The Daiy Top Five: Jan. 12, 2007

1. So much for the adults running Congress. In a dig at Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, appearing before a Senate Committee yesterday, California Moron, sorry Senator, Barbara Boxer essentially said that Rice risked nothing with the war in Iraq because Rice is without children. The NY Post's Editors not only chide Boxer for being inappropriate, they postively shred her and the "birpartisanship" which the Democrats promised, but few inside the Beltway expected.

"Who pays the price? I'm not going to pay a personal price," Boxer said. "My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young."

Then, to Rice: "You're not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family."

Breathtaking.

Simply breathtaking.

We scarcely know where to begin.

The junior senator from California ap parently believes that an accom plished, seasoned diplomat, a renowned scholar and an adviser to two presidents like Condoleezza Rice is not fully qualified to make policy at the highest levels of the American government because she is a single, childless woman.

It's hard to imagine the firestorm that similar comments would have ignited, coming from a Republican to a Democrat, or from a man to a woman, in the United States Senate. (Surely the Associated Press would have put the observation a bit higher than the 18th paragraph of a routine dispatch from Washington.)

But put that aside.

The vapidity - the sheer mindlessness - of Sen. Boxer's assertion makes it clear that the next two years are going to be a time of bitterness and rancor, marked by pettiness of spirit and political self-indulgence of a sort not seen in America for a very long time.

This is the kind of behavior that should remind Democrats that they won due to disenchantment with the GOP and not because the Democrats were any better.

If this kind of behavior keeps up for the next two years, the GOP will win big in 2008.

Hot Air has the video

2. So much for the end to the Culture of Corruption (I am telling you, this is just too easy today). What is the one United States territory where the minimum wage won't apply? American Samoa (a tiny island in the Pacific). Who is the major employer on the island? Starkist Tuna which employs some 5,000 people or 75% of the work force. StarKist's parent company is DelMonte, headquartered where? In San Francisco. The GOP is shredding the new speaker for her hypocrisy and the Washington Times has the story.

3. This just burns me up with anger. I have nothing else to say.

4. I think this is an interesting story. Apparently former Ohio Congressional candidate and Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett executed a citizen's arrest of three men to trespassed, he followed them and took them in to custody, with the help of an assualt rifle. Hackett may be charged for threatening the use of deadly force when none was permitted by law. From the facts presented, Hackett may have taken a baby step over the line, but he should not be chastised for it.

5. It doesnt' pay to be the frontrunner this far out from the election. Just ask Hilary Clinton, who appears to be slipping in the polls. A Frontrunner has no where to go but down. Captain Ed has this to say:

Now, however, the neophytes have overtaken the most feted and Establishment candidate the Democrats have. That demonstrates the power of the activist base in the Democratic Party to directly influence national politics. After all, Hillary has Bill Clinton, easily the most talented politician in the party, supporting her bid for another Clinton term in office, and Bill still enjoys tremendous popularity in the party. He plays well in Iowa, but Hillary apparently does not.

Iowa has a history of supporting populists, so perhaps it's not the best state on which to rely for predictive indicators. Unfortunately for Hillary, the news only gets marginally better in New Hampshire, the state where Bill earned the nickname The Comeback Kid. Hillary will need a dose of that if the polls have it right. She's dropped into a dead heat with Barack Obama in New Hampshire, erasing a 23-point lead over him from just a month ago. Why? Just like John Kerry, people neither trust nor like her; the negatives are too strong to allow her to succeed against other candidates, once they've shown viability.

Hillary will have to find a way to reconnect with the netroots and the MoveOn crowd, who ironically formed originally to demand an end to the impeachment of her husband. The trouble for Hillary is that she cannot afford to abandon the centrism she has pursued strategically to reduce her negatives among centrists and independents, especially because of her likability problems.

Neither Obama or Edwards would have a prayer against established GOP candidates like McCain, Romney or even Guiliani.