One certainty: You'll hear FauxNews and all the usual gang bleating about Ted Olson's intimate connection to 9/11 and how he is especially suited to fight the war on terror.

That connection, of course, comes via his late wife, Barbara, who died on American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11/2001. In no way do I minimize the devastation Mr. Olson must have felt, and must still feel, at the loss of his wife that day -- I merely point out that those supporting his widely expected nomination will flog her death shamelessly.

You can bank on that, folks -- it WILL happen if he's nominated.

The roll-over-and-die Democrats have now been told what their next capitulation will be.

I'm confused. A member of the Democratic leadership is showing some intestinal fortitude, and not rolling over and giving Bush whatever he wants. He seems to be, I'm not sure, it sound's weird to say. He seems to be responding to the will of the people. Am I in bizarro world? Am I through the looking glass?

I have this strange, buoyant feeling, that may be hope, but I'm wary, as I've been burned so many times before. So I'll supress it, and wait for the Dem's to give in and disappoint me, like they have so many times before.

But I really hope I'm wrong.

The very last thing Bush will do is nominate anyone who has any respect for the law. He can't afford to.

My Prediction

Bush nominates Olsen. Reid hums and hahs. Olsen is confirmed. Reid says there was nothing he could do because he didn't have 60 votes in the Senate or a spine and anyway its not nice to block the Presidents wishes.

You're probably right, RichEmery. Which prompts the question: does Ted Olson have a conflict of interest? As Attorney General, wouldn't Olson be interpreting the Patriot Act and other 9/11-related laws? Doesn't he have a personal stake in bending the law to catch anyone at all connected to his wife's murder?

Although I'm pretty certain we're not allowed to suggest such things.

Not to mention the whole lying-to-Congress-about-the-Arkansas-Project thing.

Of course, his winning Bush V. Gore as Bush's lawyer against the People of the US, would never be construed as "partisan" would it?

And yeah, it's probably the same Ted Olson who remains so broken up over the loss of his wife on 9/11 that he is already married to her replacement, wife # 4.

Reid sticks to this. Olson would be a poke in the eye.

So *this* is what Reid is going to grow a spine about? Never mind that all it takes is Lieberman siding with Bush to ensure that whoever Bush nominates gets confirmed. But why would Reid pick this issue to get all riled up about?

Seems like he's trying to look tough on a day when everybody is talking about the Dems rolling over on Iraq yet again.

Nice try, Harry. Unless you actually get something done about Iraq, you're going to be seen as spineless regardless of whatever meaningless gestures you come up with.

Harry, you impotent bastard, you know you'll capitualte. Don't make the defeat worse by teasing us about it. Remember, Harry, if you don't do what George says, he'll have his friends call you names and you know you just can't STAND for anyone to call you names. Go ahead and say it, Harry. Go ahead, it won't hurt so much if you say it. Aye. That's what you'll say, Harry. When the vote comes you'll say Aye. You impotent bastard.

As Einstein said, Harry Reid and the Dems have not failed. They've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

And I doubt that this time will be any different.

If Generalissimo Bush wants this asshole in, he's going to get in. That's how it works in a dictatorship, folks.

And Reid is incapable of doing anything useful, as we will find out when a Republican, gasp, wins the next election, despite their utter incompetence and disgrace...

but unfortunately absolutely nothing else.

Theodore Olson Resume. Submitted to the Oval Office:

Intimate friend of Karl Rove for many years. Call me Ted.

Ted's wife, Barbara, former federal attorney (like the rest of the legal population of monumental Washington) and a frequent talking head on TV promoting right wing causes and submitting "evidence" and arguments for the impeachment and conviction of Bill Clinton throughout the 1990's. A real honey, with forked tongue. RIP.

Ted Olson, major voice on the board of the American Spectator, neocon propaganda magazine, during the 1990's "Arkansas Project", funded by deluded zillionaire recluse, Richard Mellon Scaife, who also funds several of the most prominent right wing think tanks in the US. The "Arkansas Project" exposed by journalists Joe Conason and Gene Lyons in their best seller "The Hunting of the President" (and that's only one of several books addressing the subject; also prominently featured on salon.com), smeared Bill and Hillary Clinton by hiring thugs and politicians who lied and schemed to promote the impeachment that followed. Entire mess ignored by the corporate media. Read the book and salon.com archives. They're dazzlers.

Appointed Solicitor General by G.W. Bush and successfully argued before the Supreme Court to disallow the further counting of faulty ballots in the State of Florida election in 2000, thus handing over the general election to George W. Bush.

Resigned his post as Solicitor General when he saw Bush's fortunes as a president rapidly descending. BUT, appointment to AG ? Well, that's another matter entirely !

Ted also wears a very cute and "mod' ( you remember that word, don't you ? ) blondish wig, thus represents the striving toward that youthful look that good Republicans like Ralph Reed sport to attract the fundamentalist religious youth to the movement.

Anything else ?

Oh, yes, I forgot.

Ted's a very shrewd cookie and as unscrupulous as any bad lawyer joke you might conceive. Just right as AG for the Bush mob. Very bad for the rest of us.

that for once Reid actually means what he says and doesn't capitulate. Olson is a right-wing hack par excellence--hardly the person needed to restore some decency to the DOJ.