What's In A Name, Client 9?

Consider this. Eliot Spitzer is now, and forever will be Client 9. He is finished as Governor of New York. I hope for his daughters’ sake his wife is already talking to her attorney. And I hope he doesn’t cost as much as the call girl Spitzer took to D.C. On Valentine’s day!!!??? But I do hope her divorce attorney is a shark.

Clinton is a name that comes to mind in just a case like the Spitzer one. Sleazy sex scandal. Not Hillary, of course, but charming Billy. Not that Bill ever had a taste for the kind of babes who work for The Emperor’s Club, or that he ever paid for it except, after the fact, in lawyers fees fighting law suits. Maybe a settlement or two, but the sleazy sex part, the bad judgement regarding the wants of his little brain, the betrayal of his wife and daughter (in Bill’s case one and in Spitzer’s case, three), the lies, and finally the public apology. That’s classic Clinton. Spitzer called it a “Private Matter,” today in his press conference. Do you get the cognitive dissonance of that construct? Does Mann Act mean anything to you Governor? Your name is soon to be added to the list of famous men prosecuted under the Mann Act. You and Charlie Manson. Nice company you’re keeping these days. And not to leave Republicans out, let's not forget Larry Wide-Stance Craig.

The Emperor Has No Clothes

The Emperors Club (tee hee, snicker snicker) is the name given to the high priced prostitution ring that the FBI has been investigating and has now filed a case on, with an indictment and loads and loads of evidence gathered. Eliot Spitzer, Governor of New York, friend of Hillary’s, and probably Bill’s, is the first big name client to fall. This just might get real interesting as leaks dribble out. The rates these women were getting for their services is staggering. As Chris Matthews just said on Hardball, “More than Washington lawyers!” But just like lawyers these women are doing a dirty and difficult job. And apparently the old boys club of political pundits still think it’s a “victimless crime.” In the words of the late great Molly Ivans, “That’s chicken shit!” I’d posit that Spitzer’s wife and daughters don’t exactly feel that there aren’t victims in all of this.

Does Your Vote Count?

I’ve always wanted us to be a country where every vote counts. Sadly this is not the system we have. Maybe now, with all these first-time voters involved in our Byzantine electoral process, we can get a little electoral reform going. I sure hope so, since as long as I’ve lived in Utah, my vote has not counted in Presidential Elections. This gives a lot of lazy Democrats a reason to stay home on election day. Their rational is, “My vote doesn’t count. Why bother?”

Now the Clinton campaign is saying that the Mountain-West doesn’t count, the South doesn’t count, small States don’t count, New England doesn’t count, the Canadian border States don’t count, because they are either thought to be Red States or have such small populations as to be meaningless in a General Election. Well, I got news for you Senator Clinton, it pisses me off royally to hear you say that the only time my vote really does count—in a primary—is meaningless. I live in Utah, one of the reddest States in the Nation, and Barack won Utah in the Democratic Primary. Turnout was huge and for the first time in my voting life, I thought Utah just might vote Democratic in the General Election, if Obama gets the nomination. Call me naive, but if young people really do stay engaged, we might have a whole new map to call red or blue.

Texas has been a Red State for a long time. Why is Senator Clinton calling her slim lead in the actual vote tally (but not the delegate count) in the Lone Star State more important than his win in Wyoming? More than likely neither state is going to vote Democratic in the General Election, but with Obama’s bottom-up, grassroots organization, he’s got a hell of a better chance to win both those states than Hillary.

Strange Nookie and the Little Brain

Elliot Spitzer, Governor of New York, has just given a news conference admitting his involvement in a high priced prostitution ring. Spitzer used to be Attorney General of New York, and one would assume, prosecuted his fair share of prostitution cases. He is married to a lovely woman and has three daughters. What in God’s name would make such a man behave in such a way?

I’ve been told by male friends of mine that the penis has a mind of its own. A little brain if you will. But a little brain with a mighty influence on the big brain, and a genetic imperative to spread it’s seed. Anthropologists and sociologists have validated this theory—it is a male (little brain) drive to populate the earth with its offspring and so, it is driven to copulate with as many women as possible. I would buy this “imperative” theory if we weren’t already in danger of running out of livable space and resources. And at some point in evolutionary history this seed-spreading behavior becomes dangerous to the survival of the species. So why does the behavior persist? And to get back to the particular, rather than the universal, I don’t personally know any man wanting offspring with any of his strange nookie. So where does this leave us? Back at the cocktail party with someone else’s husband hitting on me, or some other unlucky woman, for no good reason other than his little brain’s doing all the talking. And just so you men know, your little brain isn’t a great conversationalist.

The most famous case of the little brain running the show and strange nookie being the thing it wants most, is the case of one of my favorite past Presidents, William Jefferson Clinton. His behavior is just so damn typical of what can happen when a man lets his little brain do the big brain’s thinking. Maybe the only men who don’t behave this way with strange women are the men who behave this way with strange men. I’m not talking about men who identify themselves as gay or bisexual. I’m talking about the men who identify themselves as straight. They have wives and children to prove their straightness, but they like to have sex with men. Idaho Senator Larry Craig is the best known, currently, of this type of little brain behavior. These are men who risk everything for a little hot man-sex in the public toilets of airports and parks all over America. I live in Utah, and believe me, there are plenty of men who identify with, and feel Larry Craig’s pain, while living in their large Mormon families, their wives cranking out kids year after year, believing themselves straight as the day is long. Do the straight men they cruse feel like strange nookie? I wonder.

Never Having To Say You're Sorry

There should be a learning curve for politicians. And Hillary seems to want to skip the part of the learning curve that requires you acknowledge mistakes and apologizes for them. It’s odd to me that of all the politicians, the Clinton’s should know the value of apology best. It is, after all, the only thing that kept him in office once the lie about Monica had been revealed. Maybe it’s only Bill that learned that one.

Never having to say your sorry is a trait I know. It's the hallmark of a narcissist. I was raised by one. Certified, diagnosed. She was a powerful and brilliant woman. She was a feminist and she was never wrong. Never. If charm didn’t work, she shifted to intellect and the force of her argument. If that didn’t work, she moved it up a notch and bullied you. If all else failed she cried, stomped off and slammed the door. But she was never wrong. The rules where hers, and they shifted all the time. She was moody and mean. I see her behavior in Hillary. Who is this woman? She’s beginning to seem like a blend of John McCain and Dick Chenney—really secretive, stubborn and a hot- head.

Last night I watched Bill Maher. Joe Scarborough was on as a panelist, and said the television news shows are being threatened by the Clinton machine if Hillary thinks they are being unfair to her—that means if they don’t back-off reporting the crap she’s pulling, her surrogates threaten advertisers who threaten producers and news directors. Because she’s refusing to release her tax returns, Barack is being compared to Ken Starr by all her surrogates. Terry McCuliffe was on Maher’s show as a guest, and when Bill asked him a question Terry didn’t like, Terry cut the feed. Stomped off and slammed the door.

Senator Obama, you are going to have to take off that well- tailored jacket, roll up you sleeves, and get a little dirty. Let’s get real blue collar. It’s time to go back to your roots.

It's Time To Take The Kid Gloves Off

Senator Obama, sir. It’s time to let it all hang out. We have sixteen years of well-documented psychodrama from the two “adult” Clinton’s to draw from. Let’s get on with it. You have been restrained and gentlemanly. But now is not the time. Didn’t that creep Wolfeson just compare you to Ken Starr for suggesting that it was time for her to release her tax returns? Well, let’s go real down-and-dirty-Ken Starr. She says she’s been vetted? Not for the past almost eight years. But I’ll bet the babes are going to be coming out of the woodwork with their trophy samples of Bill’s DNA once the press stops cowering at the prospect of taking on the Clinton Machine. Who made the gentlemen’s agreement not to look too carefully at the wanderings of Bill? And why?

I always kind of held it against her that she stood by her man. Oh, I could see it during the time in the White House, but once that was over, off with his head. My god, how much humiliation must we all endure? What kind of example is this to give a daughter? Is accepting his philandering the price you pay to get to use his political capital? That’s some kind of deal with the devil.

But if she’s going to use her experience as First Lady, say somehow that it’s relevant, then her one and only real and valid experience is her attempt to give us universal health care. It was a colossal failure. It set us back. And her penchant for secrecy and her stubbornness played a huge part in the failure. It earned her a reputation as a…….what’s the word I’m searching for????? She was not collegial. I would guess she didn’t play well with other’s as a child.

None of this past experience qualifies her in any way to be President and only exposes her greatest weakness. It is her judgement. Again and again, it is her judgement. She is so cynical that she is counting on chivalry from you, since you are so naive as to offer “hope” and “idealism” to a bunch of “kids." She is willing to get down in the mud. Her image of herself as the first female President is too real, and she has made too many nasty compromises to get there, to give it up, no matter the cost, even if it means John Mc Cain wins this one, even if it means the destruction of the Democratic Party, and then she runs again in four years. So get ready to play dirty.

Eating Your Young

I was a big supporter of the Clintons when Bill was making his bid for the Presidency. They were little known, they were my generation, and both were smart and funny. I loved their wonkishness. She was the first First Lady to occupy the White House who wasn’t just a smiling accessary. I admired Jackie Kennedy, but was there ever a more lovely accessary? Sure, she could speak French and ride well, hunter/jumper style. But she spoke baby- voiced just like Marilyn Monroe, breathy, soft. She did nothing to challenge our notions of what a First Lady should be—maybe she set the bar a little higher, but not much. She did the wifely things, she redecorated, she was a lovely hostess, she took us on a tour of the White House. But she was an old fashioned girl, not a modern woman. Her career was wife, First Lady.

But Hillary and Bill were not that kind of couple. She is the first really modern First Lady. She had a career throughout her adult life. She got the great education just so she could have that career, not so she could marry a politician. Bill claims to have fallen in love with Hillary because she was so damn smart and competent. He has all but admitted that she has the brains in the family. And I believe him. Bill has the charm, Hillary has the brains. And though I loved the Clinton years while I was living them, it is thanks to Charming Billy that we all now have Monica. She’s a little like the elephant in the room. (Forgive me Monica, I did not call you an elephant—it’s just a figure of speech) I can’t imagine a free and easy charming Billy in the White House again without the image of a plump girl in a nice conservative navy blue dress and Big Daddy’s DNA on it somewhere. It might not be Hillary’s fault that we’ll all be wondering what Bill’s doing, but it can’t be anything but red meat to the Republican slime machine. Bill, you kind of ruined it for all of us. No, really, I didn’t care what you did with your, um, you know what I mean, but did you have to do it in the White House and with an intern? And then you stood there and lied to us all. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” If I’d been married to you I have left you then. So you are Hillary’s albatross. But she chooses to wear you round her neck like a lovely silk scarf. Which reminds me of a pig’s ear.

I think Hillary should have been the President way back then. But now there is too damn much water under the bridge. You don’t make me feel safer with your war mongering ringing phone ad. You just piss me off. And though I think your smart, you just might not be competent enough. I can’t get over your vote in the Iraq War Resolution. I can’t get over your stubbornness in rationalizing and justifying it. You failed on health care the first time. Why should I believe you’ll do it right this time? You just seem to make either rookie mistakes or Rovian mistakes, like the ringing phone ad, like the interview in which you equivocated in your answer about Obama’s religious background just enough to leave it hanging. But here’s the real clincher in the deal for me. Your supporters will vote for Obama. I’m not so sure his could vote for you. It is cross-over men, guys who consider themselves conservative, who can vote for Obama but not for you, that we will lose. And if this comes down to Super Delegates at the Convention who toss it to you, a generation of young people will not be able to vote for you because they see you as the old way of doing things. You stand for Washington Insider just like John McCain. You stand for political machine that is top down. You’re too tough, too hawkish. Too close to lobbyists and corporations. Too secretive about your own finances, to intrust with the taxpayer’s money. So that’s why I’m putting my money where my mouth is and contributing to Barack’s campaign. It isn’t much, but it’s millions like me who can finally have our voices heard.

The Ringing Phone Ad

Are we so naive that we actually believe that Hillary Clinton will be awake and sitting in the Oval Office, waiting for a situation-room type phone call at three in the morning? My guess is, that if she is waiting by the phone at three in the morning, it will be because she doesn’t know where Bill is. Now that’s a situation she has experience with.

The Day After

For me, this is like a bad hangover. I’m a Texan, and once again, my native state has let me down. I would have gone home to campaign for Barack if all my family wasn’t homophobic and racist to it’s core, and now, finally, all dead. I’m one of those old dinosaurs who doesn’t have a cell phone, so I can’t call Texans from here in Utah. My car is twenty two years old and not running at the moment, and my bank account is always just about empty. I owe back taxes on my house. I don’t even have credit cards to put a plane ticket on, charge a room for a few days of walking door to door somewhere in the Lone Star State. And I’ve held a grudge against Texas for the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Then the state voted Ann Richards out and George W. Bush in as Governor, so it’s probably just as well I didn’t go.

Once again, Hillary did not have the grace to congratulate Barack for his win in Vermont. She continues to claim Barack Obama is not qualified to be President. Truth is he has more legislative experience than she does. He is better qualified than Bill Clinton was, than George W. Bush was, than Jimmy Carter was, and certainly he is better qualified than Hillary Clinton. Her experience as First Lady is meaningless. Is Laura Bush qualified based on her experiences as First Lady? Traveling the world at taxpayer expense on Air Force One is not the kind of experience that qualifies you to be President. If she had read the classified intelligence reports that were available to members of Congress before she cast that disastrous vote to take us to war in Iraq, I might believe that she should be taken seriously as a candidate. But sadly she did not.

But the thing that keeps me saving my change and counting it up until I have an extra ten dollars to donate to the Obama campaign is his message of change and hope. I support Senator Obama because he inspires and energizes young people, who have been alienated from politics since the 1960’s. His message is inclusive and units us in a way no one has in my adult life.

Hillary has begun to run ads that attempt to scare us—this is fear mongering and puts her firmly on the side of George Bush and John McCain. I want nothing to do with a candidate who pushes the fear button. It is contemptible.

Primary Day In Texas, et al

I was awakened by a phone call from a credit card company this morning. I’m something of an insomniac, and do not start my days early. If a friend calls I know it’s important, but if it’s some kind of solicitation, I go nuts. I’m on the “Do Not Call” list. So the unfortunate woman making that call this morning had to listen to me chew her out. I told her, if her company ever calls me again, I will prosecute. Then I ran to the bathroom and threw up.

I’ve been on-edge for over a week. My focus is the Democratic Primary races, and the longer the Primary goes on, and the nastier it gets, the worse I feel. Since Obama has the lead, Hillary has begun to run against him as if she and McCain were on the same ticket and Obama was their opponent. This will not do.

Hillary is having a hard time not being the presumptive nominee. She started the race thinking the prize was in her pocket. Well, it might have been, but it is not now, and she is having a hissy-fit. I’m mad enough at her that I hope she gets trounced. Her campaign manager Terry something or other, is not doing her any favors attacking Obama for not holding hearings in his sub-committee on Afghanistan. But what really mattered to me was Hillary missing the vote on domestic spying and giving the telecom companies retro and pro active immunity from prosecution. All three candidates were in the area campaigning. McCain Voted, Obama voted, Hillary did not. That really mattered to me. And the press said nothing. So the idea that the press is pro-Obama and anti-Hillary is B.S. If any other candidate had lost eleven states in a row they would be completely ignored by the press. She gets a pass because she is Hillary Clinton, wife of a former President. Her resume is no more impressive than Obama’s. Being First Lady is not relevant experience. Sure she traveled, but so has Laura Bush. Does that make Mrs. Bush qualified to be President? God, I hope not.

But the most insulting thing Hillary’s campaign has done, is run that stupid and fear-mongering ad with the annoying phone ringing in the background. Obama’s genius is his bottom-up, grassroots organization that came out with an answering ad within hours, that reminded us just how close McCain and Clinton are on the response they each might have to a middle of the night crisis. They’d both take us to war. Again. No thanks.

Goodbye William F. Buckley, Jr.

I was a kid when I first started watching Firing Line on Sundays after dinner at my grandparent’s house. We would all gather in front of the TV in their sumptuous living room in the big house on Third Avenue. I remember having to ask often what a word meant and so began to accumulate a serious vocabulary. I watched him interview his guest and when my attention wandered from the wonderful words, I watched his scalp. Even when he had hair, you could see it shift back and forward on his skull as if the very act of thinking moved his scalp absent his volition or knowledge. Over many years of this ritual I learned to think. I could actually follow the argument. I knew most of the words. I cut my political teeth on the ideas of William F. Buckley, Jr.. I almost always disagreed with him, but I watched him until the show went off the air. Thanks Mr. Buckley. You were quite a guy

Bring Them Home Alive

John McCain keeps talking about continuing the Iraq war indefinitely. He says if we leave Iraq we won’t be bringing our boys “home with honor.” “Bring them home with honor,” is like a tic of speech for McCain. Perhaps an old war injury, the part of his PTSD he can’t control. Senator McCain, we want to bring them home alive. I’d call their service honorable. If it means my friend’s grandson gets to live, I’d call it more than honorable.

I don’t know what makes you a war hero. If it is survival for over five years, tortured and driven crazy, you’ve got the title. But it is my understanding that you were shot down on your first mission. What in that service was heroic beyond survival? It is sad for you, Senator McCain, that the two wars that will have defined for you, who you are, were both fought in the wrong place and for the wrong reason. You are a victim of them both.

There was a time, before this war, when I, a Democrat, had respect for you. You were a maverick and that made many of us think you had good sense, not always following the party line, if the party line was clearly wrong. I did not closely follow your votes in the early part of the war, but I recall that you were critical of the way the war was being fought, you warned Rumsfeld about troop levels, little things like that. But if you were a war hero, you would have spoken out loudly against the war right from the start. Wrong war, wrong place. No plan to get out. Speak out. That takes courage. It takes courage to vote against the party line when you know the line is wrong and everyone wants you to go along. Too much money’s riding on it. Now there are too many reputations riding on it, yours included. The only thing you still had credibility on was the torture thing. You know what I mean. You were a stand-up guy on that one. This is where you know your stuff. You know what torture is. That’s what makes you a hero isn’t it? You survived torture. When you said, “Water-boarding is torture and we should not torture. It is not what we, as a Nation, stand for”, I thought you still had some integrity. And then you voted to fudge that line. You voted for the “We don’t torture, so if we do it, it isn’t torture,” resolution. It depends on what the meaning of “it” is. If we do “it” and don’t call “it” water-boarding is “it” torture? You got lost in the tortured logic, Senator McCain. That’s when you lost a lot of us.

Does Experience Matter

It depends on the experience. If it were just a matter of experience per se, then you’d have to be really old to be relevant. Sadly for us old farts, this is not the case. But given the type of experience, given the proven success of one’s experience, it certainly should matter. In Senator Clinton’s case it is not an issue that works in her favor. Just being a survivor is not enough. Just having been there and voted is not enough. Her record is relevant and it’s a problem for her. I think her self-confidence, intelligence and ambition have taken her far. She is driven. I’ll give her that. She lived through hell and is here to tell us about the trip. That should make her a much better campaigner than Obama, but it hasn’t. She should have learned that we are a forgiving people, who don’t like stubborn for stubborn’ sake especially when stubborn is wrong. We’ve been living with that for nearly eight years. For us, the American people, if you made a mistake, call it a mistake and say you’re sorry. Then it is in the past. As long as a mistake hangs there in the present reminding us of your long past, it’s a problem and your experience is more a problem than an asset. If you cling to what didn’t work, rationalize, shake your finger in our faces, try to scare us (we who have lived through eight years with The Boy Who Cried Wolf) then we might not be so inclined to give you credit for anything more than longevity. It is this very issue that just might be John McCain’s undoing. Four more years of a failed regime? Mmmm, I think not.

Words in a Vacuum

I write because I must. It’s a kind of compulsion. I live alone in self imposed isolation and the few visitors I get do not share my political passions. I have no problem with views contrary to my own. I welcome them. The most interesting conversations do not come out of complete agreement. It takes a little friction to stimulate a rousing…….pretty much anything. I have always learned most from those who disagree with me. It is in disagreement that we hone our thinking skills. It thrills me to hear a Bravo! from Sitenoise. But Sitenoise has also been one of my harshest critics. And in conversation with Sitenoise, I have learned to curb my tendency to fling four letter words around.

K Mckierman left a very thoughtful comment about my use of the B word in reference to Hilary Clinton. I was a passionate supporter of Senator Clinton until the evening of the South Carolina Primary and have talked quite a bit about the evolution of my support for Obama. I did not change my mind solely because of Obama’s oratorical prowess. Part of the reason I changed my mind was the way Senator Clinton behaved when she lost a race. It embarrassed me that she did not thank her supporters and congratulate her opponent. This behavior has become a habit with her, and makes her look like a poor loser, a bad sport, and unkind to those who worked for her as volunteers. It is perhaps unfair that we expect so much of a female candidate, but we do. I know Democratic men who say they simply cannot vote for her. Not because she’s a woman, but because she is divisive and they think the Republicans can use that visceral dislike so many independents and conservative Democrats feel for Senator Clinton to defeat her. I want a Democrat to win more than I want a woman President. But what has really excited me is the activism of young people in support of Obama. They will inherit the reigns of power. Without their involvement we have no future.

And as for ohplease, I’ll stick with my comments about Ralph Nader. If you, ohplease, were taking over where Ralph left off, I’d be more interested in listening. Ralph Nader is old. He is older than John McCain, who I think is too old to be President. Why do we have a retirement age? It’s because, after roughly fifty years of working really hard, we are old at sixty-five. I admired Ralph Nader when he and I were young. We are both old now. I’m not saying Ralph Nader should shut up and go away. He should keep his issues alive through his writing and his organization. He should stay out of Presidential politics as a candidate. His involvement in that process has tarnished his reputation and therefore his message, which is important and should be heard.

My Problem With Hillary Clinton

Last night watching the debate on MSNBC between Senator Clinton and Senator Obama, I realized that part of my problem (and I extrapolate that, if it’s my problem, It might be someone else’s) with Senator Clinton is that her tendency to scold reminds me of my mother. Now most people will say, when asked, if they liked or loved their mother, “My mother was/is great. I love my mother.” But if you then say, “Would you like to live with your mother?” these same mother loving people, male or female will say, “Well….No.”

My mother was a nightmare from beginning to end. But to the hundreds of women she mentored and inspired she was mythic, and since she and I had a difficult relationship, to those women, I must be the nightmare. Such a wonderful, interesting, strong, activist, feminist woman. Her daughter must be such an ass not to revere her mother. And, of course, that was part of the problem throughout our lives. I did revere my mother. I also feared her. And I never lived up to her expectations. I always let her down by not following exactly in her footsteps, the respectful distance she required of a subject and with head slightly bowed. It was never safe to be in too close a proximity to her. Her scold was always shaming and even into my fifties she treated me like a willful, bad child. So, when I see Hillary shaking her finger, holding a mailer sent out by the Obama Campaign with Clinton’s support for NAFTA as it’s message, she shakes her finger and shouts, “Shame on you, Barack Obama!” And I cringe.

I am her demographic, and I hate to tell the media this, but she lost my support after North Carolina. So, who is left? I might not have loved everything Bill did when he was President, but I did love Bill. I loved Hillary for tackling Health care as First Lady. Bravo! I was prepared to be a fan for life, but she failed. Let me repeat that. She failed. It was her lack of judgement and leadership that made that a certainty. She shunned help from the wise old men in the Democratic Party. She was bush-waked by a smart and viscous ad campaign by the lobbyists for the Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industries. And she should be better prepared now. She says she’s been there, vetted, tested, she’s prepared for what the Right will throw at her, but she’s making the same kind of rookie mistakes. Not being prepared to campaign past Super Tuesday is rookie stuff. Move over Hillary, your time has past. It feels a little like a Matricide, but I’m older than she is. And my mother died years ago. Strange that I would take up the pen, so to speak, after my mother lost the sword.

Hillary Clinton was a very interesting First Lady, and aside from her hawkish support for the Iraq war, a pretty good Senator. Maybe there’s a Cabinet position in her future, but I don’t believe it is her destiny to be our first female President. Her organization is top down. The genius and power of Barack’s organization is it’s bottom up approach. It is Democracy in action. It is inspiring. Senator Clinton’s lowest moments are when she mocks the Obama supporters. It’s not a winning strategy. Do not mock hope. Idealism should never be discouraged. And young people will inherit the mess your generation made, so let them get on with it. Please, Senator Clinton, call it off.

The Last Debate

Number twenty, but whose counting? Sad to say, I am. And with every debate I grow to like Hillary less. Sorry, Hillary. But I swear I can hear the echo of men across American saying, “Hillary, you’re a bitch!,” and I’m terrified no matter what you do or how smart you are, those men are not going to vote for you. That means in a general election we lose again. I can’t bear it. Please Senator Clinton, withdraw and get with the program of putting a history making Democrat in the White House. You’ve already lived there.

OK, I took notes, so here goes. Senator Clinton got the first question, and she chewed Brian Williams out for picking on her (my characterization about that exchange) and that’s the moment men across the land started groaning, and reaching for the remote control. Is this sexist, misogynistic? Probably, but it sounded like scolding, “Shame, shame on you!” It sounds like nagging. “Why do I always have to go first. I always go first, you never…….” Even to my ears. And I’m a woman. I heard my mother’s voice and I didn’t like it, I didn’t like it then, back in the day my mother was criticizing me, and I don’’t like it now out of the mouth of the woman who would be my President. You give her what you think she wants and she attacks you. Do I remember what the question was? No. I’d have to go back to my notes.

Oh hell, I think I’ll wing it. If it’s possible to drive the Democratic Party into a ditch, tonight’s debate is a good start. Barack Obama did have the best line of the night when Hillary was giving him a hard time about voting with her to fund the war once the war was going. He said “It’s one thing to help your friend pull the bus out of the ditch, but you helped drive the bus into the ditch.” Don’t quote me on that quote, since I’m not reading from my notes. But the big news tonight was Russert’s questioning Clinton about wanting to withdraw a vote, and she finally admitted that she would like a do-over on that vote. It came close to saying “I was wrong.” But I want to hear her say it, “That vote was a mistake. I shouldn’t have voted that way and I apologize.” No more parsing words.

Barack Obama was charming, smart, well informed and always graceful on every question, every rebuttal. He does not lose anything. But we are tired of this primary race. We really have chosen our candidate and now all this petty bickering about the details of each other’s health care plans. Bla, bla, bla. I’d rather read it on your web site. Don’t bore us into a stuporous coma now, we just got fired up.

It's Going To Be A Bumpy Ride

Hillary has become shrill again. The Republicans are doing research on just how racist they can go and not be accused of racism. The press is chasing the hounds on the pretty young Lobbyist and the grizzled old war horse story, not so much to perv on the sex angle, but to uncover the quid pro quo. So hang on to your hats folks.

The last (you promise?) Democratic Debate is tonight. If Hillary doesn’t stun us all with a gracious and charming concession tonight, I would like to hibernate until the evening of the Primaries in Texas and Ohio, Vermont and where else is it? I’m getting whiplash from Hillary’s mood changes. Put the gun down and back away from the ledge.

And if, by some magic slight-of-hand, it’s Hillary v McCain in the general election, I don’t want to watch the spectacle of two hawks on National Defense policy spending the next ten months duking it out for who’s the toughest. Defense is one thing, aggression is another all together.

Please, please, please, let it be Barack. Since he didn’t vote for the Iraq War Resolution, he and McCain will really have something substantive to say to each other in debates about this particular war in this particular time. Let’s get on with it. It will certainly be fascinating to see just how racist, racist enough is. How do you fight someone who won’t crawl in the gutter with you? I’m pretty sure Carl Rove’s got some pretty good ideas. Looking for sex tapes, are you, Carl?

Ralph Nader!!!??? Not Again!!!!

What the hell just happened? I feel like I woke up in a time warp. Ralph Nader has just announced on Meet the Press this morning that he is running for President again!!!??? Did he learn nothing? Did we learn nothing? Is there anyone left in America who doesn’t know that we would not have had eight years of George W. Bush if Nader hadn’t run in the past two Presidential races? What does Nader want? Jesus, isn’t he older than McCain? Does he need a fame fix? Will somebody get the hook.

Once upon a time, Ralph Nader was a hero of the consumer. He was champion for the working class. Now he’s an old man long past retirement age. He should let the young turks, whoever they are, move into the spotlight as leaders of a movement that belongs within the umbrella of the Democratic Party, if the intention is to make change that will make consumer products safer, keep jobs here at home, rebuild infrastructure, go green in all new building and remodeling, and so on. Yes. Ralph, Bravo. Now get off the stage and and give the youngsters a chance to screw things up. You’ve had your chance and you did it most effectively. I owe the loss of my civil rights to you. Thanks Ralph, Goodbye.

So, Let's Get Real, Girl!

I remember some speech Hillary Clinton gave somewhere that got a lot of sound-bite coverage by the pundits ( all male and white guys and old by most standards). She said “…..I’m Your Girl!!!!!!” And I cringed. My mother would roll over in her grave to hear a woman running for anything, dogcatcher to President, call herself a girl. She used to get pissed off at me calling eighteen year old women girls. So, now Hillary “Our Girl” Clinton want’s to “Get Real” about who is qualified and experienced enough to be President. OK, Let’s.

Hillary became a woman with a political record first time on the public stage, but what we knew about her was limited to her experience as the wife of an obscure Governor of Arkansas running for President. Then she was a First Lady, the first big thing she tackled was Health Care. I had high hopes and cheered her on. But she did it in great secrecy and alienated even Democrats from Congress because she didn’t want anybody’s input but her own. It got us nowhere, maybe even set us back a ways. She got defeated first time out. What did she learn? I’m not sure. She seems to be stubborn and secretive about finances and documents that should be public record. She stonewalled every investigation and created such bad will that she is universally seen as divisive and polarizing. When she got elected to the Senate she cast the most important vote of her life the wrong way, and though she admits that if she knew than what she knows now she would have voted differently. Well, that means her vote was a mistake, though she will not admit that, nor will she apologize for that vote. This doesn’t make her look smart, or strong, it makes her look wrong and stubborn about being wrong. She is the wrong woman at the right time. Happily we have a very talented, intelligent, experienced and inspiring African American man, who is not so polarizing and divisive, to vote for. He has broad appeal among all demographics and it is widening, while hers is narrowing.

So let’s get real, Hillary. Barack Obama seems better able to win in states as far apart as Wisconsin and South Carolina, Minnesota and Georgia, Maine and Utah, Idaho and Louisiana, I could go on, but you get my drift. In states that are considered swing states, Barack has broad appeal and most liberal Republicans could happily vote for him. The same cannot be said for you, Hillary. Hell, I know male Democrats who say they couldn’t vote for you—they’d rather stay home. Is that real enough? At this point I don’t care if this bias against you is sexism or not. I don’t want John McCain and the Republican agenda stripping me of more of my civil rights and starting more wars. So Hillary, I’d like you to step aside and fall in line. Is that real enough?

John, You Old Dog

Not to slander dogs, but….. Not you too, John. John “The Straight Talk Express” McCain had a too cozy relationship with a 40 year old lobbyist named Vivki(sic) Iseman, that is now breaking news. His senior advisers “had to keep her away from him to protect him from himself.” What I want to know is, whose going to protect us from him? So far the story seems to be old news as far as the facts of a philandering John is concerned. The big news is the possible quid pro quo. Did he do favors for her with her clients? If that part of the story turns out to be true, John McCain is probably finished. Even if this only turns out to be about infidelity it might hurt him with female “values” voters, and would make anything he has to say in the future about the “sanctity” of marriage completely laughable. Or should marriage now be defined as between a man and a woman and his mistress? What is the religious right going to think about all this? I’d bet money the Democratic candidates don't go near it. And it does, sadly, once again, remind us of Bill. Speaking of old dogs.