Friday Round-Up

A virtual grab bag of assorted items:

Congrats to Randy "The Big Unit" Johnson for winning his 300th game here over the Washington Nationals. The Nationals have now lost 17 out of 20 and must be seen as the official team of the Republicans.

In the last election I remarked that Republicans had to be in a sorry,sorry shape if they could not field a candidate to beat Frank Lautenberg for the Senate. Dittos if they can not beat Jon Corzine. But Chris Christie, the winner of the Republican primary, may just be the man to do it. Remember the hoopla about recruiting moderates to run in the GOP empty Northeast? Christie's campaign reads like a RNC field manual for losing. He's pro-life, anti-stimulus package, anti-enviromental regulations,anti-taxes, pro-reductions in health care benefits, and pro-reduction in the state govermnet's workforce. Boy, that's a winner. He's in a large lead against Corzine this moment except a whopping 50% do know what he stands for yet. When they do, watch that lead crumbles. Besides, he is one of the most physically unappealling candidates in a long time.

In Florida, Crist is cleaning up the mat against Rubio, who is backed by Jeb Bush's sons and the conservatives. Crist wins the Senate race walking away. Bill McCollum has a slight lead over the Democratic candidates for the governor's race.

Sarah Palin, who is mounting a rearguard campaign against Barack Obama, says that her idea of the war against terrorism is "We win, they lose", a parody of Reagan's comments on the Cold War. Imagine her giving a speech in Cairo!

Sonia Sotomayor has an approval rating higher than Rush Limbaugh in the ....South! Newt Gingrich's claims that Sotomayor is a "racist" don't go over well. The Fox News echo chamber hasn't found traction with this one. Only 8% of Americans believe Sonia Sotomayor is "racist". Another majority believe it's a good idea for judges to have empathy. By a margin of 54-26%, Americans believe she is qualified to sit on the Supreme Court. But only 15% of Republicans do.

Craigh Deeds is roaring back in the Virginia Democratic Primary against Brian Moran and Terry McAuliffe. It would be great if he won. Terry should move to New Jersey to run against Christie--the obnoxious election.

The South Carolina Supreme Court ordered Gov. Stamford to accept the stimulus funds.

Nate Silver started to have the funnies--he asked whether Michael Dukakis could have won the last election. No, Nate. Stop it. It's not even a good mind game.

Dr. Tiller's assassin is complaining he's being treated "like a criminal" and is worried about how his mother is taking this. Eric Holder announced the murder will be examined as a federal crime.

The Washington Times printed a front-page story the other day about a possible Al Qaeda bio attack from Mexico. The video of Kuwaiti dissident Abdullah al-Nafisi was broadcast on Al Jazeera in February. What's notable about the tape is that he claims that Al Qaeda would be interested in allying itself with white militia groups or any other anti-governmental organizations interested in mounting such an attack. Those of us who remember the Oklahoma City Bombing might recall Timothy McVeigh's connections with Middle East military types.

Still interested in proving that torture really did work, House Republicans on the Intelligence Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations decided to leak classified information to the press. This are probably the same guys who gloated that a Gallup poll had Dick Cheney a few points more popular than Nancy Pelosi.

Nancy Reagan came into town this week and was both graciously received by the Obamas and gracious in her remarks about them. At the unveiling of the Ronald Reagan statue in the Capital, Nancy Reagan went out of her way to praise Nancy Pelosi, even though "Tan Man" Boehner acted as her escort. her appearance at the Obama White House sparked distress on conservative websites.