It is an overdone cliché to thank the good Lord for Friday,
but this has been a particularly long week, so stringing a coherent column
together might be beyond my capability today. But that won’t stop me from some
Friday musings.
Talk
about chutzpah. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is seriously considering
ditching the outside ethics panel she trumpeted as one of the most
important achievements of her tenure. She did it because she wanted to
convince the voters that Democrats were the most ethical people in the
whole entire world. It didn’t work. Most voters still think the Democrats
are incurably corrupt. According to news reports, members of the
Congressional Black Caucus are leading the charge to neuter the Office of
Congressional Ethics, because that office has the temerity to look at what
the members of the CBC are actually doing and ignoring what they are
saying.
Back
in the middle with you: Proposition 14 is testing the theory that there is
a mythical middle out there that is just yearning to be free. California
voted for the proposition, which gets rid of partisan primaries, basically
allowing anybody to vote for anybody they want on primary day. I have
written here before that perhaps the best way to get more centrist political
leaders is to end partisan primaries. Many pundits don’t think it will
work, but then again many of them have a vested interest in keeping the
primary system the way it is.
Erin go bragh: A good friend of mine from Ireland was in town this week and we
had plenty of time to talk Irish politics over more than a few pints of
stout. The ruling Irish government is making some mighty tough decisions
to deal with the debt crisis. They have radically cut back on spending,
including government pensions, while keeping taxes relatively low. The
theory is that this will keep Ireland competitive for foreign investment
while keeping the government solvent. It is a huge gamble, because the
cuts are painful, and unless the economy recovers, the Fianna Fail government
will get killed in the next election. In fact, they are polling at about
17 percent right now, so they are in big trouble. Luckily for them,
though, they control the timing of the next election, and it probably
won’t be for a couple of years before they face the voters.
Hawks win: For the first time in my life, the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley
Cup. When I was growing up, I was a huge Hawks fan. Chico Mackey, Stan
Mikita, Bobby Hull and, when I was a little older, Denis Savard, were all
heroes. But then the Wirtz family basically ran the organization into the
ground, I moved away from Chicago, and I lost interest in hockey. When
they made it to the Stanley Cup finals, I became a shameless fair weather
fan, watching every game, to the complete bewilderment of my wife. Hockey
is on the rebound as a sport. D.C. is now a huge hockey town, with Ovechkin
and company inspiring fans from the whole region. Looks like I will have
to get back on the hockey bandwagon next year.
The
World Cup begins: I watched some of the opening ceremonies for the World
Cup this morning. It will be interesting to see how South Africa handles
it all. I am not much of soccer fan, to be quite candid. I usually root for
the Irish team and the American team. The Irish didn’t qualify this time
around, principally because they got screwed by the handball of a
Frenchman. All the Irish I have talked to are now rooting for the Yanks,
especially against the English. They all tell me it is a good value bet to
take the Americans in the opening round game, and I vaguely remember
giving one of my Irish friends some money to bet it for me. It is nice to
see America back in the underdog position again. I hope they win.
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