Langevin to skip Senate race

According to the Providence Journal, Rep. Jim Langevin has decided not to enter the Senate race against Lincoln Chafee. I've written in the past about why I thought Langevin might actually be the best candidate to take on Chafee, but this does at least spare us from the year-long spitting contest about abortion that seemed inevitable if he did run.

The article goes on to state that party leaders may ask Rep. Patrick Kennedy to reconsider his decision not to enter the Senate contest, and that they are less than enthusiastic about the prospect of Secretary of State Matt Brown, the only announced Democratic candidate so far, as the nominee. Personally, my sense is that Kennedy is not actually very popular or well-liked, and wins mostly by virtue of having a lot of money and being a Democrat in Rhode Island, so I'm not sure that he's necessarily an improvement over Brown (who is energetic but almost too combative for my tastes).

In any case, in such a tiny and overwhelmingly Democratic state, every race can set off a round of musical chairs, and these last two paragraphs from the ProJo article sum it up nicely:

Langevin's decision will ripple through the state's political hierarchy, affecting the plans of other Democrats and perhaps some Republicans. For example, Democratic Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty, and Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, a Republican, had both been considering running for the 2nd District House seat if Langevin was not a candidate. Now, neither can be expected to take on Langevin, who easily won reelection in 2004.

"This is the shoe everybody has been waiting to drop," said [William] Lynch, the state Democratic chairman. "Now that is has happened, everybody has to make up their minds."

I may have a chance to see Fogarty, with whom I'm not very familiar, speak later tonight at the Brown Democrats meeting. He seems likely to run for something next year, though it's probably now anybody's guess as to what.

Arctic Drilling Passes Senate

51-49.

Blech.

Does anyone know why the two Dems from Hawaii voted for this garbage?

In Defense of Lincoln Chafee

Looks like Chafee provided the crucial vote on Bush's Orwellian-titled "Clear Skies Act":

President Bush's bid to rewrite the nation's air pollution laws ground to a halt in Congress Wednesday when Republicans were unable to overcome objections in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that the bill would weaken central pillars of environmental protection.

[...]

Democrats, joined by Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., and Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., said that negotiations had been conducted in bad faith, that the initiative's pollution control targets were set too low, and that certain loopholes in the bill were irresponsible.

I've been a staunch member of the "Vote Chafee Out" faction among Rhode Island Democrats, but I have to say that things like this make it difficult. To play devil's advocate for a moment, putting aside whatever personal respect I have for Lincoln Chafee, there are certain practical arguments in favor of re-electing him. Since legislation is controlled more by the committees than by floor votes unless there is a majority of only one or two, we're arguably better off with Chafee in a narrowly Republican Senate than we would be with a Democrat. If Chafee loses the next election but the Republicans retain control, his seat on the EPW Committee won't go to his Democratic replacement but to a different Republican. Which means that unless that Republican is somebody like John McCain or Susan Collins, we'll probably be screwed on these sorts of votes. (And even then we might be, in that Chafee is still more pro-environment than any other Senate Republican.)

In other words, it's a nasty Catch-22. If we can't have a Democratic Senate, we might be better off with Chafee. But if we don't beat Chafee, it's going to be even harder to have a Democratic Senate.

No. Just...no.

Daily Kos thread: Bono for President!

Return of the Weird Spam Report

Lately I've been getting a number of spams that are even weirder than the www.url98u.com ones from last year, in that these don't even attempt to sell anything or generally make any sense at all. They're just medium-sized collections of aphorisms and pithy sayings. The best part (for those who enjoy these sorts of things) is the names of the people supposedly sending them. Yesterday, for example, I received this from a certain Anopheles T. Reestablishing:

What's up, then?

Sampai jumpa lagi All men are alike in their lower natures it is in their higher characters that they differ.

The sweetest joy, the wildest woe is love.
The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.
A lie can run around the world six times while the truth is still trying to put on its pants.
A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood.

What is important is not to be able to read rapidly, but to be able to decide what not to read.
Civilization -- a heap of rubble scavenged by scrawny English Lit. vultures. If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people jumping up and down for joy.

A book is a mirror: If an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out.

The major justification for a life is the happiness and reward it brings to other lives.
Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.
You have to make it happen.

Thou shalt not covet but tradition approves all forms of competition.

Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down with incredible swiftness.
A father is a banker provided by nature.

In good films, there is always a directness that entirely frees us from the itch to interpret.
Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with.

Divorce is a declaration of independence with only two signers.

Previous such spammers have included Monoxide A. Goner, Selectmen M. Infestations, Venal C. Suspicions, and Gujranwala C. Cosmetic (the latter two were less verbose -- all they said was "Oops... :) Hei, hei," and "What's up? :) Bo yi bo wa," respectively).

I'm not really sure what all this tells us about anything, other than that Strong Bad is probably right about the Internet.