Welcome to the weekend edition of your open thread. Rain! Blessed rain! My plants are so happy right now. Anyone have interesting plans for the weekend?
Joe Biden puts his foot in his mouth. A lot. But you have to love him, he just comes across as a regular guy. Joe Biden appeared on Jay Leno and they discussed the Russian spy ring/spy swap:
Mr Leno showed the vice-president a photo of 28-year old Anna Chapman, one of the alleged spies.
In response to Mr Leno’s questioning, Mr Biden, in a mock-serious tone, told him: “Let me be clear. It wasn’t my idea to send her back.”
Mr Leno also asked him why the US was only getting four people in return for the 10 accused spies they were letting go, saying it did not “seem fair”.
Mr Biden responded by saying: “We got back four really good ones”.
“And the 10, they’d been here a long time, but they hadn’t done much,” he added.
Joe Biden just says what most people are thinking. Most independent analysis I’ve seen agrees with Biden’s statement that the U.S. got the better end of the spy swap deal. We sent back 10 useless spies and got some high-value ones in return, including the one that allowed the U.S. to find Robert Hanssen.
With filing deadlines having elapsed in pretty much every state of the Union, it seemed as if there were no more candidate surprises emerging in the 2010 election cycle.
Then again…
There are no shortage of conservatives in Louisiana who’d like to retire David Vitter. But late [Friday] afternoon, one prominent Republican decided to make a go of it, entering the race at the last possible moment to take on the scandal-plagued senator in the GOP primary this August.
Meet Chet Traylor, a former Louisiana Supreme Court Justice well-connected in Louisiana Republican political and business circles circles, who surprised everyone this afternoon by qualifying at the witching hour to challenge Vitter.
Traylor made it to the bench courtesy of the Louisiana business lobby, which gives Vitter-haters the thin reed of hope that he can gather the resources necessary to mount a legitimate challenge. The primary is one of the last ones on the 2010 electoral calendar. The primary is due up on Saturday, August 28th, with a potential runoff for October 2nd. It is a longshot, but there is a thin chance of a runoff becoming necessary, as a third Republican candidate did file: Nick Accardo, who ran for Congress as an Independent way back in 1994, garnering just 24% of the vote.
There’s also reports that a conservative independent has entered the race, Sheriff Ernest Wooten. This has to be good news for the Democratic candidate Charlie Melancon.
One final bonus. Did you know that Robert Byrd played fiddle? And that he released an album? He also sings too!
I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!