The morning after the Feb. 3 primaries, which vaulted Kerry into a virtual-ly insurmountable lead, the candidate was fuming over his missing hairbrush. He and his aides were riding in a van on the way to a Time magazine cover-photo shoot. Nicholson had left the hairbrush behind. "Sir, I don't have it," he said, after rummaging in the bags. "Marvin, f---!" Kerry said. The press secretary, David Wade, offered his brush. "I'm not using Wade's brush," the long-faced senator pouted. "Marvin, f---, it's my Time photo shoot."

Nicholson was having a bad day. Breakfast had been late and rushed and not quite right for the senator. In the van, Kerry was working his cell phone and heard the beep signaling that the phone was running out of juice. "Marvin, charger," he said without turning around. "Sorry, I don't have it," said Nicholson, who was sitting in the rear of the van. Now Kerry turned around. "I'm running this campaign myself," he said, looking at Nicholson and the other aides. "I get myself breakfast. I get myself hairbrushes. I get myself my cell-phone charger. It's pretty amazing." In silent frustration, Nicholson helplessly punched the car seat.

I went to the eye doctor. He put drops in my eyes. I can barely read the screen. That's why I've been absent.

Doing CNN around 3:30-3:45, not sure exact time.

Will also be on Inside Politics Sunday this, uh, sunday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New U.S. jobs soared at the sharpest rate in seven months in October, the government reported on Friday, helped by a surge in construction activity as hurricane-battered areas in the Southeast were rebuilt.

Q: Clearly, you won a tremendous personal victory last night. But given the fact that the Republicans lost two seats in the Senate and that you didn't win as many seats in the House as you lost in the 1982 elections, how much of a mandate can the Republicans claim for next year?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I feel that the people of this country made it very plain that they approved what we've been doing. And we're going to continue what we've been doing and, if need be, we'll take our case to the people. But we have the same number of Senators that we had in 1981 when we got this program passed. And there's a possibility -- I know that there are some seats still to be decided in the House -- but there's a possibility of as many as 17, and that's more than have happened in elections of this kind -- mid- or second-term elections -- for Presidents in the past.

Q: Are you claiming a mandate then, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: I'm claiming that I think the people made it very plain that they approved of what we're doing….And that's what we're going to continue to do.

Kyl's not getting enough phone calls. his office in tucson said i was the first today. can you remind everyone to call the local offices, too? i've had a tough time getting through to some washington offices, but got a friendly "hi, thanks for calling," from nearly every local office i've called. specter must, must go.

He is an abortion-rights absolutist, a dogged advocate of racial preferences, a bitter foe of tort reform, a firm friend of the International Criminal Court — the list is long. When Citizens Against Government Waste recently listed Specter in its "Pig Book" as one of the Senate's most profligate spenders, he shot back: "If they left me out, I'd be worried." In 1995, Specter briefly ran for president and pursued the unique strategy of attacking the base of his own party: His announcement speech lobbed a grenade at "the intolerant Right." After pressing this theme for several months, one poll showed him attracting support from a grand total of 1 percent of Republicans.

Yikes. Here I am, a new subscriber and ardent fan since Election Day, and you subject-line a post "You go, girl"?

Your apologies are not enough. You say it "just sounds cliched." Again, I must say, yikes.

In the sitcom business, we call that a clam. No one knows where the term originates, several people claim "clam" as their own, but the term describes any phrase which has had all traces of humor or wit sucked out by constant and careless use. "Houston, we have a problem." "Is that your final answer?" "Who are you are what have you done with Kathryn?"

Clams can also be references that have lost what little zing they might have once had. Viagra. Gandhi. White House interns. Milli Vanilli. (You can see that sitcom writers are a rigorous bunch.)

Using a clam is beneath you. Don't make me say, "You are the weakest link. Goodbye." (Which I believe broke the record for instantaneous clam status, becoming unfunny before it was ever funny.)

For much of Tuesday, campaign workers exuded confidence after surveys of voters leaving the polls showed Mr. Kerry with an edge over Mr. Bush. But as the night wore on, the real results told a different story. The critical moment came at 12:41 a.m. Wednesday, when, shortly after Florida had been painted red for Mr. Bush, Fox News declared that Ohio--and, very likely, the presidency--was in Republican hands. Howard Wolfson, a strategist, burst into the "boiler room" in Washington where the brain trust was huddled and said, "we have 30 seconds" to stop the other networks from following suit. The campaign's pollster, Mark Mellman, and the renowned organizer Michael Whouley quickly dialed ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC--and all but the last refrained from calling the race through the night. Then Mr. Wolfson banged out a simple, two-line statement expressing confidence that Mr. Kerry would win Ohio once the remaining ballots were counted.

I think contacting the members of the Judiciary committee is a wise suggestion. However, I would refrain from discouraging people from contacting Frist. He has already begun to run for President. Social conservatives pushed the president over the finish line this week. It would seem that Frist is the senator over whom we currently have the most leverage. I don't think he would want to alienate the conservative base out of the gate. It would doom him, and he would certainly be the fall guy if there is a problem. Frist needs this resolved favorably for the base as much as anyone does.

So many emails about here. I can't/won't post that many because she really does speak for herself better than we can do it for her. But here's a good/common point:

I do not read Slate, it's good someone does and can point to the odd, random article worth reading.

For me the best part of Smiley's effort is when she denounces the
Gadarene swine ... er ... Red State Voters (see Belmont for more
on that notion) for their Manichean worldview, while at the same time
insisting that the nation has been divided into the Land of Light and
the Domain of Darkness.

The irony of that comes pretty close to exceeding my Required Daily
Allowance of irony, frankly.

Specter's biggest impact probably has come on the Judiciary Committee. That makes sense, because he was a prominent lawyer before arriving in Washington. In addition to his work on the Warren Commission, he was twice elected district attorney in Philadelphia, where he earned a tough-on-crime reputation. On the Judiciary Committee, he has been tough on Republican judicial nominees. In 1986, Ronald Reagan selected Jeff Sessions of Alabama for the federal bench, but Specter joined his Democratic colleagues in defeating the nomination — it was only the second time the Judiciary Committee had turned down a nominee since the FDR era. Attorney general Ed Meese called it "an appalling surrender to the politics of ideology." Sessions didn't vanish from public life; in 1996, he was elected to the Senate. Now he sits with Specter on the Judiciary Committee. The two men don't talk about what passed between them 17 years ago, but Specter admits he made a mistake: "I've gotten to know him. I regret my vote."

Specter doesn't regret a more famous vote that took place the following year, on the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork. This was a watershed moment in Washington politics, when left-wing histrionics began to play a leading role in judicial confirmations — and the term "borking" was born. Bork had an impeccable record as a law professor and judge, but the debate over his nomination was dominated by the fevered rhetoric of his enemies, who said that confirming him would condemn women to back-alley abortions and blacks to segregated lunch counters. Fresh from his first re-election a few months earlier, Specter couldn't make up his mind about what to do. He questioned Bork for hours in his private chambers and at public hearings. In the end, he decided to vote against confirmation. "He called and said that he couldn't be sure about me," says Bork.

"I've never known what he meant by that." Specter's announcement doomed the nomination. As Bork lobbyist Tom Korologos put it at the time: "Specter hit the game-winning RBI." Conservatives, of course, resent that he was batting for the wrong team.

If you've been waiting for one writer to combine all of the sandpounding stupidity and visceral hatred of the left's reaction to "red America" this may be what you're looking for.

Just giving Airpower guy some grief. From him:

Jonah,

Re: strafing an elementary school.

Well, THAT would be a spirited debrief.

A couple of things:
-having a school 3.5 miles from a military firing range doesn't strike me as
the wisest zoning plan, and

-night range rides are challenging enough for guys who fly regularly, much
less Guardsmen who may not do this as often.

A nighttime bomb/strafe pass is disorienting enough as it is...sit in a
chair in a dark room, put a bag over your head, lean over one arm of the
chair, then roll out and stand up while staying bent 90 degrees at the
waist. That's about what it feels like to roll in on even a shallow pass in
the dark. Note: do this alone. Otherwise, Cosmo and the Fair Jessica might
start wondering about you...

This was a goof, obviously, but if he only fired 25 rounds, with a Vulcan
cannon, that was a really short burst, which leads me to believe he probably
thought something was wrong as soon as he pulled the trigger. Also, the
press reports said the bullets were made of lead. Um, I don't think
so--steel more'n likely.

Anyway, night ops can be really squirrelly even if you're current/proficient
and night range rides involve a lot of unnatural actions...thank God it was
only 20mm and that it happened on Wednesday, not Tuesday. Otherwise, I would not be surprised it being characterized as another attempt by Karl Rove to
intimidate Pennsylvania voters.

Cheers,
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