Yes, Republican opponents to John Brennan’s nomination have nothing to crow about, given their Bush era legacy.  And Democratic voters have nothing to crow about, given… their supposed opposition to things Brennan.  Amuse yourself with the comments section at the dailykos.

And now to do what I like to do with these votes… delve into the roll call.

The only two Democrats to buck their President are Merkley of Oregon and Leahy of Vermont.  Insanely enough, Wyden (fellow Rand Paul filibusterer) of Oregon voted yes.  Wyden says he got the documents.  Decide for yourself if this solves all Brennan problems.

If (quasi-Socialist) Sanders of Vermont had voted yes, I would have lost my mind… there aren’t party ties that bind him to Obama, are there?  Luckily, he cast a no.

The challenging thing is to figure out the Republican nos and yehs and break-down.   Because you have to stare and look into the vote blocs.  It looks like Rand Paul led fellow Tea figures like Lee of Utah into the no camp —

, but after that…

Ayotte of New Hampshire is a surprise no vote, only because she has hewed to the hawkish group team of Graham and McCain (replacing Lieberman). But I suppose she falls in with half of the nay voters as “Democrat put him up, so no” as opposed to formulating civil libertarian reasoning.

Mr. McConnell was also careful to note that his own opposition to Mr. Brennan was due to concern that Mr. Brennan had been “a loyal, dogged defender of the administration’s policies—policies with which I seriously disagree.”

For filibuster purposes… Standing with Rand Paul are Rush Limbaugh and Code Pink.  No, the former makes no sense to me… there is a “If this were Bush” quality on him that doesn’t jibe.  And it is the “defending procedural prerogatives” for further implications to other Obama things that energizes him — ie:  It’s Partisan.  And the challenge in looking over the Republican no voters are to differentiate policy and partisanship — McConnell will slide into one end, Paul the other.

I’m a little curious to see if the name “Lincoln Steffens” has popped up in various commentary about the unsolicited diplomacy of Dennis Rodman.    I know Lincoln Steffens was the first name that popped up in my mind when learning about the antics of Dennis Rodman.

It pops up in a commentary to the libertarian Reason Institute, which also drags in Hugo Chavez into the gambit (a tad gratuitously, but he’s in the news).

The one key difference with Lincoln Steffens and “I have seen the future and it works”, after being shuttled about by Stalin is… well, Stalin had things he could show Lincoln Steffens.  Sure maybe he’d also choose not to show Lincoln Steffens some other things, but at least there’s some “there” there.  With North Korea… I gots nothing.

Leafing through the quotes from the … meetings with the new Dear Leader… I think the most problematic quote from Rodman comes around here…

“He wants Obama to do one thing: Call him,” Rodman told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.” “He said, ‘If you can, Dennis – I don’t want [to] do war. I don’t want to do war.’ He said that to me.”

It’s “I don’t want to do war” — which is that sort of passive aggressive stance of “Balls in Your Court.  If it were up to me, I wouldn’t be firing random missiles over the South, but what can you do?”

Actually getting down to the bottom line… and not much reported in the hype of the stunt… how did the Harlem Globetrotters do against their North Korean companions?  (And is this a Harlem Globetrotter game?)

Thursday’s game ended in a 110-110 draw, with two Americans playing on each team alongside North Koreans, Detrick said. The Xinhua News Agency first reported on the game, citing witnesses who attended.

There are no ties in basketball.

Not even reported in the North Korean state media… which does give us this.

Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) — Dennis Rodman, ex-player of the NBA of the U.S., and his party toured the Rungna Dolphinarium on Friday.
The guests expressed deep impressions as they were briefed on the Dolphinarium on picturesque Rungna Islet.
They spent a good time watching dolphins dancing to the tune of cheerful music, jumping in group, spinning rings, jumping into the air and shaking hands with people.
Earlier, they also toured the Tower of the Juche Idea and the Arch of Triumph.

AND a description of the game… sounds exciting.

Looking over to the exciting slate of 2014 Senate races, and the Democrats’ search for who to slot up against Mitch McConnell in Kentucky…

Apparently the Republicans are playing “hardball”.

Ashley Judd is the putative front-runner.

Karl Rove’s American Crossroads PAC has already spent $10,000 in a pre-emptive online advertising campaign to attack Judd as another elite Hollywood liberal.  Rove has vowed that his group will spend money to “make fun” of her.

Let us all now make fun of Ashley Judd.

Among Democrats, the big question is whether Judd has the political toughness to deal with McConnell.

And Karl Rove’s jokes.

An interesting bit of confusion comes in with possible Republican Primary challenge to McConnell.  Try to square this circle, if you can — between these two paragraphs.

He is the main architect of the GOP’s congressional strategy of obstructing virtually every Obama administration nominee and every part of Obama’s legislative agenda. As Senate minority leader, he has broken with centuries of precedent to institute a permanent filibuster in the Senate where every piece of legislation now requires 60 votes instead of a simple majority.

Some Tea Party activists consider McConnell too moderate because he negotiated on deals that led to tax increases and the unpopular sequestration cuts.  A tough GOP primary could split Kentucky Republicans and cause him to spend lots of money, weakening him before an election fight against Judd.

Historical Level of Minority Obstructionism is not enough.

 As for Mitch McConnell’s early strategery…  He, like Karl Rove, plans on making fun of his possible opponents.

Beyond any primary, McConnell also is taunting would-be Democratic challengers in a comical online video intended to raise second thoughts about taking on a politicians known as brawler. Never hugely popular with his constituents, McConnell has managed to win elections by making his opponents even more unpopular.

The video shows Judd, who has a home in the Nashville, Tenn., suburbs, saying “Tennessee is home” and that San Francisco is “my American city home.” It also shows some of Kentucky’s leading Democrats, including Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson, U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, Attorney General Jack Conway and Auditor Adam Edelen, saying they won’t run against McConnell.

That’s.  Really not all that funny.  And except for Ashley Judd — the old “My Opponent is a Carpet Bagger” bit [the “Outside Hollywood Liberals taking me on” will end up a line of attack no matter who ends up running against him] — kind of irrelevant if these opponents — no one really cares if one day a candidate isn’t running for a seat and then the next day he or she is running for a seat.  Also, I guess I have to see this video, but by the description of it — even if I place it up to wacky music — it doesn’t sound all that funny or insulting.

The speculation is running rampant.  Vegas is putting out lines based on … probably limited information.  Interesting note here:

betting on the pope is illegal in the United States.

Bah.  Turn of the Last Century blue-noses, I bet.

Anyway, here’s my prediction:

We’ll find out when the Smoke clears, I guess.

(Blink)  Er… Obama Administration…

This is a phenomom of “Sure, why the hell not?  It’s what people are talking about”.  (We may be at that point in political discourse when the only way we can get substantial parts of the electorate to gravitate to a point is by throwing out pop culture references willy nilly.)

And like John Boehner has anything better up his sleeve.

And Obama goes forth despite the factoid that Star Trek is not Star Wars and…

During his news conference Friday, Obama said some people unfairly expected him to be able to force Republicans to accept his terms. “Even though most people agree… I’m presenting a fair deal, the fact that they don’t take it means that I should somehow do a Jedi mind-meld with these folks and convince them to do what’s right,” he said.
That phrase “Jedi mind meld,”which he uttered during extemporaneous (read: no prompter or script) remarks during the question-and-answer portion of the newser, appears to combine elements from two distinct sci-fi worlds.

The worlds converge, though…  It doesn’t take too long to point out that the director for the next Star Wars and the next Star Trek movie are the same guy.

All right.  The Chicago special election has settled who the next Democratic member in a corrupt one party district… the resigned corrupt congress critter’s crimes if they had been on a smaller scale just might be accetpable in the “We’ve done worse” manner.

And the Republican slated to lose the race.

McKinley, a convicted felon who served nearly 20 years in state prison for burglaries, armed robberies and aggravated battery, declared victory. Wallace, however, was not willing to concede, and he called the prospect of McKinley representing the GOP “an embarrassment.”
McKinley is a frequent protester in Chicago with nearly a dozen arrests to prove it. His campaign mantra has been to rage against the machine. During candidate forums, McKinley has given passionate speeches blaming all of the district’s woes on the long rule of the Democratic Party machine on the South Side and in the south suburbs.
“I was the only one in this party making the effort to rattle the saber against the machine,” said McKinley, who would square off against Democrat Robin Kelly in the April 9 special election in a district that is overwhelmingly Democratic. “I think that’s what resonated.”

The band Rage Against the Machine was not available for comment.

One basic problem.

Wallace expressed disappointment in the turnout, especially the low number of votes cast in Will and Kankakee counties, where he said many Republicans chose to cross over and vote in the Democratic primary to support Debbie Halvorson, who had opposed the president’s proposed assault weapons ban.

I suppose the NRA still has a candidate in the race.

Political protests.  From the description of him, I get the feeling that if I look him up at on youtube I’ll see a youtube stream composed of him just yelling into a bullhorn at aldermen… both sense and nonsense.

Two stories of law making in Montana… seemingly “too good to be true” in terms of diabolical humor.  The “Corporations the right to vote” apparently was… though Steve Lavin will be haunted for the rest of his career by nay-sayers.

The other one may be that case of “mocking the rubes”, but not all that awful if you step back and “consider”.  Salvage Road Kill meat.  Cue that stupid “Road Kill Cafe” t-shirt that’s not all that amusing… and … one note about the bill I have to wonder on…

He added that it certainly wouldn’t apply to situations like “finding a dead squirrel in the middle of the road” either.

Squirrels are exempt.
Why?  Was there pressure from a Squirrel lobby?

Chuck Hagel nomination vote.

The four Republican senators who voted for Hagel: Sens. Thad Cochran (Miss.), Richard Shelby (Ala.), Mike Johanns (Neb.) and Rand Paul (Ky.)

The earlier breaking of the filibuster vote to vote on Hagel.

Weirdly disappointed in, for instance, Murkowski of Alaska and Collins of Maine.  Like, aren’t they supposed to be Moderates not tied to this manner of Extreme Partisanship?

Other than that… Rand Paul voted nay.  Even though he went aye on to vote for the man.  “Against him before he was for him”, if you will.  Here’s Rand Paul’s reasoning — it is all very convoluted… and comes across a tad rationalizing to join the popular (Defend Israel from any faint whiffs as well just thumb Obama) Republican position and popular (Ted Cruz proto McCarthyite as well as thumb the Anti-Christ Obama) Tea Party position while maintaining Iconoclast status and holding onto his Paulian spot of Tea Party…

He’ll try to be the ironic Liberal Hero on John Brennan now.

Then again maybe he’s just voting in a way to draw attention to him?  Like… does anyone care to dwell into his supposed Tea Party dual rival of Ted Cruz of Texas, who… voted as you’d expect, and thus it’s not even worthwhile looking his reasoning up.