Two apparently big stories...

...are coming down the pike this week, but I can't get too excited about them because while they carry the aura of controversy, their outcomes seem fairly well pre-determined.

Regionally, the biggest political story of the week is the opening of trial for Dino Rossi's extra-constitutional pursuit of the Governor's mansion. He's going to lose. He's going to lose in humiliating fashion. Every objective veiwer of his case has found it riddled with legal and logical holes.

The proceedings should provide some irresistable opportunities for snark, but in the end it's Governor Gregoire. Get used to it.

In the US Senate, whether there's a 'compromise' of some sort or the Republican's nuke the rules, there's simply no good thing going to happen for anyone of an even slightly progressive bent. Bad judges will be approved because we have a bad President and the bad guys run the Senate. Again, whatever controversy exists in the fight for an independent judiciary, the outcome seems inevitable.

Until we win back a piece (or two or three) of the federal government, the bad guys will do bad things without regard to our opinions. If there's any good at all in this mess, it depends on our ability to communicate just how bad the bad guys are to a wider audience.