Will McCain walk Ellen down the aisle?

Maybe McBush is going for that base of Hillary's support who feel they can't ever vote for Obama ...

Republican John McCain says same-sex couples should be allowed to enter into legal agreements for insurance and other purposes, but he opposes gay marriage and believes in "the unique status of marriage between a man and a woman."

"And I know that we have a respectful disagreement on that issue," the likely Republican presidential nominee said in an interview for today's The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

That's not the funny part. Here's the funny part:

DeGeneres needled McCain on the issue, arguing that she and the senator from Arizona aren't different. ...

"We are all the same people, all of us. You're no different than I am. Our love is the same," she said. "When someone says, 'You can have a contract, and you'll still have insurance, and you'll get all that,' it sounds to me like saying, 'Well, you can sit there, you just can't sit there.'

"It feels like we are not, you know, we aren't owed the same things and the same wording," DeGeneres said.

McCain said he's heard her "articulate that position in a very eloquent fashion. We just have a disagreement. And I, along with many, many others, wish you every happiness."

DeGeneres steered the conversation back toward the humor she's known for.

"So, you'll walk me down the aisle? Is that what you're saying?" she asked.

"Touche," McCain said.

That wasn't a 'no'.

And click into the comments for the most fun, where I posted the following:

"I just don't like gay people who 'rub it in my face' all the time!"

Translation #1: I want to discriminate against you openly, comfortably, and securely, and when you do things that lend evidence to our common humanity, I get that icky guilt feeling. Knock it off, dammit!

Translation #2: I am deeply closeted and intensely jealous that you are not. Also, I have a sexual obsession with box turtles.

"Recount" premiered in Houston this week

We got back into town yesterday in time to attend this but were too pooped to do so:

The Baker Institute for Public Policy is a familiar stop for big names in politics and international relations. ...

But the Rice University think tank moved into People magazine-style celebrity Tuesday when it hosted the premiere of Recount, an HBO movie based on the 2000 presidential election and its ultimate resolution by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Like Band of Brothers and The Sopranos and Entourage and the recent miniseries on the 2nd President of the United States, John Adams, I expect this will be no less excellent television. A teaser, if you don't have HBO (and why don't you, for crissakes):

(A)ctors Kevin Spacey and Laura Dern were there, on a real red carpet, accompanied by writer Danny Strong, director Jay Roach and executive producers Paula Weinstein and Len Amato.

They stepped from black Suburbans onto carpet rented for the occasion, mugging for a small platoon of television cameras. Inside, Spacey and Amato paid homage to former Secretary of State James A. Baker III for hosting the film, especially considering his role in the events upon which it is based.

A discussion on election reform, led by Baker and former President Carter, followed the screening. They worked on the topic when they chaired a bipartisan commission on the topic in 2005.

"I think it's an amazingly positive sign that James Baker is fighting for the reform of laws that ... were in his favor in 2000," said Spacey, who played Baker nemesis Ron Klain. Klain spearheaded the recount effort for Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore, while Baker worked for Republican George W. Bush.

Baker's subsequent work on reform made the Rice campus an obvious place for the screening, Amato said. "What better place to come?"

Well, some of the reactionary 26-percenters who comment at Chron.com would have preferred elsewhere, but like the past seven and one-half years have been for the rest of us, too bad ...

It drew about 250 people, mostly donors to Rice and supporters of Baker's work who offered a few appreciative chuckles at actor Tom Wilkinson's portrayal of — and uncanny resemblance to — Baker as a courtly but tough partisan political operative.

Dern, on the other hand, played Florida's former secretary of state, Katherine Harris, for broad comic relief.

"When someone asks you to play Katherine Harris, you don't say no," Dern said before the screening.

Still, like Spacey, Amato and Strong, she said she also was drawn to the project by the hope that the film will spark public discussion about changing the nation's election laws. That's a topic Baker and Carter have discussed since their 2005 commission recommended dozens of changes, including the use of a national voter photo ID. None have become national law.

In their talk after the movie, the pair said America still faces problems with voter confidence in the way ballots are cast and counted.

"There's still a degree of unfinished business out there when you look at the election system in our country," Baker said.

Carter said the most important change would be requiring the use of a "paper trail" — receipts of a sort, that would help voters verify that their ballots have been cast as they intended on electronic voting machines. Paper trail equipment has been put to use in some states; Texas officials have resisted it.

Baker said the nation most urgently needs unified voter registration lists and the photo ID requirement. Democrats in the Texas Senate shot down a photo ID proposal last year; this year the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the requirement in Indiana.

James Baker, consigliere to the Bush family, still fights for the right no matter how wrong it may be.

Chris Bell for Senate

Run, Chris. Run:

“He would be a formidable candidate in that district because of his length of service in the Houston area,” (state Sen. Kirk) Watson said, referring to Bell’s background as a one-term U.S. House member and before that as a member of the Houston City Council who ran for mayor.

“My guess is he’d start that race with the sort of name ID that an incumbent usually enjoys, maybe even better than an incumbent,” Watson said.

Kuffner had the idea first, and Vince says Scott Hochberg isn't going, so my humble O is that Bell would be a virtual shoe-in in a runoff with the crazy right-wing reactionaries announced or pending...

According to a published report—see the story here—two Republicans are already seeking to fill Janek’s footsteps: Houston lawyer Grant Harpold, a precinct chairman, and Houston money manager Austen Furse.

State Rep. Charlie Howard, R-Sugar Land, and Gary Polland, former Harris County Republican Party chair, are two others who reportedly have expressed interest.

Hey, Chris: we need you to do this, dude.

The highlights of our Southwest tour

(Vacation bragpost alert.)

Old Town Albuquerque and Santa Fe's square were as wonderful as always, but the high points this trip included Madrid, on the Turquoise Trail, where Wild Hogs was filmed (you may recall the scene where the rebel shirt-and-tie bikers made their last stand at the Chili Festival). We went to the Old Coal Mine Museum, and inside one of the exhibit "halls" a colony of Mexican freetails had taken up temporary residence in the rafters.

And we took a day trip out to the Acoma reservation and went up to the top of the mesa, where some of the tribe's elders still live, without running water or electricity. It is the oldest continuously occupied city in the United States. Good photos here (several links, including flash panaromas). The Sky City Cultural Center also has more pictures and information. I took the stone steps down (rather than ride the tour bus) and thought about those who had hauled the timbers for the mission up those steep, rocky stairs, from the forest 20 miles away -- careful not to let them touch the ground, lest they be spoiled.

The bed and breakfast where we lodged was two blocks from Old Town, and that was a delightful stroll and dalliance. We had two memorable meals, lunch at La Hacienda (my carnitas asadas -- pork medallions -- were slathered with a deliciously scorching green chile jelly and were simply outstanding. Wife had a chimichanga and two frozen blackberry margaritas that send her to Napland for a couple of hours afterward) and dinner at the St. Clair Bistro, which is connected to the winery. I had the caballero steak salad and thought I was going to get a few pieces of prime rib the size of my thumb for $12. I did get that, as well as five pieces about the size and width of a stick of butter, perfectly grilled medium rare and maybe the best beef I ever put in my mouth. Mrs. Diddie had a Kobe burger that was almost heaven. But it was the wines that catapulted the propaganda over the top: a red Zin and a Meritage by St. Clair were the ones we picked, but the Chardonnay was silky smooth and the others we tasted on our wine flight were just short of stellar.

This was a trip to visit some friends from another online forum where I have been posting for the past ten years, and it was terrific to be able to see some of them again (and some for the first time). A few embedded photos of those fine folk in this thread.

Back to the salt mines, and the political postings forthwith.

Last Sunday's Funnies

(What were you talking about last week, while I was away?)