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- Gordon Smith does have a credible Democratic challenger-- Oregon State House Speaker Jeff Merkley, who Pac NW readers will know is the guy who took back the Oregon House for the Dems last year (so this is kind of a big deal).

- Kos the cracksmoker says that Gordon Smith is a "Bush-enabler" (that crack must be good, because we all know that Smith has been dead set against the President on the number one issue for Kossacks-- i.e., the war-- for a long, long time now).

- We may not...

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From this morning's Nashua Telegraph:

The stakes for this next election are too great to sit this one out, Romney said to a Lincoln employee, a female in her late 20s, who said she’s only voted in one election.

“If you like what I’m saying, I would like you to vote multiple times. If you don’t like that, then stay home, just kidding,” Romney joked.

In light of the way the Romney team likes to rig straw polls, that Mitt was seriously suggesting that this woman vote...

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Forget about John McCain's concerns about his sweaters. There are some outfits candidates just shouldn't be seen in. This is one of them



Spandex works nicely if you are Lance Armstrong. It works less well on a vaguely untoned middle aged presidential candidate.

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Fantastic. A couple of weeks ago, Sens. Baucus and Grassley went crazy and decided to hike some energy taxes. Then, they decided that because someone works as a private equity guru--surprise-- they don't get to benefit from the same capital gains tax rate as the rest of us (maybe next week, we can create a special rate for teachers, a different one for policemen, and yet another different one for lawyers-- who knows where the fun will end!)

Now, these crazy kids, aided and abetted by...

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Well, probably not, but Scotland's First Minister (and my fellow St. Andrews alum) Alex Salmond is preparing a white paper proposing it.

There's no way this is going to get through the Scottish Parliament on the present numbers, but if it did, there's a chance it might get passed by the electorate. A YouGov survey last year showed that 44% of those polled would support independence whereas 42% would not.

In any event, I would imagine that my father would be pleased with what...

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Yes, yes, I've been offline over the last 24 hours or so. Apparently, the plumbing in my bathroom decided to have a major spaz-attack. Now that that's resolved, expect more from me later today...

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I've been doing some catchup on what's going on with some of the Senate races I'm concerned about, heading into next year, and I am not liking what I'm seeing where Norm Coleman is concerned. Coleman's approval rating is now below his disapproval rating-- 43% to 48%. Coleman's disapproval numbers have increased 7 percentage points since June. Crikey...

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It appears that the Democratic Speaker of Oregon's House is getting ready to run against Sen. Smith. This is worrying because Mr. Merkley (that's the Speaker's name) is the guy who engineered the Democratic takeover of Oregon's House last year-- so he knows how to beat Republicans. It's also worrying because, apparently, polling is showing him within striking distance of Smith already.

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So, I'm watching the YouTube debate on CNN. My favorite bits thus far:

* Joe Biden hammering everyone for voting to take body armor away from the troops (Ok, it's Joe Biden, but he has a point)

* John Edwards' hair

* Bill Richardson saying that we should teach sculpture in schools (the ceramics teacher at my school had better be stoked)

* Dennis Kucinich hammering Hillary and Obama about their support for the war (because we know they are big hypocrites, and it's...

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This morning, I had breakfast, together with a bunch of other conservative press types, with Newt Gingrich.



Newt talked a lot about Republican prospects in 2008, and how we've ended up in a situation where we have a deficit of ideas (something with which I wholeheartedly agree).

More interestingly, to me, though were his comments on the presidential race, some of which were alluded to in the mainstream media today, his comments on the President's handling of Iraq, and...

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