the perils of joe, tom, and bob

Poor Joe Lieberman. Rejected by Democratic primary voters for doing too little for the people of Connecticut, and for doing too much for de facto president George W. Bush. But Joe doesn't take rejection well, and says he will run for reelection as an independent. Be interesting to see whether Joe's sore-losership will cost the Democrats a seat in the Senate in what could be a very close contest for control.

Poor Tom DeLay. Renominated by Republican primary voters out of habit, and unable to get off the ballot because of the presumption in Texas state law that requires a candidate to REALLY leave the district. But Tom doesn't take renomination well, and has said he will organize a write-in candidate for another GOP candidate, still to be determined. Be interesting to see whether a write-in candidate can win, even in a pro-GOP district. Voting technology -- computer machine without a keyboard making write-in voting very difficult, yet another flaw with this technology -- will make it difficult for the Republican candidate.

Poor Bob Ney. Forced to abandon plans for re-election because of the Abramoff scandal. It is ironic that among the winning arguments used to get Ney to quit the race was that losing an election would hurt his ability to become an obscenely-paid K Street lobbyist -- you know, like Jack Abramoff. And adding to the general amusement factor, the preferred GOP candidate might be barred from running under Ohio law, because she ran and lost in a GOP primary in May for the lieutenant governor nomination.