Patience

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President Obama, "who is under mounting pressure to clarify his thinking on same-sex marriage after top aides publicly embraced it in recent days, will sit down for an interview with ABC News on Wednesday during which he is likely to discuss his 'evolving' views on the issue," the New York Times reports. I find it hard to imagine that he will endorse gay marriage in this interview and at this time, but I could be wrong.

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show, Weds., May 9, 2012

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With great fanfare (a press release within minutes), the House of Representatives passed a ‘campaign reform’ package yesterday. The key bill is HB 300(Gilligan), which seeks to undo some of the incalculable damage of the Citizens United decision. The Roves and Koch Brothers (and Rodel) will still be able to dump huge sums of money if they’d like, but HB 300 would require more transparency about who is behind those anonymous ads. Which is why not a single Rethuglican voted for it. Bill passed on a strict 24-13 party line vote. Not surprising since, without a bottomless pit of anonymous right-wing dollars, the Rethugs are not competitive any more, not with their loco right-wing teabaggers driving the lopsided bus (subtle Steinbeck reference), and they know it.

Lugar Got O’Donnell-ed.

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Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) lost his bid to stay in office for a 7th term to Richard Mourdock (R). With 45% reporting, Mourdock is leading with 60% of the vote. This makes the Indiana Senate race a more competitive one in the fall, and gives Democrat Joe Donnelly a good chance to pick up this seat against the teabagger Mourdock. His name sounds an awful lot like Mordor. Fitting, I think.

Adolescent

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Yesterday, I came across this piece by Jo McGowan when reading the President's favorite blogger, Andrew Sullivan, and I think it hits the nail squarely on the head: that the views of certain vocal Catholic priests, and to a large extent all socially conservative Republicans who criticized the President during the Contraception debate earlier this year, are adolescent.

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show, Tues., May 8, 2012

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Legislators expressed shock, shock, at how bad things are over at DELDOT. Might I point out to them that, until now, there have been two types of DELDOT secretaries dating all the way back to the creation of the Department? You've got your wheeler-dealers like Kermit Justice and Nathan Hayward, and you've got your Ann Canbys, who tried to reform the culture, but realized that the long-time powers within the Department could simply wait you out. Legislators have known just how slick many of the inside DELDOT players have been since the beginning, but it was to their advantage to play ball with them b/c favorable attention from DELDOT was Incumbency Protection of the highest order. Their potholes were filled, their sidewalks got done, their streets got paved...all before Election Day. They had no skin in the game to reform the system b/c they were often the beneficiaries. Dropped right into the middle of this culture is Shailen Bhatt, who Governor Markell appointed to lead the Department out of the Dark Ages. Bhatt is doing just that, as is chronicled in this 'password-protected' News-Journal story.