ANOTHER HYPOCRITE BITES THE DUST!

If you put yourself up as holier than other people, then you damn well better be. By setting high standards of behavior for other people, you correspondingly raise the standards they expect of you. There is no getting around that fact. High standards are fine, laudable in fact, but you must be prepared to meet at least the same standard of rectitude as you demand of others. If not, one slight mistake and your comeuppance is inevitable.

The justice in the case of Senator Craig is marvelously appropriate. He devoted his career to abusing gays and minorities, working to restrict their rights as citizens and growth as human beings. With his limited human values and oppersive cultural policy goals, he did all he could to build a cultural attitude of hatred for all who disagree with his neocon views. Now that very culture he helped generate turns against him. It is a satisfying fate to honest Americans. Live by the sword, die by the sword; live by bigotry, die by bigotry. Ironic and appropriate.

HANDICAPPING THE FAVORITES

Who will win the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations? Assuming they won't all be knocked out in the preliminary rounds, I boldly handicap the leading contenders as of this date. Wish me luck!

DEMOCRATS

Clinton will hang in and take the lead. She is generally regarded as "safe" among about all groups of democrats. She may not be terribly exciting but she is establishment and stable. I suspect that's what most American voters want.

Obama will also hang in but not win. Potential voters are less certain about who he is and where he stands. They are not comfortable with their knowledge of what he would do under trying circumstances.

Edwards will fall by the wayside. Americans do not like poor people. Whether they're willing to admit it or not, there is among middle and upper classes in America a distinct dislike of poor people. You just have to watch people to see this contempt, really hatred, ooze out in their every face to face contact with poor people. Edwards, in making much of his poor background, unleashes this subterranean opposition. It will catch up to him and cost him the nomination.

REPUBLICANS

Giuliani will drop by the wayside among Republicans. When Americans look at Rudy Giuliani, they see the shadow of a New York ethnic thug. He looks the part, sounds the part, and some of his business dealings reflect the part. Most Americans simply will not be able to support such an image.

Romney, too, will fall aside. Too many Americans are too straitlaced fundamentalist to ever accept a member of a religious group as different as Mormonism from conventional or evangelical Christianity. His money will not buy him enough votes to get the nomination.

McCain has blown his chance. He was once truly a hero. He went through a lot in that Vietnam prision and conducted himself as a man of true character, strength, and courage. We all admire him for that. Unfortunately, he has abandoned that man and lost himself in a mad desire to be President. In that misdirected quest he aligned himself with George Bush and shadowed him like a dog during the 2006 Presidential election, accepting any abuse just to stay in the political spotlight. He has parroted the Bush line ever since. Hooking himself to the wrong star will cost him the nomination.

So who's left for the Republicans to nominate? I simply don't know. No other candidate looks like much of a prospect right now.

Warner Runs Again

We now have an answer to the question as to whether John Warner will run again for Senator . The answer, I think, is yes. Yesterday he made what some claimed to be an earth shattering announcement that we should begin pulling troops out of Iraq by Christmas of this year.

Recall how he made that announcement: He lay the blame for the need to begin drawing down solely on the Iraqi government. Not a hint of criticism of the misguided and failed policies of the Bush administration. It's all the Iraqis' fault.

By couching his statement in this way, he expects to distance himself from the Bush policy without antagonizing Bush supporters in Virginia, whose numbers are legion. In short, he is attempting to appeal to both those who want us out of Iraq and those who want us to stay. This is an old tried and true Warner tactic.

I recall well during the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton that Warner straddled the issues then by voting for conviction on one charge and acquital on the other charge. I was watching the voting and as soon as Warner cast his second vote, I knew that he was positioning himself to run for Senator again. Clearly he was placing himself firmly on both sides of the impeachment issue, expecting to retain support from both those for and those against Clinton's impeachment.

Now, here he goes again, denying contamination by Bush and his Iraq policies on the one hand and with the other giving support to those who want the war over with. He's still catering to both sides on very important issues.