Suttle to announce Monday; Vokal to wait a week

Before we get to the news-news, first a Separated at Birth, after we saw this photo in yesterday's Washington Post:

Health and Human Services Secretary designate, former Senator Tom Daschle and talk show host Sally Jesse Raphael:

Is Daschle kidding with those specs? He reminds us of the time George Costanza picked out new frames and they turned out to be from the Gloria Vanderbilt collection.

**Update at 3pm**

We have been notified that Wonkette posted a very similar SAB late yesterday. We did not see that one before we did ours. And frankly, our is better...

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The latest news we have on the Omaha Mayoral campaign front is that Councilman Jim Suttle will announce his candidacy this coming Monday -- moving up by a week from his previously planned date of December 1..

Not wanting to vie for press coverage on the same day (with another councilman named "Jim"), Councilman Jim Vokal's campaign will wait a week to tell us that Jimmy's going to run.

Don't think that there isn't gamesmanship going on here already. (And look for an OWH story on Sunday that discusses this very thing...)

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In case you missed it, lame-duck Senator Chuck Hagel is taking his shots while he leaves office (and he can still make the news).

His latest attack is on frequent critic, media giant Rush Limbaugh. In a speech at Johns Hopkins, Hagel said:

Every country out there has their know-nothing party. And of course we're much educated by the great entertainers like Rush Limbaugh and others. I wish those people would run for office.

They have so much to contribute and so much leadership, and they have an answer for everything, and they'd be elected overwhelmingly if Rush would run for anything or any of those people. They love just to rip everybody else down and try to make fools of everybody, and they always have the answer.

Yesterday, Rush responded on the air to Hagel:

How embittered must he be to still be carrying around this? I mean, he's quitting, he's moving on to other things. I hear he's in line for an Obama cabinet spot.

We don't criticize and rip and run everybody down and make fools of everybody. I can't make a fool of you, Senator Hagel. Only you can do that.

I have an idea for Senator Hagel. Senator Hagel, why don't you try to become a talk show host? Let's see if you can make it in this world. Let's see if you can handle the give-and-take of talk radio, since being a Senator and having people criticize you is so difficult, let's see if you can handle this arena.

Beyond the name-calling where Hagel seems to be calling Republicans the "Know-Nothing Party", we would just like to note that Hagel has taken the road of intellectual surrender here. You've heard it before. Like the quarterback who tells the sportswriter to shut-up unless he has actually played the game. Hagel flails at the critic instead of the critique.

And this from the guy who told his colleagues to go sell shoes if they couldn't handle the pressure!

Heck, should Hagel then be prevented from criticizing the President since he never had the gumption to run for (let alone hold) that office? That's a dumb argument. And so is Hagel's.

But since the Senator is only willing to take criticism from those who have actually held office, we will re-offer this one:

Others have a consuming, burning hatred of George W. Bush as their dominant legislative priority. Those who carelessly throw out talk of "impeachment" are of the same stripe.

There is no place for blind hate, however disguised, in any legislative body.

Thank you former Congressman John Y. McCollister.