Snow wino

Set aside, for a moment, the Republicans who have a beef or two or three with Obama. What’s interesting is the positioning of such Democrats as Howard Dean, the former presidential candidate, former DNC Chairman and former governor of Vermont, who finds himself in need of a job and a purpose. He’s been jabbing Obama from the left over healthcare, sounding pretty much like a guy who’s planning to challenge Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2012. He’ll lose. But even if he loses, he wins. It provides him with a degree of relevancy, a renewed hope that he can recapture his former glory days and helps fill the calendar. And who knows? Maybe he’ll even find gainful employment from the experience.

Rumors abound that Obama can quell Hillary Clinton’s potential presidential ambitions for 2012 by putting her on the ticket as his vice presidential nominee once he can extricate himself from the hapless Joe Biden by putting him out to pasture with a seat on the Supreme Court, should a vacancy occur. Apparently, he isn’t confident his Plan A (naming Hillary his secretary of State) will stick. Clearing the decks for a Hillary 2016 Democratic Party nomination just may do the trick.

And, suffice it to say, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appearing to be on his last legs in the Senate, Obama is likely quietly promising his support for that spot to some other Senate Democrat who might otherwise be tempted by ambition and opportunity to challenge Obama from the left, as well.

Capitol intrigue is alive and well, even if the city is buried under snow — and wine.

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