Welcome to the Delaware beaches.  The nations vacation spot.  Fun in the sun.  Dolles and Grottos.   On lazy summer nights the sunburned mass of humanity cruises the boards in Coca Cola style lapping up their quickly melting mountain of Kohr’s frozen custard or with napkin in hand, inhaling entire “Nic-o-bolis”  with mouths opening just short of dislocation.  And on chance that the dolphins dance, there is a spectacle of fins and flapping kites much to the children’s delight.

Further up – or down – the coast the surf fisherman angle their Garcia’s and Penn’s in hope’s of landing a record “Blackfish”.   Whoa!  What, you may ask is a “Blackfish”?  You mean Bluefish, don’t ya?  Ain’t never heard of no Blackfish.

Well, the entire eastern seaboard may soon be one Capt. Hazelwood perfect storm away from painting the whole beach with one long black oily stroke.  Black Gulls and sandpiper’s and bathers no longer in need to oil up with Coppertone.  At least the colour is slimming… or is it sliming?

And what could cause such a Cimmerian scenario?  A hint: take a Black and Decker drill, put it on anabolic steroids and place it on a platform miles off the coast and away from the consciousness of the Suburban driving public.   Sarah Palin (remember her…lol) was crucified for uttering the words “Drill Baby Drill” during her ill fated campaign run.  We as a country were driving past our need for a pic line of foreign oil, weren’t we?  F$$$ the middle east crude pushers, we were goin green… weren’t we?    Hybrids, Solar roofs, Ethanol tax credits, Hydro and Wind.  Hell, we’re even recyclin’.

Seems we had another 180 in Washington as it applies to offshore drilling and now the left – at least on this issue – resembles more the right.  After battling tooth and nail Bush 43’s offshore petro agenda just two short years ago, The O’Biden’s have floated out their own derricks claiming they provide a more balanced ballast.  In Poli-speak; yes, we changed our minds, now support the drill; but it is better and safer and more “balanced” than W’s.  Uh huh.  Says you.  Come on guys, give us a Barack…er, I mean… break.

Against the irate and irascible opposition by those soon to be drilled coastal legislators, the White House is now proposing drilling for more than just oil.  They are drilling to see if they strike any strong and viable support for placing some really big albatrosses a mere 3 miles (is that nautical?… like it matters) off the coastlines of Florida, Georgia, SC, NC, VA, Maryland, Bethany, Jersey, Conn, RI, New Hampshire and Kennebunkport.   But hey, it’s something we need to do to help “reduce our dependence on foreign oil”.  Where have we heard that before?  Our own Sen. Ted Kaufman has broken with party oilers Biden and Carper to blast the proposal citing spill risks that affects could reek havoc to both the environment and tourism should the unexpected come calling.   He don’t believe these reserves are sufficient to stem any tide… just make the tide blacker.  He ain’t alone.  It also awoke a slumbering John Carney today and has him calling out the White House a lil… and we mean a lil.  He left some “we need to “reduce our dependence blah blah blah” wiggle room. But the O’Biden’s now got a civil skirmish brewin’ on Silver Lake.

God forbid we have those wind driven eyesores within a binoculars reach of Dewey.  But give me one of them Gulf of Mexico behemoths (that they evacuated during Katrina).  Now that is a postcard.  Especially if ya like your burger with some Thrasher’s and a lil pint of Havoline.

So we have another in the series of hot buttons rainin’ down on the mid-term boyz; favourites and pretenders alike.  This, like health care is a big one.  We’d like to hear from those who’s political engines are revvin’ up on the tarmac waitin’ for their Delaware to DC commuter flight to depart.  We would love to hear from King Mike, Mama Rollins (when she graces us all with her already made up mind) and Chris Coons; in addition to Urquhart, Cullis, Wade, Izzo (she carries a craftsman w multiple bits), Wangen, and Campbell, give us all the pleasure of knowing precisely where they come down on the issue.  We’d ask Miss Tetley, but we know she’s plannin’ on homesteadin’ on one of them bad boys… at least till the FEC leaves town.   And we know where Scott Spencer stands: out on the boat harassing the platforms construction efforts, looking every bit like Ahab, replete with fuel injected harpoons.  No, we can tell you all where Scott stands and you won’t need an ear to the ground to hear him.   At least he will tell you exactly where he stands… an it ain’t gonna be on the drilling platform.

Speak up candidates.  This is, as Joe likes to say; A BIG F’N DEAL.  The voters got their ears to the ground too.

It’s that time of year, folks.  The signs are all popping up.  Brackets…lots of brackets. Office pools, trips to the Mandalay Sports Book in Vegas, and 2 days of total immersion into ESPN and CBS Sports as to follow every 5-12 upset and budding Cinderella Story.  We are talking about the NCAA Basketball tournament aka MARCH MADNESS.  An event that transcends the sport and acts as a vortex in drawing – for two days anyway – millions of business Americans into its feverous climate.

It also produces 2 days that wont go down as contributing a F’n thing to the GNP as no one…I mean no one has as his or her mission on Thursday and Friday anything other than to log into ESPN, CBS SPORTS; hooking up their Blackberry’s, iPhones , and HTC’s to witness firsthand their hoops prognosticating prowess taking shape.  It is madness.  It is awesome.  It also has prompted many a business to shut off access to company computers in attempt to siphon a dollop of productivity from their employees.  It also produces a number of upsets that confound the pundits and ruin the brackets of even the most knowledgeable fan.

Now we thought that in the spirit of the tournament we would offer our own Delaware political version of March Madness replete with the bracketing, match-ups and the chance to pick some upsets.  There of course doesn’t exist 64 candidates or even a Sweet Sixteen (but give the repubs time and they might get there)  But we do have the what be believe to be fair seedings and pairings.  So have a look pour a beer and pick ‘em.

SENATE

It’s a short field in the Senate with prohibitive favourite Mike Castle the Class of the field.    The early round game with Miss Tetley will be like Kansas playing West Chester; no upset here.  Coons may have the other bracket to himself but there are rumblings that another soul may suit up.  So we’ll call this one for Coons setting up A Villanova – Georgetown 1985 scenario whereas a perfect game would be needed by Coons to upset the King… and we all know how that game turned out.

Seeds

1. Mike (The King) Castle
2. Chris (The ax man) Coons
3. Christine (I’m a real candidate) O’Donnell
4. Guess who?

Castle vs O’Donnell - An unlikely upset scenario.  Tetley’s got prettier Uniforms and looks the cheerleader herself.  The king’s got better scouts and executes to a tea.  He also has Cougars in the band.

Coons vs Guess Who – The mystery Candidate may remain a mystery… may not.  But Coons plays all 94’.

HOUSE

The repubs have made this an interesting bracket due to the number of players and the presence of the female Bobby Knight lurking in the locker room.

SEEDS

1. MICHELE ROLLINS
2. GLEN URQUHART
3. FRED CULLIS
4. KEVIN WADE
5. BRENT WANGEN
6. DOUG CAMPBELL
7. ROSE IZZO

Wade vs Izzo – the winner gets the right to face The Grande Dame in Round two

Urquhart  vs  Campbell – the Old man Conservative against the Constitution.  The Constitution was potent at one time  but in the shredder recently.  Plus Glenn has the storied past and a tougher schedule.

Cullis vs Wangen – Similar styles here but the nod goes to the rifleman

On the Dems bracket there is but one game on tap.

Carney vs Spencer  – this is a match-up that is reminiscent of any team who has ever faced a Petey Carril coached Princeton team in the first round.  The talent wasn’t always equal; but the pace, coaching, and intelligent deliberate style made the Tiger’s a tough out.  Spencer = UCLA?   Interesting possibility.

So we begin the Delaware March to Madness.

Most of us remember the name of one of the most influential bands from the 70’s and their razor edged female lead, Chrissie Hynde.  The Pretenders were high octane and remain in spirit as relevant and revered as they were in their heyday.

This description hardy applies to our current crop of Congressional pretenders as they remain virtually anonymous and at times no more than a blip on the political radar.  While these figures are rife with ambition and good intentions, they can only dream at the moment of becoming what Chrissie referred to in one of the Pretenders earlier hits, “Talk of the Town”.  There would, or could be such talk if in fact any was being generated by any measurable buzz emanating from the respectful camps of Rose Izzo, Fred Cullis, Scott Spencer, Kevin Wade, Brent Wangen, and Doug Campbell.  To date only Fred Cullis (loaning himself the 5g’s to get in), and Kevin Wade with his 3 county declaration jaunt have even announced officially that they in fact are running.

The rest have seemed to be dabbling in the waters of a race with the obligatory Campaign photos – replete with stars, stripes and stock tag lines… nothing terribly creative – serviceable web sites, will anyone ever get a professional – I mean a real one – to orchestrate a serious web presence? – and some loyal followers giving it the old college try in efforts to hit the blogs in defense of their man/woman.  This is all well and good, but they (or most) are in essence giving us the non – run run.  They say they are running; have the campaign buttons on order (when they can afford to pick them up) and are by all accounts off and running… well, kinda

Hey, guys… if your genuinely serious then hop in with both feet.  That’s not too much to ask… is it?  Take out a loan or something.

So we will take a take a look at the extras on all these babies over the next week to better shed some light into the list of hopefuls.  We will provide each candidate our version of the “15 minutes”…DE2010 style over the next few weeks.  We feel that anyone who gives public office (especially the House of Representatives) a shot – even should there exist no logical shot at the job – deserves to be featured …at least a lil.   And if any should fall off the map in the meantime? …then it just wasn’t meant to be, now was it?

Since it is apparent the respective candidates are operating in somewhat of a vacuum, and what little the public – or anyone else – knows can be picked up on their site (unless you are already a strong supporter who has sat in a “Back Room” with one or more of this cast), we will present them to you in our own way.

Hey, we’ll be fair and balanced.  Now where the hell have we heard that before, eh?

AND IN THE ON DECK CIRCLE AND BATTING FIRST… ROSE IZZO.  See ya tomorrow, Rose.

A final note:  We will in addition over this time maintain our focus on the Big Ticket Names as those with punch, money, and excess of DRF, position themselves for the run at the roses.  Perhaps we may even be graced with an announcement or two from the Brooks Brothers.  We would love to feature y’all, that is when you guys actually become  candidates.  The fence must be a mighty cold place to be this time of year …lol.