Happy New Year

A new year, a new congress, and soon a new president. 2009 is shaping up to be a barnburner. Let's touch on some of the most recent developments:

Roland Burris: The Senate should not seat Roland Burris. He may be qualified for the job, but aside from Gov. Blagojevich's compromised stature the very fact that he accepted the nomination either means that he is politically inept, or extremely suspect. Or both. Politics is perception, and simply by accepting Blagojevich's nomination, he forever gave up the image that he is clean. Is he tainted? I don't know. Are you willing to find out?

Al Franken: It appears that Al Franken has beat out incumbent Norm Coleman to be the next senator from Minnesota -- as if we needed more evidence that this was a crazy election cycle.

Bill Richardson: The massive Obama vetting-machine seems to have faltered. Oops. Well, I guess they can't get it all right all of the time. However you want to categorize Richardson's nomination and now withdrawal, let's move on. There's too much to get done to fixate on issues like this.

Israel And Hamas: We in the United States are in the very enviable spot of being largely protected by position. To the north is Canada, to the south is Mexico, and with the exception of the Cuba/Soviet relationship of the 1960s we have never been in a position to expect repeated, close homeland conflict with an enemy. Israel is not so lucky. We're a country surrounded (by and large) by friends. Israel is surrounded by enemies.