Some food for thought...

You know how those Monday morning classes are? That's why the updates come late today.

Joe McQuaid: Johnny Carson's humor brought day to a peaceful end in times of turmoil. This is a very nice column.

Writer gives Johnny Carson credit for career success. Who wouldn't? He started EVERYONE'S career!

Hometown fans turn out for a memorial. Now why was there now public memorial?!?

Stephanie Herseth feels like she settled in:

By gaining six months in office last year, Herseth moved ahead of this year's freshman class of lawmakers and was given a larger office suite, gaining an extra 200 square feet but losing a window that gave her a view of the U.S. Capitol.

It was a trade-off she was willing to make, and the new office feels more like home, Herseth said.

"All of us have a little more elbow room, and we feel like we know we're here now for a full session," she said. "After the June election, things were a little hectic."

Hectic and uncertain enough that Herseth did not take the time to look for housing in Washington. Instead, she rented a motel room until recently acquiring an apartment.

Her new office in the Cannon Building is hardly spacious, but it is adequate. It also is a notch above offices given many of the true freshmen in the House.

"We got grouped with last year's class for seniority," said Russ Levsen, Herseth's press secretary.[...]

"I'm very pleased that 2005 doesn't include a campaign, and I'm sure most South Dakotans would agree with me," Herseth said, laughing.

"It's not in my personality to ever feel like I can take a break and relax," she said. "But now I've got time to breathe and develop a long-term strategy for advancing my legislative initiatives."

Herseth plans to focus on agriculture, American Indians, veterans, economic development and renewable fuels.

From the Indy Star:

Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh described Sunday's elections in Iraq as one step in a long and difficult process that he's not convinced the Bush administration can handle.

"If this democracy is going to flourish and not wither in the Iraqi sun, it's going to take leadership that understands some of the subtleties and some of the difficulties that we face," Bayh said Sunday on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." "I'm concerned, given some of the past mistakes, whether this leadership team will be capable of that."

Bayh was invited on the show as arguably the most noteworthy of 13 senators -- all Democrats -- who voted against the confirmation of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state last week.

Bayh was one of the earliest Democratic supporters of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq, and pundits view his vote against Rice as a move to make his position on Iraq more acceptable to the core of the Democratic Party in case Bayh decides to run for president in 2008.

Bayh told ABC he would not "rule anything out or in" for '08. And he said his vote against Rice -- who he called one of the main architects of the administration's policy errors -- was about "principle, not about politics."

"I feel a special responsibility, as someone who believes that deposing Saddam (Hussein) was the right thing to do . . . to make sure that we have the kind of leadership that is secure enough and mature enough to acknowledge errors," Bayh said. "Why? So that we can do better and that we can win."

Bayh said in December that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should resign because of mistakes in Iraq.[...]

Bayh said Sunday that he does not support Bush's proposal allowing workers to divert part of their Social Security taxes to private accounts -- a restructuring Bush views as a priority.

Bayh also opposed a change to the formula for Social Security benefits so that they would rise with inflation instead of wages. That change would cause Social Security benefits to grow more slowly and could help extend the life of the trust fund, which is expected to run out of money by 2042. At that point, Social Security taxes paid by workers would finance only 73 percent of the benefits promised to retirees.

Bayh said he doesn't have a solution, but said he wouldn't call it a crisis, as Bush has.

This is bad. Tom Ridge is resigning and now nominee #2 is being doubted.

On Nov. 28, 2001, then-Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff took a seat before a Senate committee and offered reassurance on two fronts: The Justice Department was unrelenting in pursuit of terrorists. And none of its tactics had trampled the Constitution or federal law.

Every detainee has been charged, Chertoff told the senators. Every detainee has a lawyer. No one is held incommunicado.

"Are we being aggressive and hard-nosed? You bet." Chertoff leaned into the microphone. "But let me emphasize that every step that we have taken satisfies the Constitution and federal law as it existed both before and after September 11th."