Massachusetts grinds to a halt as EMK is mourned, scorned

I have to be honest.  I didn’t know that Senator Kennedy had succumbed to brain cancer until I walked by a newspaper machine at about ten in the morning yesterday.  I don’t think I’ve ever felt quite so out of touch.  Since jzuk (resident obituary writer) hasn’t penned anything about Kennedy’s death — justifiably, since he’s fielded pretty much every other notable personage who has passed this year — I’ll go ahead and type a few words.

Zombie undead blogging the Sotomayor hearings: Couple of brief thoughts.

The racism complaints were fundamentally silly, I never would have guessed what a hottie young Sotomayer was, we’ve already nabbed 3 Republicans who publicly support her confirmation and Newt Gingrinch really has a terrible grasp on reality for the following quote:

“If she rules as a justice the way she has testified then conservatives won’t have very much to complain about. If she gets acceptance by fundamentally misleading the Senate, then I think you’ll have a very different situation.”

Except, Mr. Promise to America, she doesn’t have to give a damn about conservatives, because you’re in the minority, and a pretty significant one.  We’re not talking the nearly 50/50 splits that have been the hallmark of the Senate for the past 12 years;  we have a super-majority. And in the case of a judicial nominee, we’re going to see Dems toe the party line.

So no, she isn’t being accepted by “fundamentally misleading  the Senate”, she’s being accepted because, as your colleague Graham stated, “Barack Obama won, and that has to count for something.”  In this case, it counts for everything.

New Majority Leader in our Fantasy Senate

Faithful admin scrahan, in his warning to fellow progressives that we have not entered a liberal Mecca, commented on the overall uselessness of Harry Reid.  Like many in DC at the time of the great Congressional switch of 2006, I was intrigued by the idea of a Majority Leader Hillary Rodham Clinton (obviously a non-starter at this point given her latest, and possibly more illustrious post as SoS).

Jzuk and I have proceeded to bandy about possible replacements for Reed.  Feel free to join us!  In fact, we actively invite all y’all to do so.  To get the ball rolling we initially suggested:

• Barbara Boxer
• Chuck Schumer
• Russ Feingold
• Claire McCaskill

Your turn.

ETA: I realized that I’ve been misspelling the four-letter surnamed Harry Reid’s name while, ironically, going to great lengths (read: googling her) to ensure I got McCaskill’s name right.  My English teachers would be proud.