It isn't even midnight yet on the East Coast as I type this and already a budding Civil War between the Obama White House and the traditionally-friendly Union groups such as the AFL-CIO, SEIU, and others over the result of the Democratic Primary Runoff in Arkansas.  There, the White House and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee backed incumbent Senator Blanche Lincoln, while the unions poured some $10 Million dollars to support Lt. Governor Bill Halter.

Here's what the White House told Ben Smith at the Politico after the results came in.

A senior White House official just called me with a very pointed message for the administration's sometime allies in organized labor, who invested heavily in beating Blanche Lincoln, Obama's candidate, in Arkanas.

"Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members' money down the toiled on a pointless exercise," the official said. "If even half that total had been well-targeted and applied in key House races across this country, that could have made a real difference in November."

Lincoln relied heavily both on Obama's endorsement, which she advertised relentlessly on radio and in the mail, and on the backing of former President Bill Clinton, who backed her to the hilt.

Lincoln foe Bill Halter had the unstinting support of the AFL-CIO , SEIU, AFSCME, and other major unions.

Labor has spun the Halter loss as a "moral victory," and they responded to Smith less than twenty minutes after he went to press with the above.

The major labor federation AFL-CIO took sharp objection tonight to a White House official's assessment that they'd "flushed $10 million of their members' money down the toilet" in the "pointless exercise" of supporting the failed bid of Bill Halter to unseat Senator Blanche Lincoln.

"If that's their take on this, then they severely misread how the electorate feels and how we're running our political program. When we say we're only going to support elected officials who support our issues," said AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale. "When they say we should have targeted our money among some key house races among Blue Dog Democrats --that ain't happening."

"Labor isn't an arm of the Democratic Party," Vale said. "It exists to suport working families. And that's what we said tonight, and that's what we're gong to keep saying."

Labor not an arm of the Democratic Party...wow, they sure had me fooled.  I guess I'll just bare it as coincidence that half the events at this upcoming weekend's Democratic Party of Wisconsin State Convention are sponsored by organized labor in one way, shape, or form as pure coincidence.

So much for representative government...

If the time-honored tradition of the political meeting is not quite dead, it seems to be teetering closer to extinction. Of the 255 Democrats who make up the majority in the House, only a handful held town-hall-style forums as legislators spent last week at home in their districts.

It was no scheduling accident.

With images of overheated, finger-waving crowds still seared into their minds from the discontent of last August, many Democrats heeded the advice of party leaders and tried to avoid unscripted question-and-answer sessions. The recommendations were clear: hold events in controlled settings — a bank or credit union, for example — or tour local businesses or participate in community service projects.

And to reach thousands of constituents at a time, without the worry of being snared in an angry confrontation with voters, more lawmakers are also taking part in a fast-growing trend: the telephone town meeting, where chances are remote that a testy exchange will wind up on YouTube.

It should be noted, the only Wisconsin Representative who appears to have held town halls last week was Paul Ryan, who admitted to during an hour-long interview on "The Rush Limbaugh Show" when 1130 WISN's Mark Belling was filling in for the recently-wed Limbaugh.

There are little reports of what Wisconsin's Democratic members of the House did.

All I can find is a story last week about Steve Kagen going to Rhinelander where he was given the kid glove treatment by former State Superindentant of Public Instruction and WEAC puppet Elizabeth Burmaster at Nicolet College in Rhinelander, where Burmaster now serves as College President.

The newspaper in Rhinelander points out Kagen only spoke with the school's administrative staff; not even the students.

On Saturday, the Wisconisn AP reported that both GOP Senate candidates -- Ron Johnson and David Westlake -- were in support of opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR ,to drilling, especially as an option to off-shore drilling.

Both Republican candidates in Wisconsin's U.S. Senate race want to see an environmentally sensitive region of Alaska land opened up to oil drilling, a solution they say would help avoid such catastrophes as the BP oil spill fouling the Gulf of Mexico.

Sen. Russ Feingold, the Democratic incumbent, disagreed, saying the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is too sensitive to withstand large-scale drilling.

In interviews with The Associated Press, businessmen Ron Johnson of Oshkosh and Dave Westlake of Watertown said it's safer to drill in Alaska's so-called ANWR (pronounced ON'-wahr) region because any spill would be immediately accessible to emergency crews.

"ANWR may be environmentally sensitive but it may be easier to drill up there and with less environmental impact than trying to drill in very deep water," Johnson said. "You know, these oil rigs are being forced so far offshore. By doing that we're just increasing the risks."

Johnson and Westlake will square off in a Republican primary in September. The winner will take on Feingold.

On cue, two of the more environmentally-minded liberal bloggers in the state, James Rowen and Bill Christofferson pounced on the news.  Christofferson going so far as putting up the following "Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day-Approved" photo of ANWR on his blog post.

Pretty isn't it?  Here's the problem, while this is ANWR, it is not the proposed drilling site.  In fact, where Christofferson has shown above is literally hundreds of miles from the proposed drilling site near ANWR's northern coast along the Arctic Ocean.

In 2001, as the debate about re-opening ANWR came forward for the first time, National Review Online Editor-at-Large, Jonah Goldberg took a trip via airplane (it was too cold to get there via land transportation) to the proposed drilling site for an article for the magazine.  Here's what he came back with:

As you can see, it's a lot different than the one "Xoff" has on his blog.  In fact, here's what Goldberg wrote about all the pretty mountains and other common themes from the "We'll kill the environment!!!" crowd on ANWR.  (Feel free to use the URL links to the photos he's highlighted.  Above is picture 150.)

Now, as for the mountains in ANWR: There are many beautiful mountain ranges in this South Carolina-sized wilderness. But the ones closest to the coastal plain are not covered in lush trees, as you might think from looking at the media coverage. This far north it's too cold, dark, and bleak during the winter for trees to survive. So these mountains are impressive geologically, but — at least from what I saw — they look like barren, massive piles of gravel. For example: [169] [179] [171]. And some have really cool glacier-ice formations on them, like this [178]. But remember, these [180] are still very far from this [150].

I did see some caribou closer than this [150] but I didn't snap any good pictures. As you can see [151], they are hanging out on the shore of the Arctic Ocean trying to escape the bugs. I like to call the one on the very far left-hand corner Arthur. Speaking of the Arctic Ocean, the ice never really goes away [152]. Here you can see the dividing line between what were two giant sheets of ice [154]. That line is not man-made in any way.

And finally, this is me [131] looking like a doofus in hardhat and goggles at the Alpine Oil installation. The reason I don't look fatter is that standing against a large petroleum facility has a beneficial slimming effect, which is the real reason why I am favor of opening up ANWR. I do not pretend that you couldn't take prettier pictures up close on the tundra where the drilling might be, but that's not why I was there. And, besides, you couldn't take pictures of beautiful mountains where the drilling would be because, well, there are no mountains of any kind where the drilling would be.

Pictures do indeed say a thousands words, especially the ones being used which are blatantly false.

Beginning to think part of the man's brain is damaged.

Vice President Joe Biden everyone!

At a Naval Observatory event for wounded warriors last night, Biden discussed his memories of troops who returned from the Vietnam War. "I didn't serve in Vietnam. I don't want to make a Blumenthal mistake here. Our attorney general from Connecticut, God love him," said Biden, according to the pool report filed by Stars and Stripes. Biden later added: "I have a bad habit of saying exactly what I think."

Yes you do sir.  Yes you do.

Amazing things go through the mind of an impeached, former federal judge, don't they?

What Hastings here is going off on is "YouCut," an online effort to let the public select which government programs -- many of them redundant services -- and save money.

UPDATE: The Politico reports the project, a welfare program worth about $2.5 billion a year, was not killed on a partisan 244-177 vote.