Moe Lane

The folks over at Republican.State.Gov were keeping track of the total time that everyone talked during today’s Kabuki theater.  The results were precisely as one might expect:

• Total time Republicans spent talking: 1 hour, 50 minutes.
• Total time Democrats besides Obama spent talking: 1 hour, 54 minutes.
• Total time President Obama spent talking: 1 hour, 59 minutes.
• Total time Democrats spent talking (collectively): 3 hours, 53 minutes.

…of course, given the reactions to all that talk by the Democrats, possibly I shouldn’t be complaining.

Which most people reading this already knew: but it’s now the Democrats’ turn to learn that. I don’t think that they’ll enjoy the lesson:

Within hours of Indiana Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh’s retirement announcement last week, establishment Democrats in Indiana and Washington were signaling that Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.) was their preferred favorite to succeed him. And by Friday, the last day to file for office, Ellsworth had announced his intention to run for the Senate seat.

It had all the makings of a neatly wrapped package, with just one exception: Rep. Baron Hill (D-Ind.) hadn’t signed off on the succession plan.

Now Hill is suggesting he’s seriously weighing a campaign — and other candidates are making calls to committee members to feel out support — and the process of choosing a Democratic Senate nominee could prove to be a lot messier than originally anticipated.

I was pleased to hear that Senator Evan Bayh had decided to not run for re-election; it meant that we’d pick up a Senate seat. I was also pleased to hear that Rep. Brad Ellsworth had decided to go for the seat; it meant that we’d pick up a Senate and a House seat. But if Baron Hill ends up being the nominee, then Bayh’s sudden retirement will mean that we will pick up a Senate and two House seats: the Democrats can’t make their Senate pick until after the primary and they’ve already picked the sacrificial victim for IN-08.  And the progressive base doesn’t really like Ellsworth, anyway (NSFW language).

Some day I hope to hear just what the Obama administration specifically did to Evan Bayh, to fuel this revenge.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

If it seems that this video fails to take today’s health care Kabuki theater summit seriously, well:

…think of it this way: it’s taking it just as seriously as the Democratic party is. The only difference here is that the NRCC swapped out Democratic arrogance for GOP mockery.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Come, I will conceal nothing from you: I am growing quickly disinclined to get dragged into primary political battles for the 2010 election.  This is partially because I’m getting to a position where I know some of the folks involved in the campaigns (which is why I’m counting the days until the California primaries are over), and partially because it’s going to be a free-for-all for some of these seats (part of the problem with having so many Democratic seats up for grabs).  So, it’ll take a bit to get me to note something in particular about a GOP primary candidate.

A 2008 SEIU endorsement will do.  I’m not as ready as that poster is to tie WA-03 Republican candidate Jaime Herrera to ACORN, but taking money from the Purple People Beaters is quite bad enough (see here and here for corroboration that State Rep. Herrera did in fact get endorsed by SEIU).  Mind you, I’m perfectly ready to believe that she regrets that endorsement now, too – but now would also be a good time for her to indicate said regrets.  Put another way: at the moment Herrera is talking about Big Labor, which is great… but as a state legislator she courted Big Labor, which makes at least an explanation germane.  And when you have an unexplained disconnect between current rhetoric and past rhetoric, it looks bad if it gets out.

And it will get out.  Somebody will always be happy to pass someone else a quiet word.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

And you know that it is because of YOU SHUT UP NOW.

This one does get a lot of airtime from me; but it ain’t my theme song.

Loser, Beck

Why Airplane II: The Sequel, and not Airplane!?

That’s why. And so, adieu to Zombieland.

Moe Lane

…and not believing his luck.

I mean, do we need anything more than the title?

Lingerie model runs one of world’s largest drug gangs, according to police

No. We do not need anything more than the title.

An international arrest warrant has been issued for the 30-year-old, who is suspected of recruiting beautiful women and using them to move drugs to Europe and North America.

Many of these women are believed to be other lingerie and glamour models who compete in international beauty pageants, whom Valencia describes as “unsuspicious, beautiful angels”.

A project to enthusiastically exploit this is being greenlit even as we speak.  It’s either going to be a screwball comedy (in which case they’ll switch out cocaine for something a bit less controversial, like probably diamonds or something), straight action flick (in which case there’ll be a good deal of automatic weapons fire and exploding cars in exotic European locations), or it’ll be a Showtime miniseries (in which case there’s going to be essentially multiple counts of nipple sightings per episode).

Yeah, like you wouldn’t watch any of that.

Via tWits.

Moe Lane

PS: It’ll show up on Law & Order first, of course; and if recent reports are accurate, it will preemptively suck.

Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota was swinging through Bloggers’ Row there, so of course we had to chat. Nice guy; very centered.

I was trying to think of some way of saying that I’m sorry that my little bit of extra monopolization of the Governor’s time was an inconvenience to a couple of staffers (I know some of those people, after all) without saying I’m sorry for the monopolization itself (because I’m, well, not); but then I realized that all I had to do was just write that out. As a writing strategy, it seems… remarkably straightforward. I should try it more often.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

I doubt that he takes your bluff any more seriously than I do, but it’s always nice to see confusion being brought to the enemy.

(Via Dan Cirucci) As I noted as part of a toast at a private dinner last week, God knows that it isn’t hard.

Moe Lane

PS: So… everybody in that video is aware that Arlen Specter’s going to win that primary anyway, right? So what are you folks going to do then?

PPS: Pat Toomey for Senate, obviously.

(H/T: AoSHQ Headlines) Dr. Benke is a math teacher.

Dr. Benke is also a math teacher who (with the help of another teacher) tackled, disarmed, and subdued a school shooter in Colorado.  Thanks to their quick response, there were only two injuries, and (hopefully) no fatalities.

Dr. Benke was unarmed.

So, what did you do Tuesday?

Moe Lane

The combination of CPAC and a reduced feeling of urgency delayed this for a couple of days, but here are the numbers for January.  Short version: RNC over DNC, effective ties (as in, less than 10K/20K differences ) for the Congressional and Senatorial committees, and the Democrats retain their cash-on-hand advantage.

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