Bird’s-Eye View

Capitolwire.com through www.politickerpa.com, former House Speaker John Perzel, who’s been a de facto member of the House GOP’s inner leadership circle since his ousting in January 2007, appears hungry for more than a figurehead position:
GOP opposition researcher Joe Carduff told (Capitolwire.com) he was hired by Perzel to conduct research on fellow House Republicans, including Minority […]

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Sick of presidential politics? Skipping the news stories about President-elect Barack Obama? Craving for something else to read?
I hear yah. But as an alternative to the endless cycle of stories about Obama’s transition team, I have some interesting stuff out of the state House to talk about, mainly about Republican House Speaker Denny O’Brien.
Nesters may remember O’Brien […]

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Politico.com has this look at the necessary self-evaluation the Republican Party must undergo now:
Most ominously for Republicans, the GOP is increasingly becoming less grand than old – and outdated. As reflected in Tuesday’s results and exit polls, it’s a party that is overwhelmingly white, rural and aged in a country that is rapidly becoming racially […]

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Oh to be inside the mind of Steve Schmidt right now.
Schmidt is the chief message man of Republican John McCain’s campaign, and if the pressure is on the GOP nominee to have a “game-changer” during tonight’s final debate with Democrat Barack Obama, Schmidt is the one carrying the load. What is McCain’s message tonight? What […]

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As if the evidence wasn’t clear enough, with two major rallies in the eastern part of the state in the last week, now comes two more events. First is the unsubstantiated rumor as of 8:50 a.m. that Republican Sarah Palin will lead a rally at Clipper Magazine Stadium this Saturday. And now the McCain campaign […]

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Here’s what stands out in the newest Franklin & Marshall Keystone Poll, which shows Barack Obama pulling away from John McCain:
Among Central Pennsylvania voters, McCain and Obama are statistically tied.
Read that again.
No joke.
The breakdown is McCain 43 percent and Obama 42 percent in areas where President Bush defeated Sen. John Kerry by as much as […]

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Was John McCain’s call to suspend the presidential campaign and delay the first debate a brilliant political move or was it gimmicky? Let’s assume his call for Barack Obama, President Bush and congressional leaders to huddle with McCain and draw up a bipartisan plan to address the Wall Street fiasco works. The upside obviously is […]

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Sounds like an episode of the Untouchables, doesn’t it?
Congress has begun debating the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, but the McCain-Palin team wants you to look the other way at a television ad they have up on the airwaves today. It’s called “Chicago Machine”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ0cq4Nytu8

By the way, the federal government is moving on a bailout the […]

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In case you missed it, yesterday the U.S. House led by the Democratic caucus passed a measure to lift the 26-year ban on off-shore oil drilling as long as it’s 50 miles away from the coast and the coastal state approves it.
I can see it now: Come to Ocean City, Maryland. Great crabs, Great beaches, […]

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The three most frequent things I heard about Sarah Palin last week were:

“She’s just like one of us.”
“Has anybody taken a close look at her record? People need to know about this stuff.”
“How soon before Tina Fey returns to SNL to spoof Palin?”

Ask and ye shall receive. Fey helped open the new SNL season last […]

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