Lightning Round - 051010

Tried real hard to stay away over the weekend, but things pile up:

• So apparently it's going to be Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Another pick that doesn't move the needle much. I had feared that President Obama might have thrown a bomb and picked someone like his buddy Cass Sunstein, but the President and his people are probably too weak politically at this point to really push someone who would be as in-your-face as Sunstein.
• Robert Bennett, the moderate (squishy) Republican senator from Utah, lost his bid for re-election when he failed to gain nomination from the state GOP at its convention over the weekend. The hand of the Tea Partiers is evident in this and it's a good thing, too. There isn't a senator, representative or anyone else in Washington right now who is indispensable. The message is pretty clear that there will be change in November, although it probably won't be Change You Can Believe In. One way to know conclusively that Bennett's ouster is a good thing? David Brooks is agin' it.
• The Star Tribune editorial section yesterday was a very handy compendium of really bad ideas, including a breathless feature from someone named Timothy Taylor on how much more revenue we could raise from extending the sales tax to, well, just about everything. I'm not finding a link on their website, but Mr. Taylor would like to suggest that taxing food would net $699 million, clothing $398 million, etc., etc. Would you like to raise your cost of living by 7-10% right now, just to ensure that Tom Dooher and his batallions won't have to get a haircut? That's a debate well worth having, don't you think?