Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Joisy is in an interesting place, today. The guy voted in favor of the Health Care thing, the bailouts, and has generally ticked off the people he's supposed to represent. But he's a Democratic Senator, so he knows better than his constituents.
Enter the Tea Party movement. They filed a proposal to recall Bob.
State officials refused permission for a vote. And so it's now in the legal arena; specifically, the state Supreme Court. While the US Constitution contains no provisions for recall, the state Constitution does, and Bob's ducking and weaving for all he's worth. Rather than addressing the apparent dissatisfaction of his constituents, he's been applying every legal maneuver he can come up with in an effort to derail a recall vote. It's worth noting that the opportunity to vote on a recall movement does not mean that Bob's out of office - it just means that his constituents get to re-think the job he's been doing, and then to decide whether or not to allow him to serve out his term in office.
Apparently, even that is too scary for the Democratic Senator. People across the country will be watching this case, and a decision is expected soon.
Meanwhile, over in Arizona, Gov. Brewer took the unusual step late yesterday of suspending the state's Democratic Attorney General from involvement in any legal proceedings arising from Arizona's tough stance against illegal aliens. AG Terry Goddard was a vocal opponent of the law, so much so that the Legislature gave the governor advance authority to hire outside legal counsel.
Yesterday, Goddard met in D.C. with BO's AG, Eric Holder - who also has criticized the law. That pretty much tore it. In the face of apparent collusion among the Democratic lawyers, Brewer pulled Goddard's plug.
Closer to home: Late Friday, the Yamhill County Clerk released the final unofficial ballot count in the county commission race between progressive incumbent Mary Stern and lunatic fringe challenger Mary Starrett.
Well, that's what the loon over at Blue Oregon says. Starrett apparently eked out a four vote lead, which means that they'll get to do it all over again in a November runoff. Note to head loon Kari: when someone that you choose to describe as a lunatic matches or beats your favored "progressive", it seems obvious that a lot of folks consider your candidate to be no better.
Meanwhile, the ever-tolerant Democratics yesterday filed an election law complaint with Katie Brown's office, charging that the Independent Party of Oregon isn't actually a "legitimate" party. Basically the same thing some of us have been saying about the Democratics for years.
Oregon Republican Chairman Bob Tiernan said he doesn't have any problem with the operation of the Independent Party. "The Democrats ought to worry about their own policies and procedures" instead of attacking other parties, he said.
Well, perhaps they should. But they won't. Their "tolerance" extends only so far. If you dare to disagree with them, it ends.