A pretty good week

It's been a pretty good week in Washington.

1. Sonya Sotomayor was confirmed by a good solid vote in the Senate.

All Democrats and 9 Republicans voted for her. A few of the Republicans who voted against her may have done so on firmly held principles, but I'm convinced most of the opposition was pure politics -- or at least blinkered thinking that refused to accept the fact that her 17 year record as a federal judge does not show any pattern of bias or "letting her feelings sway her votes."

Instead, the fact that her speeches show that she does have strong feelings and opinions that DO NOT show up as a pattern in her decisions should prove the very opposite to their claim that she cannot put aside her feelings when making decisions.

2. Bill Clinton made a highly successful trip to North Korea to finalize the negotiated release of the two women journalists held captive.

Of course, much behind the scenes work went on ahead of time, and Bill's trip was largely symbolic and requested by the Dear Leader. But it was a small price to pay for their safe return, and the expenses were paid by contributions from his wealthy friends and contributors. No tax payer money went into it, except for the secret service protection that Bill is entitled to as a former president, wherever he goes.

Republicans couldn't resist trying to paint this as a blunder that would set back the (non-existent) nuclear negotiations. That's a load of manure. George Bush set back the negotiations that Clinton had left in place at the end of his term 8 years ago. Six years into Bush's presidency, he had just about crept back from his cowboy, axis-of-evil caper to the place Clinton left things in 2001. Well, not exactly. Apparently N.K. now has nuclear weapons capability that they didn't have in 2001. It happened on Bush's (non)watch.

John Bolton managed to be his usual bull-in-the-china-shop self, proclaiming that it we shouldn't have done it, that it only rewarded Kim Il Jung's bad behavior. Hillary whacked him -- laughing off his comments and putting out the best line of the week: She said, "If President Obama walked on water, he [Bolton] would say that Obama can't swim."

3. The unemployment figures for July were not as bad as expected.

They came in at 9.4% -- an actual drop from the previous month and well below the predicted 9.7%. Some were even worried they would go over 10%. And they may still, but it's the first month that they have actually gone down, rather than up, in this long slide.

It's premature to claim that this marks the turn-around, but it is one more indicator that we are on the right track. That, coupled with the highly popular "cash for clunkers" program that has been so successful that it ran out of money and more was appropriated. It helps the environment but, more important, it has stimulated car-buying and is a major boost to the economy.

4. Now, here, I'm going to be a bit polyanna-ish and try to find the glass half-full. The Republicans have sunk to new depths in their knee-jerk opposition to Obama, and they may have gone so far that the American people will lose what little respect they had left for them.

The raucous and sometimes violent protests at the town hall meetings on health care are so obviously a well-organized plan to kill health care reform. There's mounting evidence that it is in part financed by insurance companies or those connected with them. Couple this with the increasingly dangerous branding of Obama as a racist and a socialist by Glenn Beck, Russ Limbaugh -- and even some Congressmen.

Come on, people. Let's see another drop in the opinions polls to show them this doesn't work.

Ralph