Getting Hot

Maybe only declared candidates have to answer those questions.

Mitt Romney--who is running--is in first place in this Des Moines Register poll of likely GOP caucus-goers.

Joe Klein's conclusion: "I suspect something is going on here, though, and my gut--which has been through nine Iowa's worth of political agita--says Romney, in his aw-shucks slickness, just seems like the sort of guy Republicans tend to nominate. Rudy is too New Yawk; McCain, too independent. Romney has put together a campaign that is carefully calibrated to appeal to the GOP grassroots--unadventurous in every way."

Romney is certainly drawing McCain's attention, as Captain Ed notes in reporting on a conference call with bloggers:

"Mitt Romney has been trying to make quite a bit of political hay out of the compromise immigration bill -- he sees it as one of John McCain's key weaknesses as relates to the Republican base and a great way to differentiate himself as the One True Conservative in the race (at least until Fred Thompson jumps in) . . .

"Mr. McCain fired back at the former Massachusetts governor, who has (of course) held varying positions on immigration over the years. 'Maybe I should wait a couple weeks and see if it changes,' Mr. McCain said of Mr. Romney's position on immigration this week. 'Maybe he can get out his small varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his yard.'(TM)"

McCain also said his blowup at Sen. John Cornyn in a closed-door session on immigration wasn't as bad as reported and he wished it had been on YouTube. Well, maybe.

Everyone said the Democrats would have to back off on their war-funding demands, and it seems to have happened:

"Scrambling to send President Bush an emergency war spending bill he will sign," says the L.A. Times, "Democratic leaders have decided to drop their insistence on a timeline for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. "The move -- which comes just days after senior Democrats insisted that White House officials should support nonbinding timelines -- is a significant concession to the president and his Republican allies on Capitol Hill, who steadfastly have rejected any dates for bringing U.S. troops home. "But it reflects the simple mathematics of a closely divided Congress in which Democrats cannot muster veto-proof majorities for any proposal that would compel a pullout."

Other than Bill, who's on the cover of Newsweek, the spouse who seems to be attracting the most attention these days is Michelle. Salon's Debra Dickerson isn't happy about her career choice:

"You knew it had to happen.

"Damn it all, Michelle Obama has quit her $215,000 dream job and demoted herself to queen. Though the party line is that she's only 'scaled back' to a 20 percent workload, I doubt her former co-workers will bother alerting her to many staff meetings. She's traded in her solid gold résumé, high-octane talent and role as vice president of community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals to be a professional wife and hostess.