Posts Tagged “Bill Clinton”

The election of Barack Obama and Joe Biden and the appointments following have left some Senate seats open. And there are still Senate races left to be decided. Politics- it’s fluid. 

A brief rundown on the seat shifting: 

Hillary Clinton’s Seat

Former President Bill Clinton doesn’t want the spot . Governor David Paterson has taken himself out of contention, as has Robert F. Kennedy Jr (who was rumored to be under consideration for the EPA spot) and Rep. Nita Lowey.  A long list of names are being floated around as a potential replacement- including Andrew Cuomo and Caroline Kennedy- but it seems that it is mostly speculation. Gov Paterson will make an official announcement in January when Clinton formally leaves her seat for her new job as Secretary of State. 

Joe Biden’s Seat 

Biden didn’t offer his resignation at the same time as Obama, which struck some as odd. It appeared that Biden might be holding on to his seat until incoming Delaware Governor Jack Markell took office in January. Markell and current Governor Ruth Ann Minner are both Democrats but it was believed that Markell would be more comfortable with replacing Biden with someone who would not want to run again in 2010, thus leaving the seat open for Joe’s son, Beau Biden (who is currently serving in Iraq). 

But the wait for Markell wasn’t needed. Gov. Minner announced that Ted Kaufman- friend and former aide to Biden Sr.- would take over the seat until 2010. Kaufman has already stated that he has no plans to run for the seat in two years.

In other words: they’re holding your seat for you, Beau. (Yes, Beau will actually have to run for the seat but since there’s been a Biden in the Senate since humans rode on dinosaurs, it is a sure thing.) 

Barack Obama’s Seat 

Though Obama gave up his seat a couple of weeks ago, Illinois Gov. Rod “Blago” Blagojevich has yet to put a new body in that position. He formed a vetting committee and rumored candidates include Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., State Sen. Kwame Raoul and V.A. Direcotr (and wounded Iraq vet) Tammy Duckworth

Other Senate News: 

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AL)- who is planning on running for reelection in 2010- is nervous that Gov. Sarah Palin is going to make a run at her job. Also nervous about the prospect of Sen. Sarah? The entire (non-fundementalist) world 

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) will not run for reelection in 2010 and the competition for his seat is likely to be fierce. Speculated Democratic contenders include Rep Ron Klein, Sen. Dan Gelber and possibly State CFO Alex Sink (who had decided not to run before the Martinez announcement and now may change her mind). Potential Republican candidates: Rep. Connie Mack, State A.G. Bill McCollum and- in the long shot column- former Gov. Jeb Bush. 

Though 171 more uncounted ballots just turned up in the Minnesota recount, Five Thirty Eight is still calling the race for Republican Norm Coleman. 

And the Georgia runoff election happened today More on that and the Franken-Coleman battle to come later

This year’s seemingly endless primary season caused me to whack my head into my desk enough times that I probably did minor cranial damage so I can’t fully blame former president Bill Clinton for seeming dense in this morning’s interview with ABC. 

Speaking about John McCain’s tactic of suspending his campaign to head back to Washington in order to…appear to do something about the economy: 

“We know he didn’t do it because he’s afraid because Sen. McCain wanted more debates,” Clinton said, adding that he was “encouraged” by the joint statement from McCain and Sen. Barack Obama.

“You can put it off a few days the problem is it’s hard to reschedule those things,” Clinton said, “I presume he did that in good faith since I know he wanted — I remember he asked for more debates to go all around the country and so I don’t think we ought to overly parse that.”

John McCain issued his formal challenge of more debates to Barack Obama in early June- nearly two months before he announced Sarah Palin as his vice presidential choice. Considering the fact that McCain was still holding on to other V.P. options days prior to her announcement, it is a safe bet that he wasn’t factoring her into the equation when he made those remarks. He wouldn’t have known he’d be spending so much of his election season ensuring Palin didn’t speak in any public setting lest everyone discover how incompetent she is.  

But I’m sure Bill Clinton’s right. It is probably just a coincidence that McCain wants to reschedule the presidential debates to the night that Palin was supposed to face Joe Biden in a debate. Nothing to parse here, folks, move along. Bill Clinton wouldn’t have any reason to be against the Democratic Party right now, would he? Did something happen recently that might have inflated his bias and set off a series of temper tantrums? Anything? Get back to me on that.