Beltway Roundup

Here's a smorgasbord of news about beltway politicians and commenters today:

LaShawn Barber can't get over the liberals-hate-black-conservatives line of reasoning. Even though the Senate gave no real resistance to Condoleezza Rice's appointment, she cries "wolf" because of the standard whining of Sen. Barbara Boxer. Any 'racism' line gets stale very quickly when unscrupulously used; LaShawn should keep mum unless the record backs her position. It would be more racist (in a patronizing sense) for Boxer et al to give Rice a free pass; she is, after all, a major player in an administration they are opposed to.

John Kerry showed that he didn't learn anything from his run for president. His 'question', a longwinded labyrinth of subclauses, was the last 'asked' of Rice at her confirmation hearing, which we saw live on C-SPAN last night (Howie Kurtz agrees, and adds the word "stemwinder" to the various descriptions of Kerry's hot air). He failed to either make a coherent point or ask a question. Moreover, his comments seemed half the time to conflict with what he said in the presidential debate. He concluded his ramble by saying how much he wanted to work with Condi in the spirit of bipartisanship. Something must have changed overnight, because today he joined Boxer in voting "nay" as a protest.

Going the opposite direction on the political charts is freshman senator Barack Obama. On Hardball, Chris Matthews and friends fell all over themselves worshipping the Illinoisan. WuzzaDem has a transcript - it's hilarious.

Meanwhile, George W. Bush and company are trying to turn D.C. into a political Mardi Gras for the inauguration. Unfortunately, it's 20 degrees and snowing here, and nobody is really in the mood for a parade that will force them to be frisked by security personnel before standing in the freezing cold for hours. They should move these events back to March where they belong - by then the National Mall is a beautiful destination, not a windswept tundra.