I Don’t Hate America!

Sen. Roland Burris (Blago-IL) won’t run for reelection.

The decision by Burris, 71, is an acknowledgment that prospects of mounting a multimillion-dollar fundraising effort for a high-profile statewide race are low in the face of widespread public criticism over how he got the job. Almost two months after his appointment, a Tribune poll found only 37 percent of voters wanted Burris to run. As of the spring, he raised $845 with more than $111,000 in debt, a campaign filing showed.

Gotta’ give a guy credit for seeing political reality and doing the right thing, though with such dismal fundraising I have to believe this is a decision made quite a while ago.

$845? That’s ALL? I can only imagine our beloved former state Rep. Mark Olson raises more money at his old fashioned family picnics.

It goes without question that we here at IDHA are pleased to see Sen. Al Franken begin his tenure in the Senate today.  Additionally, as a C-SPAN geek it was fun for me to see his first roll-call vote today.  The vote, “nay” on a John McCain amendment to gut funding from a bus security assistance program within the Homeland Security appropriations bill, was his only one of the day.

It was evident that he is solidly “senator” and no longer “celebrity.”  Not resembling anything close to the “Angry Al” the right portrayed him as during the campaign (and I guess still to this day), he appeared at the front desk exactly as the humble guy we got to know on the trail:

Sen. Franken: “Franken…I’m here for my first vote.”

Desk Clerk (quickly, before muting her microphone): “I know.”

Congratulations, Senator, on your first day in the Senate and your first vote.  May there be a few thousand more votes to come!

Few things can be cliche as making fun of Sarah Palin, but sometimes she just makes it too gosh darn easy.

So easy I almost feel sorry for her, but not as sorry as I feel for the reporters who have to file stories about her.  After all, if a story seems the least bit critical of her, regardless of how factual, Glenn Beck and the rest of the attack dogs will chalk it up to the evil liberal media conspiracy and the reporter may have to fear a lawsuit from Palin herself.

Take this story from ABC for instance.

If she were in the White House, she said, the “department of law” would protect her from baseless ethical allegations.

“I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we’ve been charged with and automatically throw them out,” she said.

There is no “Department of Law” at the White House.

“Department of Law” eh? You hang in there, Sarah, and be sure to thank this reporter for burying your error at the bottom of page one of the story. Reality may be tough, but we will do our best to remind you of it however long you continue to stay in politics.

Righty-wingnuts explode in 3…2…1…

RNC Chair Michael Steele, From the Huffington Post:

“Not having talked to the governor, I take 2012 off the table right now simply because given everything she’s going through personally, dealing with the financial mess that all these ludicrous investigations have put her and Todd in, at the moment, I think she’s trying to focus on getting her house in order, her personal house in order,” Steele told FOX News.

And House Minority Leader John Boehner:

“I like her a lot. But I think it will be very difficult for her to run in 2012 given everything’s that’s gone on the last nine months,” he said(…)

Two of the top three figures in the GOP are already kicking dirt on Sarah Palin’s political ambitions! I can’t wait for the “grassroots” Republicans to call for their heads after this assessment, however brutally honest it may have been.

Much fanfare has been made on the other side of the aisle about GOP activist/operative/consultant/blogger Michael Brodkorb’s decision to leave Minnesota Democrats Exposed.

In light of this departure, I am left with a couple of simple questions:

Mike, why was it no problem for you to continue blogging at MDE after you began accepting paychecks from the taxpayers upon starting your position at the Minnesota Senate, yet now that you are Deputy Chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota (a gig from which you proclaimed you will draw no salary at all), why do you all of a sudden now feel that you are prevented from blogging?

Is there something you feel you owe the rank and file of the Minnesota GOP in preventing a conflict of interest that you didn’t also owe the taxpayers?

Inquiring minds want to know.  Thanks.

Your pal,

DJ D