Candidate Jack Davis in fisticuffs fight with GOP tracker

Jack Davis before the mayhem started

Jack Davis is a Republican candidate running in the special election to replace former Rep. Chris Lee for New York's 26th district congressional seat. In a very odd moment he was involved in a videotaped scuffle with a Republican volunteer questioning why he was not participating in a debate. Instead of telling the man why not, he got a tad mad and tried to lunge at him and land a few punches. This is all a bit reminiscent of the Deputy Prime Minister that was, namely John Lord Prescott. He famously punched a bating bystander, a good wallop it was too.

One of Davis' team said, "You have an operative from an opposing campaign harassing and assaulting a candidate for federal office. This person was pushing a camera in Jack's face, preventing him from getting in his car. Standing in his way, trying to antagonize him and trying to get video that would look like far more than what actually happened." Harassing and assaulting? It all depends on whether you support Mr. Davis or the other guy, I suppose.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20062273-503544.html#ixzz1MFoWIjJ6

John Prescott and the Beanstalk!

Pantomime Land? Well John Prescott's well and truly strutting the stage with his one-man fantasy that Gordon Brown is a Giant! Prescott has said the prime minister is a "global giant" who can win the next election. He said "everybody" outside the UK believed Gordon Brown had "turned this global economy round" and dismissed his opposition rivals as "pygmies".

Everybody? That's including the camp known as "the jungle" outside Calais, I suppose. They know a "global giant" when they see one. It's all a load of twaddle. To think that this is the stuff of high level politics.

Come to think of it, if Brown has done so well in turning this global economy round, he did it without the help of tax evading bankers. The Panorama programme tonight shows just what a bind he really is in. Caught in the headlights of a runaway bank juggernaut with the headlights searing into his brain.

If he's such a giant, he must have done his stopping around with velvet slippers on his feet.

Prescott calls for hacking probe

John Prescott may have been a politician that I never much agreed with, but on this matter he is 100% right. The Murdoch press, a business empire rather that a journalistic medium, is now in the frame for bugging the phones of up to 3,000 public figures.

It is a scandalous affair, not just because Murdoch's minions went overboard on this, but because the police, the CPS and others appear to have colluded with this down-under snake. And David Cameron, whilst he is absolutely right to give people second chances, should really wonder a bit more whether it is right and proper to have such a man as Andy Coulson at his side.

Blair scared of Brown says Prescott

John Prescott apparently urged Tony Blair to sack Gordon Brown but he claims the prime minister was "scared" of his chancellor. This is what Prescott says in his memoirs. Amazing these New Labour people. All making money, or trying to, faster than a one-armed bandit.

The former deputy prime minister said Mr Blair reneged on several promises to resign in favour of Mr Brown. So it was true. No wonder Brown was so moody. He still is. Prescott describes Brown as "annoying, bewildering and prickly". He says Mr Brown would sulk silently in meetings so often they had to be abandoned, while on other occasions, he could “go off like a bloody volcano”. So it takes one volcano to know another volcano, does it?

Prescott adds very neatly that he brokered "hundreds" of reconciliation meetings and phone calls between Brown and Blair. Perhaps a new career at Relate beckons. After all, Pauline (Mrs.Prescott) has given him a few tips. It would appear that, as with quite a few politicians, the wife comes to the rescue.

I shan't be reading Prescott's book, not because of him, but because I don't think it will tell me much more about him. What a sorry lot they all are.

Prescott and the plum puddings

John Prescott has always been an odd one out in politics. He is very much in the Jekyll and Hyde mould. Most non-Labourites can't stand his politics and think he's been out of his depth, but quite a lot think he's a great bloke when they get to know him. His long lost illegitimate son, a Tory, thought so. Prescott is a jazz fan and so is Kenneth Clarke. Together, with former Liberal MP Michael Meadowcroft, they had a jazz band of sorts at Westminster. I expect Clarke and Meadowcroft would concur that Prescott is a good chum.

Two things seem to drive John Prescott. One is to show people that he's better than they think he is. He sometimes mentions his ship steward days. Once he served Anthony Eden, apparently on Eden's voyage into retirement. Prescott was full of resentment and Old Labour hatred when he came face to face with the Tory grandee. He vowed he would get to a position in order to have the likes of Eden bowing and scraping to him. In that, he more or less succeeded, except Eden was gone.

The other thing that drives Prescott is money. He sees that as an antedote to his former struggles. However, it's OK for him to have money but not those that inherited it. So the class warrior is still in him. Money and status, plus a bit of sexual gratification added to the mix. That makes John Prescott fairly human, subject to temptation and giving way big time. I won't condemn him for that. What I will condemn him for is his political barbarity. Destroying perfectly good homes, so that "affordable housing" can be put up in their place. Planning decisions that are bizarre at best and getting himself a job, causing maximum mayhem, at something called the ODPM (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister). That is what I criticise him for.

So when he admits that for the last 20 years or so he has been a mixture of Tommy Tucker and the boy in the sick bay, I can only say that I am not going to kick him when he is vulnerable. Others have had a go, suggesting it is all much about nothing. I would say it can't be. Eating disorders are not only a major problem for those they afflict, but also for those around the sufferers. Pauline Prescott deserves a medal!

The one thing John Prescott said was ""Now I've come out about my bulimia, I hope I might do something to help the many young women - and others - who suffer from it. I hope that it will encourage people to come out and discuss these matters and not suffer in silence." Brave words, John. But "others"? You mean men, surely? Men suffer from bulimia, just as they do breast cancer and other "female" complaints.

So I think John Prescott has finally admitted that he has weaknesses and they can be overcome. It is a great pity he allowed them to smother him and turn him politically into a man prone to misjudgement and petty meanness.

The lesson here is that suffering in silence does more harm than good. I'm not concerned who knew what when. What I do think is that Blair, rather than saying "Well, John will be John", should have helped John rather than let him carry on gorging and vomiting at almost every dinner or function he went to. And he would't have had to endure all the fatboy jokes as well!