Pat Oliphant

I call him Netanyahoo because of that thing about Beelzebub. Mel Ott was the real Lord of the Flies.

Health Racketeering

If health insurance rates go up just prior to enacting comprehensive health insurance reform, effectively and efficiently shedding small businesses from the group health actuarial pool, then claiming that "prices will go up if health insurance reform passes," is that a threat or just another gloom-and-doom analysis?

If it's a threat, it's racketeering, and some CEO's in the trade should do hefty prison time.

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Kennedy's Senate Seat Goes Republican in Massachusetts!!? Yup, and some woman lawyer named MARTHA COAKLEY is the one who reglazed the glass ceiling. You'll forget her name by tomorrow — I already have — but Massachusetts is not the only State where Democrats indulge themselves in suicidal sentiment about who has "the right to run." Before you think "Roxanne Conlin against Chuck Grassley," remember Roxanne Conlin against Terry Branstand, and conjure up a vision of the incredibly high-stakes defeat in Massachusetts. The parallels between the two women are downright eerie.

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I'm beginning to entertain doubts about Barack Obama, in particular his lack of presence on the Haiti issue. As much as I hate to say so, it really does look as if military experience is a prerequisite for high office.

Sick transit, Gloria Monday

I voted for Barack Obama, even though I think he's a titch overrated. My first choice, back in the caucusii last year, was Joe Biden. In fact, Obama reminds me of the young Jack Kennedy just before the Bay of Pigs. Cool, collected, confident, ignorant... Arrogant.

In fact, I expect Biden is ten times exactly right; Obama will be tested, and Obama will prove himself a consummate fool on the world stage before he ever starts paying attention to history and exercising independent thought, especially in the Middle East.

Hillary Clinton's appointment to State reminds me of George McClellan's appointment to the Army of the Potomac, frankly. She'll be a pedestrian gadabout with a colossal chip on her shoulder and no sense for the urgency of the times.

Li'l ol' Barack Obama, a celeb-rity?

You mean like... like... Ahnold "Dutch" Schwarzenegger? Or Ronnie Rayguns? I think McCain must be blowing out his last working synapse. Celebrities achieve political status all the time. Obama may be the first politician since Jack Kennedy to be popular before he was elected Governor of California.