today in washington

It's not always all about politics. But this month, between loading laundry, I'm getting more than my fill and just can't seem to shut up. One of the very few differences between last night's State of the Union speech and any other is that his usual "The state of the Union is strong!" [delusional] assertion came not up front but rather, snuck in the back door at the end of the speech with 'blah blah blah"...to keep the state of our Union strong". This President, with more than his share of unintended laugh lines has finally developed , if nothing else in the past seven years, a sense of comedic timing- although he did seem to be taken off guard by a bit of spirited mid-sentence applause for an [otherwise hollow] invocation of the Constitution. Timing aside, he may never 'get' irony. The Democratic spokesperson's rebuttal was so stumpy that it came as no surprise to me in the following forty minute news cycle whom she was expected to endorse today. The "join us, Mr. President" chorus left me with the impression that 1. A Democratic Governor of a formerly red state might as well be a Sudanese warlord before getting the attention of this President; and 2. Competent political speech writers must be honoring the strike. It was an interesting news day. Twixt this coverage and the 'Liberal Lion's endorsement of Barrack was the story of a man apparently standing outside of the north fence around the White House shouting 'threats'. I imagine these might have included "If you don't get us out of this damn war, no one will be safe anywhere" and "If you manage to finish out your term I'm gonna be a pauper!". This development was important enough to secure the area against the unknown contents of his duffel bag but apparently not important enough for a follow-up report- even by end of the next day. I'm confused. In the main-stream media the absence of bombs, or bombs thwarted by the administration's vigilance is usually big news. I'm guessing the bag contained instead pictures of Laura, since they have to be somewhere. Remember, they fell in love when he was still a party animal. I have to say, I was most impressed by how Senator Ted was able to balance himself on a spindly Ikea bar stool for fifteen minutes of accolades without toppling off into the young A.U. student's laps. Noting the invariable fate of inflatable front lawn snowmen, it was something of an inevitability. Later at the SOTU, he displayed a palpable relief at having no reason under the sun to stand up again for the rest of the day. He delivered a rather withered expression to something Senator Obama whispered in his ear- which I lip-read to have been, "There's Hillary, pretend we're making out." Sour-faced Hillary, sitting between Senators Carper and Biden must have hoped she was invisible- (no one would ever think of looking for a primary candidate in Delaware). I won't even comment on the Florida Republican primary other than to marvel at the alacrity with which they've gone from too much paper trail to none at all. And did I hear Mitt Romney use the phrase "...in countries like Asia and India."?? But I'll shut up now.