Wednesday Roundup - Meet the new boss, etc.

There's a lot of this sort of thing going around - Defense Secretary Robert Gates took a page out of the 2003 playbook when he said that the proposed Senate resolution against the troop surge in Iraq "emboldens the enemy." Lest anyone thought he would truly be any different than Rumsfeld, I say he wouldn't have gotten the job if that were the case.

In other news, John Edwards has called the same Senate resolution "useless". This piece, from the Politico, details the changes between the John Edwards of 2004 and the John Edwards of today - namely, his rhetorical tone is much more hardcore. I think its refreshing, but then again, I thought the "bad men" joke by Hillary the other day was pretty great, and everyone else has been reduced to handwringing over it.

There was some excitement across west and south Texas recently, as federal agents based in El Paso began investigating some smuggling activity. The smuggling involved batteries and parts for the Hawk missile system which someone was apparently trying to ship to Iran. I guess in lieu of other hobbies, some people undertake arms trafficking. This could turn into a much bigger story than it already is if other activities are uncovered.

Speaking of Iran, the Texecutioner got a pretty harsh rebuke from Arlen Specter yesterday. During a hearing on war powers, Specter said "I would suggest respectfully to the president that he is not the sole decider," which in Senatorial terms could be classified as a Wicked Burn. I think it is a little weird that there's so much debate over what Congress can and cannot do. I'm no Senator, but the Distinguished Gentleman from The Texas Blue knows that Article II is restrictive rather than permissive.

George put up a bit about this yesterday, but it bears repeating - a traditional suspension of Constitutional process was overruled in the State House yesterday, stalling all non-emergency or fast track legislation until March 17. The Line of the Day award goes to Speaker Pro Tempore Sylvester Turner, who recommended that everyone take a chill pill.

Have you ever wished you could pay less for using electricity during certain periods of the day? Thanks to new meters and lines, TXU and other utility companies may be going the way of the cell phone, with premium and low-cost periods. I feel as if the power I consume during the weekend would end up evening everything out, but it might work for disciplined people.

Congressman Charlie Gonzales is putting together an effort to get the railroad tracks moved out of San Antonio. They've had some problems with derailments in the last few years, and so the Representative is looking for alternatives. At $2 billion and ten years, it could create some jobs and solve a problem, but how the public hearings bear out will largely depend, I think, on the usual citizen's cost-benefit analysis.

Speaking of jobs, Kay Bailey Hutchison rounds out today's roundup with her announcement that she may be interested in being someone's Vice Presidential nominee. Sometimes over drinks we've said that if Senator Clinton get the nomination, Kay Bailey would be a lock for the opposition VP candidate, for gender balance, but invariably one of us always makes the argument that that sort of thing is important to us, and that Clinton would be polarizing enough to mitigate that need on the GOP side. The fact that she's talking about it makes me think that the latter argument may not be entirely true.