Daily News Roundup, 10/19/07: The VP Express

So why would the Republican governor of a traditionally socially conservative state endorse the most liberal Republican presidential candidate in the field? Probably because he wouldn't mind being on the ticket.

It made perfect sense, politically, that Rick Perry endorsed Rudy Giuliani. No other candidate will need a conservative balance like Giuliani will, and there are probably better choices for every other major candidate to make as far as their running mates go. If Perry wants to launch himself to the national stage, Giuliani is his best chance. Sure, social conservatives are mad about it, but Perry probably feels like he has better things to worry about than the footstamping of half bright relics clamoring to retain relevancy.

While Perry might be gearing up to do something nationally, Sam Brownback is ready to hang it up. The senator from Kansas will drop out of the race today, and he will blame money. Brownback was way out to the right, and what he likely expected to be a block of ultra-conservative support just never materialized.

Congress is generating plenty of news this week. First there were all the GOP retirements, and then yesterday the SCHIP veto was up for the override. That effort failed, but Democrats on the Hill have not been shy about promising to bring this issue up again and force more votes on it. In the House they were 13 votes short, but thoughts about commercials showing poor kids not getting health insurance directly because of Republican votes may be enough of a motivator for some of those to change their votes.

In the Senate, Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey, who is widely expected to get confirmed, gave the first in what may be a long line of sticky, hedging answers yesterday. The answers concerned torture, and the circular nature of his answers were to the chagrin of some Judiciary committee members. There's been a ton of stories on this, and it is almost certain to come up again in the general confirmation hearings.

In state news, the Dallas Morning News has some detail on why pickups in the Texas House are so important both this year and in 2010: Texas Democrats are now actively angling to have a majority going into redistricting, and they have every reason to believe it is possible. We all know how important redistricting is. The same kind of turnaround for Democrats is probably very difficult in the Senate, but the balance seems to be tipping in the House, and that's due to many factors. If you want to get your head around some of the major players and the situation in general, I recommend that article.

Two non-political stories that grabbed my attention this morning: oil broke $90 a barrel yesterday, which is disconcerting; and in undercover security tests at LAX and Chicago O'Hare, airport screeners missed most of the fake bombs the testers were trying to get through their checkpoints. Neither of those stories are nice to hear, but we are professionals, and the news won't wait until it gets better to happen.

On the lighter side of things and to wrap up — all of this talk about December primaries and early caucuses may mean that, if you live in one of the early states, you might get robocalled or blockwalked on Christmas. Maybe this won't be all bad. Maybe Obama or Hillary can talk Santa into dropping some literature down the chimneys with the toys, so long as the FEC will allow an in-kind donation from a citizen of Christmastown.