A Few Final Thoughts on The Nobel Peace Prize and Partisan Politics.

To the Nobel Committee: Thank you for saying the obvious.

AP/OSLO – Members of the Norwegian committee that gave President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize are strongly defending their choice against a storm of criticism that the award was premature. Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland singled out Obama's efforts to heal the divide between the West and the Muslim world and scale down a Bush-era proposal for an anti-missile shield in Europe. He said most world leaders were positive about the award and that most of the criticism was coming from the media and from Obama's political rivals. "Alfred Nobel wrote that the prize should go to the person who has contributed most to the development of peace in the previous year," Jagland said. "Who has done more for that than Barack Obama?

But panel member Aagot Valle also dismissed the notion that giving the prize to Obama had no merit. "Don't you think comments like that patronize Obama? Where do these people come from?" she said.

Partisan Republican's Bemoan Partisan Health Care Reform Bills. Huh?

After casting his no-vote, Texas Sen. John Cornyn bemoaned the outcome ...Rather than Democrats making some concessions, "we see a hyper-partisan process," Cornyn said ... Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison echoed Cornyn's disapproval with Democrats. "Throughout the process, the Democrats have shut out Republican input ... leaving us with a partisan bill that will increase the government intrusion into Texans' healthcare," Hutchison said.

With only one Republican vote for reform, who's the partisan? Oddly, Republicans say they would have voted for free market reforms if only the Democrats had included any of their suggestions. Another words, the Democrats should have presented the Republican plan, then they would have voted for it. Of course, they had 12 years to pass their plan, but didn't.

Don't you think they know that?