Entries for January 12, 2006

Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman is up for re-election this year. Former Republican Sen. Lowell Weicker, whom Lieberman beat in 1988 and who in 1990 was elected to one term as governor as an independent, has talked about running against Lieberman. But the latest Quinnipiac poll shows Lieberman far head in a Lieberman-Weicker pairing. Also, a Trustfunder Left liberal named Ned Lamont is said to be interested in running against Lieberman in the Democratic primary. The Quinnipiac poll shows Lieberman with higher job approval among Republicans (68 percent) than Democrats (55 percent), but those numbers suggest that Lieberman would still be a strong favorite in a Democratic primary.

James Glassman, who once edited an alternative newspaper called Figaro, keeps us up with the latest in New Orleans in www.opinionjournal.com. He says that large parts of the city won't and shouldn't be rebuilt but that much of it—and most of the parts important to tourists—have already recovered. I have written similarly here and here. Glassman makes an interesting point: The New Orleans so many of us knew and loved was developed by market forces, not government planning. The Ninth Ward is not likely to be rebuilt because, even before the flooding, the land there was virtually worthless. Very high crime rates kept housing prices very low. Even if a property owner has insurance, he would most likely choose to spend the proceeds on buying property elsewhere.

House Republicans are going to have an election soon to replace Tom DeLay as majority leader. The candidates are Roy Blunt, the majority whip who has been acting majority leader since DeLay was indicted in Texas, and House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner.

I learned long ago not to try to handicap leadership races. In politics, the rule is often "those who know don't say." But in leadership races, or so it has seemed to me, there aren't any "those who know." Both Blunt and Boehner are putting out lists of members who have agreed to support them, and both sides say they have commitments from other members who don't want to be named publicly yet. But these are secret ballot elections, and the number of commitments the contending sides receive in such elections tends to exceed the number of members of the conference (the Republican word; Democrats say caucus).

The latest poll in Canada, as relayed by the expert Canadian politics watcher Captain Ed of Captains Quarters, shows Conservatives leading Liberals 39 percent to 27 percent.

This looks like a startling turnaround from the 2004 election, in which Liberals led in the popular vote 37 percent to 30 percent. Interestingly, the pollster sat on the figures for 24 hours and conducted more interviews before publishing the results. In Ontario, the poll showed Conservatives leading 44 percent to 33.5 percent.