The last week has been an interesting one in politics. Stephanie Herseth won the at-large seat for South Dakota in a special election last Tuesday. This is only the second special election the Democrats have taken from the Republicans in a decade. She'll have to defend the seat in November, but momentum is looking good for the Dems.

The Gipper passed away on Saturday, which has been overshadowing all of the news of the Bush administration's slow implosion. Rumor has it that Tenet's resignation might have been over some deeper issues than is being reported in the press. Currently there are a ton of scandals being investigated, including the Valerie Plame outing and the Chalabi-as-Iranian-spy fiasco. Maybe Tenet just wanted to get out while the getting was good.

The old maxim is that "All politics is local." To that effect, I'd like to point other Texas residents to this site, Texas Tuesdays. They're planning on spotlighting a different Democratic candidate running for Congress each Tuesday. Two of the more important ones to support (in my view) are Richard Morrison (he's running against Tom Delay), and Morris Meyer (he's running against "Smoky" Joe Barton). Be sure to register to vote and donate a couple of bucks if you can. Even better, if you have the time, consider volunteering for one of the campaigns. Come September and October, I'll probably give up some of my time to pound the pavement for Richard Morrison - District 22 isn't that far from Houston and if I can help get rid of Tom Delay, so much the better...