It seems that a local official decided in Douglas County that he should screen any local government stories before they went to press. Seems the press and public didn't agee with him.

http://www.startribune.com/...

To all the citizens who objected to this policy loudly and in no uncertain terms - good work. To the reported and publisher who brought this to light - would you please go work in Washington, DC? Please? And thank you for defending our right to a free press.

"...who was on the airplane to Little Rock with me on Wednesday. Nancy Pelosi's political director and a legislative aide for the judicial committee. I was standing behind them in line for about 30 minutes while they discussed a range of political topics. Among the highlights (or lowlights, depending on your point of view)..."

"The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session."
The United Stes Constitution

Why do I have the feeling that the Christmas holidays may see this part of the Constitution come into play again. She didn't fill out the questionaire seriously and the WH didn't care that she didn't because maybe this is what he intends. Just put her in for long enough to take care of any legal fallout from the current investigations and to get past the next round of elections.  

Or am I being all paranoid and crotchety here?

I've been confused lately about the way NeoCons do business. In the past, both parties realized that they had to work together to accomplish things. Compromise to get needed votes was commonplace on both sides of the aisle. Politicians were relatively cordial to each other (at least in public) because they knew that they might need a favor some time in the future. They didn't want to get too extreme, especially in an election year, for fear of turning the public off. But the NeoCons don't operate that way. They act as if they can't be turned out of power, refuse to compromise, and they won't even look at what the other guys want - let alone vote for it or negotiate. They openly say they want to see the end of the Democratic Party. And they didn't even campaign to anyone but their base constituency.

None of that made sense to me. The best theory I could come up with is that they really had hacked the voting process and were positive of winning every election from now on. But yesterday, I got a glimpse of something else that made me wonder.