Dark horse Republican to the rescue?

Howard Fineman of MSNBC writes, "People here remember Haley Barbour as a slightly raffish Mississippi good ol’ boy with a low center of gravity and a syrupy drawl who became chairman of the Republican Party, made a bundle as a tobacco lobbyist and then went home to – of all things – become governor: A shrewd inside player, but not someone who automatically springs to mind as presidential material."

Electability is puzzle for Hillary in '08 race

Alexander Bolton of The Hill writes his weekly profile of '08 contendors this week on Hillary Rodham Clinton. You can find his article here.

“She is likely to be the nominee,” Biden declared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this year. “She’d be incredibly difficult to beat. She is the most difficult obstacle for anyone being the nominee.”

"A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll in February that asked nearly 400 registered Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters who they would be more inclined to support, Clinton, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) or former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.). Forty percent voiced support for Clinton, 25 percent for Kerry and 18 percent for Edwards."

Gingrich, Sounding Like a Candidate at ASNE, Predicts Strong Hillary Run in '08

Andrew Ackerman of Editor and Publisher writes that "Former Speaker of the House Newt Gringrich offered praise for a 2008 presidential campaign by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) at a speech this afternoon to about 200 editors at the annual meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He characterized Clinton as the de facto Democratic nominee and warned that Republicans would have a difficult time beating her, citing the Clinton family's ability to win six consecutive elections between 1980 and 2000. "

"Now just as someone who tries to handicap how these things go, [Hillary's] very formidable," Gingrich said. "She has the smartest American politician as her advisor ... and we will lose unless we come up with better ideas, because they are as a couple that good tactically."

The Sullivan for Congress campaign has launched a blog

Peter Sullivan announced today that he has launched a blog for his campaign for Congress. He said "it's a good place to go for the latest news on my campaign for Congress in New Hampshire's First District. I'll be posting statements on current issues, schedules of campaign events, and notes from the campaign trail. You can also expect a few choice comments about Jeb Bradley's record!"

You can find the blog here.

Hynes responds to DiStaso

At his blog anklebitingpundits.com Patrick Hynes responds to the characterization that columnist John DiStaso made. You can find his post here and his article here.

Hynes writes:

This is odd. My home state paper, the New Hampshire Union Leader, takes, I think, a potshot at me:

Quote: New Hampshire native Patrick Hynes, now a Washington-based political consultant, has come to the defense of former state GOP executive director Chuck McGee. In an April 1 op-ed in the American Spectator, Hynes points out that while McGee's masterminding of the Election Day 2002 phone-jamming scheme was "apparently" illegal, groups sympathetic to Democrats were cited in a recent report by the American Center for Voting Rights as registering "thousands of fictional voters" in the last election.

I can't imagine what article the columnist -- John DiStaso -- was reading. My article was hardly a "defense" of Chuck. I called his actions the result of "a shortsighted, stupid decision, for which he is paying dearly." You can read the article yourself here.

Moreover, anyone who spends about seven seconds on this site knows we have condemned Chuck's actions ... actions for which he is deeply apologetic.