Loose Ends... Vol. II

This week, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the rest of the Democrats voted to adjourn and take five weeks of vacation from the House of Representatives; the McCain campaign "went negative"; Indianapolis mayor, Greg Ballard, announced that the city was going to have to borrow $154 million to cover revenue (tax) shortfalls; and Ron Paul (R-TX) voted solo two times.

Despite strong opposition from the GOP, the House went home. Roy Blunt (R-MO), minority whip, and several other Republicans continued their debate on energy policy with the "lights off" and "no cameras" only to emerge on C-SPAN to ensure everyone knew what they were doing. While this was clearly a bunch of silly politics, they have a bit of a point here. I'm not sure how much of the year the House is in session (and I'm too lazy to look that up now), but with all the rhetoric spewed from both sides of the aisle, doing some real work would be nice. Of course, we're probably better off with the House not voting on anything at all. It was a treat to see George Stephanopolous make Pelosi look like a fool this morning on "This Week".

The talk of the presidential race this week was McCain's negative ads, the debate of who played the "race card" first, and the continuing drama regarding the so-called Veepstakes. Frankly, it was a slow week. Sure, McCain's ads were a bit silly, but are we surprised? He likes to be a bit silly and negative ads are the staple of any campaign in a two candidate race.

In local (Indianapolis) politics, rookie mayor Greg Ballard realized that they don't have enough money. There has been a lot talk about property taxes, public safety, former mayor Bart Peterson, and other issues which have all culminated in this announcement. Ballard positioned himself as a bit of a white knight arriving to save the city. This adds to his pile of challenges. We'll stay tuned to see if he can balance the budget while fighting crime and cutting taxes.

Finally, Ron Paul reinforced his nickname of "Dr. No" this week by being the lone dissenting voice on two pieces of legislation. First, he voted against telling the Chinese government how they should behave. Second, he voted against increasing the size and scope of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Ron is a lonely and frustrated man, I think. He did find a few friends to join him against popular legislation on these four other votes.