Lynx
More exciting things in a week ago in politics, and in life:
- As recently as earlier this year, Washington insiders thought that Virginia Senator George Allen was the most likely Republican nominee in 2008. All of a sudden, though, his prospects don't look so good: John McCain seems to have taken the inside track, thanks to his aggressive courting of conservatives, and George Allen might actually have a serious challenge for reelection to the Senate in 2006. Former Virgina Gov. Mark Warner's choice for the Democratic nomination seems to be a guy named Harris Miller, but personally I'm most intrigued by Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Navy, Jim Webb, who's running as a Democrat on the same rural strategy that got Warner himself elected in 2001.
So Allen's getting a more spirited challenge than everyone expected. His situation actually directly contradicts that of Hillary Clinton: Clinton has no serious challenger, but always talks in terms of winning her 2006 reelection, avoiding any discussion of her potential 2008 presidential candidacy. Allen, who admittedly has to build up his national profile if he wants to have a serious presidential shot, has two potentially serious challengers, rarely talks of his 2006 reelection and aggressively works the 2008 Invisible Primary scene (another blog post in itself). This means we get New York Times stories like this:
George Allen makes little secret that he is bored with life in the Senate.
"I made more decisions in half a day as governor than you can make in a whole week in the Senate," Senator Allen said earlier this month.
Smooth. I mean, if/when Allen loses his presidential run, Virginia would be stuck with him as senator until 2013, unless we beat him now. Fortunately the DSCC has a good idea to resolve Allen's intellectual ennu:
Since we presume Allen will be taking his name off the ballot so that he can look a job that will hold his interest, DSCC Executive Director J.B. Poersch is sending a letter to the NFL today recommending Bored George to succeed outgoing NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.
See, George Allen's dad is a Hall of Fame NFL coach too, and George Allen fils uses too many football puns when talking about politics. It's a perfect fit. - Next, what matters is not that I'm going to graduate law school, go work at the firm, and make a ton of money. No, what matters is that I'm going to make a shit-ton of money:
The biggest New York firms in February leapfrogged the others and bumped first-year pay to $145,000. Since then, the walls have crashed in, with firms headquartered in London, Washington, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston and elsewhere all adjusting upward.
That doesn't include the $35,000 bonus at the end of the year if I sufficiently never leave the office. All told, my first job out of law school could very well pay me exactly ten times as much as my first job out of college. Yes, I'm rubbing it in. No, I don't care. Let's also not forget the $200,000 of debt. - Speaking of not caring, Maddox just launched his book website. If you don't know who Maddox is, he's the only person on the internet who runs The Best Page In The Universe and might actually be right. I may find myself intentionally buying a book called "The Alphabet Of Manliness."
- We all know at this point that Bob Novak is a disingenuous, partisan hack, but I like pointing it out anyway, so, here's a good example of how Bob Novak sounds objective when he's really not:
Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has taken the unusual step of targeting his Republican counterpart, Rep. Tom Reynolds, for defeat in his upstate New York district. There is no record of a House campaign committee chairman ever being defeated for re-election by the opposition party.
Wow! Why do we tolerate letting Democratic leaders campaign against their Republican counterparts? Don't we want bipartisanship in Washington? Well, I'll tell you this: if you're the first person to find me an example of Bob Novak disparaging Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist for going to South Dakota in 2004 to campaign against then-Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, I owe you a Coke. Asshole.
More fun to follow!