Odds and ends

My internet connection has been down for a couple of days. Now that I'm back online, here are a few tidbits that caught my attention:

1. Gov. Sarah Palin campaigned vociferously against the evil of earmarks in the federal budget and sort of played fast and loose with the truth about sending back the earmark money for the Bridge To Nowhere. Guess which state is set to receive the highest per capita earmark bounty in the Omnibus Spending Bill that Congress just signed? Alaska.

2. Another story-reversal from Alaska: Levi Johnston has told the AP that he and Bristol Palin have broken their engagement. In fact, he says, it was mutually decided "a while ago." It's not clear whether that "while ago" preceeded their latest statement about a June wedding.

The cynic in me always thought the wedding would never take place if the Republicans didn't win the election. I could never come up with a reasonable explanation for waiting until June, if they really wanted to marry and had a baby on the way. I know shotgun weddings aren't what they used to be; and, if they chose not to marry, that would be one thing. But these are "family values" folks, for goodness sakes. Strange how family values always seems to get mixed up with politics when you're a Republican.

3. Here's a howler: Senator Sam Brownback today opposed the confirmation of Obama's appointee for the DoJ #3 spot, Thomas Perelli, because in his prior law practice Perelli had represented Terri Schiavo's husband in the fight to take his severely brain damaged wife off life support. Senators brought so much shame to themselves in that political grand-standing stunt, joined by george bush who flew back from his Crawford ranch to sign the emergency bill, that you would think they'd just hope it would be forgotten, not bring it up again.

Perelli was confirmed for the appointment by vote of 72-20.

Ralph