NEAL'S OUT TODAY

Neal will be off today but should be back tomorrow. We have your favorite fill-in, Herman Cain, in from 10a-1p ET (and whenever that is for you locally.) He'll make sure you get your fix of reason. And we the staff will make sure you have something to read while you should be working.

MURTHA SAYS HE HAS THE VOTES

Conventional wisdom this morning says that Democrats will not march off the political cliff and elect John Murtha as their new House Majority Leader.  After all, Murtha represents everything voters wanted no part of in the last election:  corruption and the extreme anti-war positions Murtha holds.  That's right...to assume that the American people want to cut and run in Iraq just because they're unhappy with the Bush Administration is to miss the entire point of what happened last Tuesday.  But leave it to the Democrats to make that mistake.

Will the new Democratic caucus pull the lever for Murtha, rejecting the more popular, more moderate and frankly saner Steny Hoyer?  Maybe.  Maybe it will be close.  John Murtha went on Hardball last night and announced that he had the votes to win as the new majority leader.  He also said the situation in Iraq was more important than his own personal ethics.  He may not have done himself any favors with that. 

So the unindicted co-conspirator in the 1980 Abscam sting says Iraq is more important than ethics, but is it really?  Wasn't it his friend Nancy Pelosi who stood right out there just a few months ago railing against the "culture of corruption" in the Republican Party?  If that's the case, then she has a problem.  Because John Murtha makes Tom DeLay look like a Boy Scout.  We'll know today...will it be Murtha as Pelosi's lieutenant for the next 2 years?

Maybe not.  Then again, these same Democrats are going to elect Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House.

JAMES CARVILLE VS. HOWARD DEAN

My oh my is this one fun to watch.  James Carville....yes, that James Carville...is running around accusing DNC Chairman Howard Dean of incompetence.  You might think Carville would be grateful to Dean, given the success Democrats enjoyed in the latest election.  Not so.  In fact, Carville says were it not for Dean, the Democrats would have picked up 50 seats in the House...not the 30 they've already won.  Isn't this fun?

So what's Carville's beef with Dean?  He says the Democratic Party shorted several races...so-called third-tier races...where it could have put millions of dollars and made the Democratic landslide even larger than it was.  Carville tried to meet with Dean to tell him this, but was turned away.  Big mistake.  Of Howard Dean, James Carville recently said "I would describe his leadership as Rumsfeldian in its competence."  Ouch.

But Carville is also worried about 2008.  He recently said of Dean at a public forum:  "Do we want to go into '08 with a C minus general at the D.N.C.?"  Man, this guy never lets up.  It's always fun to watch the Democrats eat their own.  Despite the successes that they've had, could they have had more?  Probably. Democrats won last week because they weren't Republicans.  How many more seats could they have won if they had a unified, national agenda?

Probably a lot more...meaning Carville is right.  It's going to be an interesting next two years.

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

You wouldn't expect a redneck to have a normal pool heater, would you?  More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

If you want to view the 54-minute video of the potential incoming House Majority Leader in action, check out John Murtha on the Abscam tapes.  You can watch him here...turning down a $50,000 bribe "at this point."

Roger Ailes, the head of Fox News, says they didn't pay one penny to free Steve Centanni and his cameraman, in contrast to a WorldNet Daily report that says otherwise.  The online news site stands by its story and its reporter and says they never said it was Fox News who paid the money.

Nancy Pelosi, who has been supporting John Murtha for House Majority Leader, may not exactly be rewarded for her support.  Murtha is calling her proposed ethics bill "total crap."  Hmm...that's not very nice, is it? 

Conservative Democrats...the so-called Blue Dog Democrats...are making the point that Republicans did not lose their seats to liberals, but rather conservative Democrats like themselves.  As a result, they say they'll have a lot to say about what passes the House and what doesn't.

Robert Novak calls Nancy Pelosi's endorsement of John Murtha for House Majority Leader her first mistake.  Behind the scenes, Democrats are stunned that she would back the unpopular Murtha instead of the more popular Steny Hoyer.

How much is Democratic control of the House and Senate really going to change America's foreign policy?  Victor Davis Hanson says not very much.  He says the Democrats could stop funding efforts like the Patriot Act and the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba....but they won't.

Is it still possible to win in Iraq?  Why yes, says Colonel Ralph Peters.  The solution? It's simple...kill all of the bad guys.  Every last one of them.....just shoot them dead.  At that point, then we will have won the war in Iraq and can come home.

With President Bush all-too-ready to push his guest worker program in the new Democrat-controlled Congress, Pat Buchanan says a Pelosi-Bush amnesty bill could be in the works.  He even goes so far as to say the guest worker program may be Bush's legacy.

The media is swooning over the prospect of Nancy Pelosi becoming the first woman Speaker of the House.  But media bias is at play here, notes Ann Coulter.  She notes how bored the media was when Condoleezza Rice became the first black woman secretary of state.

So Democrats now have control of the entire legislative branch...presumably thrust into power over their opposition to Bush's policies in Iraq.  What Larry Elder wants to know is what the Democrats' plan is for Iraq?  They have the reins now...let's hear it!

So this is what it's come to. Negative campaign ads have reached all the way down to pre-school. Shared by Chris Hurt.[video]

The Washington Post has an interesting project on their website called "On Faith" which is basically an interfaith dialogue on questions posed once a week or so. Most recent question: If some religious people believe they have a monopoly on truth, then are conversation and common ground possible? If so, what would be the difficulties and benefits of such a conversation? [via]

Sacha Baron Cohen gives a rare, so far the only, interview to Rolling Stone as himself rather than Borat. [via]

A photo gallery of souvenirs superimposed over the actual sight. [via]

You've heard Herman Cain fill in for Neal Boortz. Read his latest online column. Your chance to see Herman speak at a live event in Atlanta 11/16.

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