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 This Shouldn't Have Happened
*Kennedy. I spent most of the weekend ignoring the wall-to-wall coverage of helicopters orbiting the empty sea. It wasn't until 10 o'clock Sunday night, when Rear Admiral Richard Larrabee of the US Coast Guard told a briefing of reporters that he had spoken to the Bessette and Kennedy families to tell them that there was no likelihood that any of the three people on the airplane had survived, that I internalized it.
* Mike Barnicle said on Meet the Press that there are two groups of people with regard to John Kennedy: Those who are old enough to remember him watching his father's funeral procession and those who have known him only as a celebrity.
* By every account, John Kennedy was a decent guy. Maybe he was destined for greatness, we'll never know. But it appears he had already attained goodness, which is a higher and much more difficult goal.
* On to Politics: Michael Forbes left the Republican party because it is too extreme. Bob Smith left the Republican party because it is not extreme enough. A fair assumption might be that the Republican party is exactly where a majority of the voters want the Republican party to be.
* Remember where you heard this first: Mike Forbes will be like the O. Henry story, "The Ransom of Red Chief." Within six months Dick Gephardt will be offering Denny Hastert big money to take him back.
* Speaking of big money. This is John McCain's big week for campaign finance reform in the Senate. You can't blame McCain for using Bush's astounding fund raising success as a springboard for his bill. Of course there is nothing in McCain's bill which would affect a single dime of Bush's donations.
* The parties will always find new ways to raise money. One came to light last week. Some of the largest public radio stations in the country got caught trading lists with the Democratic National Committee and at least one station did a swap with the RNC as well.
* I don't remember anything in the unending drone during the quarterly pledge fortnights which informed me I was giving up my privacy rights by supporting the Magliozzi Brothers on "Car Talk."
* I think Jesse Ventura had a point when he suggested cutting the state subsidy to Minnesota Public Radio: Let's see Garrison Keiller's W-2.
* More money stuff: "Muleskinner Al" Gore's first half expense and fund raising reports showed (a) he overstated his income by about a million dollars on June 30th, and (b) he spent about a million dollars on catering including over $100,000 at the Pierre Hotel in New York. The Pierre is one of the most expensive hotels in the City. A true Man O' the People, that Al Gore.
* Gore's people said their fundraising and expenditures are right on track and according to plan. Let's see the plan which says, "… and in July and August the President will do fund raisers for us to ensure no daylight shows between Clinton and Gore for another four months. Yea. Right.
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