The Republicans: They're Trying (Bless 'em)

results of the iowa straw poll are in. mitt romney, not surprisingly, won with 32% of the vote. of course, romney spent the equivalent of rhode island's annual budget to win. as chris matthews put it, it's the golden globes of politics - if you spend enough money, you're guaranteed to win the ames straw poll. mind you - the other top tiered candidates didn't even bother to show: guiliani, mccain and the yet to announce fred thompson.

the big story, everyone would agree, is the surprise silver medal recipient: mike huckabee with 18% of the vote (brownback received 15% and trancredo bought 14%). ole huck has little money and didn't run any t.v. campaigns. hell, there was a negative ad being aired against huck - but he made it to second place. perhaps his conservative credentials are beyond reproach?

meanwhile, tommy thompson should make an announcement about the future of his campaign within 48 hours. i believe we'll have the first casualty of the GOP primary compliments of the former governor of wisconsin.

waiting for thompson
i heard a fascinating comment from fareed zakaria this morning on this week. as we all know, nobody is enthusiastic about the GOP field this year. polls show more interest in "none of the above" than any of the actual candidates. but there seems to be this hope of salvation from a knight in red pickup. but zakaria sees the waiting and waiting and waiting for fred thompson more as an act of desperation than any type of real enthusiasm for thompson's campaign. interesting.....

guiliani's gaffe
if you're running your entire campaign around 9/11, try not to piss off the real heroes, rudy.

while campaigning in ohio on thursday, rudy said the following:

I was at Ground Zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers….I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I’m one of them.

ummmm.....i don't think. as paramedic marvin bethea said:

I personally find that very, very insulting.…Standing there doing a photo-op and telling the men, ‘You’re doing a good job,’ I don’t consider that to be working.

oh, rudy, you knucklehead. you already have the firefighters and police officers pissed because you didn't supply them with the needed communications equipment prior to the 11th. don't go dismissing their ground-zero affected health issues now just because you seem to be fine.

shame, shame, rudy.

but that does bring us to our............

meet the press quote of the week
thank you margaret carlson for providing the quote, and for doing a fabulous job thursday night hosting the lgbt debate. in response to guiliani's comments (and ego) concerning his time spent at ground zero, carlson said it's become clear that "guiliani now believes his own rhetoric...maybe there was a third tower that he kept from falling down. that's how much he's made 9/11 part of his campaign."

yeah...but you keep pissing the workers off, rudy.

chicago vs. houston
no....it's not the republicans, but it's just as disconcerting. my beloved houston texans blew a 7-19 lead going into the fourth quarter last night to lose to the chicago bears 20-19 after a bears field goal with 36 seconds left on the clock. my hottie carr wasn't behind center last night - but the team still felt the same.

i understand it's only preseason and nothing counts - but we need to get the fans excited again. and last night didn't do it.

e.