Dem Contract with America [UPDATE]

Kondracke reports that Democrats are planning a version of Newt's Contract with America. I can't imagine that being a good idea. Kerry always referred folks to his website for details of his agenda, knowing full well that most Americans would yawn and never look. There was a reason he did that: the agenda won't sell.

I think Mr. Kondracke has it dead wrong.

If they really reduce their agenda to a dozen or so honest items that can be easily digested, they'll be shocked to learn just how far to the right the country (at least the red states) has moved since their heyday. Perhaps the MSM will be able to "interpret" the contract for us so that the agenda will seem more palatable but the blogosphere will not let them.

This could spell doom for those dems who've been elected to serve from the south and the west.

Update for anonymous:

While I do not know of any certain percentage of sessions the Speaker is required to attend, I suspect there are no such requirements since those rules are usually drafted by the party in power. Wish I could be more helpful. You might try looking here. Or here.

Moving to much more important subjects, blogging, Adams and the Astrodome:

Is posting on the internet half the fun? Sure it is. Guilty. Will anyone ever take seriously anything a dirt lawyer in Texas has to say? Doubtful, but there is the remote chance that someday I might have an original thought.

As for the Eighth Wonder of the World, anybody in the Houston area born before, say, five years before the move to Minute Maid Park would certainly have plenty to say about the 'dome. I didn’t even make it to my first game there until I was twenty-five…still, I was almost dumbstruck. If you’ve ever been to a little league game in Texas in August, you’d know how necessary the 'dome was. A great piece of engineering, then and today.

Most importantly: you clearly lack the sophistication necessary to appreciate the thespian skills of the late Mr. Adams. You probably think the French are wrong about Mr. Lewis.

Missed it by that much...

Can't believe Don Adams is gone.

Was one of my first TV icons...along with Shatner.

Loquacious?

My secretary in our weekly meeting today said I am (accused me of being) loquacious. I don't like that.

A new hookah in Austin...

The Economist reports:

"Hookahs used to be associated with marijuana, opium dens and progressive rock (or that's what we vaguely remember).

Bart Whitaker found in Mexico

If the police tell you that your son is plotting to kill the family, you probably ought to keep an eye on him. Bart Whitaker was captured Thursday in Mexico. He had been on the lam after his mother and brother were killed, and he and his father wounded, by a masked gunman at their home in Sugar Land in December 2003. I described the story here and the creepy post Bart left on a gaming site lamenting the death of his brother.

Bart and some Baylor buddies had plotted twice before to kill the family. Police got wind of the second attempt and reported it to the family, who apparently dismissed it as not credible.

Where is Leonidas?

Did you make it home?