Sen. Hillary Clinton Takes the Matter into Her Own Hands

And now the most engaging two minutes in television, the latest from the political grapevine:

Miss the Grapevine? Watch it!

Southern Suppression?
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who said last week that two Republicans were elected to the Senate in November on the issue of the Confederate flag, now says she wants the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate alleged attempts to suppress the black vote in the South. She specifically cited Louisiana, where a flyer distributed anonymously in black neighborhoods claimed, falsely, that if the Election Day weather was bad, voters could cast their ballots three days later. Clinton, by the way, still has not said which two Republicans she meant with her accusation about the Confederate flag issue.

On Course to the Presidency
And speaking of the Clintons, C-SPAN says it will broadcast every class of a course at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock titled "The Clinton Presidency." The former president will be among those teaching the class, which starts Jan. 16. Other lecturers will include such Clinton allies as his longtime counselor Bruce Lindsey and his criminal lawyer, David Kendall. Such Clinton critics as ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a teacher by trade, are said to have been invited to lecture as well.

NAACP Flippin' Him The Byrd
The West Virginia NAACP is after Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd. The issue is the role he played in supporting the Confederacy and his role as a slave owner. By role, we don't mean he actually did either of those things, although he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan more than 50 years ago. The role is the one he is playing in the Civil War movie, Gods and Generals, due to be released in February. Byrd plays Confederate Gen. Paul J. Semmes, a plantation owner from Georgia, who was fatally wounded at Gettysburg. West Virginia NAACP head James Tolbert told the Washington Times that such a role is "not in keeping with his Senate position."

A Poll-arizing Editorial?
Out in Arizona, the Daily Star newspaper took an Internet poll on the call, first made in a newspaper editorial, for a citizen militia to combat illegal immigration. It wasn't scientific, of course, but it did generate more than 20,000 responses and the verdict was overwhelming. Ninety percent favored the idea, only nine percent were opposed. A similar poll last July, which asked what people thought of aid groups putting water jugs in the desert to help those crossing illegally from Mexico, generated only 1,090 votes. Eighty-seven percent, by the way, were opposed to the water jugs.