Daily News Roundup, 10/22/07: More Republican Fighting

You would think last night's Republican debate was subtitled "What To Do About Hillary?" And if that was the subtext, the main card would say "No One Is As Conservative As Me."

McCain, Romney, Giuliani, and Thompson beat each other up over everything you can imagine and accused each other of being best friends with Senator Clinton. Huckabee took the opportunity to say he didn't want to participate in "a demolition derby." Which translates to "No one is talking about me so I'm going to point out how they are all being mean to each other."

It is a weird situation for Republicans these days. They've been reduced to arguing about things like whether the vote count at the "values voters" straw poll was legitimate. Romney won overall by some 30 votes over second place finish Huckabee, who actually got the most votes in person as opposed to the in-person and online total. Not a huge trophy, but a fight ensues nonetheless. Whether its values votes or anti-war sentiment, Republicans continue to find reasons to fight amongst themselves.

Not only that, but Stephen Colbert is more or less making a mockery of conservative blowhards everywhere with his campaign — he was on Meet The Press yesterday, doing a better job of hanging with Russert than most candidates do anyways, and doing so on what amounts to a totally imaginary crusade. The joke about the Republican presidential field has become a metajoke, which now has a personification.

What is not a joke is the Republican resurgence in Louisiana, which should remind everyone that while they seem silly and impotent in most cases they are not totally irrelevant or incapable of putting together a win. Bobby Jindal won a special election on Saturday for the Governor's mansion, and did so in such a decisive fashion that the normal runoff won't be necessary. By capturing more than 50% of the vote, Jindal became Governor-Elect and immediately started outlining his plans for the state. He's only 36, so he'll be around for a while and bears watching.

The Austin American-Statesman had a number of items on the upcoming Constitutional election, set for November 6. First of all, they have an overview on the various propositions, which is helpful if you've missed the various iterations of such a thing so far. Governor Rick Perry and Democratic heavyweight John Sharp offer up the reason to vote for Proposition 15: because it will work towards a cure for cancer. Early voting starts today.

Lastly today: have you been paying attention to what's going on with Turkey and the Kurds in northern Iraq? You probably should be.