November 2006 - Posts
By David Shuster, Hardball correspondent
Last week I wrote a column about the Michigan-Ohio State football game. I taunted the evil Buckeyes, pointing out that most will work for a Wolverine some day. I also noted that most of the Buckeye faithful lack civility. However, I also declared that if Michigan lost to Ohio State, I would eat my column.
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By Beck Schoenfeld, "Hardball" producer
Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez of California told Chris Matthews today how Congressman Jack Murtha could figure out who voted against him for Majority Leader.
“It might be secret ballot,” she said, “but the reality is that we know who voted yes and who voted no.”
She said the score-keeping is like “counting cards in Vegas.” There are approximately 10 boxes in the room where the vote is taking place, and they’re in alphabetical order by last name. After you’ve eliminated those who’ve overtly supported Congressman Murtha or Congressman Hoyer, the field becomes narrowed. As Congresswoman Sanchez explained, “You have the A’s and B’s in one [box], so you know what the vote total is for the A’s and the B’s. And if the vote total is off, you know who was really in your camp.”
Another way of identifying those who didn’t follow through on their pledge to Congressman Murtha is to watch who in the caucus talks to him now that he’s lost. “Usually the people will just not come around,” she said.
By Bob Shrum, "Hardblogger"
Iraq is now the lame-duck war, but lame ducks have a way of hobbling around for a while. We know that George W. Bush will be quacking for two more years, sometimes in bipartisan tone, faux or real, and sometimes with instinctive calls to the base that failed him, Rove and Rumsfeld in 2006. The difference with Iraq, which is of course Bush’s twin lame duck, is that Americans and Iraqis are dying every day. How many more will die in the month and a little more before the Iraq Study Group reports its carefully negotiated and calibrated findings? These kids on the front lines deserve to be treated as something more than pawns in a face-saving exercise.
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