How much stock should we put in reporters’ analysis of the outcome of the Iowa presidential caucuses?

America’s most lovable political historian Lee Annis, author of “Howard Baker: Conciliator in an Age of Crisis,” smartly reminds of us what NBC News reporter Tom Pettit said after Ronald Reagan lost Iowa in 1980:

“I would like to suggest that Ronald Reagan is politically dead.”

Of course, that suggestion proved false.  And it should make us eternally wary of what “experts” suggest even today.

Loyal and equally extreme reader Peter Roff alerts us to this tragic item in DCRTV.com:

Ledo Name Off TOP Newsroom - 12/28 - DCRTV hears that Ledo Pizza’s naming rights deal for all-newser WTOP’s “Glass-Enclosed Nerve Center” comes to an end at the end of the year. A Bonneville source tells DCRTV that the newsroom will no longer have a sponsor. Instead, Annapolis-based Ledo will be an hourly sponsor of WTOP’s sports reports.

We had been following WTOP’s lead by establishing our own Ledo Pizza-encrusted glass-enclosed nerve center at Extreme Mortman’s world headquarters. So we’ll likewise — sniff sniff, sob sob — have to drop our titling rights as well.
But don’t worry. There’s a workable solution. DCRTV’s 2007 In/Out list suggests WTOP replace Ledo Pizza with California Pizza Kitchen. We love that idea. So for 2008, please welcome the California Pizza Kitchen Glass Enclosed Nerve Center of Extreme Mortman.

And we retain our promise: Your blog will delivered in 20 minutes or it’s free.

We noted in amazement recently Ann Coulter’s use of “Seinfeld” to make a debating point.  She told Donnie Deutsch:

“In fact, there was an entire ‘Seinfeld’ episode about Elaine and her boyfriend dating because they wanted to be a mixed-race couple, so you’re lying.”

Love the use of “in fact” and “so you’re lying.”  Game, set, match — Coulter!  Turns out, Coulter’s not alone on the right in citing “Seinfeld” to drive home an argument.

From today’s Washington Post story on Mike Huckabee skirmishing with Mitt Romney:

Later in the afternoon, Huckabee’s campaign compared Romney to “Seinfeld” character George Costanza — who they quoted as saying, “Just remember, it’s not a lie if you believe it” — and said Romney “parsed his words — like former president Bill Clinton.”

Good lord.  Or, as Huckabee himself might put it: Christ!  God help us if they next cite “Seinfeld’s” famous “Contest” episode, which would violate the Talmud’s admonition against hotza’at zera levatalah — the wasteful emission of seed.

Or maybe we’ll just wait for Jerry Seinfeld’s sequel — The (Hucka)Bee Movie.

A loyal Extreme Mortman reader — and fellow Redskins fan — sends the below photo along with this note:

Here’s a hot tip: the Redskins picked up an All-Pro lineman for their playoff run, and from the unlikeliest of places — the U.S. Senate.

Looks like a photo from training camp.  Kennedy really can navigate those cones.

Earlier this week, the New York Times’ John Harwood exclusively observed this to Extreme Mortman …

The Washington Redskins are the Mike Huckabee of the NFL.

Judging by the results of both the latest Iowa polls and today’s Dallas Cowboys game, however, it looks like Huckabee and the ‘Skins now are headed in opposite directions.

So rather than cite what Mike Huckabee had to say today on “Meet the Press” or on the campaign trail, it’s a better use of our time to quote Washington’s newest rising star, Redskins quarterback Todd Collins.

Here he is in USA Today:

Todd Collins earned a degree in political science from the University of Michigan, and is intrigued by the presidential political process this time of the year.

“I know it’s still early,” the Washington Redskins quarterback says, “but the Iowa caucuses are in just a few days, right? And then New Hampshire?”

Right.

“So we’ll just have to see what shakes out. It’s going to be real interesting, though. I’m just kind of enjoying it as a spectator right now.”

Being that Collins loves almost all things Massachusetts, what does he think about the chances of his state’s former governor, Republican Mitt Romney?

“Well, he did OK in Massachusetts, but I’m still waiting to see what happens in the caucuses,” Collins says.

On the Democratic side, Collins agrees with the idea that a woman (Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton) or a black man (Sen. Barack Obama) might win the nomination for president and have a credible shot at the White House is a welcome chance to watch history.

Clinton’s chances? “I guess she’s still leading in the national polls, but it’s so early,” he says. “Could she do it? Sure.”

Could Obama do it? “I don’t see why not. It seems like he has a lot of growing support out there right now.”

That works for us.  With Collins leading the Redskins into the playoffs, we’ll take anything he says about the presidential campaign as gospel.  He certainly bests the last Redskin quarterback who ventured into politics, Heath Shuler.  And as burgundy-and-gold fervor sweeps the nation, perhaps Hillary Clinton might even consider changing her name to Hillary Clinton Portis.

We interrupt Washington Redskins mania to salute our other passion, the Washington Capitals, and in particular Alex Ovechkin’s four goals in yesterday’s victory.

Here’s how Ovechkin so elegantly put it in today’s Post:

“Today, I shoot everything and everything go in,” Ovechkin said, flashing his gap-toothed smile. “Right now I don’t think about 60 goals [because] we win. It was fun game, I think, for fans to watch.”

Asked about his right leg, which was sliced by an opponent’s skate blade on Thursday in Pittsburgh, “It was some pain, but it’s okay,” he said.

To which we can only respond simply: Da!

Worshippers at the altar of bipartisanship and mockers of David Broder alike can rejoice together — Amen! Hallelujah! There truly is common ground.

This headline in the Sunday Washington Post over a David Broder article should please both worthy camps:  “Bipartisan Group Eyes Independent Bid; First, Main Candidates Urged To Plan ‘Unity’ Government.”

We love it when life imitates ridicule.

Earlier this week a colleague told me the government was planning to subsidize the purchase of television sets. I scoffed, thinking that’s something the government surely would never do, and anyway, why not subsidize books?

Turns out my colleague was right, as evidenced by this government-issue $40 coupon to purchase digital TV.

Think that’s the extent of the government bailing out dinosaur media?  Think again.

Check out Wall Street Journal editor Paul Steiger’s farewell column on the media in the weekend WSJ (click here, password required).
A fascinating — and stunning — tidbit:

… the vast array of investigative reporting and foreign correspondence assembled at American newspapers over the past several decades is being cut back at all but a few publications, as papers succumb to the pressure to cut costs.

Many journalists and academics see in these cutbacks a threat to the democratic ideal of a well-informed public. Some urge turning to philanthropy or an expansion of public television as a way to fill the gap. Others have begun to argue for a government subsidy for newspapers — an unlikely prospect for now.

“Unlikely” aside, the fact that a government subsidy of newspapers is being considered at all is quite alarming, on two fronts: 1)  Must the government solve everything?  Homer Simpson put it best, in another context: “Donuts, is there anything they can’t do?”  Likewise: government, is there anything it can’t subsidize?  And (2)  If a form of media is dying, let it fail on its own accord.  It’s called the free market.  Heck, one day I’m sure blogging will decline in popularity.  Let’s hope that when that happens, no one calls for a government subsidy of blogging.  Although truth be told, if the feds will be handing out money to blog, you better believe I’ll be first in line.  But really hating it.

Interesting seeing John Edwards use King George as a foil:

In a speech Friday, Edwards launched a fresh effort to convince Iowans that he would be an aggressive advocate, comparing his fight for the middle class to the Revolutionary War.

“When America was founded, there were people who wanted to negotiate with King George. Imagine if we had followed that path,” Edwards said.

Why?  Because it wasn’t that long ago — 2004 actually — that King George was cited by Ralph Nader — against John Edwards:

Dear Senator Edwards:

When are you going to stand up and defend our civil justice system from the vicious, corporatist, insurance industry battering by their mouth pieces, George W. Bush, Bill Frist et al., day after day? Hundreds of thousands of innocent Americans are injured, made sick or lose their lives by corporate recklessness, deception and cover-up every year. Why can’t John Edwards and John Kerry stand up for these defenseless people against the wrongdoers, their lobbies and their insurance industry profiteers?

The truth must be told. The lies must be exposed. The doors to our courts must be kept open. Our judges and juries must not have their hands tied. People should have their full day in court. This is the American way, since our forebearers fought King George III in 1776, and our founders gave us our constitutional right to trial by jury.

Wonder what else John Edwards is picking up from Ralph Nader’s playbook.