Blagojevich's choice of Burris "is emblematic of the old-school, pay-to-play culture that has plagued Illinois for generations and this appointment is another embarrassment for the people of Illinois," said Illinois GOP Chairman Andy McKenna.

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) laid the blame for the current problems in Illinois at Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (Nev.) feet.

"Senator Reid and the Democratic leadership in Washington and Springfield decided to play politics with this Senate seat and unfortunately, the people of Illinois are now paying the price," said Cornyn.
+++++++
Burris will be seated because the Senate Democrats and Harry Reid have no legal authority to bar him.

Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, standing beside a damaged yacht, Tuesday accused the Israeli navy of ramming the vessel to halt the delivery of medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip.
++++++
Israel showed McKinney, now didn't they?

But Supreme Court precedent suggests "no": The Court held in Powell v. McCormack (1969), that "in judging the qualifications of its members Congress is limited to the standing qualifications prescribed in the Constitution," such as age and citizenship. Now perhaps the Senators are right and the Court was wrong, and perhaps today's Court would overrule Powell. But at least at this point, Powell seems to make clear that under Article I, Section 5 the Senate may determine whether the Senator should be seated solely based on the objective qualifications that the Constitution prescribes, and not based on its judgment whether Gov. Blagojevich ought to be entitled to make the appointment.
+++++++
If Reid et al proceed to exclude Roland Burris from the Senate there will a challenge before the US Supreme Court.

Washington lobbyist Vicki L. Iseman has filed a $27 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times for a February article about Iseman and her relationship with Sen. John McCain.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond on Tuesday, alleges the article falsely communicated that Iseman and McCain had an illicit “romantic” relationship in 1999 when he was chair of the Senate Commerce Committee and she was a lobbyist representing clients before Congress.

The suit also names the executive editor of the Times, its Washington bureau chief and four reporters who wrote the story as defendants.

William Keller, the paper’s executive editor, did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment on the suit.
++++++
The New York Times will pay out over this one.

Mayor Bloomberg's top political aide is pulling back on his lobbying campaign to propel Caroline Kennedy into the U.S. Senate because "it wasn't working," according to sources.

"Everything was backfiring," said one source of the intense behind-the-scenes effort by Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey.

"He's not out front any more."
+++++++++
Caroline Kennedy has sunk her own ship. Back to the rich lifestyle…..

The former U.S. special envoy to the Middle East said Tuesday that President-elect Barack Obama should engage with Hamas under certain conditions, and sooner rather than later.
++++++
So far, Obama has played golf and refused to committ on the Israeli War on Hamas. Is Obama lazy or just supporting Israel?

Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, gave birth on Sunday to a healthy 7 lb., 4 oz., baby boy in Palmer, Alaska.

"We think it's wonderful," said Colleen Jones, the sister of Bristol's grandmother Sally Heath, who confirmed the news. "The baby is fine and Bristol is doing well. Everyone is excited."

The baby's name is Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, according to Jones.

Baby Tripp takes his surname from his dad, Levi Johnston, an apprentice electrician and former Wasilla High School hockey player who has been dating Bristol for three years.

One thing Caroline Kennedy would bring to Washington: A new, distinctive Kennedy verbal tic: She said "you know" 138 times in her Times interview.

The day's other Kennedy read: A more personal interview with the Post, in which she says, among other things, that President-elect Obama had been "encouraging" of her run.
+++++++
And, they criticized Sarah Palin….. oh my.

In the beginning, just three long weeks ago, the idea of Caroline Kennedy being a United States senator had a certain ring to it. The Camelot myth still has shelf life and a merger with the historic Obama presidency provided an intriguing story line.
But a strange thing is happening on the way to the coronation. The wheels of the bandwagon are coming off. Fantasy is giving way to inescapable truth.

That truth is that Kennedy is not ready for the job and doesn't deserve it. Somebody who loves her should tell her.

Her quest is becoming a cringe-inducing experience, as painful to watch as it must be to endure. Because she is the only survivor of that dreamy time nearly 50 years ago, she remains an iconic figure. But in the last few days, her mini-campaign has proved she has little to offer New Yorkers except her name.
+++++++
NOOOO The Dems should appoint the light weight Caroline. Might she be easier to beat in two years – you know?

Within days of the election I was approached by three people representing three different groups, all of whom wanted my advice on how to proceed on the technology front. My advice was pretty simple:

1. That you have come to me thinking I am a technologist is an indication of the problem;
2. Luckily for you, I have come to recognize my limits, but sadly there are too many others out there who do not recognize their limits and, unfortunately, offer themselves as solutions to our tech problem instead of offering real solutions;
3. If anyone you talk to says you need to duplicate what Obama did, run the other way as fast as possible;
4. When looking for people, choose technologists who are interested in politics, not political guys who learned tech; and,
5. Look outside Washington, D.C.
+++++++
Absoultely agree but now to get the political vendors out of the incessant rebuild the party loop.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) proposed Medicaid reforms are getting a lot of press. Jindal proposes to expand eligibility for Medicaid, enroll Medicaid patients in private managed-care plans, and do other things to improve the quality of care. Writing in The American Spectator, Joseph Lawler says the approach is “market-based” and “could forestall universal health care.”
++++++++
Yep, the Jindahl plan sucks and is a government run porgram plain and simple

The outgoing chair of the RNC, Mike Duncan, said he's “shocked and appalled” by the lyrics, adding: "The 2008 election was a wake-up call for Republicans to reach out and bring more people into our party." The song, Duncan said, "clearly does not move us in the right direction."

Moreover, former House Speaker New Gingrich told the New York Times, “This is so inappropriate that it should disqualify any Republican National Committee candidate who would use it."
+++++++
Chip Saltsman is NOT an entertainer but running to represent the GOP. Bye Bye

Oh, give me a super-sized break.

Leftie ’60s leftover/songwriter Peter Yarrow at the Huffington Post fumes over the “Barack the Magic Negro” parody that has RNC candidate Chip Saltsman in hot water.

All of sudden — after eight years of “F**k Bush” bumper stickers and “Kill Bush” assassination chic and Bush-or-Chimp parodies — the left is concerned about insulting the office of the Presidency?
++++++++
Michelle is both right and wrong. The attacks on Bush and the Right have been unrepentent and disgraceful.
But, Chip Saltsman is NOT Rush Limbaugh and did nothing to support/advance his candidacy with a poor use of a legitimate parody.

A new national poll suggests that men and women don't see eye to eye on the question of whether Caroline Kennedy is qualified to serve as a U.S. senator.

Just over half of all Americans questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday say that Kennedy is qualified to be a senator: 52 percent say she is, and 42 percent disagree.

But the poll also indicates there's a gender gap, with 57 percent of women saying Kennedy is qualified. That number drops to 47 percent among men, with 46 percent of male respondents saying Kennedy is not qualified.
+++++++
Flap says appoint her! The GOP will have a field day with her candidacy in two years.

The Obama team, pledging the ''most open and transparent transition in history,'' gets an ''A'' for disclosing donors to the Jan. 20 inauguration and a ''F'' when it comes to revealing transition meetings with groups. Contrary to its own ''seat at the table transparency policy,'' meetings are not posted on a Web site.
+++++++
Transparency my ass. Obama will only be transparent if it suits his political advantage.

For the first time in party history, members of the Republican National Committee have called their own unscheduled meeting without the aid of the Washington-based party apparatus.

Organized by North Dakota Republican Party chairman Gary Emineth, the meeting will convene for the specific purpose of hosting a forum for candidates running to chair the national committee. Members will meet at an as-of-yet-undecided location in Washington on January 7.

David Axelrod is a campaign and message strategist, not a foreign policy guru or diplomat. Having said that, on Meet the Press yesterday, there was a strange and ominous evasiveness in his inability to say what Obama thought of Israeli warplanes hitting targets in the Gaza Strip:
This is essentially, "we'll tell you what we think on January 20."
+++++++
The policy hole on January 21st will be gapping…..

Barack Obama's election was supposed to signal the end, or at least the diminishment, of the cultural issues that the GOP had feasted on electorally for 30 years. The "wedge issues" of old had been a Republican contrivance anyway, and once freed of them, American politics would be more praiseworthy (and, not coincidentally, more liberal).

This storyline lasted all of a few weeks, as Obama's inaugural ceremony has become embroiled in a nasty cultural spat. In a nice (and shrewd) gesture, Obama invited the evangelical Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation Jan. 20. The ensuing firestorm sheds light on two questions: Is there a real culture war in this country, deeper and more abiding than any one political party's electoral strategy? And who is the aggressor in it? The answers, respectively, are "yes" and "the cultural left."
+++++++
Cultural war wedge issues will spur the New Right forward as the Cultural Left goes on the attack