http://wcbstv.com/...

Despite having salaries of better than $170K/year, Members of the House of Representatives are permitted to lease cars on the public dime.

According to this article, you pay not only for the car, but all the expenses including gasoline. So next time you worry about rising gas prices, keep in mind that Congresspeople, while they may say they care, are filling up their tanks and sending you the bill.

You'd think that on a House salary, Members would be expected to provide their own transport, but you'd be wrong. Has anyone ever applied for a job delivering newspapers or pizza? You know how there is always a "must have own auto" tag? Why the heck can't Congresspeople have the same imperative.

In times like this, Congress has a heck of a nerve expecting hard working Americans to pay their personal expenses.

Today's New York Daily News rans a puff piece on Maggie Williams, HRC's new campaign manager.

The final paragraph read as follows:

A former aide to Reps. Morris Udall of Arizona and Robert Torricelli (later senator) of New Jersey, Williams' ties to Hillary date to when they both were at the Children's Defense Fund in the 1980s.

After the Clintons left the White House, Williams was named president of Fenton Communications, a leading public relations and consulting firm.

When Bill and Hillary Clinton made remarks before the South Carolina primary that offended African-Americans, the campaign put her on the airwaves to try to quell the uproar.

"She's never run a political campaign, but she has run a staff and isn't afraid to crack heads," a Democratic booster said.

Huh?

http://www.nydailynews.com/...

One Democratic described it as "addition by subtraction." The subtraction won’t come in the form of lost jobs, but lost influence, meaning Carville and Begala’s strategic advise will now carry greater weight than that of the original team that devised a strategy that has led to a defeat in the Iowa caucuses and a likely defeat in tonight’s New Hampshire primary.

To me, this encapsulates the Clinton Problem.

Clinton's response to a campaign crisis is somehow not to fire the very staff that has been with her from the outset...In other words, nonwithstanding the fact that you screwed up, we will continue to pay your five figure monthly salary.

It was a big night for Democrats and an ominous warning to Bush and the GOP, right?

Washington Monthly's Sullivan reports, "One of the most obvious and least discussed reasons" Dems "continue to lose is their consultants. Every sports fan knows that if a team boasts a losing record several seasons in a row, the coach has to be replaced with someone who can win. Yet when it comes to political consultants," Dems "seem incapable of taking this basic step." DSCC consultant Joe Hansen is "part of a clique" of DC consultants who, "through their insider ties, continue to get rewarded with business even after losing continually." Pollster Mark Mellman is "popular among" Dems "because he tells them what they so desperately want to hear," but as New Republic's Noam Scheiber notes, in '02, Mellman, "perhaps more than anyone else, the architect of that defeat." After '02, Mellman "should have been exiled but was instead ... promoted," becoming John Kerry's lead pollster.
     

The upcoming NYC Mayor's race will be huge. A nasty, vicious Democratic primary followed by a big big money general. The eyes of the political world will be on this one.

There are probably as many theories as to why Michael Bloomberg is Mayor of New York as there are stars in the sky. Many think it was 9/11 and the Giuliani endorsement, others opine that it was that Democratic nominee Mark Green was so unappealing that voters simply couldn't choose him. There are also leftover 'racial tension' issues about the Ferrer/Green runoff, even though there was no racism involved, just a lot of whining and handwringing over Ferrer's loss.

The Dem. field now looks to be Council Speaker Gifford Miller, US Rep. Anthony Weiner, Former Bronx BP Fernando Ferrer, and Manhattan BP C. Virginia Fields.

I'd love to see what everyone here thinks about who will win the Dem. primary and who will go on to win the general.

The title of Joe Trippi's book is "The Revolution will Not be Televised" and the main thrust of the book is not the Dean campaign, but the advent of the internet and blogging as a new campaign medium. Well, I'm going to be bold and point out that Howard Dean didn't win one state. Not One. And not one member of the Kos Dozen won election. Not One. So what's my point? That blogging has its limits. You can't well call something a revolution if it didn't work. Did it energize many new people? Yes. Did it raise money? Yes. Did Howard Dean get elected? No. Some people also say that the Edsel revolutionized how cars were marketed.

Dear Political Candidate--This an open letter from your staff. It's pretty generic, so most candidates can and should relate.