sfarber

Someone other than Wisconsin’s Russell Feingold, who, joining Virginia’s Mark Warner, just announced that he would not be seeking the Democratic nomination in 2008. In my exceedingly rare “who in public life has sufficient principles and character to satisfy my insanely exacting standards to justify supporting them for President”, Feingold, a man who voted against the latest Iraq war, a man who nearly lost his own senate seat by adhering to his own McCain-Feingold Act principles and refusing to accept money from Political Action Committees, a man who voted for the confirmation of John Ashcroft on the grounds that, procedurally,...

I know, I know… enough with the celebrity deaths. Still, Jack Palance, who won an Oscar for City Slickers, and an Emmy for Requiem for a Heavyweight, who passed away at either 85 or 87, depending on who you believe…. Palance happened to be the only celebrity who I saw in person on both the East and West Coasts… And, of course, he was a funny man, who was always cast as the heavy… (kind of a reverse Jerry Lewis in that way.)

There would appear to be no other explanation for the President’s bizarre insistence that the lame duck Congress consider (1) confirming John Bolton and (2) approving unconstitutional warrantless surveillance. The President evidently had lunch with Nancy Pelosi, who will have to control her own personal hatred of fellow Californian Jane Harman, lest she quickly snatch defeat from the jaws of the recent stunning electoral victory. I would suggest that (1) the President go back on the wagon, and (2) Speaker Pelosi (and Majority Leader Reid) realize that they owe their majority status not to their own brilliance or the popularity...

The 60-Minutes and CBS News correspondent, Ed Bradley, passed away at age 65, from leukemia. Very sad. Bradley was a class act, and a consummate professional. Some day, if I’m lucky and work very hard, maybe I’ll be as much as half of the interviewer he was.

Let’s see… It’s now being widely reported that it’s over in Virginia… giving the Democrats control of the Senate. Yes, yes… the Allen people won’t concede. But who cares. This one appears to be over, Well, win or lose, now that the election is finally over, oil prices were just bound to be going to go up. Things are so cynical and vicious in GOP circles now that the White House didn’t even have the decency to wait until it could confirm that the GOP lost the Senate… the loss of just the House was enough to declare Donald Rumsfeld...

Just got back from a poll observation mission as a volunteer lawyer with the Pennsylvania combined Democratic campaign, assigned to walk around and observe polling stations (with fellow lawyer-monitor Philadelphia lawyer Phil) in an urban suburb in Delaware County, PA, where it looks like Joe Sestak is on his way to becoming a member of Congress… and Curt Weldon to… retirement. (BTW… we should also wish a hearty “sayonorum” to Rick Santorum…) If conditions nationwide parallel the sliver of the Keystone State I saw today, then the nice weather and a general feeling of the importance of this election will...

My day (a 5:12 finish in the ING New York City Marathon, respectable by my standards, though a little disappointing after a 2:16, 2:17 first half, though still better than last week by 15 or 16 minutes)… was, regardless of aches, pains and blisters… still quite better than Saddam Hussein’s. In the most unsurprising verdict in the history of unsurprising verdicts, the former Iraqi dictator was sentenced to death by hanging for his role in the crackdown of the Shiite town of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt on him. The trial was marked with replacing judges for expressions of...

It keeps going… and going… and going… Fresh (!) from last week’s triumph finish in the Marine Corps Marathon in our nation’s capital, we cap our cross-country season in the home town, with this weekend’s ING New York City Marathon, where I’ll be joining a few dozen thousand friends (I’ll be wearing number 43 thousand something or other…) I’ll be the one in the white baseball cap… Alas, work commitments and other issues (see, e.g. above) have reduced blogging to… less than usual… but not to worry dear readers (those of you left…) there are more great interviews and other...

Allegedly wins the race. Hopefully, in the case of the Democratic Party seeking to recapture control of both houses of Congress, that will prove the case. I’m going to sit back, and not say much… that seems to be the most help I can provide! (The President, of course, tells us that if the Democrats win, then America loses… because, you know… it’s all a big sporting event.) Or in my case… slow and steady finishes around 17,000th and some-odd in a time of something under 5 and a half hours at the 31st Marine Corps Marathon, in and around...