By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Mar 19, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET  The No Bracket, No Pay NCAA hoops contest has gotten off to a rollicking start.
Sheila (identify yourself!) is in the lead of the field of 77, while my sister Jennifer’s dog is tied for second. (And not the dog named after a UK/NBA star, but the one referred to in Harry Potter books.) Tied for 5th is contributing RP Rod Jetton, RP writer Jeremy Morris and No Labels staffer David Asche. Of course, I’m stuck in a tie for 60th.
Check out the full scoreboard here.
You might have missed the deadline to join us. Or maybe like me, your bracket’s been busted in too many pieces that you’d like to start over again.
Worst of all, your team might have already crashed and burned amd you are looking for something else to occupy your time. (HINT: contributing RPs Lisa Borders (Duke), Jason Grill (Mizzou))
Well, The Recovering Politician is all about second chances. Check out our mission statement.
Accordingly, we present the Second Chance, No Bracket, No Pay contest.
In the Second Chance bracket, you start with a completely new slate, making your choices from the existing teams still remaining in the Sweet Sixteen.
Best of all, if you made the mistake of NOT choosing the Kentucky Wildcats to win — you have a second chance!
And don’t worry No Bracket, No Pay veterans. That competition will be ongoing.
Just click here to sign up before Thursday, March 22 at Noon.
It’s not often that you get second chances. So don’t miss out. Remember: No Bracket, No Pay.
By Jason Atkinson, on Tue Mar 13, 2012 at 3:30 PM ET Our own contributing RP, Jason Atkinson, has decided to take a sabbatical from politics, announcing they he would not run for a second term. Here’s the story from The Oregonian:
Steve Duin: Jason Atkinson’s choice not to run again means Oregon Legislature suffers an untimely loss
Published: Saturday, March 10, 2012, 10:00 AM
Why is Jason Atkinson involved in Oregon politics?For years now, the Central Point Republican has been close to the Ramirez family, the patriarch of which slipped across the border with Mexico in the ’70s, gained amnesty during the Reagan administration and raised eight children in Medford.
After Cesar Ramirez, the youngest of those children, graduated fromSouthern Oregon University in June, he told Atkinson he planned to take two years off to raise money for law school.
No way, Atkinson said: You can’t afford to take a break; we need to find you a scholarship. Three weeks ago, he invited Ramirez to the Capitol, showed him around Willamette University’s College of Law, then introduced him to a fellow Willamette Law grad, Paul De Muniz, chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court.
Mightily impressed, De Muniz handed Ramirez his business card and said, “Let me know when you apply.”
When Ramirez later asked his tour guide how he could ever thank him, Atkinson said, “Show the chief justice’s card to your father. He’s going to have a proud smile on his face, holding that card. Memorize that look. And work as hard as you can getting through law school, remembering that look.”
Why is Atkinson exiting Oregon politics?
“We don’t do that in Oregon politics anymore,” he said. “In Oregon politics, that kid would be considered a Hispanic kid who is a drain on the system. That’s the pettiness of politics right now. It’s completely devoid of humanity.”
When Atkinson announced last week that he would not seek re-election in November, the state Senate lost one of its more thoughtful, balanced and idealistic personalities.”Twenty years ago, he would have been considered an idiosyncratic conservative,” said Jack Roberts, the former labor commissioner. “In a healthy party, that kind of conservatism, which carries some independence of thought, would be valued. Now, it doesn’t seem to be.”
Money is a significant factor in Atkinson’s sabbatical. He needs a better-paying job. “I’ll come back,” he notes, “when I can afford to come back.”
But Atkinson is increasingly unnerved, he said, by the anger in the public arena and the colleagues who pander to it.
When Atkinson decried the January 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., arguing that we must abandon “the idea that I am right and you are evil,” he received so many threats that a sheriff’s deputy spent several weeks parked outside his Jackson County home.
When he finished speaking last week at a woman’s retirement party in his district, Atkinson said he was “attacked by three angry people. One guy comes up to me and says, ‘Why are you taking my freedom?’ The other two guys are angry that I’m too fish friendly.
“I’m thinking, ‘Hey, if you’re gonna beat me up, beat me up on Monday, will ya?’ It’s getting angrier and it’s getting more petty. I’ve lost my taste for the pettiness of politics.”
Atkinson — who reached the Legislature in 1999 — is the rare political figure who celebrates the Tea Party and a 100-percent rating with the Oregon League of Conservation Voters.
Huge chunks of his library are devoted to Theodore Roosevelt and fly-fishing. He knows the best book on C.E.S. Wood and regularly exchanged letters with the late Mark Hatfield on Herbert Hoover, the only U.S. president to live in Oregon.
Five generations of Atkinson’s family have waded the Klamath River. And every Wednesday during legislative sessions at the Capitol he leads a college seminar on politics and history for Senate floor staff and interns.
That weekly gathering, the Floyd McMullen Fire Brigade, is named after the 23-year-old firefighter — and Willamette Law student — who died when the Capitol went down in flames in 1935.
The decision to put that career on pause has been draining, Atkinson admits. But he needs some financial security, more time with his 9-year-old son, Perry — who was born three months premature and has already survived a romp with thyroid cancer — and a reason to believe there’s still nobility in public service.
Until the riptide turns, the last is a daunting proposition. Should he need a little extra encouragement, Atkinson could do far worse than to check in with a freshly energized Southern Oregon grad who is still working his way toward law school.
“Mr. Atkinson always told me to follow my dreams,” Cesar Ramirez said, “and if challenges come, to not be afraid to face them.”
By RP Staff, on Tue Mar 13, 2012 at 2:00 PM ET  Over the weekend, the RP appeared on “Life Happens” Radio in Upstate New York to discuss No Labels and the Wednesday Senate hearing on “No Budget, No Pay.”
Click here to listen to the informative broadcast.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Mar 13, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET  Deep morning thought. Don’t get jiggy. Just yet.
One of my theories about life is that one day, unannounced, we stop living forward and start living backward.
We stop accumulating new experiences….stop living sequentially.
On that day we begin to become nostalgic. We look backward and start to painstakingly yet lovingly make sense of our lives and our world.
We have a new job…a new mission. It is the day we stop thinking of stealing second base because we are assigned to be the new third base coach.
The daily currency of life isn’t new adventures anymore–but piecing together in a sensible way old adventures –which we play with like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle—until the life we lived starts to make sense.
And that is a good thing.
But the day we become nostalgic, is the first day of our death, which may take decades to complete, but have moved into a state of decay. That’s why, on this day, today, I urge you to join me and commit to yourself and your family to stay the heck away from jigsaw puzzles.
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Mar 12, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET
Stacey Underhill shot the breathtaking picture above of an 80-year-old West Liberty, Kentucky resident helping with the cleanup from last week’s devastating tornado storm. (h/t Claire Novak)
While the world’s attention span is short, the need is still great.
If you are looking to help out with the cleanup and recovery efforts, with your hands or your wallets, please do one of the following:
■ Text Redcross to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
■ Go to Redcross.org and give to the Disaster Relief Fund.
■ Mail a check to the Red Cross, 1450 Newtown Pike, Lexington, Ky. 40511, with Kentucky Cares in the memo line.
By Kristen Soltis, on Fri Mar 9, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET  Following the 2008 election, I counted myself among those concerned Republicans who looked ahead to future elections and saw trouble. Many key voters groups — Latinos, young voters, independents — swung heavily toward Barack Obama and the Democrats, with potential long-term implications for American elections.
Since that time, Obama’s coalition has weakened. His job approval among these groups has fallen precipitously since the early months of his presidency. Central to Obama’s falling ratings is voter perception about his handling of the economy. In late February, Quinnipiac found that only 41 percent of voters approve of how Obama is handling the economy. As the economy tops poll after poll as the No. 1 issue to voters, it is no surprise why Obama’s numbers are struggling.
Given all this, why aren’t Republicans enjoying wide leads in the polls? Because for all that voters are disappointed in Obama, they don’t particularly love Republicans. In fact, polls show that Republicans have slightly poorer brand image than do Democrats. And while voters may not be thrilled with Obama’s handling of the economy, polls also show they don’t place greater trust in Republicans on the issue.
Read the rest of…
Kristen Soltis: Is This the Last Gasp of the GOP?
By RP Staff, on Wed Mar 7, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET This story about contributing RP Rod Jetton appeared in The Fine Print blog, giving an interview about his past and recovery to Eric Olsen:
It’s old news, really. But in the context of awarding a sales and marketing honor, I had to ask Rod Jetton about allegations that he battered a woman during a sexual encounter in 2009 and how the process has affected his career – one that was in the public eye for eight years as a state representative and four years as House speaker.
Jetton pleaded guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge in May 2011, more than a year after Poplar Bluff-based Schultz & Summers Engineering Inc. hired him to lead its marketing efforts. Jetton’s impact on the company has been evident as 2011 revenues came in at a record $6.2 million. By comparison, the year before Jetton’s arrival, the company posted $3.5 million. Attend Springfield Business Journal’s March 1 Dynamic Dozen awards ceremony or read the March 5 issue to learn Jetton’s role in moving those numbers.
During our interview for the Dynamic Dozen issue, Jetton spoke candidly about the legal situation.
Click here to read the full article.
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Feb 27, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET Calendar equity? It may be time….
February is soon coming to a close. As usual, too soon.
I don’t say that because anything especially touching or profound happens ever February. Not at all. Just the very literal fact that Feb got the shortest number of days of any of the 12 months.
And over time it’s taken its toll on February’s self-image and self esteem.
It’s one thing to draw the short end of the stick one, two, three years in a row. But over 200 here in just the US! And don’t get me started on the whole Julian Calendar thing. It’s wounded generations of Februaries than can never be made right again.
It’s just that I was born with and have developed in my life a strong sense of social justice. And it’s time that we stand up for February to have equal time.
I commented last week about February have lousy national holidays. Do you think that President’s Day and Groundhog Day being in February is really an accident? It takes confidence and some successes to be able to handle a Thanksgiving or Fourth of July even (although there admittedly would be temporal challenges to moving the 4th to February).
The point is you’ve never heard anyone say, “I can’t wait until February!” Or “I hear we’re going to have an awesome February this year.”
It doesn’t happen.
In fact, we are so impressed, sated, and exhausted from the over-achieving November and December and –to a lesser extent–January, we typically just quietly endure the chronically under-achieving February….and, frankly, don’t even get our hopes up about anything until March 1.
It’s like February, already inferior, has to sit each year next to the three most popular kids in the class. Not fair!
February is like the Kentucky of Presidential Primaries (we get to vote in May to decide if it will be Romney or Santorum or Gingrich or any of the others, if they are still alive, physically and politically).
Sure, primaries (and Februaries) happen. But no one pays attention and neither really matters. Both are done mostly out of habit. More as an afterthought than eagerly anticipated.
I think, perhaps, we should take one day each from May, July and August (none has used efficiently their 31st day) and give those three days to February. February will then at least feel like it’s equal to most other months—with 31 days.
And then every four years, on Leap Year, February can look down it’s nose on all other months. And on that day, for the first time, Leap Year –and February –will totally rock!!
Or maybe…just maybe—and I’d love this!–February could turn the tables on the other “slacker” months by pointing out that it does in 28 days what it takes most the others 31 days to do.
By John Johnson, on Fri Feb 17, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET  1985 was the first baseball season when I truly became a fan of the sport.
My team was the New York Mets. I became a fan through the legacy fandom passed on
by my Uncle John, who used to take me to Shea stadium. That summer we constantly exchanged stories about the team, the pitching, and hated St Louis Cardinals, and one very special catcher–Gary Carter.
I remember that summer being the first when I really understood box scores and baseball standings. As Fall approached, I anxiously counted the number of wins the Mets needed to overtake the Cardinals. Realizing as the days of the regular season dwindled the Mets were going to run out of time..there only chance to clinch the NL East was a sweep the last weekend. Time ran out…a 98 win season just wasn’t enough. And disappointment filled me realizing that only one team can win the
championship…and even in a season as long as baseball, there was still such a
thing as having not enough time.
 Time running out on the 1985 season was the first thing I thought about today
when I heard that one of the bedrocks of the Mets team in 1985 and 1986, Gary Carter, died tragically yesterday of brain cancer at the age of 57.
The next season–1986–the Mets exploded our of the gate to run away with the NL East. I followed every game that season. 1986 was, to steal a phrase from this website, a season of “recovery”….the unfinished business of a season where they got oh so close but time ran out. Gary Carter was right in the middle of so many of those 108 wins that year. He was the steady presence in the battery raising the game of Doc Gooden, Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez, Bobby Ojeda, and Rick Aguilera. He was a constant home run threat to drive in Lenny Dykstra, Wally Backman, Keith Hernandez, Darryl Strawberry. The stats speak for themselves…24 homeruns, 105 RBIs.
Read the rest of…
John Johnson: The Kid Passes On
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Feb 13, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET  There is an important difference between having talent beyond measure and being a person beyond reach.
I never thought that would be the legacy for pop star Whitney Houston. But it just may be.
I think it was 1985 when I first heard of–and later saw live at Rupp Arena–Whitney Houston. It was a remarkable and unforgettable performance.
She had a God-given gift–a soulful yet cheery voice that filled up the entire arena and left everyone in awe. She was also beautiful, graceful and seemed to “have it all.”
She was, so it seemed, untouchable. There was nothing critical that could be said of this pure-hearted girl raised in the church who was taking her gospel-trained voice and quickly becoming an international pop diva.
 But surely not the usual kind of diva, right? Whitney would be different–it was assumed.
But in the end, none of us are different. None of us transcend the temptations, the human failings and foibles that endanger us all.
Whitney Houston died yesterday far too young–and far too unrecognizeable from the person who we were introduced to over 25 years ago.
Why? It wasn’t Bobby Brown, or just drugs, or just ego and the inevitability of success gone to her head, or fans demanding perfection where there is only a woman.
Although Whitney Houston wasn’t “untouchable” she did manage to become “unreachable.” And that is when tragedies, like her untimely death yesterday, are made possible.
It’s not that celebrities are too different or too good or too anything to reach out for help.
It’s that sometimes they cross a line into “believing” they have become something else (maybe a brand, a business line, or just a bigger than life superstar) and have forgotten how to sidle up along the rest of us and say the simple–but painfully difficult– words, “Could you please help me?” And mean it.
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The No Bracket, No Pay NCAA hoops contest has gotten off to a rollicking start.
