Those Who Know Best

An interesting story came out in the Chicago area the other day:

Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist will leave office four months early and move to Chicago to lead an urban development organization, the mayor's spokesman said Sunday.

Norquist will head Congress for The New Urbanism on Jan. 1, a spokesman said. The nonprofit organization aims to stop sprawl, establish environmentally sustainable neighborhoods and break down segregation, the organization's communications director said.

Norquist, 53, announced last year he would not seek re-election after he helped pay the city to settle a sexual harassment case brought by a former staff member. Common Council President Marvin Pratt will become acting mayor until regular elections in April 2004.

This really struck me as funny, mostly because of the description of the CNU. Allow me to translate their aims:

stop sprawl = prevent people from living and building where they want

establish environmentally sustainable neighborhoods = make sure things stay the way we prefer

break down segregation = resettle the masses

Mr. Norquist looks to be a perfect leader for this organization, since he did such a great job taking care of the people's interests in Milwaukee that he can't even stay for his whole term. I don't dare try to find out his new salary, I'd have some kind of attack, I just know it. The CNU is moving their HQ to Chicago from San Francisco, hooray! Hopefully they can join the parade of non-profits that are going belly up.

What a Dick!

Many important bloggers have picked up on Dick Gephardt's idiotic comment about flouting the Supreme Court. As a one-time resident of the St. Louis area, I had a good opportunity to observe Gephardt, and I often declared to my dear wife that he couldn't possibly believe most of what came out of his mouth. This outburst tops anything he's said that I'm aware of. I mean, we expect Kucinich and Sharpton to come up with this kind of nonsense, but Gephardt should have more command of his mouth, even at a Jesse Jackson panderama.

I'm not encouraged that someone can graduate from Northwestern and be a Congressional leader for many years and still make public pronouncements that are this stupid. Or maybe I should be encouraged: I might be Speaker one day!