"Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar"
...and sometimes it's an excuse to sic the cops on a member of another party. In this case, the siccer is Rep. Keith Ellison and the siccee (no jokes, please!) is Tom Tancredo. And I really don't think that cigar smoke was the only or even the primary issue here. I doubt a Democrat has had as much fun with a cigar since...no, let's not go there.
Comments
Posted by: jeffrey smith
Posted on: February 15, 2007 12:23 AM
So smokefilled rooms are still allowed in Congress? You know that will be the last building to allow smoking when all the others have succumbed to the tobacco crusades.
On a totally unrelated note:
http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/009452.php#comments
Disregarding who the speakers were, and what their motivations might have been, it's rather odd to read stuff that applies so well to the current situation. It's almost as if Calhoun had prophetic foresight of Bush (and, I suppose, Wilson).
Of course, if there had been no Mexican War, we might not have had Texas in the US, and thus no Bush family...
Posted by: Jeffrey Quick
Posted on: February 15, 2007 02:08 PM
Annexation of the Republic of Texas happened before the war, and a border dispute was the cause of the war. Losing Texas could only have happened through Mexican victory, either then or in a later war. But we probably would not have had California in the Union, which strikes me as a Good Thing.
It was rather disheartening to see that a major reason for Texas secession was that Mexico's new constitution abolished slavery.
As for smoke-filled rooms, smoking in the workplace is now illegal in OH, but my wife claims that the legislature has excepted themselves. (I haven't checked the truth of this.)
Posted by: James
Posted on: February 15, 2007 03:45 PM
Supposedly you can smoke in your own congressional office, and apparently one of Ellison's staffers said smoke was coming thru the wall. That must be a strong cigar.