The LuLac Edition # 397, Jan. 16th, 2008

PHOTO INDEX: JUDGE ANNE LOKUTA AND SENATOR BARAK OBAMA AND OPHRA.

LOKUTA

DAY 3

Judge Ann Lokuta testified she never ruled in favor of any political supporter.
Lokuta's past law clerk, Ted Krohn, said earlier today that Lokuta ruled in favor of someone in a lawsuit who was " a big supporter or mine in the Hazleton area."
Lokuta later testified and denied that. She said she didn't even know the parties involved in the case.
Lokuta was the final witness in her trial on misconduct charges.
The parties will give closing arguments at a later date.
A verdict in Lokuta's case is not expected for months.

Lokuta seems to have done "okay" on the stand. She has withstood some tough cross examination but there are some gaps in her story. Plus the notion that a "cast of thousands" can't be wrong might be the deciding factor against her success in this endeavor.

OBAMA LIGHT

So Senator Obama tells the world last night he is not big on policy and position papers. Kind of does things on the fly, at the last minute, so he can get a fresh perspective. Oh yeah, this is a guy I want leading the country after this mess for the last eight years! Kudos to Senator Clinton for making the wise comparison that a President needs to be informed, not briefed. Maybe Oprah can brief him on the Home Mortgage crisis.

DOWN SOUTH!

The pressure's on for Republicans to show staying power in a presidential primary race where, as Fred Thompson put it Wednesday, "everyone gets to be hero of the day." Next stop, South Carolina.
After three major contests with three different winners, Republicans are deep in an anything-goes scramble for South Carolina's primary Saturday, with Mitt Romney the latest to take a victory lap. "I'm not making predictions about what's going to happen in every other state, but I'm feeling pretty darn good at this point," he said, coming off of a much-needed win in his native Michigan.
Thompson hopes it's his turn to be a hero.
"There's no question we've got to do very well here," said the former Tennessee senator, who fizzled in earlier states. "Different people are winning these different major contests and I think a different person will win Saturday in South Carolina. No one has settled in on anyone."
The same was true, with a smaller cast, in the Democratic race. Democrats competed for Nevada's caucuses, also Saturday, after a toned-down TV debate in which top rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama pledged to tamp down arguments between their camps over race.
Romney said the Michigan primary Tuesday "gave me the kind of boost I needed." Anything short of victory would have left his campaign on the ropes, after his losses to Mike Huckabee in Iowa and John McCain in New Hampshire.
Thompson, in a pitched competition with Huckabee for the evangelical vote in South Carolina, said he's the one with consistent social conservative credentials. Of the former Arkansas governor's record, "liberal would be the word I would apply to it," he said. And he pointed to Romney's policy conversions to the right in saying of himself, "Where I stand doesn't depend on where I'm standing."

If Thompson does not do well, he might as well go back to Law and Order. Or start running for Vice President. HIs attacks on Huckabee smell of desperation and he has yet to make an impressive electoral showing that can prove to the GOP and the political class that he can be a viable national entity.