I just walked back from the 7 am Mass at St. Patrick Cathedral (photo at bottom from 50th St & 7th Ave in NYC) where the Gospel from John 12 was followed by a reminder that St. Patrick only came to Ireland as a victim of human smuggling. Yet rather than hate the Irish he evangelized them, as we were asked to do for all those who never returned to church after COVID.
Ah March, the month when liberals and conservatives can take a break from hating each other, and instead concentrate on hating people from rival conferences or schools. In that spirit, the past week was spent with Fox News interviews in eight cities followed by being on the court at Madison Square Garden by the Fox cameras and commentators for the Big East Championship game and my conversation with the pictured UConn 7-footer for this story on the CBS 247Sports Site Marquette Hoops.
For the next 364 days we will return to news only at https://wisconsinffc.com/.
My Fox News interviews across the country this week focused on contrasting Robert Hur, the special prosecutor who reported on his investigation into President Biden, and Jack Smith, special prosecutor investigating former President Trump. You can click here on the image above for the Lansing, Michigan interview or on the more than half dozen other stations from across the country with links further down.
Through many of the interviews, we noted that Hur’s presentation was so professional that even the left-of-center New York Times ran a headline starting with, “Poised and Precise,” then a lead sentence, “Robert K. Hur defended himself in the unhurried, forceful cadence of a veteran prosecutor, delivering his responses in a flat, matter-of-fact tone.” To me this seemed like the kind of report that might re-instill confidence that is so lacking in our institutions.
This contrasts with the selection of Jack Smith to lead investigations of President Trump, despite his investigations into Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell being so flawed a decade ago that the convictions he won were overturned 9-0 by the US Supreme Court. It takes pretty incredible legal reach to be rejected by the diverse group of all Supreme Court justices, but Smith and the Colorado Supreme Court have both accomplished it – the latter by trying to take Trump off the ballot.
More than a half dozen other Fox News Stations also interviewed me in order of state; WERC Birmingham, AL, WFLA Orlando, FL, WHO Des Moines, IA, WILS Lansing, MI,
WJR Detroit, MI, WTVN Columbus, OH, WFRK Florence, SC, and WBAP Dallas, TX.
Once a Year Basketball – March Madness Links
I used to email out my brackets for March Madness, and after this week of Fox News interviews I did close the week on the Madison Square Garden Court by the Fox basketball broadcast team Saturday night after the Big East Championship. Unlike my past days as Breitbart Sports Editor (see Obama Booed at Elite 8 Game … After Day on Golf Course), I now keep my sports writing only as a separate volunteer “side hustle” as the youth says.
The picture to the right of the feature photo is from the Madison Square floor with 7-foot-2 Donovan Clingan (after becoming the only player besides Patrick Ewing to score 20 and grab 15 rebounds in a Big East championship). Here is my conversation with him which got a chuckle from the legendary Dan Hurley seated third from left on the Fox set below. If you want bracket help just click on www.pudnersports.com,which has had 67,701 unique visitors in February and March and where I’ve broken down the 19 key injuries among the 80 teams who still might be among the 68 in the tournament, and will add the bracket picks later.
Once it’s tournament time, beyond living and dying with every Marquette game, I root for the Big East and then teams from the three places I’ve spent most of my life (that means Wisconsin, VCU and Auburn). Congrats to all three for big wins Saturday, The Badgers beat #3 Purdue, their biggest win since the 2015 team stunned the Kentucky, considered perhaps the best ever until that loss. That game occurred a month after I stunned fellow sports writers by naming Frank “the Tank” Kaminsky to my 1st Team All-American squad.
