HBO to Hillary: Thoughts on the Weekend's News

Losing the Denny Hastert seat is a big deal for Republicans. That was a solidly GOP district, which includes the hometown of Ronald Reagan, for gosh sakes. Stretching from the western Chicago suburbs almost to the Iowa border, it's really Republican. And it was held by a Speaker. Reminds me of when Tom Foley, the House Speaker, lost his seat in 1994. The Republicans are downplaying it, noting that this was just to fill Hastert's seat until the fall elections but still with Illinois now reliably more Democratic than California--Kerry did better in the Land o Lincoln than in Lala Land--all the tide is with the Dems for keep that seat and extending their House margin.

Howard Dean made the rounds of Sunday shows and got off pretty easy, I thought. It sounds like they'll have some kind of redo for Florida and Michigan. But to me it's incredible that it's come to this.

The SNL pendulum has swung back against Hillary, sort of. The parody of the 3 AM ad--made by my spouse--was very funny and it poked as much fun at Hillary as it did at Obama. Still, it did echo the ad so that was good for Clinton.

HBO's "The Wire" ended beautifully, elegiacally, tying up so many loose ends and characters like a 19th century novel but with a damning indictment of the clueless journalists, the crime statistic altering police and politicians and the insane drug war that continues on and on and on. Plus a cameo by David Simon!