"He lived on the solution side of life"

(From the memorial service for Lloyd Bentsen in Houston yesterday, courtesy Houston Chronicle. Clockwise from about 7 o'clock: John Kerry, Chris Bell, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Cornyn.)

"At the tender age of 71, a time when he could have with honor and grace and total good faith, walked into a richly deserved private life, he agreed to become Treasury secretary at one of the most challenging times for our country economically in modern history ... He was instrumental in passing our plan to expand our trade relations with Mexico -- still a controversial issue, but I ask you to think how much more complex and difficult this immigration debate would be today if we had failed then to be a good neighbor."

-- former President Clinton

"For I believe history will judge this man as a man of solutions. He lived life differently than most of us. It's been said many times that life is 10 percent what happens and 90 percent how you react to it. From my chair, I've seen far too many people who react by moaning about problems, looking down, decrying the world and the situation we have. Not Lloyd Bentsen. He lived on what I call the solution side of life, always looking for an answer, always looking for some hope."

-- Pastor William Vanderbloemen of First Presbyterian Church, which the Bentsens attended

"Fold him in his country's stars."

Hermann Park, Houston, yesterday.

Barbara Radnofsky:


I want to express my sincere thanks to our service members and their families for their patriotic military service to our great Country. I ask that we keep our thoughts and prayers for the families of our fallen service members in all wars and the service members that died during peace time service. We must continue to remember this sacrifice on Memorial Day and throughout the year.


Chris Bell's blog (Jason Stanford):

Memorial Day is one holiday we all wish we didn't have to celebrate, and our hearts go out to everyone who has lost a friend or loved on in combat. There is not much more to say about that.

But there is a lot more to do. Texas has approximately 4,000 members of the National Guard currently on active duty in combat zones, and they are eligible for $250,000 life insurance policies with really low, $16.25 a month, premiums. On Veterans' Day, Chris said that as Governor, he would have the state pay these premiums to provide a little financial security.

When Chris' idea came out, Rick Perry's campaign called it "interesting," but not so interesting, it seems, to do anything about this. On Memorial Day, perhaps moreso than on any other day, we realize that this is an important priority and pray that no one would ever need to cash in any of these policies.

David Van Os:


My father and mother named me in memory of an uncle I never knew, my father’s older brother David, a naval fighter pilot in the Pacific theatre who did not return from his last mission and of whom it is said no trace was ever found. On the occasion of Memorial Day it is impossible for me not to think of this and of the similar sacrifices that have been made by so many Americans and their families in defense of the dream.

Over the approximately 231 years since the day the embattled colonists fired the shots heard ‘round the world at Lexington and Concord, a long line of courageous Americans and their families have offered themselves willingly to sacrifice everything they had in order to defend the dream of a place where tyranny is unknown and the people govern themselves. All of us living today owe more than words can ever express to every one of them for what they did.

On this occasion of Memorial Day 2006, something else must be said, grim though it is to have to say it. For the last 5 ½ years the chief executive of the United States of America and his entourage of sycophants have brazenly declared themselves by word and deed to be contemptuous of the Constitution and above the rule of law. In so doing they have continually shown themselves to be unworthy of every American who has sacrificed himself to defend the dream in every conflict since the courageous defenders of Lexington Green stood firm against Imperial Redcoat regiments.

The uncle I never knew did not pay the ultimate price in order for the likes of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Alberto Gonzales to trample all over the American dream that he perished to defend. Every one of the honored dead who has made the ultimate sacrifice down through the years of our nation’s history deserves better than for the dream they defended to be dishonored by an American regime that scorns the very Constitution they were sworn to defend. My fellow Americans and Texans, we owe it to ourselves, our legacy, and our posterity to flood our polling places this November and bring this dishonor to an end.

"I suppose I'd better stock up on soap-on-a-rope."

"Hoffa cupcakes"

Yummy. Oh wait, I have diabetes. OK, hold the chocolate sprinkles that look like freshly-turned dirt.

Down the street, customers are lining up at Leslie Watson's art store to buy $15 T-shirts reading, "The F.B.I. Digs Milford, Do You?"

And Jon Stewart (with a Sopranos reference, lost on those of you not watching this final season):

"Finally a break: they may have found Jimmy Hoffa. Ten FBI agents armed with shovels dug up a farm after a tip it might contain the Teamster leader's remains. Of course, many myths surround Hoffa's disappearance. Some say he is buried in the end zone of the Giants' stadium. Some say he was dumped in Lake Michigan. Some think he is alive and in New Hampshire having an affair with a volunteer fireman that he calls 'Johnnycakes.' But I hope, 31 years later, if they find him, it will make touchdown celebrations in the end zone of the Giants' stadium so much less creepy. Still looking for Jimmy Hoffa after 31 years. That means they'll find Osama bin Laden in 2037."

"Close" doesn't count

How hard is it to get some of these things right?

Matt Drudge 'reported' this week that Al Gore and his "entourage" traveled in five cars from their hotel in Cannes 500 yards away to where "An Inconvenient Truth" was being premiered. As Think Progress reports, a Gore spokesman says the former vice president and his associates walked to the screening.

Drudge also posted that the Democratic National Committee "secretly placed political operatives in the city of New Orleans to work against the re-election efforts of incumbent Democrat Mayor Ray Nagin." The DNC says the report is "unequivocally and absolutely false," and under pain of a libel lawsuit too costly for a blog to defend, Drudge now says that he takes DNC chairman Howard Dean and his spokesman "at their word."

In defense of his claim that Karl Rove has already been indicted on charges of perjury and lying to federal investigators, Truthout's Jason Leopold said last week that he had "five sources" to back him up. In its latest defense of the story, Truthout says it "now" has "three independent sources" who confirm what Rove's team denies: that Rove's lawyers were given a copy of his indictment on May 12th (or 13th).

Finally, ABC News' The Note raised a question: just exactly what was Karl Rove doing Friday May 19 at O'Hare, the airport that serves the city where Patrick Fitzgerald usually works. Wonkette has the deflation: he was headed to a fundraiser for Republicans in a northern Chicago suburb.

The Note should know that only us little know-nothing bloggers out here in Jerkwater are allowed to post rumorendo ...

Relative to Rove, Salon's Tim Grieve has more (of course he's a little harsher on us new-media types):

Consider the fact that Rove made a few public appearances last week. Maybe that's a sign that the White House thinks that Patrick Fitzgerald has given up on Rove. Or maybe, as conspiracy-minded blogger Wayne Madsen theorized the other day, it means that the grand jury really has indicted Rove already, but that the Bush administration knows that Rove is in the clear because it has gone to court to have the indictment dismissed.

Consider the fact that the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz have both written pieces dismissive of the claim that Rove has already been indicted. Maybe that's a sign that the story isn't true. Or maybe, as Truthout's Marc Ash argues, there's something "telling" about "rolling out that much conservative journalistic muscle to rebut" it.

Consider the fact that Rove's lawyer and spokesman have both denied the already-been-indicted story in interviews with both Truthout and more mainstream outlets. A TalkLeft comment poster has, and believes that Rove's people "now have a foot in the door of the liberal blogosphere" and may be using it "to manipulate their message among us."

And consider the fact that MSNBC's David Shuster said Monday night that Rove's legal team and former prosecutors watching the case "expect Patrick Fitzgerald to announce a decision at any time." Maybe Shuster's really saying that "Rove's people say an announcement by the special prosecutor is imminent," as one Truthout poster claimed. Maybe "the implication" is that Rove is "being cleared," as another asserted. Or maybe what Shuster said Monday night was simply a no-surprise update on the expected schedule of events he described a couple of weeks ago.

For Christ's sake, how much do those big-city beat reporters and TV talking heads get paid these days?

I can do that job better for cheaper. Just sayin' ...

Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr., 1921-2006

One of our titans is gone.

Much can be said of him, but this short paragraph from the Houston Chronicle is apropos:

During much of the last three decades, Bentsen was one of the most respected and important voices in the nation, and sometimes beyond, on federal fiscal policy.

Vaya con Dios, Senator.