Martha Coakley ran an ad attacking Scott Brown for Wall Street ties. The ad used an old video that included an image of the World Trade Center. Naturally, this called for a rapid response from the President of 9/11:

With Republican prospects for 2010, and just maybe 2012, trending upward, it’s worth noting that Mitt Romney, the insiders’ front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, has announced a publicity tour for his upcoming book, No Apology. He'll begin with two stops in (surprise!) Iowa in March.

Ever on the lookout for ways to shrink the party’s tent still further, a few of the masterminds at the Republican National Committee are pushing a resolution to establish an ideological purity test for prospective GOP candidates. Those who fail on three or more of the following ten criteria would be deemed ineligible for RNC funding and endorsement:

 (1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;

 (2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;

 (3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

 (4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

TPM and others are having a lot of fun over the fact that George W. Bush is heading out on the motivational speaking circuit. And, I agree that, even when you consider that other politicos such as Colin Powell, Elizabeth Dole, and Rudy Giuliani, have been doing gigs with Zig Ziglar and his ilk for years, there is something kind of undignified about a former president appearing on that stage.

I had an unusual thought not long ago while I watched a video clip of a screaming man at a town hall accusing John Dingell of effectively planning the murder of his disabled son. As I watched, the idea struck me that it was legitimately impossible to determine if the man was crazy merely in the political sense-- as in, hoo boy, Rudy Giuliani's foreign policy ideas sure are crazy--or crazy in the more literal sense of a person whose mental health issues render him frequently unable to function. It was a total jump ball which kind of crazy he was.

Beauty pageant contestant Carrie Prejean, asked about gay marriage a few weeks ago, summed up her view this way: "In my country and in my family, I think that I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman." It's a pretty simple answer--what you'd expect, intellectually, from someone who had just successfully completed a bikini walk rather than a dissertation on the topic at hand.

McCain's surrogates are now raising questions about Barack Obama's past use of mind-altering substances. "God forbid somebody would do some reporting on Barack Obama's use of drugs," complained Rudy Giuliani on Fox News.

The idea of a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton "unity ticket" has been floated quite a bit the last few days. But, seriously, is the idea any good? We asked a few friends of the magazine to weigh in. Here's Michael Tomasky, editor of Guardian America.

A part of me has lately warmed somewhat to the idea of Barack Obama asking Hillary Clinton to join him as his running mate. But on balance I still think he can do better in both substantive and symbolic terms.

Ok, it can't help but make me sound like a conspiracy theorist, but the fact that John McCain's victory speech was staged in front of a huge banner announcing the fact that he won '1191 delegates' can't help but recall Rudy Giuliani and his denial of death strategy.

Win or lose tonight, the McCain camp was hoping at least to win over the support of Rudy Giuliani, who appears to be competing with McCain for the same, more-moderate pool of voters.