Political musings
Any doubt that we are in a watershed political year vanished with the sad news earlier this week that Sen. Ted Kennedy has brain cancer. Most doctors say it is incurable and likely will kill him in 1-2 years or less. Kennedy has been in the Senate since 1962, when he was elected at age 30 to the seat vacated two years earlier when his brother, John F. Kennedy, was elected President. It is difficult to imagine the Senate without Kennedy as the champion of liberal causes.
As a practical matter--and few are talking about this yet--if his death occurrs quickly it could return the Senate to Republican control until the November election. The Massachusetts legislature in 2004 enacted a law barring the governor--then Republican Mitt Romney--from appointing a successor to Sen. John Kerry if Kerry was elected President. Instead, the seat would remain vacant until a special election could be held. Kerry lost to George W. Bush, but the law remains on the books. At present, the Senate remains in Democratic control by 51-49 only because "Independent Democrat" Joseph Lieberman caucuses with the Democrats. I don't think anyone can rule out a party switch by the politically traitorous Lieberman, who is reviled by many Democrats and has been mentioned as a possible running mate for McCain to pull older Jews away from Sen. Barack Obama.
Obama almost has the nomination in the bag and everyone assumes that it is only a matter of time. Clinton flails wildly, comparing her demand that Florida and Michigan delegates be seated to earlier battles for civil rights. I suspect she is only in it for the money now, since staying in the race until the convention in August is the only way to ensure she has an opportunity to get paid back for the $11 million she personally loaned to her campaign. The latest figure on her total campaign debt--$31 million--boggles the mind. Were she somehow to win the Democratic nomination and become President, she would be incredibly beholden to big money interests who presumably would help her pay down that staggering debt. John McCain will have the same problem, but that's another story.
I sense a great weariness with the primary season and an eagerness to get onto to the fall battle between Obama and McCain (and Bob Barr and maybe Ron Paul--let's wish them luck as the Ralph Naders of the right in 2008). Enough of this already. Let's get to the main event.