How horrible of a person might you have to be to take any pleasure from a person suffering a broken jaw? I may be one of the most horrible people in the world. You are invited to use this as a TMV holiday Friday open thread and abuse my lack of basic humanity at your leisure. Or… whatever else is on your minds.

This is a question posed by Politico’s Carol Lee today in, Bidentity Crisis: Where’s Joe? More than three weeks into the transition, and Vice-president elect Joe Biden generates less buzz than the non-existent first puppy. The vice president-elect has not spoken publicly since the election, and was at Barack Obama’s side just once this week as the president-elect delivered a series of grim news conferences on the economy. In terms of Obama’s cabinet appointments and the evolving...

You know, it seems like it was only last week when I was reflecting on one of the positive aspects of Hillary Clinton’s possible appointment as Secretary of State, that being the fact that we here in New York would finally get our other Senate seat back. (Ok, it actually was last week.) But now a couple of sadistic editorialists at the Washington Post have taken it upon themselves to ruin my holiday meal before I even get a chance to eat it. Send Bill Clinton to the Senate Amid the blizzard...

I normally follow the unwritten rule around here of, “In the name of all that’s good and Holy, don’t link to Drudge!” but this article was simply too delicious to pass up. RUSSIAN ANALYST PREDICTS DECLINE AND BREAKUP OF USA A leading Russian political analyst has said the economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the country is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts. Professor Igor Panarin said in an interview with the respected...

Yes, this is another column on the Freedom of Choice Act. (FOCA) This week finds an article in Slate by Melinda Helleberger getting all sorts of folks – including friends of mine – up in arms over the prospect of FOCA being passed by the strengthened Democratic majority in Congress and immediately signed into law (as promised) by then President Barack Obama. What do they foresee as the possible net result of this? Catholic hospitals around the country (comprising up to a third of all...

As the tenure of the 43rd president draws to a close, George W. Bush has issued another set of 14 pardons and two sentence commutations. (You may view a complete list here.) The specific details seem to provide little satisfaction on either side of the political divide, being mostly little-known criminals convicted of either drug trafficking or bank fraud offenses. Critics of the Bush administration on the Left seem to be disappointed that none of the high-profile, GOP-friendly names which were anticipated...

While I knew a number of these would be coming along all through the winter, (after the GOP lost an election that wasn’t exactly a squeaker) I’ll confess I felt a bit of nostalgia and empathy upon reading Sophia Nelson’s Lost Republican Love Song in the Washington Post this weekend. Much of it is predictable for those of us who have suffered through the same recriminations and regrets in the past, but a few highlights are worthy of mention. After such a devastating loss, Republicans...

On this date in 1980 Mt. St. Helens in Washington State blew its top. A friend of mine who lived in nearby Yakima mailed us photos of people with shovels clearing out ash from their driveways and sidewalks as if it were an early snowfall. Area residents, much like the rest of the nation, were in shock, not really comprehending the nature and scope of the disaster. Many seemed unaware that the volcanic debris was never going to melt away in the spring and would have to be removed in trucks. While...

If this Associated Press release is to be believed, the nomination of Hillary Clinton to head up the State Department is all but a done deal. WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state after Thanksgiving, a new milestone for the former first lady and a convergence of two political forces who fought hard for the presidency. One week after the former primary rivals met secretly to discuss the idea of Clinton becoming the nation’s...

As the debate raged over Card Check during the 2008 election, I kept waiting for somebody to put it in perspective. Surely, I thought, I had been bedazzled by some sort of Right wing trickery. After all, I reasoned, Unions battle on behalf of the worker, keeping the hob nailed boot of management off the collective throat of the middle class. (I should note that this is not sarcasm. I come from a union family and was, for a time, a member of the I.B.E.W. after leaving the military. I’m also...

If’ you’d like a short break from politics, I will be manning the co-pilot’s chair this afternoon for a special holiday edition of Movie Addict Headquarters with author and film critic Betty Jo Tucker. We’ll be talking to film critic Nell Minow about some of the classic holiday films of all time, both new and old. Nell Minow writes as “The Movie Mom” for Beliefnet. She has been featured in USA Today, Parents, The Chicago Tribune and other publications as well as profiled...

Let’s take a quick poll here and have a show of hands if you didn’t see this one coming. CNN is reporting that Joe Lieberman looks to be a “shoe-in” to keep his chairman’s seat on Homeland Security and stay in the Democratic Caucus, while being “punished” by losing some less prestigious position. Predictably, his opponents in the Democratic base who are still boiling mad over his endorsement of John McCain and attacks on Barack Obama, are up in arms. Um,...

Today is an anniversary which often passes without notice, but in true American style, we should honor it here lest we ever forget. Forty years ago today, on Nov. 17, 1968, the New York Jets were barely leading in a pitched battle with the Oakland Raiders, hanging on to a slim 32-29 lead. There was still 65 seconds left on the game clock, but NBC television executives were looking at the real world clock instead. It was 7:00 pm on the East Coast and there was a decision to be made. They made that...

Today, James Joyner takes a look at how Barack Obama may soon have to give up his Blackberry, a difficult task for an avowed technophile. The chief problem here is the Presidential Records Act. In addition to concerns about e-mail security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. A decision has not been made on whether he could become the first e-mailing president, but aides said...

When we examine the election of 2008 and the makeup of government across the nation today, it seems that a few previously-uncomfortable questions have finally been answered. We have elected a black man as president. His chief rival in the primary was a woman who many analysts and poll results estimate would have beaten John McCain by an even wider margin. A gentleman of Hispanic descent is the Governor of New Mexico, was a serious contender for the White House and is widely being hailed as a highly...

File this under “things I didn’t see coming” but it appears that John McCain and President-Elect Obama will be having a long meeting in Chicago this week. After fiercely competing against each other for five months, President-elect Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain are scheduled to have their first post-election meeting Monday at the transition headquarters in Chicago. “It’s well known that they share an important belief that Americans want and deserve a more effective...

As I said yesterday, what this country needs today is less partisan bickering and more people willing to find creative, goal oriented solutions to real problems. Today, my friend Ed Morrissey brings to light a group of educators in Texas who are doing just that. In a move sure to draw praise from immigration reform advocates around the nation, one Dallas school district has solved the problem of illegal immigration. The solution is so staggeringly simple in concept that most of you will be slapping...

Ever since the National Football League made the self centered, cash grabbing decision to launch the NFL Network, fans of various teams around the country have had to resign themselves to the idea that, for at least one week out of the season, they would be robbed of a chance to support their team. This week it was supporters of the New York Jets and the New England Patriots who were forced to take their turn in the barrel. Last night’s battle pitted two historic rivals who were tied for first...

While talking heads are dashing back and forth suggesting how to “fix” the Republican party, various solutions are being offered. These include suggestions as extreme as rounding up the RINOs and executing them. Most of the plans include a return to their Reagan roots of small government fiscal conservatism, which is a good plan but doesn’t speak to the real issue. Hand wringing over the fate of a party currently backed into a corner of the deep South should not focus on how to...

Attention continues to focus on President Elect Barack Obama’s possible selections for his staff and Cabinet, and some of the questions I’m hearing center on the dearth of Republicans popping up on the list. Today I’d like to address a couple of potential issues with this debate. It’s a tricky high wire act for Obama, with barriers being thrown up on both sides of the aisle. The first question centers on how to make the offer in the first place. One thing that the President...

There have been a number of people who move from public office into the media. One example is Joe Scarborough, a former Congressman who now hosts a political-analysis show on MSNBC. Mike Huckabee also has his own show on Fox. But do people ever move in the opposite direction, going from the media into government service? The word on the street is that Chris Matthews of Hardball fame may be looking at a Senate run. Pennsylvania was at the epicenter of the fight for the presidency in 2008 and, just...

I can’t possibly wrap my mind around this enough for a long diatribe, but I would like to submit my nomination for one of the most idiotic things I’ve read in an already silly season. Anti-war camp wants Gates out Arms control advocates and anti-war activists are ratcheting up pressure on President-elect Barack Obama to dump Defense Secretary Robert Gates and replace him with a more strident anti-war voice. I’ll need the help of some readers here, please. Don’t believe your...

You are invited to join me at 8 pm eastern this evening as I stop by at The Rick Moran show to discuss the progress thus far in Obama’s transition to the White House. The event will be hosted, of course, by Rick Moran and he has also invited Fausta Wertz to offer her thoughts. We already know a few of the names which will fill the bill on Team Obama, and speculation abounds about the rest. There have also been a few interesting meetings going on, particularly the White House sit-down with President...

A rather sad story of success comes out of NASA this week. After months of literally groundbreaking success in one of the most harsh, bleak locations on the red planet, the Mars Phoenix Lander has fallen silent. WASHINGTON — NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications after operating for more than five months. As anticipated, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot’s arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary...

This just in from Chris Cillizza: Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who rose to national prominence during a failed bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, will not seek a second term as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, clearing the way for a loyalist of President-elect Barack Obama to be named to the soon to be vacant post. The news of Dean’s departure after a single four-year term in office was first reported by the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein and confirmed...