Combing Through the Whole Story

Yes, the piece you are about to read exemplifies the very reason you regularly make the trek to peruse this inimitable blog. Er, on second thought you have not been trekking here. On third thought, you may not be reading even this, having drifted away to greener pastures.

Anyway, you will notice in this item about Mackenzie Phillips being arrested for uncontrolled possession of a controlled substance that the spokesman for the LAX cops is Sgt. Holcomb. If you Google the earlier story about Britney Spears scuffling with a photog at the airport you will note the good Sergeant's role in that saga as well.

To readers of the Perry Mason series of novels, there can be only one Sergeant Holcomb, the bumbling cop who keeps trying to work his way up to Homicide and then gets demoted when Mason humiliates him on the witness stand.

If you Google the name Sergeant Holcomb, you will find tales of a number of heroes by that name, both soldiers and police officers, including some who were killed on duty.

But to actually have a police officer by that name in Los Angeles, where the Mason stories are based, is delightfully rich. We wish him well in the arduous world of celebrity law enforcement.

Keith Olbermann on Michelle Obama's Convention Speech

"I'm sounding borderline sycophantic on this, I know..."---K. Olbermann, MSNBC newsanchor

Not at all, Keith. Truth is your game, and Truth is your middle name. This is why you're such a respected journalist. Ed R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite or Rachel Maddow couldn't have done it any better. Go for it, dude.

The Oracle Blinded

Oh well, I'm oh-for-three (0-3) on the prez-veepstakes: it wasn't Rudy or Hillary and now it ain't Evan Bayh either.

(Although I'm really delighted it's the One Democrat Who I Always Wanted To Say I Like, Except He Just Keeps Saying Incredibly Stupid Stuff. Go Get 'em, Joe, speak your mind! Let 'er rip!)

So, I'm going quadruple or nothing on Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, although Mitt the Twit wouldn't be the pits by current standards. We're looking at an all-twit final four after all, so what the hell.

But I've caught Pawlenty here & there, and adjudge him to be a non-twit. He's actually kinda cool.

I have a wife who genuinely loves to fish. I mean, she will take the lead and ask me to go out fishing, and joyfully comes here...She loves football, she'll go to hockey games and, I jokingly say, 'Now, if I could only get her to have sex with me.'"

The governor quickly clarified, "It's a joke, it's a joke."

I mean, Pawlenty even knows that whenever he tells a joke, politics dictates that you tell everybody it's a joke, just in case. And it was funny to boot.

Dude's OK. He gets this 21st century thing.

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Hello, Good Bayh

HuffPo has an educated guess that Barack Obama will name Evan Bayh his VP pick as soon as Wednesday.

I got the rest of the races wrong, counting out McCain early and picking Hillary, of course. But I've been a Bayh man all the way.

It makes sense for Obama to do it now. The GOP narrative of Obama-as-leftist is sinking in, and Obama's poll numbers are flattening.

Evan Bayh, a Democratic ex-governor and now senator of a red state, might not be able to swing Indiana to the Obama column, but he would certainly help arrest what appears to be a spiraling distrust of Obama's centrist impulses.

[A distrust, which in my opinion, is well-founded...]