As My Rabbi Says "Thank God it's Friday!"

Sarah Palin has decided to resign as governor of Alaska (an office to which she only had a quit claim deed anyhow) because, she realized, if she can see Russia from her house, then the Russians can see her! Many people are betting they'll be able to see her on the satellite dish much more frequently now as she will likely become a talking head on one of the networks. Fox is thinking of making her its critic to review the performance of late night TV hosts. She'd better be careful what she says or she'll wind up apologizing to a lot of her targets, don'tcha think?

The Outdoor Network wants her for a hunting and fishing show-- shooting moose, gutting fish, filed stripping liberals, executing criminals and generally killing anything that moves that isn't a fetus. She'll teach you how to bail out a canoe--or a kyack--but not a state. The show is tentatively titled "Survivor--2008 National Elections."

She has left the Lt. Governor in charge in Alaska, so he has vacated the Lt. Governor job in Alaska. As a New Yorker I have to ask, "What could go wrong with that?"

In New York, our long state holiday of life without a Senate has finally ended. The two parties have kissed and made up, and are busy patting and stabbing one another on the back. Republican-For- a Month Pedro Espada, who has become a Democrat for the second time this fiscal quarter (we think--can't quite keep count) has gone from being the Republican President of the Senate to being the Democratic Majority Leader. I blame this freakish occurrence on El Niño-- who I think is his campaign manager.

"Senate majority leaders get an additional $41,000 on top of their 'base' $79,500-a-year salary, as well as the right to hire dozens of patronage employees" the Gothamist reports. So Pedro gets to wear that new Majority Leader hat, and, like Cousin Minnie Pearl on the Grand Ole Oprey, it probably still has a price tag hanging from it that we won't get to read--but will get to pay. Rumor has it that part of the deal is that the Dems will not permit anyone to run in their primary against Espada--something he was not so insistent on during the two fortnights or so that he was a Republican.

But, as winning litigants in a lawsuit always say when they are counting the cash, "It was never about the money." {As an attorney, I have found that to be true about my clients--it's never about the money--until it comes time to talk about the money, that is.}

The Republicans, apparent losers (but who knows what deals have been cut) insist that it was about reform of the Senate rules. And they say "it's about time the rules were changed to allow the minority more say", since during the forty years the Republicans were in charge of the Senate that was an often heard complaint from the Democrats. Unfortunately, the Republicans never quite got around to turning their attention to that matter until they became the minority party.

In European sports, in Pamplona a young man running before the bulls was gored to death. Why do people do that? Don't they realize that sometimes you toss the bull, sometimes the bull tosses you? And in France, Lance Armstrong has been diagnosed as being in the early stages of the Tour de France.

And for tonight, that's the last laugh.