You're going to have to enlighten me Toro - why exactly do you think Leahy is so great, exactly?

Where to begin?

First congressional dem from Vermont since slavery, first ever senator. Told by Dick Cheney to "fuck himself". Twice chair of Senate Judiciary Committee, recipient of Champion of Freedom Award for work on privacy. Tore Al Gonzales a new one on extraordinary rendition. Observed of John Ashcroft's claim that criticising the president was tantamount to treason that "the Attorney General has the same second amendment rights as the rest of us." Opposed PATRIOT 2 and got the interim appointments provision removed as a result. Collects Grateful Dead bootlegs and Batman comics and saw the Beatles' first US gig.Deeply nuanced yet principled understanding of SCOTUS appointments.


He blotted his copybook horrendously over DOMA, but that's about it.

Heh, by the end of that post Toro is feverishly scraping a patch of ground where a barrel once used to be.

Grateful Dead bootlegs, indeed.

That was the first line I wrote. I think it's a really cool piece of trivia. It also gives a sense of the guy, culturally balancing out his Catholic-but-lefty voting record.

So...he's a democrat...from Vermont...with a sharp tongue and some non-fogeyish takes in music and literature...and has voted the right way on a few key bills.

I'd probably vote for him, but this seems a little thin as a record for a - what - six-term senator?

Edited higlights will seem a bit thin, if you're not looking at the rest, yeah.

As I say, given the tininess of Vermont's electoral college weight, its prevailing ("Live Free Or Die") political currents, and the total weight of what he has managed, both politically and rhetorically, he's a geuinely stellar senator.

Apart from DOMA.

"Live free or die" is New Hampshire, not Vermont. (Vermont's motto is the more focus-group-friendly -if-slightly-sounds-like-its-missing-the-point "Freedom and Unity")

Vermont elects socialists, for God's sake. And they put up with all that Ben and Jerry's nonsense for decades.

Isn't Vermont a West Coast state that got so wasted one night it couldn't find its way home?

My bad on the Live Free Or Die thing. But which socialists? He was the first Democrat congressman from there since the civil war, and the first ever Dem senator. If you're claiming it has since become a hotbed of the radical left, I'd have to think that stands in his favour too :p

Behold, Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders of the US House of Representatives.

And fair enough AdC may have a point there.

Bob Kerrey in Sunday's NY Daily News:

QUOTE:
Build a bridge, Barack Obama

I support and will do what I can to help Sen. Barack Obama become our next President. Among other reasons, I believe he has a unique capacity to get world leaders to collaborate with the United States to fight the war on terror, negotiate good trade agreements and get the world on the track of sustainable economic growth.

Still, there is a lot to admire about Sen. John McCain. I agree with many of his ideas, regard him as one of the few political leaders who is willing to take a stand on unpopular issues when the cause demands it, and believe he, too, would make a very good President.

I know that it is unlikely that McCain would be offered or accept a position in President Obama's cabinet. I also know that if and when President Obama is drafting his first State of the Union address - and laying out big policy goals - he is going to need important GOP allies and lots of bipartisan goodwill.

From this comes a modest proposal and an immodest wish: That Obama begin now to look for opportunities to say to McCain: “I agree with you on that.”

James Wolcott on this:

QUOTE:
When I first started reading this in the Sunday edition of the Daily News (NY), I assumed it was written by Michael Goodwin--it had his ineffable touch of imperishable platitude lying pale-belly up on the page. But, no, it was the brainwork of Bob Kerrey, former Democratic senator, current president of the New School, and one of those bipartisan junkies who thinks the only way to solve America's problems is to glue an Abe Lincoln beard on Sam Waterston and heed his craggy wisdom. He's also one of those fetishists who thinks "changing the tone in Washington" is some vital necessity. The purpose of his tone-changing piece is to offer unsolicited advice to Barack Obama on how Obama should conduct himself with his opponent, John McCain--advice that Obama should handle with tongs and dispose of in a plastic baggy. I've always found this genre of opinion piece--the What So-and-So Needs to Do guidance statement--as impertinent and pointless as its cousins Here Is the Speech the Candidate Should Make about My Pet Topc and the Open Letter to the Famous Personage ("Dear Hillary, Sure you're hurting now, but in a few weeks..."), that notoriously coy device. Why should Obama take campaign counsel from Kerrey, a former Hillary-supporter, especially when the counsel is as wet noodle as what Kerrey is peddling here? "I support and will do what I can to help Sen. Barack Obama become our next President," before offering a tepid recipe for certain loserdom.

James Wolcott might make a good VP.

Except that, if you'll recall, some of Obama's best lines are actually about moving beyond "red America and blue America" and towards "the United States of America". Which implies bipartisanship.

Yep, but he supplies non-vapid content to illustrate what that would involve. Superb piece by Wolcott.

Dear Obama, Fuck off. Sincerely...

http://www.mail.com/Article.aspx?articlepath=APNews\Top-Headlines\20080701\Obama-Faith.xml&cat=topheadlines&subcat=&pageid=1/]If your names not Dan (or Luke, or Peter or Jebediah) you ain't gettin' in