Filibuster Update, Global Warming & a Mayoral Race

Tomorrow morning, I will be part of a DNC blogger filibuster "nuclear option" update with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. I will report here ASAP after the phone conference if Senate Democrats think they have the votes to preserve the centuries-old Senate filibuster tradition from Republican demolition.

Republicans want to kill the time-honored filibuster procedure so they can make lifetime appointments of a handful of strongly pro-business, anti-environmental and anti-civil rights Bush judicial nominees.

There's suspiciously little news on the "nuclear option" emanating from the Senate today. Probably lots of proverbial horse-trading in the works. While we wait for the latest word, here's a question to ponder....if President Bush had his choice of confirming all his judicial nominees or Senate confirmation of John Bolton for UN Amabassador, which would he choose?

My guess is ultra-neocon Bolton, in trade for Judges Owens and Rogers Browns. What do you think?
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Some good news on the global warming front. In a slap at the Bush's Administration's refusal to be part of the Kyoto Protocol, the international global warming agreement, 131 US mayors, representing more than 30 million Americans, have formed a bipartisan coalition to voluntarily reduce carbon dioxide emissions along Kyoto standards.

The diverse mayors are from small towns, as well as New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Salt Lake City. And the mayors represent the political spectrum from conservative to liberal.

Per the New York Times, Republican Mayor Jerry Ryan of Bellevue, Nebraska signed on because "of concerns about the effects of drought on his farming community." Coalition Chair Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels plans to achieve city goals, in part, by ensuring that Seattle City Light will be the first US utility to produce no net greenhouse gas emissions.

This development is exciting not just because our mayors are actively demonstrating care for the environment, but also for the creativity being shown to accomplish their goals.....creativity woefully lacking in Bush Adminstration initiatives.
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It's election day here in Los Angeles, and the race is hotly contested. LA mayoral races are often boring affairs, but this one features a rising Democratic superstar, the energetic and charismatic LA City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa.

Mr. Villaraigosa is engaged in a run-off with incumbent Mayor James Hahn, son of Los Angeles' legendary County Supervisor, the late Kenny Hahn. Hahn the younger is less charismatic, but that's not his political problem. He fired a popular LAPD Chief a few years ago, and many Angelenos have not forgiven that move.

Villaraigosa, who campaigned with John Kerry last fall, would be Los Angeles' first Hispanic mayor in more than a century. Villaraigosa has a healthy lead in the polls, and he was endorsed by the Los Angeles Times.

Win or lose, watch for big things politically from Antonio Villaraigosa.