6 p.m.

 

• Those wacky Democrats are already breaking their promises. Sound the alarms. From Drudge.

 

Democrats ran to expand the work week in the House to 5 days.

 

But guess how long that lasted?

 

Not even one week!

 

"Culture Shock on Capitol Hill: House to Work 5 Days a Week" front-paged the WASHINGTON POST in December.

 

Majority leader Steny Hoyer said members of the House will be expected in the Capitol for votes each week by 6:30 p.m. Monday and will finish their business about 2 p.m. Friday.

 

Explained the POST: "Forget the minimum wage. Or outsourcing jobs overseas. The labor issue most on the minds of members of Congress yesterday was their own: They will have to work five days a week starting in January."

 

But on the morning after the night before, on the first full week of the new congress, Hoyer has pulled back from his vow!

 

A Hoyer press release obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT boldly declares: "Monday, January 8, 2007: The House is not in session."

 

Hill sources claim The House is taking Monday 'off' this week, because of the championship football game between Ohio State and the University of Florida.

 

And, of course, the following Monday is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Actually, I really don't care how many days a week Congress works. The fewer the better, in my opinion. What I would like to see are all federal and state politicians not be eligible for pensions and shit after they leave their elected jobs. Politics wasn't meant to be a lifetime career, unless you started out as a lowly state representative and advanced every few terms all the way to senator or governor. I don't believe in term limits, but I can sympathize with anyone who favors them.

 

2:30 p.m.

 

• I was wondering when we'd get back around to the "OMG people are too scared to elect a powerful woman to office" talk. From some Jew at a Chicago paper.

 

Is America frightened by women in power?

 

The issue was glimpsed last week, lurking in the shadows, when Rep. Nancy Pelosi took up her gavel as our nation's first female speaker of the House, though we haven't begun to confront it yet.

 

I thought we worked this all out in the 1970s. But women leaders must still be scary, at least to a portion of the electorate. Why else would the Drudge Report keep posting that photo of Pelosi brandishing a black leather whip? As if some have a hard time imagining a strong female beyond Catwoman or Mistress Helga.

 

Complex. Freudian. Luckily, there's no need to fall over ourselves rushing to figure this out today. We have at least a year to wrestle with the issue, as Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign reaches its inevitable crescendo and flameout.

 

The idea of electing Hillary as president would be tough to swallow in some quarters if she were married to Fred Rogers, and the fact that her husband is Bill Clinton magnifies the matter.

 

Though I would flip it around, and suggest that part of the reason Bill Clinton is so excessively hated by the right is due to the fact that he has a smart, ambitious, active wife.

 

In other words, the scary kind.

 

Had he married Mamie Eisenhower, with her housedress and her TV-tray dinners, it might be a different matter.

 

We've come a long way, baby, as the cigarette ad used to say. But we've got a long way to go until the day we get our own Margaret Thatcher, and it'll be a rough ride. Buckle up.

So I guess if I don't vote for Hitlerly in '08 I'm afraid of powerful women. And the fact that she's the Anti-Christ would have nothing to do with my choice. Oh, and if we get our own Margaret Thatcher, rest assured I'd vote for her. Unless of course her tits were small.

 

11 a.m.

 

• So it was midnight and I was scanning On Demand and decided to partake in the awesomeness of Roadhouse, the bouncer flick to end all bouncer flicks. Just when Jack Dalton was about to accept an employment offer from the Double Deuce, I get a call from the mother-in-law, asking for Mrs. kkk. I told her that she hadn't returned home from work yet. Minutes later the better half called. Thinking something was up, I asked what was going on. My out-of-control niece-in-law had left my mother-in-law a suicide note. Whatever. Too bad she's too fucking lazy to actually kill herself. Turns out it was nothing more than an attention ploy. A whole bunch of shouting and fighting ensued between the 19-year old and the better half once she found her at one of her usual hangouts. I asked the Mrs. when someone writes a note like that don't they have to be committed or something? I was told yes. Too bad that didn't happen, but I'm not getting involved. I learned a long time ago to stay away from psycho bitches, even if my intent is not to stick my dick in one of their orifices. Hopefully, last night's action will cause the better half to disown her niece, much like Mrs. kkk has done with her crack-whore sister, who in an odd twist of fate, is the mother of the out-of-control niece-in-law.

 

But everything all worked out in the end. I did manage to watch Roadhouse before going to bed last night. And the sheer awfulness of watching this in all of its unedited glory has me yearning to view it in widescreen. "A polar bear fell on me." Jesus Christ.

 

• I can only hope this is the start of more lawsuits relating to the Duke case. When it comes to rape accusations, unless the accused is saying the rape took place 20 years ago, I give the accuser the benefit of the doubt. However, as this story started falling into place, it became clear that these students were being set up. Let the litigation begin.

 

A former Duke Lacrosse player has filed a lawsuit against the University saying he was failed by an professor because of his membership on the lacrosse team.

 

Kyle Dowd filed the lawsuit Thursday against against Duke University and visiting associate professor Kim Curtis. Dowd, who graduated with David Evans in May 2006, was not indicted in the rape case but says that Professor Curtis gave him and another lacrosse player in class a failing grade in class as a form of retaliation after the Duke Lacrosse scandal broke. The two players were apparently receiving passing grades until the scandal, and Duke University revised their grades upward months after graduation.

 

This does not affect the pending sexual offense and kidnapping case against David Evans, Reade Seligmann, and Collin Finnerty. But it is significant in being the first of likely to be many legal and moral hits against Duke University - critics say that Duke failed to stand by its own students as they came under attack by members of the faculty and community.

 

It is also noteworthy for its timing, coming one day after Seligmann and Finnerty are reinstated and weeks after a turnaround statement by Duke University President Brodhead, calling for DA Mike Nifong to step off the case.

 

Duke is being sued for breach of contract and unjust enrichment. Curtis and Duke are being sued for fraud, negligent misrepresentation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and punitive damages. For all but one of those claims the lawsuit states that the plaintiffs were damaged in excess of $10,000.

 

Professor Curtis was among the "Group of 88" professors who published an advertisement in the Duke Chronicle calling the rape scandal a "social disaster." The Group of 88, perceived by critics as attacking the Lacrosse team, at one point thanked protesters who posted "wanted" fliers containing photos of all or nearly all of the Lacrosse players.