Huck, Again

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee seems bent on challenging the crazed Charlie Sheen for the dubious distinction of most idiotic statements uttered by a public figure. Apparently not satisfied with smearing President Obama, Huckabee has turned his attention to actress Natalie Portman for having the temerity of publicly acknowledging her boyfriend and father of her expectant child. Unwed pregnancies, particularly those of celebrities, you see, pose a serious and continuing threat to the survival of the Republic.

Two and a Half Superstars

Mired in a losing streak and unable to produce when it matters most, particularly when it comes to the league's elite teams, this trio - LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh - is finding it extremely difficult to live up to all that advanced hype. Two and a half superstars do not a team make.

First Fan

President Obama's compulsion to comment on or inject himself into the world of sports is annoying; for instance, yesterday during a White House news conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Obama was asked and too gleefully answered a question about intervening in talks between National Football League owners and the players union, who among other things are struggling on how to share $9 billion in revenue.

Newt Explores

Newt Gingrich, the ethically challenged former House Speaker, has announced an exploratory committee to determine the feasibility of a run for the Republican presidential nomination. As thrice married and serial adulterer, Gingrich brings considerable baggage is trying to sell Republican primary voters, many of whom reflexively frown on such domestic arrangements, that he is their man.

Goodbye CP

The Washington Redskins' release of veteran running back Clinton Portis was hardly surprising; indeed, a ballooning payment due of millions of dollars coupled with assorted injuries that kept him off the field - only 13 games in the last two seasons - made the decision inevitable. Portis, who is 77 yards shy of 10,000 yeards in a career, will likely try to latch on with another team, but at 30 years of age his best days are probably behind him.

Doing the Huck

In a radio interview, former Arkansas Gov. and erstwhile Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee posited that President Obama's liberal views differ from most Americans because he grew up in Kenya. Later the Fox commentator, through a spokesman, admitted that he misspoke, the president having been raised in Indonesia and Hawaii. Of course Mr. Obama's father was from Kenya but, as is well-known except among the willfully ignorant, Obama didn't set in Kenya until he was 20. Huckabee, I believe, was obviously pandering to the Republican base, many of whom fall in the category of the aforementioned willfully ignorant, birthers and assorted other numbnuts, who question whether Obama was actually born in the United States.

Out of Africa

This is an unpublished letter to the Washington Examiner, a right wing newspaper that never tires of attacking President Obama and never allows the facts to interfere with its overzealousness:

In the editorial criticizing President Obama for failure to call for madman Moammar Gaddafi’s removal (an omission subsequently overtaken by events), you write that the dictator “has used mercenaries from Africa and Libyan soldiers still loyal to him to slaughter demonstrators in street.” For your edification, Libya, like neighboring Tunisia, Egypt, and Algeria, is located in the continent of Africa; so, if it matters to be perceived as having a rudimentary knowledge of geography, it should have been read “mercenaries from other African nations.”

I