Cruisin' along happily...and then someone squirts you in the face with a fake mike

For anyone outside California that thinks Ah-nold "the Governator" is still a hot political property, today's SFChronicle published some poll results that you should check out. 31% approval rating. Yikes. Just goes to show that his approach to pushing through a special election and attacking cops, firemen, teachers and nurses as "special interests" were major mistakes. Yesterday I also heard a pretty fascinating interview with a new Ah-nold biographer Laurence Leamer on KQED's excellent show "Forum" hosted by Michael Krasny. In short, Ah-nold's pushing issues he knows nothing about and Maria Shriver is a rank bee-atch when it comes to controlling her hubbie's public image. The fact that Ah-nold now often draws more protesters than listeners to his scripted public events is the most convincing sign I've seen that his honeymoon is over. Even if he will "Jingle All the Way" to this Fall's election with the donations he's been raking in nationwide, his goose is cooked. But then again, I'm always wrong about these trends so this may be the point from which he begins to ascend again. Ya never really know until ya know, ya know?

More and more the blogosphere's running with the idiocy of Cheney saying in an interview with a second-rate Conservative talk radio host that Dick Durbin's comments on Gitmo were "one of the more egregious things I've heard on the floor of the U.S. Senate." Methinks you doth protesteth too much, Deeeck. Especially given what you said to Pat Leahy there last year. And with "statesmen" like Rep. John Hostettler inexplicably foaming at the mouth with hateful invective and saying things in Congress almost daily that would make a serial killing hooker blush with shame, I think calling out Durbin's a losing proposition. Sure beats actually doing anything about prisoner abuses, though.

Speaking of abuses, don't we all owe Tom Cruise an apology for finding his squirt gun prank so damn funny. Talk about a fella on the edge of a massive blow-up - keep him away from anything sharp, Katie. Can't wait to see "War of the Worlds" but I could live a thousand years and never care to hear another word from the future Mr. Holmes.