Diana Irey - Local Reporting

Here's a link that Bruce Kesler over at Democracy Project was nice enough to send to me. It's some local news coverage of Diana Irey. And it's quite favorable to her. The video they have shows someone who comes across as quite genuine. Some political analysts say that successful politicians are people that can come across as someone you wouldn't mind having in your own home for dinner. Diana Irey meets that criteria. John Murtha does not.

This might be a lot more interesting race than some of the analysts predict.

The website linked above has the entire interview with Irey as well as the edited version.

UPDATE: Oh, and having the Rightroots endorsement may also help. In only two days, Irey has gotten over $6,000 in contributions from that site. That's far above anyone else on the list. Amazing.

Cole And Yale - The Backstory

Over at Real Clear Politics there is an article up that explores why Juan Cole did not get the appointment at Yale that he was up for. It's an interesting read, and it tends to disprove Cole's assertions that it was a press campaign by neocons that did him in.

In addition, Cole and Amanat's politics are so close that after Cole's January 2006 Yale lecture, the Yale Daily News's Charles Gariepy characterized their arguments as indistinguishable: "Cole said the decisions of the U.S. government upon entering the [Iraq] war were misguided," Gariepy wrote. "Abbas Amanat, a professor of history who concluded the event, reinforced the themes in Cole's speech."

Considering their long-standing, extra-academic relationship and their shared politics, it was hardly surprising when Cole emerged as the search committee's top choice a few months after Cole's January lecture.

As a Yale history professor explained, "Generally speaking, a good deal of the fight over who ends up getting a university position is who ends up on the search committee's list of contenders; because that's who the candidate is compared to. In this situation, Cole was the only recognizable, prominent figure on the search committee's list… So what happened here? It was rigged."

As the search committee's top choice, the sociology and history departments were tasked with reviewing Cole's scholarship and voting on his appointment. In May, Cole was approved, but he still needed the blessings of the Senior Appointments Committee, a small group of Yale professors who serve as one of the final steps in the appointment process.

According to several insiders, Cole's scholarship, which several professors deemed insufficient, was the decisive factor in the final decision against his appointment. Cole faced strong opposition from some of the most senior, influential, and highly-regarded members of Yale's history department, including prominent Yale historians Donald Kagan and John Lewis Gaddis. And that was kiss of death, because the Senior Appointment Committee wants a faculty vote that's nearly unanimous.

This fits well with what Paula Hyman, a tenured professor of modern Jewish history, told the Yale Daily News shortly after the story broke: "Generally," she said, "when you're hiring a tenured professor you want real enthusiasm on the part of everybody."

Regarding the role played by Cole's often polemical blog, sources close to Yale's decision argued that although it opened the eyes of many professors, it hardly killed Cole's chances. As Yale political science professor Steven Smith explained, "It would be very comforting for Cole's supporters to think that this got steamrolled because of his controversial blog opinions. The blog opened people's eyes as to what was going on. He was a kind of stealth candidate. I didn't know anybody that knew about this coming in; he was just kind of smuggled. And I think the blog opened people's eyes as to who this guy was, and what his views were…. It allowed us to see something about the quality of his mind."

This was a mind that, in July 2005, claimed that the September 11 Commission report cited the "Israeli attack on the Jenin refugee camp" as a motivation for the terrorist attack, even though the Jenin attack didn't happen until seven months after 9/11. And in May of this year, Cole justified his notion that Iran is harmless by declaring, "We don't give a rat's ass what Ahmadinejad thinks about European history or what pissant speech the little sh*t gives."

It would appear that although Cole's blog may have made people raise a few questions, it was not the deciding factor. Nor was outside influence. Take the time to read it, writer David White, a graduate of Yale University, did a very good job with it.

Oh, Darn

Despite almost frantic cheerleading in the press yesterday, the third named storm of this year's hurricane season appears to have run out of steam and will not develop into a hurricane. Frankly, here it is already August and this is only the third named storm so far. And it was wimpy even before it lost strength today. I saw repeated, almost hysterical stories yesterday predicting it was going to become a hurricane.

Alas, it was not to be.

At 8 a.m. EDT, Chris had top maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, just 1 mph above the minimum to be a named storm and down 20 mph from Wednesday night, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The center of the storm was about 285 miles east-southeast of Grand Turk Island.

The third named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season was moving west-northwest near 12 mph and was expected to move away from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands later Thursday, forecasters said.

"It's pretty much a skeleton at this point," hurricane specialist Jamie Rhome said. He said the thunderstorms that a tropical system needs to grow have been blown away by other winds in the atmosphere. Forecasters now think it isn't very likely that it will become a hurricane, but intensity predictions are tough to make.

"Some storms do make a comeback and some storms never ever come back," he said.

I'm waiting for the stern pronouncements about global warming causing this devastation to this year's much ballyhooed dire predictions of unstoppable hurricanes of mammoth proportions.

Or something.

Oil For Food Scandal Reaches India

The scandal that was the UN Oil-for-Food program in Iraq unraveled a bit further today with the charging of two Indian politicians with criminal activities.

NEW DELHI: The Justice Pathak Committee on Thursday indicted former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and his MLA son Jagat Singh for procurement of contracts in the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq during Saddam Hussain's regime but no money has been traced to them.

Justice R S Pathak, who headed the one-man inquiry authority, handed over the copy of the 110-page report, including 22 pages of annexures, on Thursday to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The authority is believed to have exonerated the Congress of all charges of being a non-contractual beneficiary in the scam in 2001.

Andaleeb Sehgal, a friend of Jagat Singh, and Aditya Khanna, a relative of Natwar Singh, are understood to have received financial payoffs in the deal by getting oil coupons based on the letters of recommendation given by Natwar Singh.

This still has not been pursued vigorously enough, but it's at least a hopeful sign that some more of the perpetrators of this massive scam are being caught and punished.

French FM Pulls A Kerry

In an amazing display of a deft diplomatic pirouette, the French Foreign Minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, did a complete 180 from his statement a few days ago. He had called Iran a "respected, stabilizing influence" in the Middle East. Today, after hearing Ahmadinehjad's latest "peace proposal", he announced the exact opposite.

France's foreign minister condemned Ahmadinehjad's comments Thursday, saying Iran is ruining its chances to play a positive and stabilizing role in the Middle East.

"I totally condemn these words," Philippe Douste-Blazy said on France-Inter radio, saying they were "absolutely unacceptable on anyone's part, especially from a head of state."

The crisis had presented an opportunity for Iran to "show that it can play a positive and stabilizing role in the region," Douste-Blazy said, adding that Ahmadinejad's statement "confirmed that this is not the case."

During the 2004 presidential campaign, some complained that Kerry was too French. I think the French just proved they are too Kerry.

The Silence Of The Left

There is plenty of screaming and finger-pointing from the left on Israel's conduct of the war in Lebanon. Although even UN officials have condemned Hezbollah for hiding among civilians, even though Kofi Annan's own assistant has pointed out Hezbollah's intentional targeting of civilians, even though even Human Rights Watch came out with a report condemning Hezbollah's actions (although hedging quite a bit, I thought), the left concentrates only on Israel when it comes to decrying the conduct of the war. Israel is accused of Geneva Convention violations while Hezbollah's violations are ignored. Despite the fact that Hezbollah, as part of the Lebanese government, is bound by the same conventions.

Today, Hezbollah rockets, aimed exclusively at civilians, killed seven civilians.

MAALOT, Israel - A wave of Hezbollah rockets pounded northern Israel Thursday, killing seven people, Israeli rescue officials said. Meanwhile, Hezbollah's chief spokesman said that his group will not agree to a cease-fire until all Israeli troops leave Lebanon.

The seven rocket fatalities were the most in a single day since eight people were killed July 16 when a rocket struck a train maintenance depot in Haifa.

Israeli officials said the attacks did not mean their 23-day offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas was unsuccessful, despite the militants' continuing ability to strike northern Israel.

"Don't forget that next to the losses, we also have achievements. They take hits, and hits and hits," Cabinet minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Channel Two television.

At least 132 rockets hit the Jewish state Thursday, with 100 hitting northern Israel in a matter of minutes.

Every civilian death in this war should be laid at the feet of Hezbollah. Every single one.

What’s Austrian For ‘Arachnophobia’?

Vienna, famous for it's music, and a canned sausage as well, is rapidly becoming famous for a brand new thing entirely! A visit by a large number of Cheiracanthium Punctorium, also known as Dornfingerspinne in German. In English it would be known as the yellow sac spider. The little yellow and brown striped arachnid has moved into town, seemingly intent on running off the human population. Or it could be a media-driven frenzy. Much ado about not much.

VIENNA, Austria - An eight-legged invasion is giving some Austrians the creeps. The venomous yellow sack spider, whose painful bite can cause headache and nausea, has become the talk of the town since several people were bitten earlier this summer.

Reports of spider sightings have dominated local media, triggering hundreds of calls to a Vienna poison hotline and prompting the government to issue a plea for calm.

"The bites of a yellow sack spider are indeed painful but not deadly," Health Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat said in a statement. "If you are bitten, please don't panic and in case of discomfort immediately contact a doctor."

Underscoring the hysteria, 190 people who feared they might have been bitten went Wednesday to the main hospital in the northwestern city of Linz. Only eight of them turned out to have possible symptoms, doctors told Austrian state broadcaster ORF.

Eva Reiner, a Vienna business consultant, fished a dead yellow sack spider out of her pool this week — and has not gone swimming since.

"It wasn't even alive, and it still looked evil to me," she said.

But experts are urging people to keep things in perspective.

The yellow and brown striped critter, whose Latin name is Cheiracanthium Punctorium and is known in German as a "Dornfingerspinne," is one of 1,000 similar species found in Austria and neighboring countries including Germany, Italy and Switzerland, said Christian Komposch of an animal ecology institute in the southern city of Graz.

There are sightings every year, said Komposch, who blames the media for spreading misleading information and fanning the frenzy.

We don't want to be fanning the frenzy. We'll just put in a calm, measured assurance for the folks in Vienna: You are all going to be eaten by these ferocious arachnid conquerors. They will show you no mercy at all. First the pools, then the saunas, next your very beds!

Always glad to be of assistance. Blue Crab Boulevard, long known for it's calm rational approach to the animal uprising!

Iranian Peace Proposal

The psychopathic Islamist president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has offered his own peace proposal for the Israeli problem. That would be the peace of the grave. His final solution is to destroy Israel. Let's see Juan Cole spin this one.

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the solution to the Middle East crisis is to destroy Israel. In a speech during an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders, Ahmadinejad also called for an immediate halt to fighting in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.

"Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented," he said.

Ahmadinejad, who has drawn international condemnation with previous calls for Israel to be wiped off the map, said the Middle East would be better off "without the existence of the Zionist regime."

Israel "is an illegitimate regime, there is no legal basis for its existence," he said.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev responded by noting the ties between Ahmadinejad's regime and Hezbollah.

"Our operation in Lebanon is designed to neutralize one of the long arms of Iran — Hezbollah," Regev said. "Hezbollah is their proxy, being used as an instrument of Teheran to advance their extremist agenda and the blow to Hezbollah is a blow to Iranian interests and a blow to all extremist jihadist forces in the region."

Ahmadinejad accused the United States of using Israel to try to control the Middle East and its oil wealth.

"Today the Americans are after the greater Middle East," he said. "The Zionist regime is used to reach this objective. The sole existence of this regime is for invasion and attack."

He urged Muslim states to "isolate" the United States and Britain, accusing them of supporting Israel's military offensive and saying they should be expelled from the U.N. Security Council.

Ahmadinejad also rejected proposals for deploying international troops along the Israeli-Lebanese border to separate the warring parties.

"Peace and security in Lebanon and its borders has to be preserved by the Lebanese government and people. Deployment of foreign forces is not acceptable in any shape unless it is just, based on U.N. rules and preserves the unity and territorial integrity of Lebanon," he said.

Iran is, rather obviously, behind the war Hezbollah started. This speech confirms Iran's war aims. Is anyone in Europe paying attention.

Waiting For Fidel - II

AFP is reporting a very noticeable mobilization of Cuban security forces and is emphasizing it more than the AP, I think.

HAVANA (AFP) - Speculation has grew over Fidel Castro's health following surgery as both the communist leader and his replacement and brother Raul Castro remain out of sight while security quietly tightens around the country.

Besides a perceptible mobilization of police in Havana and at the country's exit points, Communist Party activists and rapid response brigades were also on alert, as Cubans pondered the fate of their leader of nearly five decades after he underwent gastrointestinal surgery.

A top official said Wednesday that Fidel Castro, 79, remained "very alert" following his operation, and continued to closely follow domestic and international affairs.

But neither he nor his brother Raul, whom he named as his temporary replacement Monday, appeared in public, stoking concerns over the country's future.

The tea leave reader is on the fritz this morning, but it sure does look like they are getting ready to break some bad good news, doesn't it?

The Miami Herald has quite a lot of coverage for those interested.

Politics As Disco, Part Two

As I mentioned in an earlier post about this, sometimes watching politics is like watching a bad dance contest. But every once in a while a contestant makes a smooth, perfect move. So it is with the Republican members of the House who have forced the Democrats, and now organized labor, into the unenviable position of opposing an increase in the minimum wage.

For years, organized labor has worked hard to raise the minimum wage, while business groups have campaigned to block such a change. This week in the Senate, however, the AFL-CIO is pushing to kill the wage increase while practically the entire business lobby is demanding that it pass.

The reversal is the product of election-year politics and clever — critics say devious — legislative packaging that has been dubbed the "trifecta." In the same bill, senators are being asked to raise the minimum wage (the liberals' goal), cut the estate tax (the conservatives' objective) and approve a laundry list of popular, though narrowly targeted, tax breaks.

"The sides have flipped," said Peter R. Orszag, an economics scholar at the Brookings Institution.

Prodded by moderate Republicans eager to undercut criticism by Democrats that GOP economic programs overwhelmingly favor the rich, the House approved the package last week, including a three-year phased-in boost in the nation's minimum allowable hourly wage to $7.25 from the current $5.15. It would be the first increase in the minimum wage in nine years.

The Senate intends to vote on the package this week, but the outcome is too close to call, lawmakers from both parties agree. Several Republican committee chairmen are unhappy with how the House GOP leadership stitched together the bill, and they may raise objections on the floor. But the biggest obstacle to passage is the strong opposition from Democratic leaders and their labor-union allies to the estate tax provision, which would permanently reduce the federal levy on estates left by the wealthiest Americans.

Labor officials say that their opposition is a matter of economic and social justice. They also say that reduced revenue from estate tax relief could lead to cuts in federal programs for the poor, such as food stamps.

And all that high-minded talk about social justice won't fit into a sound bite. This one is a massive loser for the Democrats. They are going to get beaten over the head with this one in campaign commercials. Have to give the award for best fandango to the Republicans on this issue.

That’ll Teach You

"Sing about hound dogs will you? Make it sound like it's an unfavorable comparison, eh. I'll teach you. I'll use your beloved teddy bear as a chew toy!"

One presumes that was the thought process an enraged guard dog engaged in while savaging Elvis Presley's teddy bear in a museum in Wells, England. The guard dog ran amok in the Wookey Hole Caves teddy bear museum and destroyed an entire collection of rare teddy bears valued at $900,000.

"He just went berserk," said Daniel Medley, general manager of the Wookey Hole Caves near Wells, England, where hundreds of bears were chewed up Tuesday night by the 6-year-old Doberman pinscher named Barney.

Barney ripped the head off a brown stuffed bear once owned by the young Presley during the attack, leaving fluffy stuffing and bits of bears' limbs and heads on the museum floor. The bear, named Mabel, was made in 1909 by the German manufacturer Steiff.

The collection, valued at more than $900,000, included a red bear made by Farnell in 1910 and a Bobby Bruin made by Merrythought in 1936.

The bear with Elvis connections was owned by English aristocrat Benjamin Slade, who bought it at an Elvis memorabilia auction in Memphis, Tenn., and had loaned it to the museum.

"I've spoken to the bear's owner and he is not very pleased at all," Medley said.

A security guard at the museum, Greg West, said he spent several minutes chasing Barney before wrestling the dog to the ground.

The owner isn't pleased? Really? How shocking. The animal uprising - now going after human's cultural heritage.

Waiting For Fidel

The weird death-watch continues unabated. There have been no photographs of Fidel Castro since his hospitalization and no appearances in public by Fidel's brother and heir, Raul. Cuban government spokesmen continue to maintain everything is just peachy, however.

Close aide Ricardo Alarcon told a U.S. radio program on Wednesday that Castro, who had had a stomach operation, was "very alert" and resting after giving up power on the communist-ruled island for the first time in 47 years.

No photographs or television pictures of Castro, 79, have been released since his operation for intestinal bleeding and there was also no sign of defense minister Raul, 75, Castro's designated successor.

"We don't know what's going on. We're waiting for Raul to speak," said Vilma Gutierrez, a mother of three who works in a ramshackle state-owned shop selling subsidized potatoes and bananas. Her part of town saw riots in 1994 during the economic crisis set off by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

A finger to her lips, she said: "People are keeping their mouths shut. They don't know what's going to happen."

There was a small increase in police presence in poorer parts of Havana and communist neighborhood organizations had activated "rapid response groups" used to put down riots.

Some Cubans with relatives in the security forces said military and other uniformed personnel had been mobilized in barracks and police stations as a precaution.

But Havana's sweltering streets, their stylish old buildings dilapidated from years of neglect, were quiet.

Castro, the world's longest-ruling head of government, gave Raul provisional powers as head of the armed forces, Communist Party and Council of State.

However, the "Maximum Leader" did get wet kisses from the "Minimum Leader"! Kim Jong Il sent a get well card:

"I sincerely wish you a speedy recovery to your health so that you can excellently continue to carry out the Cuban revolution and the great mandate given to you by the people of Cuba," Kim said in a telegram to Castro dated August 2.

Israeli Air Force Hits Beirut Suburbs

The IAF attacked the Hezbollah-controlled areas of the Southern Beirut suburbs for the first time in more than a week today. They also appear to be committing even more ground troops into Lebanon.

BOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon - Israeli war planes renewed strikes against Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday for the first time in nearly a week and an Israeli missile killed three in a border village, a day after Hezbollah launched its biggest rocket attacks yet against Israel.

Three weeks into the conflict, six Israeli brigades — or roughly 10,000 troops — were locked in fighting with hundreds of Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon, and the battle looked likely to be bitter and long.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said more than 900 people had been killed and 3,000 injured in the fighting, though did not say whether the new figure — up from 548 confirmed dead — included those missing.

More than 1 million people — a quarter of Lebanon's population — had been displaced, he said, adding the fighting "is taking an enormous toll on human life and infrastructure, and has totally ravaged our country and shattered our economy."

Although diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting have thus far faltered, diplomats said the United States and France were working on two U.N. resolutions to overcome the impasse.

The first resolution would call for an immediate cease-fire and lay out political principles for a long-term settlement of the dispute, while the second would deal with deploying an international force to secure the border between Lebanon and Israel and other long-term issues.

Diplomats said the key elements in that framework include halting the fighting, disarming Hezbollah, deploying peacekeepers and creating a buffer zone in south Lebanon free of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops.

Up to this point, the U.S. has opposed an immediate cease-fire without simultaneous steps to deploy peacekeepers and tackle Hezbollah's disarmament. France, on the other hand, has insisted that the fighting be halted first to pave the way for a wider peace.

The Israeli army said its soldiers had taken up positions in or near 11 towns and villages across south Lebanon as they try to carve out a 5-mile-wide Hezbollah-free zone ahead of what it hopes will be a speedy deployment of a multinational force there.

Most of the villages are close to the Israel-Lebanon border; the one deepest inside Lebanon, Majdel Zoun, is about four miles from the frontier. However, many tanks pushed even further north, controlling open areas from higher ground, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the operation.

Israel is going to run up against a ceasefire imposed on it soon. They are running out of time to beat Hezbollah sufficiently to cripple that organization militarily.

Keep Talkin’, Jack

The execrable John Murtha keeps talking. Every time he opens his mouth, he further advances the chances of his challenger, Diana Irey. Now he's announced he wants an immediate ceasefire in Israel.

Pennsylvania's Rep. John Murtha said yesterday that he favored an immediate cease-fire in the fighting in Lebanon.

His stand places the veteran Johnstown Democrat at odds with the Israeli government, and — on yet anther major Middle Eastern policy issue — at odds with the Bush administration as well.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government yesterday sent troops deeper into Lebanon, seeking to blunt the offensive capability of that country's Hezbollah guerrillas. The Israeli military also resumed major air strikes after a self-imposed 48-hour pause following a bombing Sunday that killed more than 50 Lebanese civilians, many of them children, in the town of Qana.

President Bush said again Monday that he favored a cease-fire only after the goal of defusing Hezbollah's threat had been met.

Mr. Murtha, speaking yesterday at a Post-Gazette editorial board meeting, was asked if he favored a cease-fire in the campaign north of Israel's border.

"I think so," he said. "I think it would be very difficult to justify continuing on."

Referring to the Bush administration's position, he said: "You know, they say, 'Well, we want a long-term cease-fire.' It seems to me you start with a cease-fire, and then you try to work out the details long term. If you don't, and you continue to have heavy-handed military action — and I support heavy-handed military action because it saves your own troops — but it creates enemies, and that's the problem we have."

Mr. Murtha said the fighting risked hardening against Israel the "hearts and minds" of Lebanese civilians within the general population, beyond Israel's entrenched enemies in the Shiite militia.

Mr. Murtha offered the analogy of U.S. fighting to defeat insurgents in the Iraqi city of Falujah: That battle was a military success, he said, but the inevitable destruction it caused alienated hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, turning a tactical victory into a setback for the broader strategy of trying to bring peace to Iraq.

Mr. Murtha is an outspoken critic of the administration's managing of the war in Iraq. His call late last year for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq "at the earliest practicable" moment galvanized opposition to the war among Democrats.

Murtha simply cannot shut his mouth. Keep talkin', Jack, soon you'll have alienated enough voters.

Circle The Bloggers

And the National media scrutiny just began for Ned Lamont's campaign and the appallingly bad judgment used by Jane Hamsher. The Washington Post is reporting about the graphic of Joe Lieberman in blackface, and Lamont is reported as, "brushing past" reporters with questions about it.

Lamont is in deep trouble, just like that. And the trouble will keep escalating all day today.

BRIDGEPORT, Conn., Aug. 2 — The bitter Democratic Senate primary in Connecticut erupted in fresh controversy Wednesday over a doctored photo of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) in blackface that was posted by a blogger who has been an influential promoter of challenger Ned Lamont.

Lieberman angrily demanded that Lamont denounce the action and sever all ties with Jane Hamsher, the founder of the Web log Firedoglake, who posted the photo on another blog, HuffingtonPost.com. She travels with the campaign along with other bloggers. She is not on the campaign staff but has actively promoted Lamont's candidacy and helped raise money for him through her blog.

The photo, showing former president Bill Clinton in dark glasses and Lieberman in blackface, appeared early Wednesday, accompanied by a dispatch attacking Lieberman, his supporters and some news organizations. There was no mention of the photo in the dispatch, and the photo later was removed. But the two campaigns heatedly traded charges as the day progressed.

The controversy came on a day when Lamont campaigned with two of the most prominent African American politicians in the country, Jesse L. Jackson and Al Sharpton. The intersection of events focused attention on two critical aspects of the Senate primary fight: the influence of the bloggers on Lamont's antiwar candidacy and the importance of the black vote in determining the outcome on Tuesday.

Lieberman responded indignantly after the photo posting was revealed. "This is one of the most disgusting and hurtful images that has been used in American history, it's deeply offensive to people of all colors, and it has absolutely no place in the political arena today," he said in a statement issued by his campaign.

Lieberman called on Lamont to ban Hamsher from traveling with the campaign, refuse to take any money raised by Hamsher and remove any links to her postings on his Web site.

Lamont brushed past reporters Wednesday night in Bridgeport, saying: "I don't know anything about the blogs. I'm not responsible for those. I have no comment on them."

Welcome to hardball. IF Lamont had reacted yesterday by banning Hamsher and ordering the return of any monies she raised for the campaign, he might have weathered this. It's too late, and Arianna Huffington's quote seals Lamont's fate:

Arianna Huffington, the founder of HuffingtonPost.com, said that no one from the Web site has asked for the photo to be removed. "We did not ask her, nor would we have asked her," she said. "It was a satirical point she made in the picture, and there was nothing in the text that was racist, and there is nothing about Jane that is racist."

Which shows just how little understanding of the emotion involved in that image. Guess what? It is not - ever - seen as satirical. It has been used too many times as a weapon when people have made the mistake of doing it.

Prediction: Lamont will make an announcement that he is severing ties sometime today. Too late, though.