Fred Thompson hit my adoptive hometown, Jacksonville, Florida, yesterday, where he began a swing through the Sunshine State. Florida, of course, is the place where all the strangest election-related stories seem to happen. Hanging chads, malfunctioning electronic voting machines, Katherine Harris, the list goes on and on. Oh, and who could forget the way Republicans in the federal government inserted themselves into the Terri Schiavo case? Actually, strike that. I guess there is one person who didn't seem to be paying attention.

Thompson was asked in an interview for Bay News 9's "Political Connections" program whether he thought Congress' intervention to save the life of the brain-damaged woman two years ago was appropriate.

"I can't pass judgment on it. I know that good people were doing what they thought was best," Thompson said. "That's going back in history. I don't remember the details of it."

Going back in history? Two years? Later in the interview, Thompson seemed to remember his own Federalist leanings, and recovered somewhat.

"Local matters generally speaking should be left to the locals. I think Congress has got an awful lot to keep up with."

One gets the sense that Fred hasn't been very busy boning up on specific issues in all the months that he has waited to enter the race. He has badly fumbled questions regarding Osama bin Laden, and now Schiavo. These subjects aren't exactly ancient history. More evidence of an underwhelming start? George Will replayed Thompson's recent appearance on Sean Hannity where he was asked:

"When you look at the other current crop of candidates--Republicans--where is the distinction between your positions and what you view as theirs?" Thompson replied: "Well, to tell you the truth, I haven't spent a whole lot of time going into the details of their positions."

Behold the new Republican front-runner, America.

President Bush just surprised the Democrats with a George Washington moment.

During the Revolution, when Washington looked pinned down by His Majesty's troops, he stunned them with victories at Trenton and Princeton.

Now, after the Democrats captured the House and Senate, Our George has unleashed a little shock and awe of his own.

Bush wants firebrand UN ambassador John Bolton to stay in his post. The Democrats, plus the GOP's Benedict Arnold, Lincoln Chafee, don't. What follows, as reported by the New York Times, is worthy of a Dan Brown novel:

This is an interesting article saying what a lot of people (including me) have thought for a long time. In terms of presidential politics and the Bush Brothers, Jeb is the one better suited to the White House.

... all because of that disastrous November Tuesday a dozen years ago. That was the day Jeb -- the articulate and handsome workaholic, the one who as a boy spoke of his White House ambitions, and the one the Bush family counted on to avenge the Great Usurpation of 1992 -- narrowly lost his bid to be governor of Florida. Meanwhile, his older brother George W. had overcome long odds and won the Texas governorship, putting George an insurmountable step ahead of Jeb in the race for the presidency.

And because we've had Bushes in the White House for 12 years since 1988. It probably isn't Jeb's time in 2008. Maybe later. But, as the article spells out, there is no doubt of the great work that he did in Florida. While Republicans were routed in many state elections, Florida held pretty firm (except for Foley's old district, but that's another story).

Jeb is charismatic, and much more relentlessly conservative. He's done great work in turning Florida around into a business and conservative friendly state and the economic growth of Florida shows it. His wife is Hispanic and he speaks spanish as well. He ended his governorship of Florida on a very high note.

Again, bad timing that his brother has probably made the electorate weary of the Bush name. But as the article notes, Jeb is only 54 and has plenty of time.

Should George Allen lose the Virginia Senate race, this past September will go down in history as one of the worst months in campaign history. Leaving aside the question of Mr. Allen's strange reaction to his recently discovered Jewish ancestry, his self-inflicted, linguistic one-two punch will serve as a "what-not-to-do" for future candidates.

First, there was word that supposedly came from nowhere. "Macaca," which Allen claimed to make up out of thin air. Later, the hypothesis was put forth from those inside the Allen campaign that the term was but a fanciful splicing together of an illusion to vidoegrapher S.R. Sidarth's haircut, with "caca," Spanish slang meaning shit. The charitable reading of this combination being that Allen was calling Sidarth a "shithead." Later still, we learned that Allen's mother is an immigrant from Tunisia, where macaca is a derogatory term for those with skin as dark or darker than Mr. Sidarth's.

Second--but equally perplexing for a man who until recently positively adored the confederate flag, and for a time displayed a noose on his office wall -- there's the notorious word that he denies ever having said. Of course, no one in modern-day America except for black people and Quentin Tarantino has ever said the n-word out loud. And there's no handy audio or video of Allen, circa 1978, to endlessly replay on YouTube or CNN, that proves otherwise.

Still, these divergent brushes with the origin of and use of Mr. Allen's vocabulary (surely, even he wouldn't claim he didn't understand the meaning of "n-----") offer a telling juxtaposition. A word that has never been heard before falls from the sky, lands on Allen's tongue, and is expertly wielded to demean an employee of Allen's senate campaign. Contrast this against the denial of ever having uttered the country's most taboo, and therefore ubiquitous racial epithet, and Allen's relationship with race, and the slang that is used to demean it, seems awkward at best.

Isolated and forlorn, he doesn't understand why his subjects do not love him anymore. He has summoned scribes, poets, great men of philosophy, history and religion to his chambers to try and help explain the unfathomable. Why has the world forsaken him? If this were a Shakespearean play, now would be a fine time for a stirring monologue. But the protagonist in question is none other than George W. Bush, so don't hold your breath.

These are the questions of a president who has endured the most drastic collapse in a generation. Not generally known for intellectual curiosity, Bush is seeking out those who are, engaging in a philosophical exploration of the currents of history that have swept up his administration. For all the setbacks, he remains unflinching, rarely expressing doubt in his direction, yet trying to understand how he got off course.

That last line is precious, no? "For all the setbacks, he remains unflinching..." Did those 12 steps teach him nothing all those years ago? One who is in denial cannot hope to cure himself. And who among his Oval Office guests will have the courage to tell the man that it is that very stubbornness which, coupled with a tepid thirst for knowledge, has led him (and our country) off the metaphorical cliff?

I was going to write about the NIE report that says Iraq is getting far worse not far better, or the upcoming GAO report which says the Iraqis have met 3 out of 18 benchmarks. But then I saw that Karl Rove is still planting the suggestion that his boss buddy is the equivalent of Harry Truman and that it's just the fault of the media for not seeing it.

Let's get this straight. The guy whose desk has never seen a buck even drift by is being compared to Truman? No one in this administration can say the words "I messed up," "I take responsibility." If Bush & Cheney wanted to take responsibility for the disasters they have created they would resign in a heartbeat. Rove calls Bush a man of moral clarity. I guess that means invading countries on trumped up charges is clear. Continuing to make the same mistakes year after year is clear. Spying on Americans for exercising Constitutional rights is clear. Torture is clear. Encouraging obscene profit making by HMO's and other corporate elite is fine and dandy while the middle class gets killed is clear. No-bid contracts are clear. Cutting a birthday cake and playing air guitar while a city drowns is clear. Cutting down forests while calling it a Clear Air program is clear. I could go on and on but Truman wouldn't.

The amount of whitewash it would take to remove the stain of the Bush Administration doesn't exist. History (if we get that far) will not treat this band of thugs, liars and crooks well. This is a kakistocracy beyond redemption. In a week the compliant media will start beating the war drum with Iran but I hope enough fearful Americans will not buy the abused car from these bums yet again (it would be the last car). We already know the Petraeus report will betray the truth once again. Everything is not fine and throwing more American and Iraqi lives away will not fix it. We blew it and going in and out of Baghdad with troops fixes absolutely nothing. George resembles Harry? Not even close.

Another missed opportunity for our country's MSM to underscore the obvious. The press in the USA treats Bush far too well and the press in other countries treats him like an elected official, not a king. On Thursday, Bush & Blair held a press conference at the WH with reporters from here and England. When King George entered the room the British press did not stand up and that irritated him. He also didn't like questions.

The whole idea that he would accept any level of responsibility for the biggest mistake ever doesn't cross his mind. The violence in Iraq? 'Unsettling'? Unsettling? 11 guys die in a day, over 2,900 dead and 25,000 wounded Americans are unsettling? Well, he did say that things are 'bad' in Iraq. This a day after he said things are improving and Maliki is 'the guy for the job'. What job pray tell? Dogcatcher?

The testiness of the exchanges with the reporters showed. Bush was so insistent that his position (whatever it is today) that he was even taking questions that Blair was going to answer. At one point Blair just half heartedly pointed at Bush as in, 'Go ahead, you know you want to.' There is also a link to the relevant clip.

Follow below the flip for just one of the highlights when Bush tried to answer a reporter who asked if he (Bush) was in denial.

Taking a break from the usual Ohio stuff, one of my friends in the State of Ohio Blogger Alliance, Viking Spirit, takes a look at George Allen's unprecedented two minute ad buy.

On one hand I think this is a smart move by Allen's campaign. Allen HAS to get off the race issue to win this race, and by making this largely unprecedented move I think he will get the race back to the issues. The only reason Jim Webb is competitive in this race is because Allen has been dogged by ridiculous allegations of racisim over the past couple months or so. If the race gets back to the issues, Allen will win because Vriginia is a Republican-leaning state.

On the other hand, this smacks of depseration. The fact that Webb is even competitive with Allen, let alone in a statisical dead heat, show how bad of shape Allen is in. Allen is an entrenched incumbent, being elected as Governor and Senator of Virginia, and as I said before Virginia is a Republican-leaning state. Needless to say, Allen shouldn't be having any problems winning this race. But, when the biggest issue in the race is wether you used the 'N-word' in your college years, there's a very, very big problem.

This move may save Allen his Senate seat, but I think you can put a cork in his run for the Presidency in 2008.

Now this is just typical. Mike Stark, who has spent this campaign season stalking and accosting George Allen on the campaign trail, is now playing the victim card because Allen staffers tackled him as he made another attempt to confront Allen.

How sad. But, Stark's behavior is typical of the Democratic Party's strategy this year. Instead of a campaign on issues, Stark has been trying to provoke Allen into doing or saying things that can make him look bad.

Stark's behavior has been offensive and combative. Instead of making a mockery of himself and the political process, he ought to stick to talking about the issues, and not this pathetic game of "Gotcha!".

History must drive poltics, not politics drive history.

That is a major reason that the U.S. is in the quagmire of Iraq: it did not learn the lesson of Vietnam because it has not been informed of the history of that war. It would be inhuman and irresponsible of me to not set the correct historical context in which Ho Chi Minh responded to the President Lyndon Johnson "sincere" letter mentioned in a previous article.

To do that we must go back to when Ho Chin Minh, who would become to be known as the George Washington of Vietnam, pled with President Truman at the end of WWII, in February of 1945, to help Vietnam become a free and independent country:

It's all about George...

Why was the chief of staff to National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Tom Reynolds, running the Foley Scandal Cover-up for Hastert and Rove? Reynold's mandate is to see to the re-election of Republicans, not police the behavior of his pols.

Reynolds' chief of staff, we're told, knew this was a big problem. He knew Foley had this "problem," but Reynolds did near to nothing -- one conversation with Hastert, no apparent follow-up. They all knew that Foley was a closeted gay male and according to the propaganda they fed to their base that made him a hardwired pedophilic suspect. And if Robert Novak is right, Reynolds went so far as to push Foley to run again. Why?

Circumstantial evidence is uh, circumspect, maybe even suspicious as evidenced proof. But if it is going arf, arf, arf, and wags its tail, seen often chasing rabbits, and is called Fido, and "good dog," its probably a dog.

A noose hanging from a tree, a national flag from the Confederate States of America, (aka, Slavocracy,) celebrating the Good Ole South's Heritage, (rich white people having a great time romancing themselves with Lula Belle and Clayton in the best livery with Smiling Willy as driver, mint juleps in hand,) persistent reports of the use of "nigger" as a means of defining African slaves folks who survived the middle passage and attempted genocide directed at them? These are signs that legacy of George Fitzhugh and Jefferson Davis is alive and well.

"Macaca," said Senator Allen, referring to a darker skinned person than himself!

Consenus is that Good Ole George, (NO, not the one in the White Man's House,)the one in the "Commonwealth of Virginia," home to Jefferson and Sally Hennings slave-bound, miscegenatious coupling, is problably not pro-African American equality. That may qualify him to be President of the United States, but it doesnt make for a decent human being.

A recently released WaPo poll shows George Allen ahead of Jim Webb 49-47. The poll shows a very close race, but it may not be as close as it suggests. For starters, the poll slightly oversampled Democrats. If Allen is holding a slight lead in a Democrat-leaning poll, especially in a state that Bush won by 8% in 2004, that's not too shabby. In Allen's last election in 2000, the same poll down showed him up by two, and he won by four. It's also worth noting that this is the first time that a Republican candidate for Senator (or Governor for that matter) is winning with women. Allen is also winning in all but two regions of the state. So, despite Webb's rather nasty campaign, Allen is holding on, and appears on the verge of victory.

Ultimately, it is the people of Virginia who must decide who would best represent them and who best represents what they stand for. Mr. Allen, however, has aspirations of ascending to the presidency, so a closer look at his character and background is worth reviewing. This is not a novel, this is the real thing.

Mr. Allen is not originally a cowboy, good ol' boy from the south. In fact, he was raised in Palos Verdes, a very rich suburb of Los Angeles, where he went to high school while his father coached the Los Angeles Rams. In high school, according to former classmates, he was a lone tobacco-chewing teenage cowboy who was disliked, even feared. He was not considered mainstream and according to a football teammate, he used anti-black epithets and ran with a group of guys off the football field who used the same language.

The recent "macaca" controversy has been well-publicized. Does anyone really believe that he just made up the word -- a word that is a racial slur in the area of the world where his mother grew up? Quite a coincidence.

President George W. Bush has overcome a lot to become President. In 1976 he was arrested for driving under the influence. Nineteen years later, he was elected Governor of Texas. Twenty four years later he was elected President of the United States. In October, 1996, then Governor Bush was asked if he was ever arrested for drunk driving. He said that "I do not have a perfect record as a youth." Did President Bush have a poor memory or does he just have a problem with reality.

Whatever the answer, George W. Bush was elected President after all the voters became aware of his past drinking problem. The spin worked.

Who among us does not remember President George Bush standing aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, with the large banner in back of him which stated "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED." The President told the American people: "Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." Read more of the transcript.