I met an old friend and colleague on K Street the other day and she looked a bit weary. She told me that her son’s tour in Iraq had been extended because of President Bush’s surge and she expressed concern that his planned wedding although a year away might have to be postponed.
Somebody really needs to apologize for the sorry state of apologies in this country.
Arguably, we’ve never had a more apologetic period, yet acts of public contrition now seem to be just that — mere acts, with polished insincerity emanating from celebrities, politicians, sports figures and other famously infamous folks, seeking absolution for any number of transgressions.
The latest twist? The mea culpas often are punctuated by suggested stints in rehab because (fill in the addiction/illness/mental lapse here) caused your Mel Gibsons, Isaiah Washingtons, Mark Foleys and Michael Richardses to say or do the horrible things they said or did.
The great debate – the first of the never ending Presidential campaign season – came and went Thursday night in South Carolina and it was, for all practical purposes, a yawner.
David Huckabee, a son of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, was arrested at an Arkansas airport Thursday after a federal X-ray technician detected a loaded Glock pistol in his carry-on luggage.
“I removed the bag and asked Mr. Huckabee if he knew what he had in the bag,” Little Rock police officer Arthur Nugent wrote in a report after being summoned to a security checkpoint. “He replied he did now.”
Rep. Patrick Murphy hasn’t let the fact that he was elected to Congress in November put a stop to his campaigning.
Nearly every Monday since he took office in January, the 33-year-old freshman Democrat and Iraq war veteran has headed out to suburban Philadelphia train stations at dawn to greet voters. After that, he gets into his car for the three-hour drive to Capitol Hill.
“You don’t win until you win re-election,” Murphy said one recent morning as he introduced himself to bleary-eyed commuters, many of whom congratulated him on his election victory. “The first one’s to get your foot in the door.”
It was less of a debate and more like a polite first date where the Democratic presidential candidates wanted to avoid any fast moves that risk turning off voters.
Front-runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were on the receiving end of a couple jabs, but the Democrats vying for the White House were downright complimentary, calling each other by their first names more like friends than rivals.
Democratic presidential hopefuls flashed their anti-war credentials Thursday night, heaping criticism on President Bush’s Iraq policy in the first debate of the 2008 campaign.