WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Capital Comment -- News notes, political rumors, and important events that shape politics and public policy in Washington and the world from United Press International.
Pick up -- Democrats have gained control of the Washington State House of Representatives thanks to victories in two special elections held last Tuesday. The final count of absentee ballots, concluded Friday, brought an end to the 49-49 tie that had grid locked the legislature's lower house since 1999.
You can't fire me - I quit! -- Judith Hope, New York State Democrat chairman, whose post-election call for a party summit to winnow down the field of possible nominees for governor from two to one generated almost as much buzz as the party's failure to regain the New York mayoralty, has quit. She resigned unexpectedly on Friday without explanation, though insiders suggest she had lost the confidence of both potential gubernatorial nominees, causing her to lose what remained of her effectiveness.
You gotta have friends -- Rumors of a rift between conservative strategist Grover Norquist and presidential advisor Karl Rove over the issue of Muslims in the White House appear to be just that, rumors, according to several who attended the American Alternative Foundation dinner last week. According to sources, Rove appeared to go out of his way to embrace Norquist's contributions to the success of the conservative agenda, hugging him as they greeted at the pre-dinner cocktail party and then singling him out for praise several times during his keynote address -- although misidentifying Norquist's collegiate affiliation as he did so. Said one source, "If that is how Karl behaves when he is mad at someone, I would hate to see how he acts when he likes them. It would be too sweet for words."
Celebration -- Virginia Republicans are trumpeting the election of 37-year-old Winsome Earle Sears to the state's House of Delegate's in last Tuesday's election. Sears is the first Republican black woman elected to the chamber since reconstruction -- and may be the first elected to a black-majority legislative seat in the county's history. Sears defeated 20-year incumbent Democrat William Robinson to win the seat.
I quit, part 2 -- Former President Bill Clinton, who was suspended from the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court on the first day of it's current term last October, has resigned from the august body rather than appeal the suspension just before it would have automatically become an expulsion. The president's attorney, David Kendall, had vowed to fight the suspension and emerge victorious when it was first handed down. Clinton had been a member of the Supreme Court bar since 1977, when he was Arkansas attorney general.
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