The budget off was a battle of attrition in week one, with both sides taking heavy losses. I'd say Tilda's union side (better industrial base, larger set of resources) took the larger loss, due mostly to Edward's irregular confed actions (playing dirty, eating fairly awful but cheap food, etc).

Week two awaits, although some of the rear-guard action last night was dispiriting to my side. All signs point to a cheaper week, though, so that's good!

How he managed to top Sanford for weirdness is beyond me:

Now, Ensign's sex life is basically his own and his wife's business. But when a US senator submits to a lecture about that sex life from a group of outsiders, then has himself driven to FedEx to mail a letter breaking things off with his girlfriend -- who, incidentally, is his best friend's wife -- before secretly disavowing the letter right afterward and continuing the affair, he simply becomes hard to take seriously as a human being, much less as any kind of candidate for anything.

And in case that doesn't make Ensign out to be pathetic enough, there's a capper: after all this, when it finally came time to cover his tracks and get the Hamptons out of his office, he couldn't find it in him to tell Cindy himself -- he needed his religious buddies even for that. "Cindy ultimately was asked to leave basically by The Family," Doug Hampton told Ralston.

Pathetic, but strangely amusing at the same time. I used rank breakups in this order:

1. Face to face.
2. Over the phone.
3. Over email.
4. Over text message.

Now, sadly, I need to add the following:

1. Having your friends write a letter and force you to FedEx it.
2. Having your friends get together and break up for you.

That's just crazy!

Ah, the good doctor

The Republicans just make things up out of whole cloth. Nothing they say about health care is true. It's all just nonsense and fears and what-ifs. It doesn't happen. First of all, Medicare doesn't dip into government reserves. It has never happened. It might happen in 10 years if they don't cut benefits or raise taxes, but so far, never in the history of America has a program like Medicare used public reserves. The Republican tactic is to raise objections because they never have anything positive to say themselves.

I'm sure Tilda disagrees...but from personal experience, as someone with an HSA, he's spot on: it encourages you to wait until the last possible moment to get health care. There needs to be some sort of financial incentive for people to:

• get preventative care
• stay healthy
• choose least-cost providers

If my health insurance company gave a discount for gym attendance, or doctor visits (checkups) I'd definitely modify my behavior. I just need a nudge!