barbara mikulski – Moe Lane

Normally I’d bow to the realities on the ground and write that as “Sen. Barbara Mikulski to retire?” – but what the heck. We got lucky in Maryland last year; I’m willing to spend a little of that on optimism gone mad. Anyway: “U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski will announce her retirement this morning in Baltimore, according to multiple sources… The Democrat will address the media at 11 a.m. in Fells Point, promising an “important announcement about her future plans.” No further details were available.”

This has been expected: Sen. Miklulski was either going to retire this term, or next one. I’m not going to lie: flipping this seat would be an uphill battle. On the bright side, nobody’s going to take the Republican candidate seriously until it’s too late… and, as Governor Larry Hogan can tell you, that can be a precious thing to have going for you. Guess we will, as they say, see. Continue reading Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D, Maryland) to cut and run?

Wait, what?

I may need to walk back on my scorn of Rep. Jackson-Lee’s praise of the non-existent relationship between the non-existent nations of North and South Vietnam. If this video below is any indication, then there’s a fairly nasty virus going around Capitol Hill that turns Democratic legislators into memory-impaired, babbling zombies.

Yes, even worse than usual.

Yes, you remember correctly: in point of fact Donald Berwick is not getting a confirmation hearing, largely because the President is too scared of what the GOP will say about this particular radical (and by extension, what the GOP will say about the President’s judgment in wanting to hire said radical). That’s one issue; the other is, apparently Senator Mikulski isn’t… really paying attention to her duties these days. It beggars belief that the senior Senator from Maryland is unaware of a top-tier controversy and cause for criticism, but it’s self-evident from the video that she didn’t have a clue and was operating largely on autopilot.

So. Brain fever, you think? It’s certainly a more charitable conclusion than the alternative, which is that she and Jackson-Lee are as about as sharp as a sack of wet mice.

Continue reading Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D, MD) and the imaginary Berwick confirmation hearings.