There used to be an old saying, “Never argue with a guy who buys ink by the barrel.” Within the past two years I think we’ve seen that saying become irrelevant.

– Max

And, I am wondering if the hope of the future is now in blogs like these, spreading truth (gasp!) and ACTUAL LOGICAL THINKING BASED ON FACTS??!!

South Dakota elected Janklow to governor a few times, he set his sights on the Congressional slot, and won handily over Herseth. Herseth was the pretty face of a conservative Democrat that party could muster to run, and to give you an idea she awarded herself a salary out of campaign funds while she was running — she’s not some bankrolled aspirer, she was the designated loser but they had to run somebody and she fit the bill, and she’s held no other position in government being so young. Her family has a major name in politics in this part of the country, she basically went from the family farm to law school to running for representative.

Thune had upset Daschle (the Senate majority leader) in the Senatorial race, Johnson wasn’t up for re-election, Janklow won over Herseth but it was fairly close.

Then Janklow killed a motorcyclist by blowing through a stop sign on a rural highway (which pretty much describes them all out here). 12 people good and true in the little town of Flandreau (come visit our hardware store!) found him guilty of negligent manslaughter, he issued a resignation, suddenly we needed a new Representative and Herseth the sacrifical lamb now had name recognition and a campaign that could be re-fired in moments.

Suddenly instead of being the designated loser she’s in the role of incumbent. She won by a small margin because South Dakotans are a conservative lot and tend to figure the D or R means little in our crop of candidates — we tend to go off names we know as reputable and actions performed.

This is Stephanie’s first time in public office, and she’s having one devil of a time trying to grasp those ethanol and farm subsidy dollars with one hand and distance herself from the San Francisco liberal cut-and-run policies with the other.

It would be easy to dislike her for this vote, and I do, but it’s also easy to see the bind she finds herself in. Apparently principles no longer resonate with the electorate.

Which reminds me, Jim? That’s precisely my point! With so few voting, and those who do vote being motivated by anger rather than want as evidenced by the effectiveness of the attack ad, I fear there is nobody in office save for perhaps the executive that has reason to consider the country as a whole any longer, or even the populace of their state in general. We’ve reduced politics to merely being responsive to the upset and vocal. Unfortunately, mandating participation would also introduce greater ignorance into the problem. I do not have a cure for this, I merely recognize it as a factor that causes elected officials to think they can influence actions like a war by offering mere words.

I hate to invoke Godwin’s law here, but am I not the only one to realize that the only reason Germany lost World War II was because Hitler, the Bohemian Corporal, thought himself a more strategic planner than his Generals, and he thus managed a superior fighting force with superior equipment into one defeat after another? One shudders to think what would have happened if the assassination attempt had succeeded and the German General Staff had taken charge.

It strikes me that Congress is attempting to do the same thing here. Their tools are legislation and budgets, of course, but nontheless Congress has decided it must run a war rather than let the Generals it approved of in years past do so, and it seems to believe a law will Make It So. Like, say, the laws against murder having suddenly stopped that particular crime.

I can see nothing of good coming from this for our country unless losing is now considered a good thing.

– Max

“…We?

“…We’re just heartbroken that Nancy Pelosi has decided to keep funding George Bush’s war, and now the war belongs to the Democrats as well as the Republicans,” said Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin…”

Boo Hoo.