True Progressives

E.J. Dionne has another great column today, this one dealing with Obama and Clinton's channeling of Paul Wellstone in their campaign rhetoric. America lost a great progressive voice in 2002 with the death of Senator Wellstone. I've blogged about this before, but the point bears repeating, it is very encouraging that both Obama and Clinton are talking like progressives in this election. Neither candidate has attempted to outflank the other to the right. One can only hope that this will continue in the general.

Going Veggie

According to this Journal Sentinel article, Prince Fielder is now a vegetarian. While I still count myself among the carnivorous ranks, I find this pretty cool. Fielder decided to go meat-less after his wife bought him a book that describes some of the methods utilized to slaughter animals. I have always tried to avoid these books and videos because I love meat, and I also love animals, so I'm afraid that I'd have to stop eating meat, and it just tastes so good! I realize this is lame, and I'm a wuss, but I can't help it.

In other cool Brewer news, Ryan Braun donated his Rookie of the Year bonus to Habitat for Humanity. I mean, how cool is that? This guy is a class-act and a positive presence in the clubhouse. It's stuff like this, and his impressive playing ability, that make Braun my favorite player.

Go Brewers!

Iceman!

The Washington Post has a well-reported article on St. McCain's connections to numerous lobbyists. It turns out that holy John the maverick has more lobbyists working on his campaign than any other candidate this election cycle, Democrat or Republican. That is what I think is most telling about this Vicki Iseman story. While the possible affair is interesting, and relevant, since it speaks to McCain's supposedly impeccable character, the real story is the favors he did for her clients. St. McCain casts himself as the enemy of lobbyists and special interests, he claims to be a "maverick" Republican that always puts the nation's interests before those of corporations and their beltway lobbyists. All this is clearly bullshit. With the possible exception of Mitt Romney, John McCain may very well be the fakest presidential candidate in decades. He's a hypocrite people, and a liar.

Gabriel Sherman has a fascinating piece over at the New Republic that details the run-up to the Times' publishing of the Iseman article. It's very unfortunate that Bill Keller decided to wait as long as he did before publishing the story. As Josh Marshall reported the other day, it seems that the Times nows much more than they are letting on. In a way, like Marc Cooper said yesturday, McCain should be thanking the Times. The conservative base, that was once wary of McCain, seems to be rallying to defend him. The media, especially the assholes over at MSNBC (of course with the exception of the great Keith Olbermann) are turing this into a story about the Times. Really it's all very sad. The media seems to be willing to do just about anything to defend their hero, John McCain. While I still think this story can be damaging to him, it's not going to have nearly the same effect on him as it would on any other candidate. This is a sad commentary on the state of media in this country, one can only hope for better days.

P.S. I know that Vicki Iseman isn't pronounced like Iceman, but honestly, who doesn't like Iceman? Wait to go, Bobby Drake!