A Little Of The Old In And Out



(image via peacecorpsonline)

In: Victoria Reggie Kennedy. We were wondering yesterday who would take ove Kennedy's Senate seat should he retire because of his illness. Clearly Congressman Barney Frank, who represents Harvard, has made rumblings about running for the Senate when the state's junior Senator Kerry was up for President. But now that the Dems control the House of Representatives, he has a plummy seat as head of the House Financial Services Committee -- where all that sweet-ass credit crunch legislation is happening -- and that might ultimately wind up being more appealing than a gig as a Junior Senator.

Former Congressman Joe Kennedy II, all hair and teeth, who's political career flamed out after he tried to get an annulment from a scorned Catholic wife who, because of her children, was not so into it, is now too close in ties to Citgo, the pet project of Venezuelan strongman Hugo "Bush Is El Diablo" Chavez that he may not be electorally viable.

What about this dynastic whispering we've been hearing about Victoria Reggie Kennedy from The New York Daily News (via TNR):

"Ted Kennedy has made clear to confidants that when his time is up, he wants his Senate seat to stay in the family - with his wife, Vicki.

Multiple sources in Massachusetts with close ties to the liberal lion say his wife of 16 years has long been his choice to continue carrying the family flame in the Senate. Kennedy won the seat in 1962; his brother John held it from 1953 to 1960."

More here.



(image via Newsday)

Out: Vice President Bloomberg. Not gonna happen, this. How much ink has been spent -- we're talking about you, Heilemann -- speculating on whether or not New York's mogul-mayor Mike Bloomberg would be somewhere on the Presidential ticket? And, we cannot fail to note, this blog is not entirely blameless.

Much of this thusness has to do with the facts that: a) New York City is the media capital of the world, and conversations begun here echo outwards, and, b) Bloomberg has $4 billion worth of what can only be properly construed as "fuck you monies," that are attractive, especially, to the presently cash-strapped Republican Party, and, c) The talented but Blarney-spinning Kevin Sheekey, has, it seems, a full-time job at Gracie Mansion just to stoke such media fires, perhaps entirely just to stave off lame duck status as Bloomberg's mayoralty dies down.

The general consensus in the Beltway, however, is that it is not going to happen.



In: Steven Soderbergh. And, no, we haven't seen the epic "Che" -- which may or may not be a self-indulgent stinker -- but judging from the chatter on the web, the mercurial director's film is the talk of Cannes. And being the white hot center of la conversation is pas mal, especially if you are front-and-center at Cannes. From the AP:

"Unless it is one of his 'Ocean's Eleven' casino romps, Steven Soderbergh never makes things easy for an audience.

"With his epic film biography of Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, Soderbergh defiantly has made the story he wanted to see, one that will prove a very tough sell to some audiences.

"The two-part saga runs four hours, 30 minutes. It is almost entirely in Spanish, a particular challenge for U.S. viewers who dislike subtitles. It dispenses with many cliches of the biopic, offering virtually no insight into the origin of Che's brand of humanism, instead presenting impressionistic glimpses of Che's idealism in action during the Cuban revolution and his attempt to foment a similar transformation in Bolivia."