Suppose in 2002 the Kennedys (or another "political dynasty") had a son or daughter or cousin they wanted to slip into Illinois' contested U.S. Senate seat. You know the arguments: powerful family, name recognition, can raise bags of money. Done deal. Do not try to resist.
Losing money doesn't feel very good. Losing it as victim of a con feels even worse. And being conned by a trusted friend multiplies the hurt.
Al goes to the doctor.
Al: "I'm still short of breath. I know you told me to quit smoking, and honestly, I've tried. But kicking the habit is really stressful. Doc, can you help me?"
Have New York Democrats lost all self-respect? Their excited talk of whether Caroline Kennedy is "interested" in Hillary Clinton's Senate seat makes you wonder.
Company gives $100,000 to congressman's pet cause. Congressman protects company tax loophole worth tens of millions. Bam! Company gives pet cause another $100,000 check.
America ended Prohibition 75 years ago this week. The ban on the sale of alcohol unleashed a crime wave, as gangsters fought over the illicit booze trade. It sure didn't stop drinking. People turned to speakeasies and bathtub gin for their daily cocktail.
The American "love affair" with cars is close to dead, then-Ford Motor chief Bill Ford lamented six years ago. "In California, people used to write songs about T-Birds and Corvettes," said Henry Ford's great-grandson. "Today, they write regulations." Ford had earlier shocked Detroit by admitting that sport utility vehicles caused environmental problems.
This would seem a heckuva time to unfurl a national health plan. Washington has big fires to put out in the financial markets.
Thanksgiving is upon us. This is the time for expressing gratitude. But what does one do on Thanksgiving this year, smack in the middle of perhaps the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression? You give thanks, dummy.
You don't have to venture too far left in the Democratic Party to find people who dislike Joe Lieberman. But wander yonder into the liberal blogosphere, and the feeling more approximates detestation.
Sarah Palin should have run up the white flag of surrender and kept the clothes. They were gorgeous, and there really was no reason to give up the $150,000 wardrobe unless she planned to run again under the Wal-Mart Mom persona. Surely she knows that's over.
I'm delighted that Barack Obama has been elected president and that foreigners are delighted, too. But I never viewed eliciting delight from non-Americans a reason for choosing a president, including one of color.
The first campaign promise Barack Obama should break is to push through the Employee Free Choice Act. That harmless sounding piece of legislation would let union organizers do an end run around secret-ballot elections: Companies would have to recognize a union if most workers signed cards in support of it.
The young and minority voters who swept Democrats to triumph call this the start of a new day. The many not-young whites who also backed Barack Obama might frame it a bit differently. To them, it's a hopeful return to an older day. Do not dismiss these older Caucasians. Without their considerable support in swing states, Obama would not have won.
The Treasury Department is working on a $40 billion, $50 billion -- who's counting anymore? -- plan to guarantee perhaps 3 million "at-risk" mortgages. Now that the Wall Street players have been taken care of, the time has apparently come to bail out some little people.
Do newspaper endorsements influence voters? I refer to the candidate picks printed on the biodegradable news products that digital and cable commentators dismiss as "old media" but talk about nothing but.
The 1949 movie of Ayn Rand's novel "The Fountainhead" ends with Patricia Neal elevating to the top of a new skyscraper to greet its godlike architect, Gary Cooper.
Once again in Ohio, the presidential polls are tied and its 20 electoral votes up for grabs. Such scenarios generally don't lend themselves to gentle politics.
For a while, I had expected to emerge mostly unscathed from the eight years of George W. Bush.
Take a great nation with a fabulous work ethic and inventive people. Turn its $236 billion budget surplus into an estimated $482 billion deficit, and nearly double the national debt to $10 trillion. In the meantime, fuel economic growth with a consumer-led borrowing binge that makes America beholden to China.
