First, more good news from the campaign front. Over the last few days, a number of local Democratic party committees—including the four committees that make up the City of Wilmington Democratic Committee—have endorsed my candidacy. As a result, a majority of the state’s Democratic committees have now endorsed me. That might not seem like a big deal since my primary election opponent withdrew from the race last week, but it is. This is going to be a very competitive general election, and the Republican party is going to throw an enormous amount of money into the race against me. It appears from the initial tone of what they are putting out that most of it will be spent on negative campaign ads. So it is important that I have a unified Democratic party formally behind me as soon as possible, so the party can help me spread my positive message about helping Delaware’s kids to succeed. Having these committees declare their support is a big part of that.

I will return to local campaign news in my next post, but I wanted to point out to you one of the many reasons why we need a new President. Sure, we all know the big ones—war in Iraq, economy in crisis, tax structure out of whack. But the President also appoints all the heads of all of the federal government agencies, and in the case of this President, his wacky world view has trickled down into the agencies that are supposed to oversee our basic health and safety. I have previously written about the evisceration of the federal agency that oversees the safety of children’s toys. Today’s Washington Post brings the next chapter: news that, as a result of European boycotts of our beef, the federal government is finally seeking an absolute ban on the introduction of downed cows—cows that are so sick that they can’t stand up—into the food chain. Previously, the ban had been a flexible one, in order to account for cows that might fail the first time but somehow struggle back to their feet in time for a re-inspection—the cow equivalent of Willis Reed coming out of the locker room in the 1970 NBA finals. If you are like me, after reading the story (here), your first reaction will be “oh my God, I just ate a burger yesterday,” and your second reaction will be “thank you, Mister President!”. Only George Bush could spoil for me the simple pleasure of eating a burger.

Finally, in honor of the felled cows that the President has allowed into the food chain, let me direct you to a couple of vegetarian dips that we make around the Denn house. Dips are big at our house, because by the time I am home and the boys are fed, it’s often late enough that we don’t feel like eating a real dinner. The first is Olivada, it is a dip combining black olives, pine nuts, garlic, and olive oil. If that sounds really good to you, you will like it; if not, you won’t. The recipe, originally from the famous Moosewood restaurant cookbook, is online here. The second, also from the Moosewood restaurant, is Borani, a dip with spinach, feta cheese, yogurt, and dill. Recipe is here. (By the way, in preparation for the general election campaign, if the owners of the Moosewood restaurant have engaged at any time in the past in any hippie-style anti-government activism, let me say for the record that I renounce their actions and love America.)

Finally, in defense of the beloved Delaware chicken, let me also direct you to the Denn boys’ favorite chicken recipe: it is basically Shake-n-Bake chicken but the coating has ground flaxseeds, parmesan cheese, and tasty spices in it. You can find that one here.