Put on your running shoes

The race is on! If nothing else, Secretary of State Matt Brown’s announcement that he will enter the Democratic Senate primary, with an eye to eventually trying to knock off Senator Lincoln Chafee, opens the political can of worms (or Pandora’s box) as to whose what will be where, when, and how in 2006.

Linc’s staff seems not greatly frightened by Brown’s bold decision. Phillipe & Jorge have always liked Matt, but we understand that this is not the case among the state’s Democratic old boy leadership and many at the State House. This, as Myrth York came to find out quite harshly, is not a good thing. Brown is seen as overly ambitious, although that hardly makes him the Lone Ranger in politics.

Right now, another possible Senate contender is US representative Jim Langevin, who has never been accused of being a shrinking violet. And our good pal Sheldon Whitehouse’s name is never out of the loop when we start talking about political jobs that require the sort of big view, thoughtful approach, and worldly knowledge that he — like Linc Chafee — brings to the table. However, Sheldon has said he will step back if Langevin runs, both out of courtesy and practicality. Langevin has been promised the financial support of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, even if Whitehouse was to enter the race. Given how much the Dems want to knock a Republican out of the Senate, that won’t be a trivial sum.

Sheldon has also let it be known that he has his eye on the post of lieutenant governor, where Charlie Fogarty is departing. (Charlie’s name has been linked with the House race to replace Langevin if he runs for Senate, the Senate race if Langevin stays put, and the gubernatorial race against Don "The Don" Carcieri. We told you to buy a scorecard, didn’t we?) At any rate, if Whitehouse runs for looey guv, he will have to face another P&J fave, state Senator Elizabeth Roberts of the Edgewood Robertses, in a primary, as she is determined to run for the post.

The worst thing about this is how Phillipe & Jorge will see many people squaring off against each other that we know, like, and respect. The best thing, though, for the people of Vo Dilun is how we will have highly qualified and extremely talented individuals running for office and representing us at all levels at the end of the day.

As a final fun angle, Guillaume de Ramel of Newport has announced as a Democratic candidate for secretary of state. P&J remember Guillaume from when he was a wee nipper, running around the beautiful Bellevue Avenue house of his mother, Lisette Prince de Ramel, an old buddy of your superior correspondents, and the former publisher of Newport This Week. Actually, Guillaume was a very polite and well-spoken young lad, rather than a Katzenjammer Kid, to be fair. Rumor has it that Anthony Marcella, former chief of staff to US Representative Patrick Kennedy, is pushing him into the race. What we can’t wait for is the reaction to the entry of the socialite de Ramel (whose mother is, in fact, a countess), who will make Whitehouse look like a Teamster in a wife-beater, and how the media and public will handle his first name. We can’t wait to hear some young reporter say something like, "Giuliani de Ramel — Well, Doug and Patrice, it looks like his mother must be a Republican; she named her son after Rudy Giuliani!"

It’s going to be a marathon, boys and girls. Drink lots of water and load up on the pasta.

HAIL AND FAREWELL

Rhode Island Monthly readers and P&J will bid a fond adieu to the lovely and talented editor of the state’s favorite slick glossy, Paula Bodah, who will retire on February 18. Paula goes way back with us, as she has been at the Monthly for 17 years (she started as a writer there when she was 14, so she’s a mere 31), and through that time our paths have happily crossed now and again, both professionally and socially. P&J have always been treated well by Paula in the pages of the magazine (for God knows what reason, we’d hammer her in a nanosecond if it was for a good chuckle). Perhaps the best measure of her success is not the sustained popularity of the magazine, but the respect and friendship she has engendered among her colleagues. We’ll miss her, but we know she will be successful — and manage to have fun — wherever life takes her in the future. May the road rise up to meet you, Ms. Bodah.

JOCKULAR

Freebie for Bill Reynolds’s Saturday Urinal sports column: should we start calling the Patriots the Tom-Tom Club?

And as members of the Friends of Brown Basketball listserv, we saw this amusing e-mail prior to Brown’s game at Columbia on February 5, which traditionally includes an alum reception in New York City prior to the game: "We apologize for the short notice on this, but we just received a call from the ‘West End’ restaurant informing us that they were closed down late last night by the police and will not re-open today for our reception prior to the Men’s Basketball game at Columbia."

You can always find Brown grads at the classiest of locales in the Big Apple. Drink her down.

HOW SOON WE FORGET

The New York Times of February 7 featured a headline, "US Redesigning Atomic Weapons," followed by this lead: "Worried that the nation’s aging nuclear arsenal is increasingly fragile, American scientists have begun designing a new generation of nuclear arms meant to be sturdier and more reliable and to have longer lives, federal officials and private experts say."

Your superior correspondents can only remind readers of the literary reference that came to mind for one of the fathers of the first atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, when he saw the first one tested at Los Alamos. Citing the Bhagavad-Gita, he said: "Now I have become death, destroyer of worlds."

Think about that as you tool up, "American scientists."

THOUGHTFUL SIDE OF TERROR WAR

When we last looked, the US government perceived Yemen to be a major terrorist breeding ground and a failed state, right up with Afghanistan and Iraq. There was good reason for this, of course. This is where the USS Cole was bombed in 2000, and a fair share of the recruits in Afghan terrorist training camps reputedly came from Yemen. It has also been a traditional hotbed for the kidnapping of foreigners by Islamic extremists. But according to a front-page story in the February 4 edition of the Christian Science Monitor, things appear to be turning around there, and not because of any threats from the US military.

In 2002, Judge Hamoud al-Hitar, a Yemeni Islamic scholar, began challenging Al Qaeda members in a Sanaa prison to defend their position on jihad based on their knowledge of the Koran. The Monitor reports, "Hitar told the militants, ‘If you can convince us of that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle . . . but if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, then you must agree to renounce violence.’ "

Not only did Hitar triumph in these theological dialogues (five initial Al Qaeda members were released from prison, and 349 others were subsequently sprung as well). According to Hitar, "None have left Yemen to fight anywhere else." Also, since the first round of dialogues ended in December of 2002, there have been no terrorist attacks in Yemen.

Westerners are now taking an interest. The Associated Press recently reported that an Internet effort by Islamic scholars in Saudi Arabia to challenge the beliefs of jihadists there seems to be bearing fruit. This is, of course, the smartest way to fight terrorists.

SUPER BOWL PROTEST

We assume that most people who watched the Super Bowl and the endless surrounding festivities believe that the only political elements in evidence were the "support the troops" moments and jet fighters zooming overhead before the game. Your superior correspondents, however, noticed one anti-war moment carried live over Fox.

In the mid-afternoon, Fox presented some of the pre-game musical acts, and the first person to perform was John Fogerty. He did two songs in their entirety. From his large back catalogue, Fogerty chose "Fortunate Son" and "Bad Moon Rising." These are two of the former Creedence Clearwater Revival leader’s most politically charged numbers. In particular, "Fortunate Son" seemed a direct finger in the face of Bush and Cheney. (For those way younger than P&J, the song is a Vietnam-era complaint about how wealthy and/ or connected young men were able to avoid service in Vietnam.)

Nice touch, Johnny.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Vice President Dick Cheney, on Fox News Sunday, outlined the administration’s proposed spending cuts for 2006: "It’s not something we’ve done with a meat ax. Nor are we suddenly turning our backs on the most needy people in our society."

We have to agree with you there, Dicky Boy. The Bush Administration is not "suddenly" turning its back on the needy. It has been doing this all along, and no one should be surprised.

Remember the first presidential debate last autumn, when P&J and many, many others were speculating about the infamous "bulge" in the back of President George W. Bush’s suit jacket? Our suspicions were that he was using some sort of communication device so that Karl Rove could feed him responses to the questions. At least that would have been a reasonable explanation for his halting, near incoherent performance at the debate.

The White House naturally denied that there was anything under the president’s jacket (a blatant lie to anyone who saw the video or still photos — no jacket ever bunched up in a perfect rectangle with a tail under it), and the whole thing was basically forgotten.

Except for how FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, a liberal media watchdog group) now reports that the New York Times took the story seriously, to the point of consulting with a NASA scientist who was able to enhance the photos of Bush’s back. Apparently, a story was prepared and ready to go to challenge the White House lies about this incident, but it was abruptly spiked.

The speculation on why it was spiked centers on another Times story. The latter appeared around the same time, about weapons stolen from ammunition dumps in Iraq — another story devastating to the Bush campaign that was also initially and vigorously denied by the administration. Guess we’ll have to wait and see how this one plays out, but contrary to a lot of satanic evidence, your superior correspondents don’t actually believe that Bush has a tail. Karl Rove, on the other hand . .

R.I.P.

. . . A. Bruce McCrae, Jorge’s father, a good and wise man, who passed away on Tuesday. He was greatly loved and will be even more greatly missed.

. . . Ossie Davis, a great artist, role model, and fighter for peace and justice.

Send a loofa and Pulitzer-grade tips to p&j[a]phx.com.