Saturday links and comments

Here is a feel good local story.

Local boy wins $20G on 'Jeopardy!'

I'm not a fan of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's politics, but this article detailing her family's political background is fairly interesting. Since she uses her married name and now hails from California, people may not realize she is the daughter of the flamboyant longtime Baltimore mayor, Tommy D'Alessandro. Mind you, flamboyant in Baltimore in the 1950's did not mean the same thing as flamboyant in San Francisco today.

Sometimes when a politician has such a commanding lead in the polls that they feel they can not lose they get confident enough to say the truth about their intentions if elected. Here is an example:

Spitzer Vows to Push for Gay Marriage

Spitzer entire campaign is based on the reputation he made going after alleged corporate shenanigans. I say alleged since instead of prosecuting cases he mainly leveraged the charges into donations from the offending company. Even in as liberal a state as New York, declaring that he will push gay marriage will cost him votes. He won't lose enough votes to lose the election but he will win by a much closer margin than expected. People think it is just right wingers who believe marriage is between a man and a woman. However, the facts don't bear that out. Oregon soundly rejected gay marriage in 2004 on the same night they voted overwhelmingly for John Kerry for president.

A couple days ago I conceded that the Republicans have probably lost the House seat formerly held by Mark Foley. Here is an article that indicates I may have been a little premature in giving up on that district.