Newsbits – Rocky on the Rocks; Iowa poll shifts; Nader running (again)?

All politics is local, said Tip O’Neill, so if a politician is an idiot, he’s someone’s local idiot.

Not sure if the entire nation has to take the hit on George W – most people voted against him the first time, and the four states I’ve ever called home – New York, Rhode Island, Minnesota, and California – have dissed him twice. But Texas, without a doubt, does.

Who’s our local poster boy? Gotta be Rocky Delgadillo, who in addition to pushing for jail time for Paris Hilton while his own wife was guilty of the same offense, now turns out to have made city employees into his own personal errand boys and girls.

I’ve never been a fan of our non-steroidal Rocky – he’s too cozy with the billboard companies who donated space to help get him elected – but I’m kind of in awe of his recent stupidity. The guy is the city attorney, for crissakes – shouldn’t he have half a clue?

I leave that question to linger in the ether, while we head East to Iowa.

New poll results show a near dead heat for the top 3 Dems – Clinton, Edwards, and Obama are at 21%, 20%, and 18%, respectively, with no one else even rounding up to double digits.

Romney’s ruling the GOP with 25%, 8% ahead of the manly Fred Thompson, and 10% ahead of Mr. “I don’t need no stinkin’ 9-11 commission” Giuliani. McCain is, shall we say, not in the galaxy at 6%.

This means as much as football writers picks for the Super Bowl winner in September, but McCain’s plummet and the squeeze at the top for the Dems are certainly worth following.

And then there’s Ralph. A noun and a verb, if he runs. In an interview with The Politico, Nader says that logistics, not potential candidates, would be the thing that would keep him out of the race in 2008. He still can’t find that tiny bit of difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. And he calls Hillary Clinton a “political coward.”

I have lots of issues with Hillary, and certainly she’s an extremely careful politician. But I think, really, that when you’re the guy without whom we could have skipped this 6 1/2 year (so far) nightmare where political incompetence has been combined with the use of the awesome power of the federal government to make sure that no millionaire or multi-national business has to worry about anything while people making minimum wage can’t put food on the table and the Supreme Court is moving us toward a forced-birth society, then you should – how do I say this politely – SHUT THE FUCK UP.

I don’t know that anyone takes him seriously anymore, and but for the fact that he’s good copy, I imagine no one in the press would pay any attention to him, either.

Maybe a bunch of us should take up a collection and buy him a used Corvair.