Hiatus

I'll be on hiatus for much of the weekend due to the holiday. Maybe a Thanksgiving post tomorrow before heading down to Bowling Green for the holiday.

In Oregon, Governor Ted Kulongoski is running for re-election.

Joseph "Beau" Biden III announced he would run for Attorney General in Delaware.

This is interesting and comes from one of my favorite poltical sites out there, Politics1.com.

It's just a rumor, but the current buzz in the Buckeye State is that Congressman Ted Strickland (D) will ask his friend Congressman Sherrod Brown (D) to be his runningmate for Lieutenant Governor next year. Brown is currently a candidate for US Senate in the primary against attorney and Iraq War veteran Paul Hackett (D), with the winner facing incumbent Mike DeWine (R) in the general election. The move -- if it happens -- would leave Hackett unopposed in the Dem Senate primary. Strickland and Hackett are both from the more centrist, pro-gun faction of the Demicratic Party, while Brown is a more traditional liberal.

That would be an interesting move and would make for an unopposed primary. I honestly like both candidates the more I read about each. I side with David Sirota and Tim Russo on the Hackett-Brown blogging ceasefire.

I also have to commend Senator Barack Obama on his recent Iraq speech to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. He announced the policy critique to an audience of 500.

Sen. Barack Obama said President Bush should admit mistakes in waging the Iraq war and reduce the number of troops stationed there in the next year. But the Illinois Democrat, a longtime opponent of the war, said U.S. forces remain "part of a solution" in the bitterly divided country and should not be withdrawn immediately.[...]

"Those of us in Washington have fallen behind the debate that is taking place across America on Iraq. We are failing to provide leadership on this issue," Obama said.

Funny story about Obama. I never met him in Illinois when I was a student at Bradley and didn't know who he was until he was named as the DNC keynote speaker in 2004.

Here is one writeup of the Jean Schmidt spoof on Saturday Night Live.

Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell, both of the Florida Marlins, are both headed to Boston, Massachusetts. In other news, it doesn't look like Manny Ramirez is coming back the Red Sox.

Former Governor and current State Senator Julian Carroll will have a role in the 2006 and, maybe, the 2007 elections here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. I blogged at the beginning of October about this plan.

Raising campaign contributions. Unifying various factions. Side-stepping contentious primary races. Even solidifying its public image.

Seeing that those remain the prime challenges for the party heading into the 2006 and '07 elections, former Democratic Gov. Julian Carroll has been privately pushing his political strategy -- which includes having a select group whittle down the field of potential nominees for the governor's race.

"I'm assuming a position of leadership in the party as a result of being re-elected to the Kentucky state Senate," said Carroll -- who won a seat that includes Frankfort and part of Lexington last November, a quarter-century after leaving the governor's mansion.

"I'm accepting the responsibility of restoring the proper image to the Democratic Party," he said. But some of the specifics of his plan, as he's explained it to other Democrats, have raised some red flags.[...]

"If this group has a way to avoid this and try to temper a potential fight, that could be a positive thing," said Jeremy Horton, co-founder of the grass-roots organization Change for Kentucky. "If it's a return to the smoky back rooms, that's not positive."

Henry said he would support the group if it discouraged the candidacies of people "who have run before or time and time again and have proven to be more disruptive to the Democratic Party." He declined to offer any names. "In the end, I think what this group will do is look at the candidates who are strong," Henry added.

Sorry, Senator Lieberman, but I wanted Saddam out as much as you did. However, the way that this administration had handled thing sis just wrong.

David Hawpe suggests that Daniel Groves run for Congress against Congressman Ben Chandler. This is a load of bullcrap if you ask me. Chandler wins regardless.

One post from me tomorrow, but that's pretty much it for the weekend.