Wednesday Wrap Up

How much does an endorsement for the Democratic nomination for President cost? In the case of the endorsement televised Monday of Tom Vilsack and his wife Christie of Senator Clinton the price is $400,000. That's the debt his now abandoned campaign for the same office is strapped with and since she has such an abundance of money in her coffers, I guess it's no big deal to her. Word is that Obama's campaign only offered Vilsack the paltry amount of $5,000. Obama is going to have to step up into the majors to keep up with Hill.

John McCain stopped campaigning in Florida to make it back for the Senate vote to surrender yesterday. He told his crowd that the surge strategy is beginning to show good signs of success and "is working far better than even the most optimistic supporter had predicted. Progress is tangible in many key areas dspite the fact that only 40% of the planned forces are in Iraq." No wonder the Dems in the Senate were so strident in forcing the vote - can't let success get in the way of surrender.

History will not look kindly on today's Democrat party.

With friends like Senator Jim Webb, his old friend and former Marine Phillip Thompson doesn't need any enemies. Webb allowed Thompson to sit in jail overnight on the charges brought against him for carrying the Senator's loaded, unwrapped pistol into the Russell building, along with two loaded magazines, in his briefcase. Monday was Thompson's 45th birthday. Now Webb denies having any part of the episode, even though the pistol is his. He goes off on a tangent about how the president is protected and the senators aren't whenever he is asked about carrying a gun. A member of the Capitol Hill press corps yelled "duck" as Webb came around a corner at noon to speak to reporters! Webb doesn't seem like a real stable character to me. What with the exaggerated serious voice, the macho stride in his walk and the penchant for outbursts of temper. He thinks he's a little more important than he really is, I think.

There was a photo in an online column I read of a woman in Iraq doing a dramatic oration to celebrate "International Theatre Day" at the Iraqi National Theatre in Baghdad. What? Theatre in Baghdad? A signal of success not being focused on here at home? Shocking, I know. You'd think now that Brian Williams of NBC has gone and come back astonished of the progress being made there, and admitting it on air, that others might pick up on the thread. Nope. Still got the likes of Richard Engel talking of utter defeat and those that join in the chorus.

Do they think the military personnel will forget in later years how their mission was portrayed?

Houston has a truly fine Halocaust Museum. I've been there twice and have learned so much each time from the exhibits. Each year they present an award of courage to a worthy person, connected with the Jewish community. Former receipients have included Stephen Speilberg. This year the award will be presented to Daniel Pearl, the beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter stationed in Pakistan. His parents will accept the award at the dinner here for him in May.

What a story. His last words to his killers? "I am a Jew". He wouldn't submit. A lesson can be learned there.

His parents must be so proud.