So the program on the DVR just ended and it defaulted to CNN.  Watching Roseanne Barr on Larry King.  Goodness gracious the facial skin on this show is tight enough for two drum kits!

Oh, perfect timing...via email Roseanne is just asked what is her greatest regret..."Getting old."  " "And maybe we should just stop fighting it..stop trying to hang on." 

Wait a minute, I've got to check and make sure I'm not watching Saturday Night Live!.............

Now thes two are going off about the minimum wage.....and Roseanne thinks there should be a maximum wage....hmm.. Larry makes $15 million a year, and Roseanne has made millions a year.  Any guess that she employs an army of accountants and lawyers to minimize her taxes?  Any minimum wage employees on any of her sets?

On second thought, why I am bothering to watch this drivel?

PATAKI, HUCKABEE, HAGEL, AND BROWNBACK TRAIL ALLEN IN GOP PRESIDENTIAL RACE [Byron York]

Okay, that's not the headline of the new Gallup poll.  But when asked which Republican they would be most likely to support in 2008, Gallup respondents (Republicans and Republican leaners) came up with this list:

Giuliani            28
McCain            26
Rice                13
Gingrich             7
Romney             5
Frist                  4
Allen                 2
Pataki               1
Huckabee          1
Hagel                1
Brownback         1

Asked the same question, Democrats and Democrat leaners, gave these answers:

Clinton            31
Obama           19
Edwards         10
Gore                9
Kerry               7
Biden               4
Clark                3
Richardson       2
Bayh                2
Feingold           1
Daschle            1
Dodd                1
Vilsack             2

 

ST. JOHN [Byron York]

Democratic uneasiness about John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi's candidate for House Majority Leader, appears to be rising.  "Some Democratic lawmakers and watchdog groups say they are baffled that Pelosi would go out of her way to back Murtha's candidacy after pledging to make the new 110th Congress the most ethical and corruption-free in history," reports the Washington Post:

Murtha, a longtime senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, has battled accusations over the years that he has traded federal spending for campaign contributions, that he has abused his post as ranking party member on the Appropriations defense subcommittee, and that he has stood in the way of ethics investigations. Those charges come on top of Murtha's involvement 26 years ago in the FBI's Abscam bribery sting.

The paper has also published a handy tear-out guide to Murtha's problems:

* Murtha's relationship with defense industry lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti, whose PMA group and 11 of the firm's clients contributed a total of $274,649 to Murtha's campaign in the past two years. PMA clients received at least 60 "earmarks" in the 2006 defense spending bill, worth $95 million.

* Murtha's business dealings with his brother, Robert "Kit" Murtha, a former senior partner at KSA Consulting. A 2004 defense spending bill that went through Murtha's Appropriations defense subcommittee benefited at least 10 companies represented by KSA.

*Murtha's ethical scrape in the early 1980s, when he was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal Abscam bribery scandal and testified against two House colleagues.

One interesting aspect of this is that some Republicans tried to talk about Murtha's ethics issues several months ago, when Murtha was being canonized for his call for "redeployment" of U.S. troops out of Iraq.  There wasn't much of an audience for it then.  That seems to have changed.

Posted at 7:43 AM

Re: Vilsack In [John Podhoretz]

 Jonathan Martin's first Corner post just below is, quite simply, too informative. There's a huge amount to chew on there. But one thing stood out for me that has been little noted: The decision by Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack to seek the Democratic presidential nomination. This decision is a huge gift to the campaign of Hillary Clinton. With Vilsack in the race, all other Democratic candidates can declare the Iowa caucuses his territory and bail out of there. The quirky state won't play a big role, and that only benefits the 800 lb. Gorilla.

Better get your copy of Can She Be Stopped?, friends...

From NRO: GO JACK, GO! [Byron York]

Some Republicans are quietly rooting for John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi's choice in the race for House Majority Leader, over rival Steny Hoyer.  The reason?  They regard Murtha as a target-rich environment, and a brief passage in today's Washington Post hints at why:

Hoyer also has the strong support of many of the party's conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats, who worry about Murtha's involvement in the Abscam bribery sting in 1980 and what they see as his freewheeling style on the House Appropriations Committee, where he has openly advocated for the interests of his district and his political supporters.

A source of mine told me that he picked up two pieces of info on Murtha at a breakfast meeting today from guys who know Murtha.

1)  Penn State football coach Joe Paterno is his "right hand man."

2)  And a quote that reinforces the above: