Friday Roundup: Quico Goes A-Courtin'

The Quorum Report has what Harvey would no doubt call some Sizzlin' Buzz: Francisco "Quico" Canseco has begun campaigning in earnest for the GOP nomination in the 23rd Congressional District. According to QR, he's got staffers, he's got radio, and he's already three deep in direct mail.

The Express News did mention in late May that he was up on radio and getting started, but man., that's a lot of action in a short time. District 23, lest you forget, is currently represented by Ciro Rodriguez, recent electoral slayer of Henry Bonilla.

The announcement this week that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was ditching the GOP has led to more than just a simple discussion about whether he will run for President. It has led to a discussion about the possibility of the colloquial "subway election." While not as phonetically pleasing as "subway series," it is a compelling idea. Yesterday I thought that maybe a 2010 Guv/Lite Guv ticket of Bill White and Rick Noriega might be just a tad Houston-centric, despite the actual, demonstrable Dream Team qualities; to consider Bloomberg's run takes (something)-centric to a whole new level. Just think: an election in which the leadership of the free world can only come from a single state and from among three liberals. I can't imagine what Russert's predictive map of who would carry what states would look like.

Via Huffington Post, the AP reports that the White House may be getting ready to close Guantanamo Bay's detention facilities. I know how blatantly bad it was, and how everyone expected it to close, but I just couldn't see it happening before Bush was out of office. Things must be getting really bad around the White House if they are just openly conceding to Democratic requests.

Hey, Senator Trent Lott. You made Taegan Goddard's Quote Of The Day! But not for something good; rather, for comparing illegal immigrants to goats. This is normally where I would say something witty which gives the business to Senator Lott, but I won't. To say that this gaffe was too egregious or something along those lines would mean that I think it was a gaffe, and I'm pretty sure Lott knew exactly what he was doing.

Speaking of embarrassing situations, how about this report from the AP wire about how the Texas House Of Representatives presented an institutional honor, albeit a small one, to a doctor that also happened to be a registered sex offender? I know it is easy for me to criticize, as I am not the intern who would likely be saddled with the job of running quick Google checks on everyone receiving "_____ Of The Day" awards from the Texas House, but maybe someone should be doing that. I'm willing to bet that someone will be doing that now, anyway.

What do you do when you're Vice President Dick Cheney and the National Archives and Records Administration gives you a bunch of static over how you and your staff handle classified materials? Apparently, you discharge the bureaucratic equivalent of buckshot into their face and try to have the offending agency abolished.

Lastly today: MSNBC reports that since 2004, 144 journalists have given money to political campaigns, and most of those have been left-leaning contributions. The piece is actually a really interesting read, especially in the details about which outlets have what kinds of policies on political donations. In state news this morning, the Star-Telegram says that the MSNBC report coupled with an internal review showed that a couple of sports news employees (including Randy Galloway) made political donations, and that two editorial staffers bought Kinky Friedman merch. They say they are going to review the contributions and the policies attached, and I'm willing to bet they will ban contributions by everyone all together.