I'm on the Leon County (Tallahassee) Democratic Executive Committee, having been elected by Dems in my precinct...okay, by the few dozen who bothered to vote - still, it counts!

If I do what Lieberman did - publicly support ANY non-Dem in a race against a Dem - then according to the local Dem charter (Florida and national too, I think), I should be kicked off the DEC. If I happened to be on the state and/or national committee I would expect to be removed from those as well. But Lieberman gets a pass.

He shouldn't necessarily be kept out of the Dem caucus - though I wouldn't trust him with any inside info - but as others have said, at the very least he shouldn't have been allowed to keep the privilege of chairing such an important committee.

...couldn't you have posted an article about Sarah Palin instead?

...and (according to David Letterman) keep your frenemies in between.

I figured "Thank You, Sarah Palin" was a sincere message from Alex Koppelman to the object of his desire.

Or at least the object of most of his articles.

"You’re not alone if you’re asking, "Ted who?"...

...Most observers believe Kaufman will keep the seat warm for two years, and will not run in the 2010 special election."

----------------------

So hardly anyone has heard of this guy, but we've already got an analysis by "most observers" about his long-term plans.

Assuming you're not being sarcastic, THANK YOU!

Letterman isn't for everyone, and God knows he can run a joke into the ground, but I'd like to know what the "haters" (god, I can't stand it when a stupid word or phrase becomes the best way to describe something) think is funny. Leno? Conan? Family Guy? Friends?

Sometimes I'm really happy to be over 50 and not concerned with being post-modern, post-ironic, or whatever the trendy culture is.

Oh, and just so I don't miss the chance to be even more obnoxious: HEY ALEX! How come with all the great Top 10 lists over the past year or two, you pick this one to highlight? Was it because you had posted two whole articles without mentioning your girl Sarah?

Okay, so we've got the National Economic Council, the Council of Economic Advisors and now the Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

I'm all for letting Obama at least get sworn in before picking on him, and lord knows he needs as much advice and help as possible with all the crap that Bush is leaving behind - but I hope there aren't any more big-picture economic councils on the way.

...that guy from Delaware?

Or someone else who'll just hold the seat until Chelsea is ready to run?

"...someone in the NEWS business who isn't obsessed with Hillary's campaign rhetoric and is actually interested in current issues."

Sadly, such creatures don't exist in the MSM anymore.

"Poor Joe. He’s like the dark side of the moon, only visible in light reflected from bigger stars."

What crap - on a number of levels, including scientific.

Martinez is just the latest in a line of Florida GOP Doofus Senators, from Ed Gurney to Paula Hawkins to Cornelius MacGillicuddy III (who went by his grandfather's nickname, Connie Mack).

Pardon my McCain-ish ignorance of how to make this a hyperlink to the intertubes:

http://www.236.com/news/2008/12/03/the_bush_family_cannot_take_a_1_10511.php

...this heartwarming image from bushorchimp.com:

http://www.bushorchimp.com/images/pic69.jpg

"Notably, the talking points make no mention of...the Iraq intelligence failures..."

There was no intelligence "failure" - Bush/Cheney distorted the available intelligence.

While the CIA et al suspected that Saddam could be working on WMDs, the actual National Intelligence Estimate in October(?) 2002 qualified that by making it clear there was no hard evidence of such programs. The "unclassified" version of the NIE released to Congress and the public a few days later removed the qualifications.

In addition, the original NIE pointed out the consensus opinion that IF Saddam had WMDs he would NOT use them against us first - but would be likely to if WE attacked Iraq. Needless to say, this also was removed from the "unclassified" NIE.

My source is Vincent Bugliosi's book "The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder", starting around page 100. (I understand why he titled it that, but I think those who are not "Bush haters" like me* would be more likely to look in it if it had a less in-your-face title - dropping the "For Murder", say.)

*Though I don't understand how anyone could NOT hate the SOB.

"The companies, worried that Griffin may remain and somehow punish them if they ignore his wishes..."

"'If you are looking under the hood, then you are calling me a liar,' Griffin replied. 'Because it means you don’t trust what I say is under the hood.'"

I don't think the companies should worry that Griffin will be around after January 20.

"But even though Bush escaped unharmed, why isn't anyone asking that [what went wrong with the system] now?

Mostly because in this particular case, the system basically worked. There wasn't an agent positioned to block the shoe -- because Bush was giving a press conference in a secure room with Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki."

I bet most people figured that everyone in the room would have been searched before being admitted (especially in Iraq, where Dubya still can't go with any advance notice). I did, and I'm no genius. That might explain why no one was asking.

"...the non-southern strategy can work just fine -- maybe better -- with southern nominees"

Somehow, I don't feel that I'm missing anything by not reading your book.

And not just because I live in Florida.

Are you looking for a job at TMZ?