Oh, Canada

IT seems like every few days you read of another city that has banned the smoking of cigarettes in public places. Bans on smoking in bars, at companies, attempts to get it banned even on the streets are up in some communities. Tobacco bad, right?

So "marijuana good" should come as no surprise.

TORONTO (Reuters) - The use of medical marijuana has given two Toronto professors the right to something that many students could only dream of — access to specially ventilated rooms where they can indulge in peace.

The two, at the esteemed University of Toronto and at York University to the north of the city, suffer from chronic medical conditions that some doctors say can be eased by smoking marijuana. They are among nearly 1,500 Canadians who have won the right to use the drug for health reasons.

Using human rights legislation, the two petitioned their employers for the right to light up in the workplace. They faced a legal struggle, but the universities eventually agreed.

"Without the medication, I am disabled and I'm not able to carry out meaningful and valuable, productive work," said York University criminology professor Brian MacLean, who suffers from a severe form of degenerative arthritis.

"It helps me to maintain my mobility as a physical problem but it also helps me to keep the pain at a distance so I can focus on my work," MacLean told Reuters.

MacLean's three-month battle to persuade York University to provide a light-up room, finally obtained this month, is short in comparison to University of Toronto philosophy professor Doug Hutchinson's year-long struggle.

"It took Professor MacLean a season, three full months, to get a similar accommodation and I believe that in Canada now, we should hope that the next person who gets the accommodation should not take more than a month," Hutchinson told Reuters.

So, tobacco smokers should be able to successfully use the same argument to force accommodation for their rights.

Perfect Storm?

Michael Totten warns that the situation in Lebanon is deteriorating rapidly. This has largely passed under the notice of American media and the chattering classes who are so swept up in worrying about American politics (I am not excused here). But the withdrawal of Hezbollah from the Lebanese government is very important. There is something going on here at the same time trial balloons are being lofted that indicate that the American government may be thinking about talking to Syria and Iran.

While Syria and Iran may be about to conquer Lebanon.

A perfect storm may be brewing in Lebanon.

I’ve been under Tornado Watch probably ten times or so in the American Midwest. Not once did a tornado touch down anywhere near me while I was on alert. Several tornadoes, though, blew through the area out of the blue with no warning on different days. So consider this a storm watch weather forecast for Lebanon with that level of built-in unpredictability.

The Lebanese government says Syria and Iran aim to overthrow the elected government in Beirut and reconquer the country. Whether they are actually trying to do this right now or not is unknown. There should be no doubt, though, that if they don’t have a plan to execute now it’s because they want to do it later instead.

Meanwhile, a group that calls itself “Al Qaeda in Lebanon” appeared from Lord-only-knows-where and directly threatened to destroy the March 14 government. “Al Qaeda in Lebanon” may or may not exist as a wing of bin Laden’s Al Qaeda. If they do, they’re serious. If they don’t, they’re a Syrian proxy. Either way, it doesn’t look good. This is not a prank phone call.

These threats to Beirut’s elected government are concurrent with Hezbollah’s and Amal’s resignation from the Lebanese cabinet. Hezbollah and Amal quit for two reasons. The first is that the March 14 bloc refused to give Nasrallah and friends who lost last year’s election more power in a “national unity” government. The second is because it was time for the cabinet to move ahead on the Hariri tribunal. Hezbollah will not tolerate the prosecution of their patron in Damascus.

You really should read the whole thing. Totten has a lot of contacts over in that part of the world and is better informed than the "major" media. The fact is, that we have "realists" suddenly ascendant in Washington. The problem is that their reality bears no resemblance to actual, objective reality as it exists in the world. We cannot negotiate with the countries that are leading this conquest. That reality gives them a victory that will only lead to more and more demands.

Left Attacks Pelosi

Funniest thing yet. The folks at CREW have unleashed an attack on Nancy Pelosi for throwing her support to John "unindicted co-conspirator" Murtha. They are pissed, bigtime.

Washington, DC – Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) questioned soon-to-be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) commitment to eradicating corruption with her endorsement of one of the most unethical members in Congress, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), to be Majority Leader of the House of Representatives.

Rep. Murtha was listed in CREW’s report Beyond DeLay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and five to watch). As reported in the study and by the news media, Rep. Murtha has been involved in a number of pay-to play schemes involving former staffers and his brother, Robert “Kit” Murtha.

Eight incumbents in CREW’s report lost their races to ethics issues.

“Future House Speaker Pelosi’s endorsement of Rep. Murtha, one of the most unethical members of Congress, shows that she may have prioritized ethics reform merely to win votes with no real commitment to changing the culture of corruption,” Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today. “How can Americans believe that the Democrats will return integrity to the House when future Speaker Pelosi has endorsed an ethically-challenged member for a leadership position? Rep. Murtha is the wrong choice for this job.”

Not only is Rep. Murtha beset by ethics issues, The New York Times reported on October 2, 2006 that he has consistently opposed ethics and earmark reform. Sloan continued, “Rep. Murtha’s opposition to ethics reform does not bode well for future Speaker Pelosi’s promise to enact ethics legislation in the first 100 hours of the new Congress.”

I think maybe Mike Allen had some hints that all Hell was about to break loose on the left. It looks like Pelosi has a problem no matter what the outcome of this one. If Murtha wins, she's got a lot of mad people, if he loses, she's got a lot of mad people. It is easier to be in opposition than to try to lead, isn't it?

Really Bad Choice

Of people to try to rob.

A Knox County commissioner known for his pro-gun stance says he aborted an armed robbery at his car dealership Saturday with the aid of his .380-caliber pistol.

Greg "Lumpy" Lambert, who represents the 6th District in northwest Knox County, said he was at Advantage Auto Sales on Clinton Highway early Saturday afternoon when a young man began acting suspicious while test-driving a 2005 Ford Focus.

The man, identified as 19-year-old Kane Stackhouse, claimed to have $12,000 in his pocket and seemed intent on buying the car without any haggling or even a mechanical inspection, Lambert said.

Later, as the paperwork was being drawn up, Stackhouse stepped outside to smoke a cigarette, Lambert said. When the commissioner went outside to tell him it was time to work on the title, Stackhouse allegedly pulled a .25-caliber handgun from his jacket pocket.

Lambert, who was armed with a Kel-Tec .380-caliber pistol and wearing a "Friends of the NRA" ball cap, drew his gun. For a moment, the two men stared at one another down the barrels of their guns, according to Lambert's account.

"I think we probably leveled our sights close to the same time," Lambert said. "I think I got a bit of a drop on him. I told him to drop his weapon, and he said he didn't want any trouble."

Stackhouse didn't ask for money or issue any demands, Lambert said. "I didn't give him a chance to," he said.

Lambert said he convinced the young man to lay down his weapon and then told him to leave the premises, but not before letting him know he'd probably "be arrested at some point."

You can tell Tennessee is a fairly gun-friendly place. They helpfully identify the make and caliber of the gun the guy used to protect himself. I don't like the Kel-Tec, it's too small for my hand. I favor the Taurus PT-938, myself. It's a little more suited to my hand. And there's that 10+1 capacity. (I think the 938 is no longer available, at least in the US. The replacement is the Millennium Pro).

Goats Gambol In Gardens, Welsh Wardens Whack

Wales, home of largely unpronounceable words and great groups of goats. Or there used to be great groups, now they gotten the local council worried enough to send someone out on a great goatwhacking expedition. It seems the goats, who used to pretty much stay up in the mountains have discovered the joys of gardening. Not planting - eating. And it's got the resident's goat, so to speak.

They have roamed the mountains of Snowdonia for thousands of years and become a symbol of its rugged landscape.

Unfortunately man is no longer living in harmony with the native feral goat population.

Escalating numbers of wild goats causing an ever-increasing nuisance to residents and the environment has forced the authorities in North Wales to begin the first major cull of the animals.

Last week a professional marksman employed by Gwynedd Council spent three days killing 38 goats in countryside near Llanberis.

The cull - described officially as the removal of goats under a 'management programme' - was conducted secretly and more are likely to follow.

'Surveys' of other goat herds in the region are currently being carried out and more culls are expected to be ordered as the most effective method of control.

Although the move has been prompted by numerous public complaints, the authorities are braced for objections from outraged animal rights groups who believe it is uneccesary.

According to a committee of landowners and conservationists, including the National Trust and Snowdonia National Park Authority, numbers of wild goats have almost doubled in the last five years to around 500.

They have been coming down off the high mountains where they cause few problems and run riot through gardens, eat flowers, damage fences and walls and munch through saplings in protected woods.

A spokesman for the Countryside Council for Wales said the larger goat population had led to "significant damage to certain key habitats including internationally important woodlands and heathlands."

"Local residents are worried about damage to their gardens and the real danger posed by the goats feeding habits around highways. Farmers are also concerned about goat damage," he said.

(We often lie awake at night and worry about goat damage, too. Actually, around these parts, we mostly worry about deer. Which are a) suicidal and b) very hard on cars. But we digress.) Of course the requisite outside groups who have gardens not being eaten by grazing goats are all in a tizzy over the herd being thinned. So maybe the local council should ship a group of goats over to the critics gardens. That should calm things down.

Honeymoon’s Over

So says Mike Allen at Time Magazine. The leadership battle that Nancy Pelosi injected herself into may be a lose-lose situation for her according to a number of Democratic party insiders. She risks wither losing her first leadership battle or being branded as a dove. This was a fight she could have easily stayed out of.

A Democratic strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity because of ties to both sides, said the next 24 hours will be crucial. "Murtha needed to change the dynamic because he was losing," the strategist said. "Steny had a majority before the letter — he needs to hold on to his people. The question is, Does she do more than the letter, like make calls?"

The incoming Speaker credits Murtha for changing the debate on Iraq, which helped make Democrats a credible alternative to Republicans in the election, according to an official familiar with her position. "She also places a high premium on loyalty," the official said. "When he asked for her public endorsement, she was going to give it to him. He's with the left of the caucus on one issue — the war. Other than that, he's far to the right." The official added that the squabble will not affect long-term public perceptions of the Speaker-to be. "This is like a high-school election," the official said. "People inside the Beltway will buzz about it for a week, but then no one will remember what happened."

….

Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), an early Hoyer backer, tells TIME that he doesn't think the letter will change votes. "We all believed that Nancy would support Mr. Murtha because of their long personal relationship," he said. "That was all factored in before over half the members committed to Mr. Hoyer. This doesn't diminish Nancy's value as our leader. Leadership races are much more personal than a legislative issue. These are very personal relationships that members build up over time." Of the current leadership team, he added, "I don't know why we would break up something that was so successful."

Another Democratic member said: "There's no one in the caucus who didn't know who Nancy Pelosi was going to vote for."

Hoyer poses a competing power base to Pelosi, and they have not had warm relations. "She wants to purge the leadership of people who disagree with her," said a Democratic official with a front-row seat. "It's about people she can personally control. Hoyer is an excellent public face for the party. She's more a behind-the-scenes player."

I don't think it is quite like a high school election. Most non-political junkies really don't know much about Pelosi. This will be one of her first wide exposures to the electorate. She may have chosen a poor battle to start showing herself to the world with.

Giuliani Is In

Rudy Giuliani has formed his own exploratory committee, following by a few days the announcement that John McCain was doing so.

The former mayor filed papers to create the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Exploratory Committee, Inc., establishing a panel that would allow him to raise money for a White House run and travel the country.

The four-page filing, obtained by The Associated Press, lists the purpose of the non-profit corporation "to conduct federal 'testing the waters' activity under the Federal Election Campaign Act for Rudy Giuliani."

The paperwork is signed by Bobby Burchfield, a partner at the DC-based law firm of McDermott Will & Emery, a firm that handles political work.

Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel declined to comment.

Giuliani was widely praised for leading the city during and after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He has said for months that he would wait until the end of the 2006 elections to decide whether to embark on a White House bid.

Frankly, Rudy has the best chance at this point of beating McCain, who I frankly have already said I would not support. That is if McCain doesn't suddenly go third party, of course. That is a possibility.

A Whiter Shade Of Pleading

We skipped the light fandango
turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
but the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
as the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
the waiter brought a tray

And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale
(Procol Harum, A Whiter Shade of Pale)

It seems a bit on the late side, but the former organ player for the band Procol Harum, Matthew Fisher, has brought a lawsuit to try and claim partial authorship of the song, A Whiter Shade of Pale. The song, first recorded in 1967, is a musical icon and was ranked at number 57 of the 500 greatest songs of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine.

The organ strains of Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" sounded through Court 56 of Britain's High Court as the band's former organ player, Matthew Fisher, sued an ex-bandmate for a share of copyright in the multimillion-selling song.

Fisher's lawyer, Iain Purvis, said the song "defined what is sometimes called the Summer of Love in 1967" and had achieved cult status.

He said Fisher had composed the organ melody, and particularly the eight-bar Hammond organ solo, which gives the song its distinctive baroque flavor.

Purvis said the solo "is a brilliant piece of work and it is crucial to the success of the song."

"Our case, in essence, is that Mr. Fisher wrote the entirety of the organ tune," he said.

Fisher is suing Procol Harum singer Gary Brooker and publisher Onward Music Ltd. for a co-author credit and a share of the song's copyright and royalties.

Brooker, who is credited as the song's author with lyricist Keith Reid, says the pair wrote the song before Fisher joined the band in March 1967.

I'm a little surprised that this could even be brought into court after all these years.

More Moose Madness

Drunken moose terrorizes small school in Sweden!

"That could be the problem. We could be dealing with a boozy elk," Jan Caiman, a police officer in Molndal, told the national news agency TT.

The elk was probably eating fermented apples in a garden and had become inebriated, Caiman said.

Elk can weigh as much as 500 kilos (1,100 lb) and personnel at the school described the erratic male as "completely mad."

"The children are really scared," the receptionist at the school near Molndal in southern Sweden told the Gothenburg Post.

You know what it means when the moose are hitting the bottle, don't you? The animal uprising is getting overconfident and throwing early celebrations. Fermented apples, indeed. I'll bet if they follow the tracks back they'll find a couple of empty aquavit bottles.

(Incidentally, the Swedes call them elk, but they are alces alces or the common moose. Norwegians use the same term. Your odd factoid for the day.)

Jukebox Hero

Is the only instrument you are able to play the air guitar? Have you been frustrated because pantomiming out a song pretending to play a guitar just not artistically satisfying? Well, relief is at hand! Australian researchers have invented the air guitar T-shirt that you can actually play. Er, wear. Er, both at once!

The T-shirt, created by scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), is called a "wearable instrument shirt."

The shirt has sensors in each elbow and sleeves to detect and interpret the air guitarist's arm movements — one arm chooses chords and the other strums imaginary strings.

The gestures are then connected wirelessly to guitar audio samples to generate the music.

"It's an easy to use, virtual instrument that allows real time music making, even by players without significant musical or computing skills," said CSIRO engineer Richard Helmer.

Just like rap music! No actual musical ability needed! Here's a video of the shirt actually being played. Here's the actual CSIRO press release. At last, you can be a jukebox hero. No word on when it will hit the market or what it will cost, however.

“Realists Deny Reality,”…..

…."and embrace an ideology where talk is productive and governments are sincere." So writes Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute in today's Opinion Journal. His op-ed is a stark look at the inconsistency of the "progressives" and "realists". It is a harsh assessment.

On Dec. 20, 1983, Donald Rumsfeld, then Ronald Reagan's Middle East envoy, met Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. According to declassified documents, the Reagan administration sought to re-establish long-severed relations with Baghdad amid concern about growing Iranian influence. While U.S. intelligence had earlier confirmed Saddam's use of chemical weapons, Mr. Rumsfeld did not broach the subject. His handshake with Saddam, caught on film by Iraqi television, represented a triumph for diplomatic realism.

Iran and Iraq would fight for five more years, leaving hundreds of thousands dead on the battlefield. Then, two years after a ceasefire ended the war, Saddam invaded Kuwait. In subsequent years, he would subsidize waves of Palestinian suicide-bombers, effectively ending the Oslo peace process. Saddam's career is a model of realist blowback.

On Sept. 23, 2002, as Saddam defied international inspectors and U.N. sanctions crumbled under the greed of Paris, Moscow and Iraq's neighbors, Newsweek published a cover story, "How we Helped Create Saddam," that once again thrust the forgotten handshake into public consciousness. Across both the U.S. and Britain, the story provoked press outrage. NPR conducted interviews outlining how the Reagan administration allowed Saddam to acquire dual-use equipment. Mr. Rumsfeld "helped Iraq get chemical weapons," headlined London's Daily Mail. British columnist Robert Fisk concluded that the handshake was evidence of Mr. Rumsfeld's disdain for human rights, and Amy and David Goodman of "Democracy Now!" condemned Mr. Rumsfeld for enabling Saddam's "lethal shopping spree." While 20 years too late, progressives decried the cold, realist calculations that sent people across the third world to their graves in the cause of U.S. national interest.

What a difference a war makes. Today, progressives and liberals celebrate not only Mr. Rumsfeld's departure, but the resurrection of realists like Secretary of Defense-nominee Robert Gates and James Baker. Mr. Gates was the CIA's deputy director for intelligence at the time of Mr. Rumsfeld's infamous handshake, deputy director of Central Intelligence when Saddam gassed the Kurds, and deputy national security advisor when Saddam crushed the Shiite uprising. Mr. Baker was as central. He was White House chief of staff when Reagan dispatched Mr. Rumsfeld to Baghdad and, as secretary of state, ensured Saddam's grip on power after Iraqis heeded President George H.W. Bush's Feb. 15, 1991, call for "the Iraqi people \[to\] take matters into their own hands and force Saddam Hussein the dictator to step aside." In the months that followed, Saddam massacred tens of thousands of civilians.

While Mr. Rumsfeld worked to right past wrongs, Messrs. Gates and Baker winked at the Iraqi dictator's continuing grip on power. For progressives, this is irrelevant. Today, progressivism places personal vendetta above principle. Mr. Rumsfeld is bad, Mr. Baker is good, and consistency irrelevant.

Read the whole thing. It captures something that all too many self-labeled progressives embrace. There are repeated condemnations from the left of past US mistakes, missteps or failures and at the same time calls to go right back to those failed policies that led to those problems. It happens here in comments over and over and over. It happens all over the media and the blogosphere.

More Knife Fighting Details

As I noted yesterday, the internecine knife fighting is going on over the House leadership positions. Today's Washington Post expands of the brief announcement yesterday that Nancy Pelosi had chosen to back John Murtha for Majority Leader. But was this a shaft or a face-saving move?

Pelosi's decision could be a significant blow to Hoyer, who has worked for years to move up in the Democratic leadership. Political handicappers had regarded Hoyer to be the strong favorite when House Democrats meet Thursday to choose a majority leader for the 110th Congress. Although Murtha's stance on Iraq has made him a hero among many grass-roots party activists, his positions against abortion and gun control have pushed many House liberals into Hoyer's camp, including the leader of the Out of Iraq Caucus, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).

Hoyer's camp counts 21 of the roughly 40 incoming freshman Democrats as committed supporters. Many freshmen believe the Democrats should stick with the team that brought them to the majority, said John Sarbanes, who was elected last week to represent central Maryland in the House.

Hoyer also has the strong support of many of the party's conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats, who worry about Murtha's involvement in the Abscam bribery sting in 1980 and what they see as his freewheeling style on the House Appropriations Committee, where he has openly advocated for the interests of his district and his political supporters.

Some of Hoyer's supporters put the best face on Pelosi's intervention, saying Murtha would not have asked for a public letter of support if his campaign were not in trouble.

"I don't think it's significant," said Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), a leading Blue Dog and Hoyer supporter. "Everyone already knew she was supporting Murtha. I don't think this will have much of an impact. Steny's going to win this fight."

The possibility is there that the letter of support will be the only real support Pelosi gives. If she also does backstage maneuvering for Murtha, that might swing the vote. But if all she offers is lip service on a piece of paper, Hoyer might yet win the seat.

What Year Is It?

Reasoning by historical analogy is always problematic, but Brendan Miniter tries his hand at it in today's Opinion Journal. He points to two pivotal years in American politics 1952 and 1954 and wonder if the election last week conforms to either model.

In making his case to be elected to the top Republican post in the House in the next Congress–that of minority leader–Rep. John Boehner sounds this hopeful note: "Our ability to recover our majority is in our hands."

There is historical precedent for the optimistic view that a party repudiated at the ballot box can regain voters' confidence in just two years. In 1952 Democrats lost control of the White House and Congress as Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president. Two years later, Democrats retook Congress and then proceeded to hold the House for the next 40 years even as Republicans won six presidential elections.

What many Republicans are wondering now is whether this is 1952 in reverse, a momentary setback for the GOP before it comes roaring back to take lasting congressional majorities. Or is this a replay of 1954, the beginning of a near-permanent Democratic majority?

Of course, it is not the 1950s at all anymore. The world has changed quite a lot since then, as has the electorate. But there are the historical precedents which is sometimes all we have to go on. Miniter makes the case that even more than it is in the Republican's hands to regain the majority, it is in the Democrat's hands to lose theirs. While myself and a lot of others don't believe the Democrats will be able to exercise restraint once they take power, Miniter points out one obvious fact. Congress can be exceedingly good at doing nothing of any real value.

And that might be all it takes for the Democrats to hold power.

The Illegal Immigration Bomb

The Washington Post points out another issue that has the serious potential for damaging the Democrats - illegal immigration. While election results were very mixed on this issue with a number of people who ran on anti-illegal immigration platforms failing to be elected, there were also a number of ballot initiatives that passed that indicate that this is still a hot button issue for voters.

But when it comes to immigration, things are never easy. In the days after the election, Democratic leaders surprised pro-immigration groups by not including the issue on their list of immediate priorities. Experts said the issue is so complicated, so sensitive and so explosive that it could easily blow up in the Democrats' faces and give control of Congress back to Republicans in the next election two years from now. And a number of Democrats who took a hard line on illegal immigration were also elected to Congress.

"It's not without its challenges, for sure," said Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "You've got opposition in both parties. You still have restrictionists in the Republican Party. You have Democrats who've been reluctant to move on any kind of worker program."

Butterfield predicted that lobbyists and Democrats have less than a year to move legislation that could put some 12 million illegal immigrants on a path to legal residency, before the looming 2008 elections make a deal politically impossible. And analysts say the fate of President Bush's proposal to create a temporary worker program for 200,000 immigrants is in doubt, with labor's allies in charge.

….

Major challenges lay ahead. The Mexican border remains a sieve where an estimated 100,000 immigrants sneak into the country every year. Conservatives in the House, and some Democrats, want the border sealed with manpower, fencing and technological gadgets before they will even consider guest workers.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which opposes increased immigration, said Democrats should implement an enforcement program first. Anything else might be political suicide.

"The Democrats need to get their majority reelected in the next two years," Krikorian said. "My sense is that the Democrats have grown up enough to know they can't get reelected trying to get everything they want."

This issue will not go away and needs to be addressed. This one really is a potential bomb for the Democrats if they repeat the mistakes made in 1986 and 1996, as the article points out. I said a long time ago that once the border was secured a lot of other things become possible and negotiable. Before the election, both parties blew the chance to make that a cornerstone. The 700 mile fence is pretty much a band-aid and people knew it. So now the Democrats have a chance. The question is, will they act on it?

Poll Results

A post-election poll that Reuters just released says many of the social goals the Dems ran on are important to Americans. But there are very large warning flags for the Democrats in the results as well.

While a bare majority of 51 percent called the Democrats' victory "a good thing," even more said they were concerned about some of the actions a Democratic Congress might take, including 78 percent who were somewhat or very concerned that it would seek too hasty a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

Another 69 percent said they were concerned that the new Congress would keep the administration "from doing what is necessary to combat terrorism," and two-thirds said they were concerned it would spend too much time investigating the administration and Republican scandals.

Reuters, of course, led with things like raising the minimum wage and negotiating over drug prices, but these other items are very real indicators of how much rope the electorate plans on giving the Democrats. The question is will the Democrats note the dangers or plow right ahead.