That Sink-ing Feeling

For the past few months, the cable news channels have been talking about the Republican gubernatorial primary election in Florida without one single word about the Democratic gubernatorial primary in that state, which was also contested. So we heard about Rick Scott and former congressman Bill McCollum on the GOP side, but nothing about the Democrats<

Last night, Scott won the Republican nomination in an upset, with the results of the Democratic nomination barely even mentioned. The winner of the Democratic nomination was Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink.

"Alex Sink?" I thought. "Who's he?"

Alex Sink is a woman.

For the record, she was elected Chief Financial Officer of Florida in 2006, and she also serves as a member of the board of trustees of Florida State University. A former banker and math teacher, Sink has an interesting personal history, as she is of Thai, or Siamese, origin, and she's descended from conjoined nineteenth-century twins Chang and Eng, whose ethnicity led to the now politically incorrect term "Siamese twins." But you won't hear any of that from Chris Matthews. (Good grief, he was so fixated on Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist in the Senate race he almost forgot that Democrats were running for the same seat.)

It's never good when candidates for public office (Democrats, usually) can't get much free media, especially on the national level. On the other hand, Sink leads Rick Scott in various polls, in part because Bill McCollum beat up on him so much in the primary campaign and drove up his negatives.

Hmm, Alex Sink could actually win this thing. . . .

Fun fact: Chang and Eng supported William Henry Harrison for President in 1840.

Making a Federal Case Out of Health Care

Health care reform remains a contentious issue even after the bill President Obama and the Democrats shepherded through Congress was signed into law today. There are now thirteen states joining in a suit against the government to prevent its implementation, and Virginia is filing a separate suit. The issue involves the mandate that people who can afford health insurance, and whether it's constitutional for the federal government to make people to buy it.

This is only the latest in a series of embarrassing moments for the right, which has done everything in its power to cripple Obama's agenda, from hurling racist epithets at him and several black congressmen to hurling homophobic epithets at Barney Frank to Representative Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) denouncing the bill as a "baby killer" for funding abortions with federal money. (It does not.)

The twelve Republican state attorneys general (along with one Democrat) bringing on this omnibus suit include four fellows running for governor of their respective states. One is Florida attorney general Bill McCollum, a nerdy former U.S. House member who's no slouch when it comes to being a sore loser. He was one of the House prosecutors who impeached but failed to convict President Clinton in the late nineties over Monica Lewinsky.

Beware of geeks bearing grudges.

As Vice President Biden, would say, this is a big #/**ing deal.