Back from hiatus and Happy Flag Day!

Emails pooring in since Sunday evening and it doesn't look pretty.

Bluegrass Report is open. It's the blog of Ben Chandler's former campaign manager, Mark Nickolas (not Mark Riddle).

Tim Roemer makes it a contest but he wouldn't win. I'd like to think that Congressman Roemer has a shot at taking Dick Lugar's seat.

Roemer, the former congressman from South Bend, has been in the national spotlight as a 9/11 Commission member. Now, he ponders a possible candidacy for the U.S. Senate in Indiana next year. Roemer is a Democrat with the centrist record and rhetoric that a majority of Hoosiers find appealing. He is similar in that respect to Sen. Evan Bayh.[...]

Description of Lugar's long service in Washington could encourage respondents to think of an alternative at a time when the poll also found a majority of Hoosiers believing the country is on the wrong track.

Similar dissatisfaction is found as well elsewhere in the nation, with President Bush's performance ratings down, patience with the situation in Iraq dwindling, disdain for Congress growing, dislike of the president's Social Security privatization proposal increasing and a dour view prevailing over gas prices and economic expectations.

Moods like that can bring upsets. Hoosier political history includes such upsets for the Senate as when Birch Bayh, Evan's father, defeated the "unbeatable" Republican incumbent Homer Capehart and then when the elder Bayh, by then the "unbeatable" one, was upset by Dan Quayle.

Three days of game notes for the Red Sox and Cardinals. St. Louis is doing as good as the 1944 team by this time of year.

Tucker Carlson has a new show on MSNBC. If Jon Stewart goes on it, I give him less time than his contract calls for but I'm calling this one at six months.

Bad news on the doorstep for Senator Robert Byrd. This might not be good but we'll see in due time.

He's up for election in 2006, and the latest polling in West Virginia indicates that an attack of sanity and judgment may, at last, be hitting an electorate that has routinely elected the 87-year-old Byrd to the Senate eight times with never less than 59 percent of the vote. A survey by RMS Strategies, a West Virginia firm, shows Byrd barely ahead of Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, 46 percent to 43 percent.

Byrd, who still boasts a 62-28 favorable-unfavorable ratio, may have met his match and master in Capito, who has a statewide rating of 57-35.

Because it's better news than 24/7 of Michael Jackson fan's screaming...

During the presidential campaign, Carlson had a widely publicized run-in on Crossfire with comedian Jon Stewart, who said partisan debates on such shows were "hurting America." In January, CNN chief Jon Klein canceled Crossfire, saying that he was tired of loud political talkfests and that noise had overtaken substance.

There's some truth to that, generally, in cable news, Carlson says. "There's nothing wrong with expressing passion, but at some point it can become like watching your parents argue. It's uncomfortable."

Author gets close to the late Del Close. Del was the be-all, end-all of improv.

A review of Jim Belushi and the Sacred Hearts.

Back to game notes, these deal with last night's games. Larry Walker is considering retirement. St. Louis has over forty wins this season. Tony LaRussa is very close to tying for 4th place all-time. We see a rematch of the 1975 Red Sox-Reds world series. Johnny Damon got his 1,000 career run in Chicago this weekend. Congrats to Jason and Karen Varitek on the birth of their daughter, Caroline.

This is my first blog post in which I lost my dial-up connection.

News on Bayh and Feingold.

In an interview with reporters, Senator Bayh said he hasn't officially decided about a run for president. "No I haven't. And that process starts way too early. You know, we need to focus upon moving this country forward, and if we do that, the politics will take care of itself. I've done some practical things to keep that option open, but, you know, look, I'm a long way from making that decision."

So, how does Bayh feel about Feingold? "I think Russ Feingold's a great guy, and I'm glad the people of Wisconsin reelected him last year. He's one of the most idealistic and thoughtful members of the Senate."

How about a President Feingold? "Oh I defer to him on that. I'd be presumptuous of me to comment on something like that."

Is The Daily Show really that influential? Maybe they'll get Jonathan Miller to appear whenever he decides to promote the book he is writing (or is it just looking for a publisher now?).

It was an incredible relief when The Daily Show began severely decreasing the number of celebrities trotted out for the show’s interview segment. George Clooney would appear with a well-rehearsed tale with the sole purpose of making him look a regular kind of guy, and I would use the opportunity to brush my teeth. Dignitaries, policy makers and journalists began to appear with regularity, and then, about a year ago, the authors started showing up.

G-d Bless James Cameron. Lynching is wrong and I am ashamed of the 20 or so members of the Senate that did not agree to sponsor the resolution.

A Marion, Ind., resident during his youth, Cameron was 16 when he was dragged from the Grant County Jail in 1930 to the courthouse lawn, where a mob already had lynched his two friends. He was spared when a man in the crowd proclaimed his innocence.

Cameron was later convicted of robbery and was pardoned in 1993 by then-Gov. Evan Bayh.

At Kamit, he told how he and two acquaintances, Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, drove to a place known as Lover's Lane in rural Grant County. He told about how he pulled a gun on a young white couple parked by the Mississinewa River but ran away when he recognized the white man.

Now for your moment of zen:

THE NEW African and African-American history requirement in Philadelphia public high schools will almost certainly end up on The Daily Show.

WEll, that's not something you read every day now, is it. It's up to Jon Stewart and Ben Karlin to get it on the show.

Finally got to tonight's game notes. Boston and Cincy are playing right now as I type. Boston goes for a three-game winning streak for the 1st time in a month. Cardinals have two former Jays: Dave McKay and Chris Carpenter. Tony is three wins from fourth all-time.

Happy Flag Day!