Shards

I.

There has always been a question as to whether or not Richard Nixon ordered the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate. After today's release of more Nixon tapes there can be no doubt of his involvement in the crime itself as well as in the cover-up. We hear him directing his capo, Charles Colson, to burglarize the Brookings Institution and there is talk, by Nixon, of fire-bombing it. Despite a superior intelligence, Richard Nixon was wholly unsuited to political office of any kind. That our
Republic survived this thug is truly a blessing.

II.

Saxby Chambliss has been re-elected to the Senate in today's runoff in Georgia. Six years ago he slandered Senator Max Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, by charging that Cleland's votes in the Senate against some George Bush proposals was un-American and helpful to terrorists. John McCain, who has forgotten more about Vietnam than Saxby Chambliss (who claimed a physical exemption from the draft in the 60's) could ever know, called the charge reprehensible in 2002 but made his way down to Georgia after his defeat by Barack Obama to put in a good word for old Saxby.

It is said that we get the leaders we deserve; does Georgia deserve Saxby Chambliss?

III.

Nate Silver on fivethirtyeight.com predicts that Al Franken will ultimately win the Minnesota Senate seat by 13 votes. He's good enough and he's smart enough . . .

IV.

I'm a strong Democrat, but if I lived in Pennsylvania and Chris Matthews was on the ballot as the party's U.S. Senate candidate I would find a decent third-party guy to vote for.

"And down by the shore an orchestra's playing . . ."
(Cole Porter, "Begin the Beguine")