Lunchtime Notes

A couple of diaries over at Kos that might be of interest to you.

First, Joe Rospars has a diary up about the DNC's 50-state strategy. He wrote it in response to this comment in another thread:

When he first started talking about needing to create a staff in all 50 states, I was like "What the hell do you MEAN the DNC didn't already have staff in all 50 states?"

Joe also mentions that the Democracy Bonds community is "a core of Dean's financial plan for the party." I don't know about the rest of you, but I haven't bought a Democracy Bond and don't know if I will. Between taekwondo and gymnastics lessons, the cost of commuting (which isn't cheap here in DC), monthly bills, our weekly donations to church and soon, the capital fund, I really can't get into the idea of "giving till it hurts." I like to have a bit of a cushion, a strategy that worked out well when some unexpected dental bills came up over the summer. Besides, I have an aversion to tying my political support to a dollar figure. I think any political figure ought to work just as hard on my behalf regardless.

And that position means I won't be getting any special attention from the DNC any time soon. Kos member Ramsay blogged about a briefing by Howard for DNC contributors last evening.

The final vote to confirm Roberts, by the way, was 78-22, with more than half of the Democratic caucus voting yea. I do not want to hear one more word about "keeping our powder dry." I'm not saying we should have filibustered but for pity's sake, Harry Reid should have been out there getting Democrats to vote the party line. Most disappointing was Pat Leahy: all the noise he made about Roberts at the beginning was for naught. And now they're warning about stiff opposition if they think the next candidate is too conservative? Talk about a toothless threat.

The Democratic Party has further hurt its credibility by not mounting an effective opposition to Roberts--and they hope to capitalize on what's happening to the GOP to pick up seats in 2006? I think they've got their work cut out for them.

Tom Oliphant opines that Ted Kennedy's doubts about Roberts may prove right:

Where most of us saw reassurance in John Roberts's confirmation hearing as chief justice, Kennedy saw spin. Where most of us saw the absence of a solid, evidentiary peg on which to hang a no vote, Kennedy saw the absence of a basis for a yes vote that is too important to be cast on traditional grounds of qualification and temperament. Where most of us saw a detail-dominated mind resembling a grounded conservative like Anthony Kennedy, Kennedy saw disturbing similarities to a revolutionary who masked his views 14 years ago: Clarence Thomas.

And the latest on Tom DeLay is that he will eventually plead nolo contendere ("I will not contest it.") A plea in a criminal case which does not require the defendant to admit guilt--although it has a similar legal effect as pleading guilty--but the defendant does not contest the facts on which the charge is based. Some judges refuse to accept such pleas in criminal cases.