If you were wondering, red meat like this is why governor Bobby Jindal is rising to the top of conservatives list as someone to watch. From Red State.

On the heels of today's SCOTUS decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana barring the death penalty for sex offenders, Gov. Bobby Jindal released a statement calling the ruling an "affront to the people of Louisiana" - and what's more, vowing to do whatever possible to amend the state's laws in order to maintain the death penalty for child rape.

But that's not all he did.

Today, Gov. Jindal signed the "Sex Offender Chemical Castration Bill," authorizing the castration of convicted sex offenders. They get a choice: physical or chemical. Oh, and they don't just get castrated and leave - they still have to serve out their sentence.

The Supreme court said that death was out of proportion to the crime. I wonder if this is proportionate enough for them. This issue hasn't been on the radar screen of the public consciousness until this ruling, and I wonder if it won't have the adverse effect of triggering many laws targeting child rapists. This is an election year after all, and it's quite tricky (and suicidal) to oppose politically.

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Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell has the audacity to hope:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell dropped by our offices in New York this week. Republicans face potential electoral disaster this fall, but he says a few issues could turn out to be lifesavers. Case in point: Gas prices, at more than $4 per gallon for the first time in history. Mr. McConnell notes that a new poll shows Americans now favor drilling for oil in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge 57% to 41%. That's up from a nearly even split before consumers were getting socked at the pump. Asks Mr. McConnell: "At what point does the hammerlock the Sierra Club has on the Democrats come off? Is it $5? Is it $6?"

The hammerlock comes off at $4 as the poll shows, but the effort is complicated by a few things. One is that there are many other issues on the table which cut against Republicans. The other big complication is that John McCain is still in "maverick" mode and has not figured out that gas prices and drilling are winning issues for the GOP.

So the key question is not what the Democrats will do, they are locked in between working class voters on one end and upper class yuppies with a penchant for green living on the other end. Who will win? The Democrats hope to never have to find out. So they blame the oil companies and hope no one asks them serious questions.

No, the real interesting question is at what point does it behoove John McCain to put together a serious plan to address energy issues that has a credible chance at lowering energy costs? $5, $6? Whatever it is, we haven't hit it yet.

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When all else fails, hire someone to take out a kneecap. From Jake Tapper:

l just spoke with a Democratic Party official, who asked for anonymity so as to speak candidly, who said we in the media are all missing the point of this Democratic fight.

The delegate math is difficult for Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, the official said. But it's not a question of CAN she achieve it. Of course she can, the official said.

...

She will have to "break his back," the official said. She will have to destroy Obama, make Obama completely unacceptable.

I have my doubts. Oh, no doubts about Hillary's willingness to be a Tonya Harding, or her willingness to send out Bill or anyone else to play Jeff Gilooly. No, my doubts center more around if she can destroy Obama. If she had a dealbreaker for Barack, it would have been deployed by now.

The time to do so would have been super Tuesday or sooner. As much as I'm enjoying the thought, I think Obama's too strong and even slimy dirty attacks will reach a point of diminishing returns for Hillary. She can bring him down, but she won't be able to push herself up.

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Check out the accompanying "article," if you aren't too tired of reading about politics to bother.

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But it appears to be all in vain. The leader of the Draft Gore committee wrote a letter, published at DailyKos, where she reveals that Al Gore himself is telling them to knock it off:

Dear AFG Steering Committee Members:

We have received a communication from a member of Al Gore's staff discouraging our efforts to put Al Gore's name on any primary ballots. This includes California, New York, Massachusetts, and the write-in effort in New Hampshire, as well as any other states that are working to get him on the ballot. Accordingly, effective immediately, we are recommending that all groups cease their signature collection and related fund-raising activities.

AlGore.org

Well. That's that then. The biggest obstacle between Hillary and the Democratic nomination is now gone for sure. Political junkies will all mark this as a sad day, for now it seems quite clear that nothing interesting will happen on the Democratic side of the race until the convention.

For Al Gore it's apparent that traveling around the world and accepting Nobel prizes is a lot more fun than taking on, in succession, the Clinton and the GOP political machines.

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Earlier this year Pryce announced that she would not run again, leaving Kilroy, a Democrat as the default favorite and this district rated as a highly likely flip to the Democrats. Even worse, until now, the Ohio Republicans have not been able to recruit a decent candidate to challenge Kilroy and keep the seat in GOP hands.

Until today. As tipped by RightAngleBlog, Steve Stivers is announcing today that he will run for congress in this district. He was the first choice and many were disappointed when he did not immediately accept the challenge. A quick look at his biography and the Dispatch article tells us why.

But Stivers offers a new challenge, because as a lieutenant colonel in the Ohio Army National Guard, he has led troops in the Iraq war. Stivers and other members of the Columbus-based 237th Personnel Services Battalion returned from a 12-month tour of duty in the Middle East and Africa in December 2005.

"Oddly enough, it's almost like Mary Jo Kilroy is the incumbent this time," Stivers said. "It will be a very different race than in 2006. The voters know her and they need to get to know me."

Almost all of Stivers' 16th state Senate district, except for the city of Dublin, lies within the 15th Congressional District.

Looks like OH15 will be another barnburner of the race. The demographics don't favor either party anymore, and Mary Jo Kilroy has piled an impressive $425,000 already. Last year, Pryce spent more than $2,000,000 to defend her seat and this year it will probably take more than that to win.

Even more importantly the inability to recruit a top candidate to a current Republican occupied seat was seen by many as a sign of how listless the Ohio Republicans have become and a further encouragement to Ohio Democrats. But apparently there are some signs of life in the ORP.

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1. Either investigating the death of a subordinate killed in the line of duty -- in an investigation likely to anger pro-gun extremists (note: I like guns, I just agree with the majority of Americans who think we can both keep guns legal and have some common sense restrictions). OR
2. Investigating allegations of voter fraud during the 2004 Governor's race, concluding there wasn't a case, and declining to prosecute -- a move that partisan Republicans held against a long-time GOP prosecutor.

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The Oxford-educated Jindal had lost the governor's race four years ago to Gov. Kathleen Blanco. He won the a congressional seat in conservative suburban New Orleans a year later but was widely believed to have his eye on the governor's mansion. Blanco opted not to run for re-election after she was widely blamed for the state's slow response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

When he takes office in January, Jindal will become the nation's youngest governor in office.

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