When a sitting U.S. Senator runs for President the potential for constructive and not so constructive mischief in the hallowed halls of power is never far away. In the constructive mischief department, we offer Dem hopeful Chris Dodd who is showing some backbone (and flirting with potential political suicide) by threatening to muck up the Dem leadership determination to suck up to George Bush again (all to keep that dreaded ‘soft on security’ necktie from being tightened) on FISA reauthorization (the one where the Bush brigades spy illegally on potentially all of us in the name of something resembling national security). One of Dodd’s campaign themes is about restoring the constitution to being, well, a relevant document and he’s determined to make a show of this in a showdown over FISA. He has threatened a parliamentary move called a hold or a one-man filibuster if Senate leadership gives him the back of their collective hand. In my daily link, Dodd goes on the liberal Huffington Post to make his point. While it’s hard not to forget the political opportunism angle, Dodd makes a rational case for taking our time and actually paying attention to the constitutional details. Of course, being reasonable rarely helps anyone in the viper’s den of D.C. But Dodd deserves credit for bringing our Bush-ravaged Constitution up as a debate topic. Our elected leaders in D.C. -- and almost all the presidential candidates -- have too often taken a pass at it.
Poke in the eye
John McCain’s campaign here in first-in-the-solar-system primary land got a zero sum shot of adrenaline when Dan Hughes of New Castle, a longtime Republican leader with deep roots in the state, joined McCain as vice-chair of his leadership team. We’re not sure exactly what the leadership team does but getting Hughes was a finger in the eye to Fred Thompson’s not so much of a NH campaign — Hughes was an advisor of sorts to Thompson. We suspect but cannot confirm that Hughes perhaps got tired of waiting around to advise Thompson on, well, anything — including, just maybe, on just why Thompson is running.
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