Midweek Miscellany

An argument based on mutually rejected premises is an evening wasted. What else I got here:

Lincoln Chafee coming out in favor of the metric system in yesterday's announcement speech is the second best moment grams and meters have had in 40 years. The best?



Funny thing is: Chafee is actually right, but picked a spectacularly wrong moment to bring it up and wrote the punchline to his own campaign.

In related news, Mike Huckabee came out strongly for spans and cubits this morning.

And Hillary Clinton wants to talk today about early voting... but the press wants to talk about the press.

Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, just clinched a Number One Party School win in Johnson County:

Bernie Sanders, out of context: "Let’s get drunk. Let’s get high. That’s what being young and alive is about.” http://t.co/gJ5G7NTrED

— Mike Warren (@MichaelRWarren) June 3, 2015

I know we're not Number One any more but you never forget a championship season.

Speaking of champs, Chicago only has room for ONE mayor:

WHAT THE MOTHERFUCKING FU...

— Rahm Emanuel (@MayorEmanuel) February 16, 2011

But even Rahm would never go so far as to whack his opponents, at least not if he thought he might get caught. Anyway, candidates keep getting killed in Mexico's midterms, so apparently someone is taking a page from the Low Tax Looper Book Of Campaign Strategy.

And the books closed Wednesday night on an easy winner for Jerk Of The Week: Ted Cruz.

"Vice President Joe Biden," @TedCruz says to faint laughter. "You know the nice thing? You don't need a punch line." #JoeBiden

— Chad Livengood (@ChadLivengood) June 3, 2015

It's a "joke" Cruz has used many times as part of his standard speech, and he was clearly on autopilot, but you'd think he'd have at least the self-awareness to be careful to omit it for a while - at least until after the damn funeral today.

I had the honor of meeting Beau Biden when he, his brother and mom attended our epic 2007 fall barbecue. Joe himself was not on hand because - great Biden moment - he has a Delaware charity event that he always attends that particular weekend. Beau represented his father well on that occasion and throughout his public service.

As for the underlying premise of the "joke" itself, it was mean and wrong-headed even before Beau's death.  I've said many times: All Joe Biden is really guilty of is an excess of heart. And having watched him up close in 2007, having seen him take question after question and always offer an eloquent (if long) answer: God forbid anything should happen to the president but if it did Joe Biden could do the job tomorrow.

And Cruz's remarks? Definitely NOT Iowa Nice.