Well, what else is new?

I feel like it's a conflict of interest to blog about other potential candidates in the 2008 Democratic election. Why? I'm one of the ones heading up Americans for Bayh and have had a hand in that since November 2004. I don't think it is right to blog about the other candidates in a Democratic primary whether or not they have announced. I'll blog when they declare for sure but do not, under any circumstance, expect me to go negative against them. I will continue to blog about Senator Evan Bayh and his bid for the presidency. I'm reminded of the fact that President Bill Clinton was an unknown in 1991 when he was running for President. He did pretty well if I recall.

Jeffrey Goldberg becomes the latest person to review the former president's controversial book.

Speaking of Israel, here is such an example of why there may not be peace in the Middle East for quite some time.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told thousands of Iranians on Friday that his Hamas-led government will never recognize Israel and will continue to fight for the "liberation of Jerusalem."
Making his first visit abroad since the militant group took power in March, Haniyeh blasted U.S. demands that Hamas recognize Israel as a basis for renewed peace talks and before international aid to the Palestinians resumes.

The U.S. "and Zionists ... want us to recognize the usurpation of the Palestinian lands and stop jihad and resistance and accept the agreements reached with the Zionist enemies in the past," Haniyeh told worshippers at Tehran University.

The United States is pressing the Palestinian government to not only recognize Israel, but to renounce violence and form a national unity government with the moderate Fatah party.

"I'm insisting from this podium that these issues won't materialize. We will never recognize the usurper Zionist government and will continue our jihad-like movement until the liberation of Jerusalem," he said.

Ahmed Abdel Rahman, an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah party, said if Hamas wants to be part of a national unity government, it will need to abide by agreements the PLO has signed in the past. This would imply recognition of Israel.

"I can't criticize him (Haniyeh) when he is talking in the name of Hamas. But if he is speaking as prime minister, he should abide by the national agenda," Abdel Rahman said.

If they cannot take the time to recognize Israel, then it is unlikely that there will be peace. The way I see it, with leaders that help fund state-sponsored terrorism, there can never be any realistic chance of any kind of peace talks.

The article I linked yesterday on the Bayh visit to New Hampshire has since been updated.

"I'd begin with this energy issue, including global warming, because it affects so many important things and because there's some common ground there," he said.

What's next for Virginia Senator George Allen now that he is defeated? The article does not really state what he'll do next but I'm guessing that, with his defeat, he will certainly not be a presidential candidate in 2008.

Before the election, only 150 minorities were holding public office throughout the state.

"Even without someone targeting this issue to help, we'd like to see if there's any natural progression of more diversity in elected officials," said Les Fugate, a spokesman for Secretary of State Trey Grayson.

Before the November election, the report found, there were 237 minority leaders across the state. But that number included 86 officials who were appointed to various boards by the governor.

There were six black legislators in the General Assembly, before the election, and one black member of the Kentucky Supreme Court, according to the secretary of state's report. There were eight black judges serving in a circuit or district court. While Kentucky has 120 counties, there were only three black county magistrates statewide, the report found.

Meanwhile, there were six minorities elected as mayor in Kentucky (four blacks, one Asian and one Pacific Islander). On local school boards, heading into the election, there were 32 blacks, two Hispanics, one Asian and one Indian-American, according to the report.

Of course, those numbers might have increased with the election. For example, Jim Glenn, D-Owensboro, who is black, was elected to the state House over incumbent GOP Rep. Joe Bowen.

Legislators could hold the very key to the primaries especially since they have the power to nullify any laws, if need be.

Consider this: the law requires a runoff election between the top two vote-getters in a party's primary if no one receives 40 percent of the vote in the May 22 election. The runoff election would happen a month later.

And with multiple prospective candidates from each party making noise about jumping into the race, a runoff is looking more likely.

Enter the legislature.

In 2002, lawmakers approved a clause that nullified what was then the decade-old runoff provision for the 2003 governor's race.

While some may think that it is a shame that only two people showed up, I've been told that this was a private event in which only two people were invited. What I am trying to say is that the media makes it sound worse than it actually was.

By comparison, another potential 2008 Democratic candidate who's been visiting New Hampshire frequently went largely unnoticed at a simultaneous visit. Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana ate breakfast all but anonymously with two other people Sunday in a restaurant next door to the Obama event.

The evening before, Bayh hosted a reception that drew about 50 Democrats.

Here is a little bit more on the Senator's recent visit to New Hampshire.

Obama was not the only prospective candidate in New Hampshire this weekend. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., who has taken one step farther than Obama by forming a presidential exploratory committee, drew an estimated crowd of 150 to 200 supporters to the Puritan restaurant in Manchester Saturday night.

"Sen. Bayh has been in the state many times previously," state Sen. Betsi DeVries, who attended Bayh's event, noted by way of comparison. "I think people in New Hampshire are still waiting to see what Barack Obama is all about and what he stands for."

HonestReporting.com presents the 2006 Dishonest Reporter of the Year award.