More Monday Miscellany

Minnesota: It's probably a pretty bad sign for Norm Coleman when his name gets booed at a rally held by anti-tax conservatives at the Minnesota state capitol. So much for mobilizing his "base." Maybe these Minnesota conservatives should place a call to the Club for Growth and ask for help recruiting a primary challenger to Coleman.

Oregon: Blue Oregon highlights more bad local press for Gordon Smith, the Daily Astorian calling Smith a "dependable Bush enabler" and noting that he "even has parroted the White House line on global warming." Big ouch.

New Mexico: Following yesterday's Albuquerque Journal piece slamming Pajamas Pete Domenici, but seemingly shifting decision-making blame from Alberto Gonzales to Bush himself, questions were raised as to how much involvement Bush personally had. This strikes me as similar to the 2004 situation with the Bush TANG memos. Just because those specific documents weren't properly authenticated, it doesn't mean that there weren't still enormous, lingering questions about Bush's TANG service or lack thereof. Similarly, whether Domenici spoke to Bush himself or just Karl Rove, Domenici did inappropriately insert himself into the process, all the more reason that the investigation needs to continue, to get to the bottom of this. Regardless of Bush's involvement, Domenici's inappropriate involvement is unquestionable; it is just a matter of figuring out exactly how far that involvement went and whether it breached Senate Ethics standards or even further legal standards. Meanwhile, remain skeptical as all Bush's spokesperson can offer is a tepid 'not sure' regarding direct Bush-Domenici discussions:

Reporter: He doesn't remember specifically Domenici?

Dana Perino: Not that I -- I don't believe so.

Massachusetts: The news that is getting wide coverage is John Kerry leaving the door open to a future Presidential bid (most likely a move by Kerry just to keep up his national prominence). The news that is not getting as wide coverage is John Kerry shifting $7.2 million from his 2004 Presidential account to his Senate coffers. As if the MA-GOP needed to be pushed further into irrelevance.

A couple fun facts courtesy of Think Progress: first, according to a new Pew Research study, a Jon Stewart viewer is likely to be significantly more knowledgeable than a Brit Hume viewer; and, second, according to a new CBS poll, 67 percent of Americans "believe that Congress should allow funding only with a time limit (58 percent) or block all funding for the war in Iraq (9 percent)".