keen-eyed eagle of the dawn heights. It's only the vice-presidency, for the love of pete. It's not worth debasing yourself for.

ITEM: Bob Woodward is rumored to be working on 'Plan of Attack,' a biting new book about the Bush administration's recent warlike activities. We like Woodward, but his last book was a fawning, hasty mess, and made Bush seem as heroic and wise as Edwards would have us believe Kerry is. Get it together, Bob.

ITEM: Kerry made some noise yesterday about Bill Clinton serving as a possible Secretary of State. Don't get us wrong. We love Bubba, and we miss him. But that's just a weird idea.

That is all for today. We are weakened by the ill wind, and we must lie down, resting our head on the cold floor, and dreaming of the cherry blossoms...

10:55 am | Washington DC

Politics1.com has the results of two online polls ranking the hottest politicians. We used to have a thing for Jennifer Granholm, but she's just so sharp and mean-looking these days. South Dakota Democrat Stephanie Herseth cleaned up though, and we can see why. Rrrowr, we would say, were we not a political journal of some repute.

The Hottest People in Politics
Fellas: (click here)
Ladies: (click here)

There. Don't say there's never any racy stuff on this blog.

:: ROVE WATCH ::

The triumphant return of Karen Hughes to the Bush election team continues to earn her glowing press reports. We like Hughes okay, here at the BWA Campaign Blog, but what we really like about this coverage is the way it casts darkness and aspersion on the shadowy figure of White House Minister of Fear and Misdirection Karl Rove. The New York Times reports:

But advisers to the president say that Ms. Hughes's impending return to a more full-time role has stirred some unease within a campaign that has been wholly the province of Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's chief political adviser. The president trusts Ms. Hughes like almost no one else on his staff, so much so that some Bush aides say they are worried that a return of the two-headed Rove-Hughes team could lead to internal disputes about strategy and message that so far have been muted. Others point out that even though Ms. Hughes and Mr. Rove have a history of tension, they also have a history through three campaigns of working it out.

"There's always friction with Karl," said one Bush adviser, who asked not to be named because he did not want to be seen as criticizing Mr. Rove. "But some of it is because of the difference of their jobs. Karen's job is to articulate the message, and Karl's job is to cater and pander to the base. Karl is trying to work in the Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed message, and Karen is listening to the soccer moms."

We like the phrase "who asked not to be named because he did not want to be seen as criticizing Mr. Rove." It shows a mature sense of journalistic style, since "who asked not to be named because he did not want face a brutal chain-beating at the expert hands of a band of sweating thugs in an alley off of K Street" would be seen by some as overly subjective.

Returning to the topic of Karen Hughes, we feel compelled to share our thoughts on President Bush and women in positions of power.

Given his reactionary, dogmatic tendencies, and general lack of 21st-century thinking, one might expect our commander-in-chief to be somewhat dismissive of women in powerful positions. This has never seemed to be the case, however. Both Hughes and Condoleeza Rice (along with Elaine Chao, Anne Veneman and Christie Todd Whitman) have held serious positions in the Bush adninistration. These don't seem to be token appointments. We would not be impressed by the appointment of a women to what is seen as a "soft" cabinet post, like HHS or the Education Department. But chief political advisor is pretty serious. As for Rice, she's the National Security Advisor, which is the ultimate alpha male slot in the West Wing, to our mind. Kissinger and Sandy Berger were not messing around.

Well, that's our thought for the day. There are some numbers out showing Bush and Kerry neck-and-neck, tendons straining, sweat spraying off their powerful flanks in gleaming arcs, but we are sticking to our guns on the "No New Numbers Until They Mean Something" pledge. It is not easy, either. We do a lot for you, alert readers. We ask no thanks, however. The work is our reward.

5:05 pm | Washington DC

:: ROVE WATCH ::

Our national affairs staff returned from a trip to Boston late last night to find several emails alerting us to the bizarre tale of a group of protesters who stormed the Washington home of Karl Rove over the weekend, forcing Rove to shake his fists in rage and summon the authorities. The Associated Press reports:

Several hundred people stormed the small yard of President Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove, yesterday afternoon, pounding on his windows, shoving signs at others and challenging Rove to talk to them about a bill that deals with educational opportunities for immigrants.

[Emira] Palacios said that Rove was "very upset" and was "yelling in our faces" and that Rove told them "he hoped we were proud to make his 14-year-old and 10-year-old cry."

A White House spokesman said one of the children was a neighbor.

Palacios, trembling and in tears herself, said, "He is very offended because we dared to come here. We dared to come here because he dared to ignore us. I'm sorry we disturbed his children, but our children are disturbed every day."

It appears that our efforts to keep a watchful eye on the talented and nefarious Mr. Rove are having some effect on the electorate. We do not wish to take any credit for frightening Mr. Rove's children, however, so perhaps we will let this one go.

And, lest anyone accuse us of partisanship and low morality, we liked this Washingon Post piece on Karen Hughes, the former Bush campaign advisor who is returning to help run the campaign, much to what we hope is Rove's teeth-grinding displeasure:

When Hughes was in the West Wing, she served as a balance of power with Karl Rove, Bush's senior adviser, and witnesses have provided vivid accounts of their clashes. An entry in the index is "Rove, Karl, author's disagreements with."

But Hughes declined advice to dish about Rove. Instead, she writes that the differences are not personal and that "most of our disagreements are born of our different jobs and perspectives."

It's been a bad week for our loathesome friend. We hope the trend continues.

12:23 am | Washington DC

'My Baby Don't Mess Around' Edition

Gas prices are up, his approval numbers are down, and Howard Dean is back in Washington. A bad week for the president...

Dean officially endorsed Kerry today. CNN covered the speech live, clearly hoping for some sort of insane, Dean-like outburst. Once Dean was finished speaking, Kerry took the stage, but we have no idea what he said, since CNN cut away after that.

The LA Times addressed this issue today, declaring that Kerry's challenge is now to "win the enthusiasm of Democrats."

Dennis Kucinich is even doing his part for the unity effort, appearing at a DNC rally, where he said "I will continue to call for unity in the Democratic Party around principles of peace, health care for all, and fair trade." Man, where does he GET this crazy stuff from?

The editorial staff of the BWA Campaign Blog is travelling this weekend (we have a wedding to attend in Boston), so the updates will be spare to nonexistent. If our readers would start sending us those envelopes full of cash we keep hinting at, then maybe we could hire some interns, and no one would be forced to suffer the lack of trenchant, insightful political analysis you have come to expect from BWA. Alas for the folly of the world.

11:03 am | Washington DC

It's shaping up to be a slower week than we thought, out in the treacherous and unpleasant fields of the American electoral landscape. Several new polls have the president up over Kerry, but as we remarked on Monday, we are off the numbers until they start showing some jump. "Our name is the BWA Campaign Blog, and we have a problem with polls." "Hi there, BWA Campaign Blog!" Then, we suppose, we should drink crappy coffee and talk about our feelings. To hell with it.

Alert reader Jonathan Roth was as taken aback as ourselves by the existence of the "punk conservative movement":

In response to the odd article you quoted yesterday on the "conservative punk movement" and Mr. Michale "everyone who was in the Misfits is now useless" Graves, i must draw your attention to punkvoter.com, a site started by Fat Mike, the founder of Fat Wreck Chords and singer/guitarist of NOFX (who, incidentally, released an album called "The War on Errorism", the cover of which showed Dubya with a clown face). Fat Mike is a bit of a werido who obviously wishes that it was still the golden age of punk rock, circa 1977, but he is a genuinely liberal sort, who is willing to put whatever efforts and influence he has into kicking Dubya out of the White House this year, so I salute him.

As a side note, I've also noticed lately a trend of conservatism in punk (aside from that article), and it is pretty disturbing. To me, it's a bit like pouring ketchup on ice cream, eating it, and insisting to everyone that the two really do work together. I don't see it, but people can rationalize anything...

Do we have any punk readers out there? You know, real ones. No mall punks, please.

In other news, for those of you, who, like the editors of this blog, mourn the fall of the Dean campaign, The Atlantic Monthly is publishing the ultimate "What went wrong?" post-mortem this month, by Dean campaign pollster Paul Maslin. However, former Dean staffer Karl Frisch has posted the article on his blog, if you want a jump on the action. Frisch does not appear to be too enamored of this piece:

Politics is a nasty game. When you win, everyone loves you and no one complains. When you lose, everyone thinks they know why.

Well, easy come, easy go, we suppose. We really should take that campaign button off our bag. It's starting to look kitschy, like a "Mondale in 84" badge.

12:28 pm | Washington DC

'Esther Jackson' Edition

Some decent stuff to chew over so far this week. There are new numbers out from Zogby and Newsweek, but we have stopped caring. Once a poll surfaces that does NOT show Bush and Kerry essentially neck-and-neck, with Nader's gin-fueled campaign pulling down about 5%, we'll let you know. Meanwhile, in less savory news...

:: ROVE WATCH ::

We are made of strong stuff here at the BWA Campaign Blog. Seriously. We are like meteor-iron. But there was an ill-favored man in a dark coat watching us yesterday as we rode our bike to work. Not to mention the fact that our minivan is not working properly. Clearly, these things are not mere coincidences. No, our tireless efforts to keep an eye on the fiendish machinations of White House Chief Minister of Calamity, the baneful, vile-hearted Karl Rove, have earned us the animosity of the powerful and dangerous. Thankfully, the Associated Press is bearing some of the load this week:

President Bush entrusts adviser Karl Rove to oversee his bare-knuckle bid for a second term. Yet Rove is but one of a small group of counselors helping to guide the most expensive, and possibly the most corporate-like, presidential campaign in history.

The AP is calling it in the air these days. They must be running out of money.

Speaking of our vigilant watch on Karl Rove, while we monitor his nefarious activities not because he is a Republican opeative, but because he is a goat-footed cancer on the surface of the American Dream, we would hate for anyone to think this was a partisan journal. Or, really, we would not give a flip, but we do like to argue with people about stuff. In that vein, we present our newest feature: Shrum Drum (tm), in which BWA Campaign Blog's secretive and paranoid right-of-center pseudonymous correspondent 'Deep Pockets' will keep tabs on the activities of Democratic political mastermind Bob Shrum.

:: SHRUM DRUM ::

Unlike Rove, Bob Shrum has yet to achieve house-hold name status and a movie on his superhuman power of persuasion will not likely be shown at Sundance anytime soon, but he is a legend to those who need his services and will no doubt be googled at exponential rates in the coming months.

I would like to kick off the Shrum Drum circle with an article I found from a month back. I think it gives a good quick background on his resume while offering up enough linguistic bile to make a good read.

Your in Realpolitik,
Deep Pockets

The BWA Campaign Blog subscribes to the "big tent "theory of politics. Even the wingnuts are welcome. Ha! We joke.

In other news, there is apparently a conservative punk movement out there. "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set upon a hill cannot be hid." The New York Times reports:

While Conservative Punk does not have a roster of bands exactly, it has inspired the interest and involvement of a consortium of conservatives with proper punk credentials, like Michale Graves, a former singer for the Misfits, who writes a column for Mr. Rizzuto's site. Mr. Graves regularly performs wearing a skull mask and is known for belting out lyrics like: "A fever rots/The brain goes numb inside/I feel a blackout coming/The boiled blister pops inside." He allows that he doesn't he profile of your average red-state Republican.

"I look like someone who should be hanging out with Marilyn Manson — in fact I have hung out with Marilyn Manson," Mr. Graves said. "It doesn't affect what my morals are."

"I think George Bush is a wonderful, competent leader," he added. "And I believe that he is bringing this country on a right and just course and he understands the true nature of evil."

We are, it must be admitted, somewhat flummoxed by this.

And, returning to the weird and horrible tale of Rhea County, Tennessee (see Thursday's post. -Ed.) , it seems the civic leaders of that community have changed their minds about the idea of criminalizing the very presence of gays and lesbians:

[County attorney Gary] Fritts said he advised the commissioners that they could not ban homosexuals or make them subject to criminal charges. The U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down laws on homosexual sodomy as a violation of adults' privacy.

Commissioner J.C. Fugate, who initiated the Tuesday motion, also made the motion to rescind it Thursday. In a discussion about gays and same-sex marriage at the earlier meeting, Fugate had asked the county attorney to find a way to "keep them out of here."

We were glad to see this article (from American Journalism Review, by way of alert reader Jenny Miller). We felt it unlikely that the residents of Rhea County could stand idly by and let this happen on their watch. Esther Jackson, this BWA's for you.

12:12 pm | Washington DC

We failed to post anything yesterday, and received several emails inquiring as to the reasons for this. We are touched, truly.

Well, we have a lot to get through today, so we'll start right with the worst of it:

:: ROVE WATCH ::

White House Minister of Lies and Treachery Karl Rove is ramping up his campaign strategy, handing Kerry his worst week since his effortless clinching of the nomination in Iowa. (By the way, how did he clinch the nomination in Iowa? It beats the heck out of us.) The New York Times reports:

President Bush's campaign is following an aggressive and precise 90-day media strategy to define Senator John Kerry as indecisive and lacking conviction, with a coordinated blitz of advertisements, speeches and sound bites, senior campaign advisers said this week.

The goal, several campaign aides said, is to first strip Mr. Kerry of the positive image that he carried away from the Democratic primary contests and then to define him issue by issue in their own terms before the summer vacation season. The central thrusts will be national security and taxes, they said.

The aides said the strategy was planned weeks ago in coordination with Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's chief political aide, while Mr. Kerry was battling for his party's nomination.

Thursday's speculation on the more nefarious designs of the cheap-hearted and dangerous Rove raised a few hackles among a few of the BWA Campaign Blog's readers, including the secretive 'Deep Pockets':

With the [redacted] crazy talk of Bush-sanctioned terrorism for political gain floating around your site, I thought it may be useful to steer the dialog back to reality. Here are some good conversation starters…

Link: A Thomas Friedman piece from the New York Times on the effect of the Madrid bombings on the Spanish elections:

"The new Spanish government's decision to respond to the attack by Al Qaeda by going ahead with plans to pull its troops from Iraq constitutes the most dangerous moment we've faced since 9/11. It's what happens when the Axis of Evil intersects with the Axis of Appeasement and the Axis of Incompetence."

Link: A Weekly Standard piece on the brouhaha over Bush's "9-11" campaign ad:

How to Stage a Controversy: Peace activists, left-wing flacks, and compliant reporters produced the flap over Bush's 9/11 ads.

Alert reader Cindy Calgaro also wrote in to comment on the whole issue of "appeasement," citing Joe Lieberman's op-ed from Friday's Washington Post, in which he states "By electing a new government, the people of Spain implied that they not only reject U.S. policies in Iraq but also the need to join us in the war against terrorism."

This nonsense has been creeping through op-ed pages for days now, ever since last weekend's election in Spain. For those of you who do not follow such events closely, the incumbent administration of Spain, who were one of the few European governments to support the American war in Iraq, were sent packing. Since the election came so close upon the heels of the terrible bombings in Madrid, the political effect of the attacks is worth examining. The Detroit News has a good round-up of opinions on this.

We find the whole notion of "appeasement" particularly wrong-headed in this instance. The worst offender we ran across was syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer:

Nonetheless, [appeasement] was still the cowardly alternative. And today, Spain has chosen it — having suffered not Europe’s 20 million dead of World War I, but 200 dead in the Madrid bombing. The Socialist Party placed the blame for the attack not on the barbarians who detonated the bombs, but on the Spanish government that stood with the United States in its war against the barbarians. The Spanish electorate then voted into office the purveyors of precisely that perverse view.

Spain will now withdraw from Iraq, sever its alliance with America and, as Prime Minister-elect Zapatero has promised, “restore magnificent relations with France and Germany.”

The entire argument being advanced by many right-of-center thinkers seems foolish and petulant to us. The Spanish people were overwhelmingly oppposed to the American war all along. This was their first opportunity to say so at the ballot box. Furthermore, the Aznar administration's dissembling in the wake of the bombings seems to only have infuriated the voters more. (The incumbent government is accused of rushing to place blame on Basque separatist group ETA, even though evidence existed at the time that it may have been Al Quaeda, or a similar fundementalist Islamic terrorist group).

To our mind, the ETA smokescreen only further proves the plain fact that the Spanish people were unhappy with being drawn into an ill-advised American-led conflict. They support their government when it cracks the axe-handle down on the home-grown thugs (ETA), whom they know and fear, so clearly they have no problem with the concept of "getting tough on terror." Spanish voters simply disagree, as many Americans do, that the ill-fated war in Iraq, which celebrated its' one-year anniversary this week, has done anything to halt the spread of terrorism in any way.

In other news, would-be spoiler John McCain, who may or may not be running for vice-president on the Democratic ticket, waxed effusive over Kerry, saying "I think that John Kerry is a good and decent man. I think he has served his country." McCain also denounced the "negativism" of the campaign thus far. Rove is probably regretting those Campaign 2000 South Carolina ads right about now. What goes around comes around, as they say.

Well, forgive us our ranting today, kind readers. We will endeavor to compose ourselves by Monday.

4:04 pm | Washington DC

'Darker Days' Edition

We pause today, our footsteps made uncertain by a heavy, electrical taste in the air, a sudden and sickening drop in the pressure. We scent violence on the wind, dear readers, a ruinous storm of hate and ill-humor lashing the burnt earth...

:: ROVE WATCH ::

The Beast shall reveal itself, and it shall be many-horned and it shall eat with a hundred mouths. In a related note, the AP reports the latest word from White House Minister of Disinformation Karl Rove:

White House political chief Karl Rove said Wednesday that President Bush had just begun to demonstrate the kind of targeted, multi-front campaign he plans against Democratic rival John Kerry.

Our man Rove appeared at some sort of event addressing conservative activists, the nature of which the AP left vague. His signature themes of brutality and fear were on display, however:

[Rove] also said the gay marriage issue is beginning to help Bush, because polls are starting to shift in Bush's direction, with more people opposed to same-sex unions. But Rove implored the activists to add their voices to Bush's call for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to ensure that Bush is not perceived as standing alone on the issue.

And he expressed irritation that some disgruntled Republicans in Congress and elsewhere have increasingly chosen to go to the news media to air their complaints, rather than bringing them directly to the White House.

We are not certain which Republicans are implicated by that statement, but we would not like to be in their shoes come nightfall. We advise Senator Hagel to stay in crowded, well-lit places until further notice.

And alert reader James Johnson wrote to us last night, expressing his own fears as to the depths to which the goat-footed and bile-tongued Rove will sink:

The recent bombings in Spain, apparently carried out by Al Quaeda, had a significant impact on Spain's election. Which makes me wonder, at the risk of sounding perverse, if there were a similar attack in the United States, just before the election, would it benefit Mr. Bush or Mr. Kerry? (We will assume for this question that only super magic pixies would make Nader's run anything more than a moronic vanity campaign).

I believe that the American psyche is such that a similar attack would have the exact opposite effect, and could possibly catapult Cowboy George right over Kerry's head. But I fear that the terrorists don't know this. Or that Karl Rove does know this, and may orchestrate his own "terrorist" attack.

Strong words and darksome, fearful thoughts from the front lines. We await the outrage of our less-paranoid readers, or, possibly, a chorus of mute nods of agreement.

And, while we are knee-deep in the darker waters of the human heart, we bring your attention to the community of Rhea County, Tennessee, where local elected officials are attempting to get out in front of this whole "gay marriage" issue by banning gay people altogether. Fox News reports:

Rhea County commissioners unanimously voted to ask state lawmakers to introduce legislation amending Tennessee's criminal code so the county can charge homosexuals with crimes against nature.

"We need to keep them out of here," said Commissioner J.C. Fugate, who introduced the motion.

County Attorney Gary Fritts also was asked by Fugate to find the best way to enact a local law banning homosexuals from living in Rhea County.

We do not entirely share the belief of some of our readers that Americans are reactive, dogmatic and easily-swayed to the far side of hate and fear. We are left ill-at-heart by this story, and we hope perhaps it is a hoax of some kind.

The problem we have, frequently, with many of our friends and political heroes on the left is their willingness to cede the symbolic high ground to the forces of darkness. (By which we mean NOT Republicans, libertarians, social conservatives, or even right-wingers in general, but those fringe elements, present on both sides of the spectrum, who resort to dehumanization).

The worst representatives of the far right (John Ashcroft springs to mind, as does our friend Mr. Rove), are not patriots. These people hate America. They hate what it stands for, so they pretend it stands for something else. We are not big flag-wavers, here at the BWA Campaign Blog, but we believe it to be a symbol of good and true things, by and large, and it irks us to see it pinned to the lapels of our president and his band of thugs and witch-hunters.

We await the reaction of the people of Rhea County to this stain on their name.

12:09 pm | Washington DC

We may have spoken too soon when we dismissed Ralph Nader's candidacy as drunken madness, unlikley to draw enough votes to affect the outcome in any meaningful way. A new poll shows Nader drawing as much as 7% of the vote off of Kerry in Pennsylvania, which the alert reader will recall is an enormous and pivotal state.

Election 2004 (Quinnipiac University )
Bush: 44%
Kerry: 40%
Nader: 7%

(It's pronounced "KWIN uh-pe-ack," by the way).

In yesterday's Washington Post, David Broder (no bleeding heart) gave a well-deserved shout-out to Barney Frank, who continues to have the temerity to suggest that perhaps America's domestic and economic policies should be fashioned in such a way as to give some small comfort and help to the poor, the sick, the down-hearted and the weary, considering the staggering, often-embarassing piles of money many of us are sitting on. For our part, we are enraged by such weak-livered thinking, and we suggest that Justice Department hounds be unleashed immediately, assuming such thoughts violate a portion of the Patriot Act.

And in the 'Let It Go' Department, Senator Joe Biden went on Hardball yesterday to talk up a Kerry-McCain ticket. Yeah, we liked McCain too. All moderate, slightly left-of-center Democrats who secretly despise the DLC do. It's in our charter. But he's a Republican senator. He actually ran for the Republican nomination four years ago. Remember? We even went to a rally in Alexandria. Mostly for the free hot dogs, it should be admitted. But still. Where is this nonsense going?

3:39 pm | Washington DC

The numbers are swinging back toward the president this week, although, as we have maintained, these sorts of things are ephemeral and dreamlike this far from the election, like fever-dreams, or French silent films. A new CBS poll has Bush edging up over Kerry (though still within the margin of error):

Election 2004 (CBS / New York Times)
Bush: 46%
Kerry: 43%

(The CBS poll is a good one. There's a lot of break-out data on voter preferences and that sort of thing. We recommend it, if you like numbers.)

Alert reader Jason Korzen steered us toward this piece by Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post's gadabout media critic (who we were much fonder of before he started showing up on CNN every ten minutes), on Howard Stern's virulent onslaught of criticism against the Bush administration.

"Stern had strongly backed Bush's war on Iraq, but in the past two weeks, he has derided the president as a 'Jesus freak,' a 'maniac' and 'an arrogant bastard,' while ranting against 'the Christian right minority that has taken over the White House.' Specifically, Stern has assailed Bush's use of 9/11 images in his campaign ads, questioned his National Guard service, condemned his decision to curb stem cell research and labeled him an enemy of civil liberties, abortion rights and gay rights.

Mr. Korzen was heartened by this development:

I'm not a big fan of Howard Stern at all. But I love that he's going after Bush like this and possibly making some new voters out of his fan base. It would be really amazing (and maybe ironic) if he made a significant impact in the election.

We are forced to agree with this assessment, as vile and repugnant as we find Howard Stern. It's possible that coalition politics works perfectly well within a two-party system after all. Unrepentant left-wingers, let us have it for that one.

11:52 am | Washington DC

The week in politics is off to a heady start. Kerry has the nomination officially locked up, as opposed to just actually locked up; new numbers out from several reputable polls have Bush down slightly, which promises a brighter future for the children of the world at best, and a meaner race at worst; the Rev. Al Sharpton, rabble-rouser, demogogue and close personal friend of the BWA Campaign Blog, appears to be bowing out of the nomination contest; and Barbara Bush told Time magazine she thinks her son's campaign is a damn mess. We are almost in good spirits over all this.

However, apparently we are in the minority with our belief that those Bush ads featuring 9/11 footage were not a big deal. There's an NAES poll showing that people are unhappy about it. Maybe that's just reaction to the Democrat's fairly aggressive spinning of the issue. Well, to hell with them. If they can't take the heat, they shouldn't play the game.

Our man Howard Dean is back in the news today too, proving to the party bosses that he can play defense for the home team by singing Kerry's praises. See? He's sorry he mounted a populist insurgency and raised mind-boggling amounts of money from small donors. Now offer him a Cabinet post or something. How about HHS? No one pays any attention to them anyway.

That's all we've got this morning. Keep your eyes on the prize, alert readers.

3:52 pm | Washington DC

Hard to concentrate today. Is anyone still out there? We suspect not. Well, they'll all be back by August. We will keep the fire burning at the BWA Campaign Blog. Don't say we never did anything for you.

New numbers out from the American Research Group. We hope Kerry isn't getting too fat and lazy from all these glowing polls:

Election 2004 (AMG)
Kerry: 50%
Bush: 43%

We know, we know, this doesn't mean much. However, one can only assume the tight-lipped unpleasantness this sort of thing is causing over at Karl Rove's office. Speaking of which...

:: ROVE WATCH ::

It seems our favorite half-human/half-rattlesnake hybrid will soon be featured on the silver screen. The AP reports:

Hence the presence of "Bush's Brain," making its world premiere Saturday night. The documentary is based on the 2003 book of the same name by veteran Texas journalists Wayne Slater and Jim Moore, which depicts Rove as the most powerful political consultant in American history and, in essence, a co-president.

"I knew the moment I met (Rove) back in the late '70s that he was different," said Moore, a former television correspondent who has covered Bush since his unsuccessful run for Congress in 1978. "He was unbelievably intelligent but he seemed to be different in a way. ... Every time I've been asked to describe Karl, I say there's a darkness in him that other people don't have."

Rove was interviewed for the book but declined repeated requests to take part in the film. He also declined to return calls for comment on the film from The Associated Press.

Be careful where you tread, Mr. Moore. You have looked into the eyes of the dragon, and it may have marked your scent.

10:55 am | Washington DC

Scorched Earth Edition

The air is thick with the smell of fear this morning, and there is a heavy, greenish fluid leaking out of the south gate of the White House...

:: ROVE WATCH ::

The Bush campaign unveiled its first negative attack ads today, abandoning all pretense of using the time-honored 'Imperial President' election strategy so beloved by the Republicans. The AP reports:

The toughest of the two new ads names Kerry and claims he would raise taxes by $900 billion and "delay defending America." The other makes a veiled reference to Kerry when Bush says: "We can go forward with confidence, resolve and hope. Or we can turn back to the dangerous illusions that terrorists are not plotting and outlaw regimes are no threat."

That's fair. We do recall Kerry saying that in the last debate with Edwards. "Terrorists are not plotting," Kerry said, pounding his fist woodenly. "Outlaw regimes are no threat."

The Mark of Rove is on this ad as clearly as a brand on a sick hog. The aim is not to drive Bush's positive numbers up, but to drive Kerry's negative numbers down. We'll end up voting for the man we've all grown to hate the least come November. Good times, good times...

12:31 pm | Washington DC

Kerry is catching some flak today for referring to his Republican opponents as a band of crooks and liars (see yesterday's post. -Ed.). He seems to be backing off this bold statement a little, saying he was referring to Republican operatives, and not the Bush administration per se, but we say what the hell. Let them have it, sir. Call it as you see it. The people will reward you.

Speaking of the outspoken, Howard Dean issued a fairly bland and uninteresting statement on his meeting with Kerry yesterday:

John Kerry and I had a very good meeting today. During the campaign we often focused on what divided us, but the truth is we have much more in common beginning with our fervent desire to send George Bush back to Crawford, Texas in November. The future of our country depends on this.

We were hoping for some more brimstone out of the doctor, if not a VP announcement. Maybe he's winding up for something good down the stretch.

And speaking of the VP slot, John McCain dashed the hopes of starstruck left-wingers everywhere by more-or-less retracting his somewhat bizarre suggestion that he might consider the job, if it were offered to him. That leaves just Hillary Clinton, Max Cleland, Bob Graham, John Edwards, and pretty much every past-or-present Democratic Senator south of the Mason-Dixon line.

Rounding out this morning's offerings, NBC has a new poll showing Kerry and Bush neck and neck. This is in line with a recent AP poll, but sharply divergent from a CNN/Gallup poll showing Kerry well ahead. Why are these numbers all over the place? Is this bad polling? Is it Nader's fault? Something must be at the bottom of of it. We'll get back to you.

4:31 pm | Washington DC

'Reach Down and Find a Pair' Edition

Kerry, possibly emboldened by his meeting with Howard Dean, came out swinging today, referring to his Republican critics as crooks and liars. The AP reports the presumptive nominee's fighting words:

"Let me tell you, we've just begun to fight. We're going to keep pounding. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen. It's scary."

Well, a sense of combativeness and a willingness to call people liars is what endeared us to Dean in the first place, so we applaud this development. Maybe now we can stop secretly pining for Dean to snag the VP slot.

Speaking of which, alert reader Kevin Fanning sent us this story raising the exceedingly faint specter of a Kerry-McCain ticket. "For some reason this is oddly titilating to me," Mr. Fanning remarked.

"Kerry-McCain: An Oddly Titilating Choice for America!"

That would spell a king-hell monster horse-beating for the president, though. We once attended a McCain rally, the last time he hit the field, and we can attest to the fact that the hot dogs were excellent. Aside from those two factors, we can think of little else to recommend it.

11:45 am | Washington DC

Today is heavy with portent here in Washington, as a gray, unpleasant snow falls on the federal city and John Kerry comes into town to meet with Howard Dean. We hope that means something, although we are at a loss as to what it might mean.

USA Today has a new Gallup poll showing that Americans are more polarized in their views of the President than at any time in recent history:

Unsurprisingly, the answers split sharply by party. Overall, 77% of Democrats said Bush had done something to make them angry; 87% of Republicans said he had done something to please them or make them enthusiastic.

So some of us hate the president, and some of us love the president. We suspect the average BWA Campaign Blog reader falls more squarely into the former camp, but we try to offer a big tent. For instance, we think Paul Begala is kind of a goof.

And speaking of Democrats we dislike, the bizarre and often-reprehensible Dick Morris explains why Hillary Clinton must get the VP nomination if she ever wants to be president. Morris is often right, which makes him even more annoying, but we think he is full of beans on this one. We are still unable to muster much excitement over the so-called "veepstakes," but it's the only horse-race game left in town. BWA's money is still on Max Cleland, but we never win our bets.

And, in the 'blogosphere' department, the Columbia Journalism Review notes that while there are many political blogs out there, they are almost all run by boys. We would resent such an observation, if we did not resemble it so strongly. One exception of note is, of course, the cheeky and ever-popular Wonkette, upon whose editor this blog has a huge and life-threatening crush. However, we understand she is married. Alas.

Well, we appear to have run somewhat adrift of our usual sharp-tongued analysis. We will return when we have composed ourselves.

6:33 pm | Washington DC

Never one to rest on our laurels, even on a slow news day, the BWA Campaign Blog is proud to bring you an insider's view of the Kerry campaign, which we received today from alert reader Jacob Wascalus.

(Note to media: If reprinting part or all of this transcript, please refer to Mr. Wascalus as a "senior official with the Kerry campaign" for attribution purposes.)

I fulfilled my duty to the Democratic party today by making good on my promise to call regestered Louisiana Democrats and remind them that today is the presidential primary.

This is what the official John "I'm-Want-Your-Support-to-Humiliate-My-Opponents Kerry script directed me to say:

"Hi, is ______ there? Hi, ________. This is Jacob Wascalus. I'm a volunteer for the John Kerry Campaign calling people to remind them about today's Presidential Primary. How are you?"

I then go on to ask them whether they will vote today and whether "we can count on their support for John Kerry."

Of the 30 or so people I called, only three said yes; the rest were either not home, lied to me that I had the wrong number, or were unable to be reached (disconnected numbers and such).

I hated the experience. For 45 minutes I stumbled through phone call after phone call, never quite grasping the casual speaking voice most *paid* telemarketers lack. And worst of all, while trying to be "friendly" I offended an elderly woman by addressing her not by her last name but by her first.

This was our conversation (subject's name has been changed for confidentiality):

Me: "Hi, is Elaine there?"
Her: "Well, um, who is this?"
Me: My name is Jacob Wascalus and I'm calling from the John Kerry Campaign to remind people that today is the day of the Presidential Primary.
Her: "Do you know me? I don't think you know me."
Me: "No, ma'am, I don't-"
Her: "-because I don't think you should be calling me by my first name. You don't know me. Why did you call me by my first name?"
Me: "Well, I suppose I was just . . . trying . . . to sound more familiar."
Her: You should never do that. You don't know me. You should address me by my last name. You should call me Ms. Banks or Mrs. Banks or . . . I don't think it's right or respectful for you call me by my first name."
Me: "I'm sorry, you're right. I was just calling to remind you about the primary. That's all. And to see whether we . . . that is, John Kerry's campaign can count on your vote."
Her: "Yes. Goodbye."

Only at the BWA Campaign Blog do we offer such penetrating insights into the inner workings of the vast political machinery. It's kind of like a visit to the sausage factory.

1:18 pm | Washington DC

'Superfluous Tuesday' Edition

We are back, easily-frightened readers. Did you miss us?

Heartening news for those of you who wish to see the President defeated in November, and his dark-hearted minions driven into the snow. USA Today has a new poll that puts Kerry well ahead of Bush, with Nader drawing a paltry 2% away from Kerry. (These numbers diverge sharply from a recent AP poll that showed Nader with 6%, so draw your own conclusions).

Election 2004 (USA Today / CNN / Gallup)

Kerry: 52%
Bush: 44%
Nader: 2%

Not much else raising our hackles today out in the fields. Send any confusing or alarming news our way.

4:34 pm | Washington DC

We apologize for our earlier remarks about American Samoa. Just a touch of black-nailed blog humor.

We have nothing new to either report or opine about, so we will leave you with another installment of:

:: ROVE WATCH ::

White House Minister of Lies and Treachery Karl Rove has not been heard from in weeks, as he lays, coiled in a rich, throbbing bed of his own darkness, plotting the ruin and downfall of the American spirit. However, with Democratic nomination process all over but the shouting, we have begun to sense his presence in between the lines of news stories on page A16.

Scott Lindlaw of the AP targeted Rove's physical location for concerned readers:

Ground zero at the White House is a second-floor office in the West Wing. Here, Karl Rove, Bush's chief strategist, keeps a sharp watch on politics, taking the nation's pulse in telephone calls with operatives across the country.

Rove is just upstairs from the Oval Office, so Bush does not have to directly steer the political ship. "Karl exists so Bush doesn't have to," one former White House official said.

Keep your ears open for the telltale rattling sound, especially around the recent Bush campaign ads, and the gay marriage issue. That last one, in particular, is right up Rove's alley:

"Instead of a wedge issue, this is the brand of politics that Democrats just rejected in their primaries. Howard Dean lectured in his stump speeches that Democrats needed to crank up their true-believing base rather than woo the mushy middle. He often pointed out that this was Karl Rove's strategy. 'There is no middle!' Rove famously told The New Yorker last year.

Speaking to reporters early in Bush's term, Rove argued that the biggest problem in 2000 was not that mushy moderates abandoned Bush, but that four million white evangelical protestants stayed home. Bush isn't trying to peal off conservative Democrats so much as he's trying to rev up his base."

(Howard Kurtz, Washington Post, Feb. 26)

That's all out of us for the weekend. We hope to continue our efforts, but it is always possible that Rove will come for us, sending his jack-booted goons through the dark streets of Washington, laden with blowguns and hollow-tip ammunition. If you don't hear from us, dear readers, take up the torch from our failing hands. Remember, stay off the main roads, and if you cut through streams, the hounds may lose your scent.

1:38 pm | Washington DC

It's a dreary Saturday in the federal city. The rain is coming down like a bastard, and it has put us in a dark and vengeful humor, here at the BWA Campaign Blog.

Our first piece of news does little to lighten the mood. A new poll shows Kerry and Bush tied among likely voters. We had been paying very little attention to the "Kerry is up over Bush!" numbers that the lefties were waving around, so such fluctuations come as no surprise to us. What does trouble our thoughts, however, is the significant showing by Ralph Nader in these polls.

Election 2004 (Associated Press)

Bush: 46%
Kerry: 45%
Nader: 6%

Don't make us rant at you, Mr. Nader. Don't bring the wrath of the blogosphere down on your graying, foolish head. We destroyed Trent Lott, after all. We almost got Dean nominated, but we overslept, or something like that. No one really knows.

The Associated Press charts the numbers from the last time Nader got all up in it:

Since Nader entered the race Feb. 22, campaign strategists and political analysts have been trying to assess the impact of another presidential bid by the consumer activist, whom some Democrats blame for Al Gore's loss in 2000.

Four years ago, Nader appeared on the ballot in 43 states and Washington, D.C., garnering only 2.7 percent of the vote. But in Florida and New Hampshire, Bush won such narrow victories that had Gore received the bulk of Nader's votes in those states, he would have won the electoral vote in addition to the general election.

Exit polls from 2000 show that about half of Nader's voters would have backed Gore in a two-way race. Nader dismisses the spoiler label.

While Nader's support in the AP-Ipsos poll was 6 percent, his backing in polls in 2000 fluctuated in the single digits -- often at about 4 percent, but sometimes higher. This year, Nader is unlikely to get the Green Party nod and faces a stiff challenge in getting his name on the ballot in 50 states.

In less-heated news, the so-called "veepstakes" (who will Kerry choose to round out his ticket?) continue unabated, as the Washinton press corps HATES to go scare up some real news. "I wonder if these new numbers on job growth are having a real effect on heartland voters and their view of the coming election?" "Yeah, but who cares? Let's file a bunch of copy about Bob Graham and go have lunch at the Press Club and show off our hats."

Since we are a largely whimsical enterprise with very little entreprenuerial reporting capacity, we are forced to swallow this weak-hearted gibberish, but we are not required to like it. Still, here's a Congressional Quarterly piece on a possible VP slot for Hillary Clinton:

Of all the Kerry running mates under consideration, Clinton is the only one who can help Kerry quickly raise the mind-boggling amount of money he needs.

Her extreme popularity among the Democratic base makes her an enticing choice. Sure, Kerry has secured the nomination with relative ease, but there are lingering doubts that he was just a default choice in a weak field. Democratic voters are quite passionate about defeating Bush, but they are not yet beating their chests for Kerry.

With Clinton on board, Kerry would guarantee an energized Democratic base for this long campaign. He would be free to concentrate on persuading swing voters who are less eager to replace Bush.

Well, that's all we've got today. The sun seems to be breaking through the clouds a little. Don't forget, tomorrow is the American Samoa primary, an event widely-considered to be the defining moment in any major election cycle.

2:19 pm | Washington DC

Lots of ugly things floating up through the murk this week. Attack ads, vicious rumors, knives in the dark. We will try to stay above the fray, though some of our readership scent the iron taste of fear in the wind. Alert reader Cheryl Huber goaded us earlier:

Aren't ya gonna talk about Bush's 9-11 campaign ads on your campaign blog? There's clearly nothing to say about the Democrats, but we can still harp on how much Bush sucks.

For those of you that missed it, the President is running ads in political battleground states using images from 9/11. The Detroit News has a good news summary:

The Bush campaign began broadcasting four ads Thursday in 17 states -- including Michigan -- that are expected to be battlegrounds in November. One ad shows the smoldering wreckage of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, with a flag flying in the rubble. Another ad shows firefighters carrying a flag-draped stretcher. The International Association of Fire Fighters, which is backing Kerry, denounced the ads and demanded Bush pull them.

The ads brought several victims' relatives to tears and triggered angry charges that Bush was exploiting others' misery for political gain.

While we are pleased at anything that creates "negative trending" in the President's approval numbers, we find this particular issue to be somewhat manufactured by the Democrats. We understand if the families of 9-11 victims find the ad to be distasteful, and those people certainly occupy a moral high ground that we are not anxious to quarrel with. But we think Bush has a right to present images of something of such historic magnitude, since it did happen on his watch, and he and his people feel his handling of the fallout from that day reflects well on his leadership. Feel free to write in and share your thoughts on this issue.

Also, alert reader Jenny Miller reacted with violent disdain to yesterday's item about Dick Morris and the failure of the Democratic primaries:

F*** Dick Morris. What in the hay is he talking about, anyway? We won with Clinton, who was ONE candidate. You call that a trend? Dukakis and Mondale liberal extremists? You can't compare Kerry to Mondale and Dukakis as candidates, anyway, and you can't compare then to now. Times have changed, Dick. There IS no winning Democratic paradigm, that's why we're working on making one.

A new AP poll has Nader registering at 6 percent. We pray this represents nothing more than spring fever and youthful hijinks on the part of the electorate. Remember the war? Surely you remember the war? We went and had a war. It was all over the news...

The only "inside baseball" issue going in this week is the question of who Kerry will pick for the VP slot. The smart money appears to be on Bob Graham or Bill Richardson, although we are holding out for Max Cleland, because he is a tough old bird with no legs and only one arm, and he was brutally savaged and maligned by the cancerous Karl Rove and his gutless band of soiled traitors, and driven from his Senate seat. Cleland's return to Washington just in time to watch Bush and his vile coterie of hatchet-men depart the city would do wonders for our sense of patriotism.

And, wrapping things up, we are always pleased to to present news of the blogosphere, such as this Kennedy School of Government Report entitled "Big Media Meets the Bloggers." Apparently we brought down Trent Lott. Good for us. The man is marinated in hate, and his political demise brought nothing but satisfaction to us.

4:11 pm | Washington DC

The general election appears to have gotten underway this week, without so much as a parade. The newest numbers (that we could find) have Kerry up over Bush, but we suspect that is largely meaningless.

Who Do You Love? (Pew Research Center)

Kerry: 48%
Bush: 44%

And, speaking of the general election, the infamous and notoriously bizarre former Clinton strategist Dick Morris has nothing but predictions of gloom and defeat for the Democrats:

The Democratic Party chose a nominee Tuesday who probably cannot win the White House in November.

In opting for Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and turning down Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Democrats have broken from the pragmatism and moderation that dominated their party’s profile under Bill Clinton and Al Gore in the 1990s.

Their party has now moved back to the liberal extremism of Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis that characterized the 1980s — with the same predictable result.

Morris also presented a three-part strategy explaining how Bush can humiliate and destory Kerry, including bulldog attack ads and an increase in efforts to sow fear and hatred among Americna voters. Thanks, Dick. We needed that.

And here's a good piece by Eric Shumsky from last Sunday's Washington Post, explaining the legal nuts and bolts behind the "Federal Marriage Amendment."

Not a lot in the cards today. We meant to update this site earlier, but we were flummoxed by a sudden and unintentional purge of EVERY SINGLE FILE on our computer by a well-meaning computer guy. Now we have new anti-virus software, and not a lot else.

12:14 pm | Washington DC

We are in a thoughtful, melancholy humor here today at Bears Will Attack. On the one hand, the primary season ended yesterday with Kerry's massive, unstoppable beating of Edwards, and there is nothing interesting left to talk about. On the other hand, there is a gut-deep undercurrent of unhappiness with the current administration among middle-of-the-road Democratic and independent voters, if you believe the exit polls. Given our belief that the current administration is a deep moral sewer bent on the reckless, hate-filled ruin of the American dream, this is somewhat satisfying to us.

Senator John Edwards officially left the race, or will this afternoon. We will miss his sweet-talkin' ways, his sunny disposition, his chicken-fried good manners and his reassuring brown hair. We will meet you again in 2012, good Senator. Or possibly much sooner, as HHS Secretary. Who can say?

Last night the voters in Vermont handed Howard Dean his first official primary victory (it was too late to get his name off the ballots, apparently). That made us miss him all over again. What does that tell you about the man? The people from that state elected him five times to the governor's office, and when he left them to go run for President, they all went out and voted for him AFTER HE QUIT RUNNING, just to show the whole country that they were still behind their old governor. How many politicians today can command a bloody-minded show of loyalty like that after serving in office for ten years?

Clearly, we are still a little hung up.

And speaking of the late, lamented Dean campaign, there was a great article by Howard Kurtz in Sunday's Washington Post about infighting, treachery, hurt feelings and general weirdness onboard the campaign. The media gentry have already dissected this piece and moved on, but we only just got around to reading it last night. These Robert Kaplan books are killing us.

Moving onward, in the true frontier spirit that makes this country both great and foolhardy, we are feeling somewhat chagrined by this article by Matt Taibbi on Dennis Kucinich, and the disdain shown for him by the respectable media:

I will never forgive America for what Dennis Kucinich went through this year. Because he has had the audacity to call for an end to all wars, to announce plans for the creation of a Department of Peace, to question the very culture of viciousness and intolerance and crass commercialism that rules our public discourse, he has been labeled a lunatic by nearly every "responsible" press organ in this country and cruelly mocked to a degree that no civil society should allow an honorable man to endure.

Clearly, the BWA Campaign Blog is NOT a serious outlet of the national news media, as we are a smart-aleck blog with a readership high of less than 500 people. Still, we made a few snide remarks at Kucinich's expense, and we feel like a jerk for doing so. To hell with establishmentarianism. Do not go gentle into that good night, Mr. Kucinich. Take your somewhat humorous appearance, your earnest constituency and your progressive ideals all the way to the convention, and give Terry McAulliffe and his weak-hearted band of sycophants the king-hell cane-beating they so richly deserve.

And since we are in such a left-wing, rabble-rousing mood today, we close out this post with a transcript of an online discussion with the always-delightful, sharp-tongued Rep. Barney Frank on the gay marriage issue. (This link brought to you by 'Deep Pockets,' our newest secret source).

Keep your ears to the ground, conflicted patriots. When the last days come, we will see visions, but for now, there is work to be done.

6:33 pm | Washington DC

The shroud is coming down on our boy Edwards. It looks like a super-sized Kerry blow-out as far as the eye can see.

Early exit poll results (National Journal)

Kerry up 11 in Georgia
Kerry up 25 in Ohio
Kerry up 38 in Maryland

Ryan Lizza of the New Republic had some good thoughts on the cratering defeat of the good ship Edwards. We share this sense of defeat, here at the BWA Campaign Blog. What are we going to blog about for the next three months? The weather?

11:52 am | Washington DC

Super Tuesday Edition

or 'The End of all Things and the Inexorable Coming of Spring'

Today is Super Tuesday, but there is no joy in it for the numbers-men. Maybe Edwards will beat the spread in Georgia, and a few of us can win our side bets.

Alert reader Kevin Fanning checked in this morning with his thoughts on the the forgone-ness of it all:

I'm told today is "Super Tuesday" and that in all likelihood the Edwards campaign will grind to a halt sometime tomorrow.

I live in the state of Illinois. Our primary is going to be held on March 17th. Will there be anyone left to vote for at that point? What should I do? Should I even bother? Maybe I should just go for a walk outside instead of exercising my right to vote. I feel so hopeless about the whole thing. I was all jazzed to vote for Clark, but he gave up months ago, and now Kerry is a foregone conclusion. How to proceed?

We in Illinois are hard-pressed to figure out what our role in this grand drama is.

We have no words to give heart to Mr. Fanning. The hatefully front-loaded primary schedule, the spectacular crash of Howard Dean, the fizzle of the Clark campaign, and now the last airless gasps of John Edwards, all have conspired to rob the spring of any meaningful political content. We await only the coming storm. It will be a violent and nervous summer.

In the continuing gay marriage department, some gay Republicans are deserting the grim-keeled ship of state, including Washington DC city councilman David Catania, our neighbor, more or less. And, apparently, the president hugged a transsexual, although he may have been unhappy about it.

To wrap things up, alert reader Jonathan Roth brought our attention to this Slate article explaining how Kerry will win the nomination "despite the fact that most Democratic voters know little about him and don't like him very much."

Remember, if it doesn't hurt, it doesn't count.

12:55 pm | Washington DC

Welcome to March, alert readers. May it treat us kinder than February.

There are new numbers out for Georgia, Ohio and Maryland, and even though Edwards seemed to be hanging on at one point, those hopes have proved fragile, elusive and dreamlike, disintegrating like soap bubbles in the hard wind of truth. We've seen it before, Senator. These things happen.

Scuttlebutt (or conventional wisdom, if you prefer) has it that tomorrow's Super Tuesday primaries (ten states are up for grabs) will sound the death knell for the Edwards campaign, and even the VP slot is fading from his reach. We wish him well, should he not live to see the dawn. As one BWA Campaign Blog reader remarked last week, he is handsome, and he talks like a reb. Would that that were enough.

In gay marriage news, Politics1.com has an article today explaining that enough Senators have gone on record against a constitutional amendment that the idea is dead in the water. We were surprised by some of the names on the list, such as George Allen, the former redneck governor of Virginia, who was the only conservative Republican listed. There's hope for the Old Dominion yet.