McCain Didn’t Vote for Bush

For what it is worth, John McCain apparently did not vote for President Bush in the 2000 general election.  The story was first broke on Arianna Huffington’s blog on Monday, and the account has now been confirmed by Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff, who were both at the dinner:

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/05/09/west_wing_actors_confirm_accou.html

Of course, Senator McCain denies the story, and he has spent the better part of the past 8 years denying there was a rift or real animosity between him and President Bush.  That’s to be expected, as he would’ve gained nothing and lost a lot if he had said publicly that he hates Bush’s guts.  Of course, there have been persistent media speculation the past 8 years that McCain loathes the President.  And he probably does, at least on some level.  The 2000 primaries did become rather nasty, especially the illegitimate black child rumors circulated surreptitiously by Karl Rove to scare white voters in South Carolina away from McCain for that pivotal primary.  But it remains to be seen if this story will have any legs or make an actual impact on Republican voters deciding how passionately they would like to see McCain win this November.

Catastrophe in Myanmar

Perhaps a crazy thought, but I personally think we should ignore the wishes of the military junta in Myanmar, airlift food and other emergency supplies to the devastated areas, and see if the junta has the balls to shoot at relief planes sending help to their people.  I’m for giving it a shot.

Jason Michaels Trade

Jason Michaels was traded from one baseball team I root for, the Cleveland Indians, to my primary team, the Pittsburgh Pirates for the always vaunted Player To Be Named Later (PTBNL).  As a result of the trade, Nyger Morgan was sent back to AAA.  I think its a reasonable move for the Pirates.  Michaels can be a useful bench player, and its best that Morgan get sent down so he can get some playing time.  He wasn’t getting it in Pittsburgh given the start that Nate McLouth is off to.  And, so far as that goes, I figure Morgan will only be in the minors 2-2.5 months.  He’ll be recalled to fill the roster spot after the Pirates dump Nady and/or Bay to a contender in July.

Michaels was not hitting particularly well in Cleveland and so was sacrificed when they recalled Ben Francisco this week, but he is as I said a solid player, good defense, usually hits better than he was for the Tribe this spring.  He can be useful off the bench, spot starting, and insurance should a regular get injured (which tends to happen at some point in the long season).

As for the Pirates themselves, about a half hour ago they posted a 3-2 win over Atlanta on a Freddie Sanchez walkoff single plating Brian Bixler.  Its a 4 game winning streak and it brings them within a couple games of .500.  I’m sure the other shoe will drop sooner or later, but if they do stay hot for awhile, it would not be an unprecedented pattern for recent vintage Pirates: middling April, good May, terrible June that kills any promise, spend July trading any good players getting near the point where you would have to pay them actual money for prospects that usually don’t pan out.  But, we shall see.

Keystone Conflict Game 1

Behind two goals from Evgeni Malkin the Penguins claim Game 1 over the Flyers.  Perhaps to be expected given the Pens had won both previous Game 1s these playoffs, and the Flyers lost both.  Game got off to a sloppy start with a number of turnovers becoming goals for both teams.  Philly was doing a good job early in crashing the net, keeping plays alive until they found a way to slip the puck behind Fleury.  But the Pens stabilized and got the eventual game winner off a turnover and onto the stick of Malkin with 6 seconds left in the period.  The Pens played great defense in the last 40 minutes, Malkin got the shorthanded goal in the 2nd period after being knocked down hard.  Indeed, the Flyers hit him too good, he was just getting back up towards the play when the Pens got a turnover and threw the puck back down the ice to him.  Fleury made several very good saves in the 3rd period and the Pens ran out the clock.  Very physical game, and a good start to the series for the Pens.  The Flyers did seem to miss Kimmo Timanen tonight.  They are saying he will be out indefinitely, but I would not be shocked if he appears later in this series.  We shall see.  Go Pens!

More George Will Blogging

He pretty well mocks Hillary Clinton staying in the race.  As I have already blogged I have no problem with her continuing the race to June.  But his analogies include the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates, so I was hooked:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/07/AR2008050703190.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

Patriot Games

The NFL is now in possession of proof the New England Patriots cheated to win the 2002 AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/sports/football/08nfl.html?th&emc=th

Not really anything that can be done about it, which is why I won’t much mind if this just sort of gets swept under the rug now.  Dan Rooney is being rather calm about it.  Of course the Steelers eventually got a Super Bowl win since then, something that can’t be said about the Rams for example.

Here Comes the Judge

Senate compromise that will fill two long-standing vacancies on the Federal Appeals Court based in Ohio.  How long you ask?  The liberal half of this compromise was originally appointed by President Clinton:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/washington/08judges.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Probably a sensible compromise, but it begs the question why this could not have been done years ago?  And it points to a larger problem.  The 9 Supremes get the lions share of the headlines, but the vast majority of federal jurisprudence is handled by the lower courts, and they pile up a backlog of cases because judges retire or die and their seat remains vacant for years and years while politics are played in Washington.  True believers in both parties routinely pressure the Senate into voting down or fillibustering appointees they believe are dangerous.  It used to be only the dangerously ideological or flat-out incompetent got “Borked” or “Carswelled”.  Now Republicans block perfectly reasonable Clinton appointees, Democrats block perfectly reasonable Bush appointees and so on and so forth ad infinitum.  That needs to stop.

Al Michaels to NFL Network?

It would be in addition to his duties with NBC for Sunday Night Football.  And it would create a rather full slate late in the season.  Personally, I like Al Michaels a bit more than Tom Hammond, but they wouldn’t be going wrong either way.

http://awfulannouncing.blogspot.com/2008/05/about-those-al-michaels-to-nfl-network.html

Cavs Drop Game 1

A close and very low scoring affair in Boston in which the Celtics made more plays in the final minute and come away with the win.  Aggravating thing is the Cavs almost won despite a very off night from Lebron James.  Indeed, also worrisome wondering why Lebron suddenly can’t make layups in the closing seconds?  Still if Cleveland can steal Game 2 on Thursday night they’ll get the split they wanted, and even if they fail to do that they can make it a long series by defending home court Saturday and next Monday.

Indiana/North Carolina Postgame

Hillary won Indiana by a little bit (Lake County having eventually been heard from) and Obama won North Carolina by a substantial margin.  As a result Obama now apparently leads the all-important delegate count by roughly 160 and is perhaps less than 200 from the nomination.  The math for Hillary looks very difficult as she probably can’t win now assuming Obama avoids a serious ****-up or bombshell in the next few weeks.  Which has all renewed calls for Clinton to quit the race now to allow the party to heal and spare it worse division.  If she gets out I won’t mind but I still don’t see a rush to.  Personally, once the race is down to two people I think the 2nd person should stay in until the leader clinches it.  I still proceed under the assumption that Hillary people will back Obama in the fall against McCain and the Republicans.  Certainly the actual Democrats voting for Hillary will.

Others are saying she should soft-land by staying in until she wins West Virginia next Tuesday and then get out.  That makes no sense to me.  Why would you quit after winning?  I guess if it were a shockingly narrow win, and certainly if she gets beat in the Mountaineer State quitting might make sense.  But a smashing win would bolster the reason for staying in, not getting out.

And some think she should stay in but ratchet down the rhetoric.  In other words, don’t beat up on Obama anymore.  That doesn’t make sense either.  That’s like telling a golfer that is 3 down with 2 holes to play that he can finish his round but should purposefully avoid making birdies, but stay out there just in case Obama goes Jean Van de Velde on you.  If you are going to do that you may as well suspend your campaign entirely but hold your committed delegates just in case Obama has a live boy/dead girl problem pop up in the next 3 months.

I would also caution the punditocracy that Obama is not as close to the nomination as your numbers make it look when you count superdelegates.  They are not pledged to him.  If something came along to cause an erosion in his support, those supers could flip to Hillary and change the math in a heartbeat, just like some supers have left Hillary for Obama (George McGovern today for example).  While that is not likely either at this point, its certainly possible and I don’t think Hillary should be blamed for sticking around and plugging away and seeing what happens.