Gambling in River City

The warm temps are back and so is the humidity. I was just over the sinus headache and now I feel it starting again. The air conditioning is running again. Bleek.

So, how long did the bi-partisanship mumbo jumbo last after last week's elections? Already it has been announced the Senate committee running the re-confirmation hearings on John Bolton's U.N. ambassadorship will not allow a vote out of committee, thus no vote on the Senate floor, so he's dead in the water. Bolton deserves better. He has done a stellar job and the dems know he would be confirmed with a good majority on the Senate floor, so they have to shut that down. There is a way for the president to get around the Senate approval but I don't know if he has it in him to do it.

The Dems are handing Chavez, Kofi Annan and Aminijahad a bouquet of flowers with that victory.

Maybe if Bolton would just promise to go to North Korea and do the Macarana and bring along more autographed basketballs.

Nancy Pelosi, incoming House leader, has thrown her support to her old buddy Jack Murtha for second in command. He is being rewarded for his orchestrating Pelosi's ascension to the top several years back over Steny Hoyer, the current number two guy. Plus, he was the darling of the press and the far left crowd with his cut and run and hide out in Okinawa. Well, he's a former Marine, he's above reproach, isn't he? Umm, no. He can be just as wrong as the next person.

In 1980, Murtha was caught on tape by the FBI in the ABSCAM scandal. He was offered $50,000 to help Arab sheikh get into this country. He didn't accept this particular offer of money but told the FBI undercover agent he wanted to do business with them. Murtha never called the FBI or police to report the attempted bribe and nailed his own coffin.

Pelosi has inserted herself into the race for the number two slot now underway in the House. This is rarely done by the Majority Leaders but that is Pelosi's nature. She is an uber control freak and insists on blind loyalty. She makes Tom DeLay look like a choirboy when it comes to running her caucus. It'll all start coming out now that the power has shifted.

You knew it was time to run for the hills when she pompously stated she'll have the most ethical leadership ever. Yeah, that's what Hill and Bill said when their co-presidency began and they turned out to be the most subpoenaed and indicted administration in recent history. It's always the misbehavers that feel they have to tell you how ethical they are.

It's kind of like when a couple tells you how blissfully happy they are after all these years and the next week they are filing for divorce.

Not that I'm cynical about it all.

And Harry Reid, the incoming Majority Leader in the Senate is coming under the spotlight over yet another land deal from which he profits in Nevada. He has quite the knack for it, being just a poor boy from Searchlight Nevada and all. Turns out he backed funding for a bridge between Nevada and Arizona that affects the value of property nearby that he owns.

Reid has pledged more openness on the practice of earmarking, funding pet projects for their districts, so time will tell as he continues to enrich himself. With all of his sons as lobbyists in D.C., I doubt any of them will go hungry.

The first big Christmas tree was lit Saturday night at the Galleria. It gets earlier and earlier.

It'll be in the 70's here today. Warmer later in the week.