The late Jim Mattox, a colorful politician even by Texas standards …

Here’s some noteworthy praise of Barack Obama’s emerging economic team — coming from the right.

Appearing on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” this morning, free-market champion Larry Kudlow had these kind words to say about Barack Obama’s economic advisers:

KUDLOW: I want to complement Senator Obama’s appointees — Timothy Geithner, Lawrence Summers, they are terrific free traders.

HOST: Most of these men have experience working with Robert Rubin, the former Treasury Secretary from the Clinton Administration.  Is this the change that Senator Obama talked about on the campaign trail or is this going back to the future?

KUDLOW: President-elect Obama is that change, and I support him as much as I can…. Of every one you are talking about, they are all good economists.  I do not agree with everything they say but they are basically free market people.  My particular disagreement is, I would like to see more tax cuts and less government spending at the margin.  I am worried from some of the reports coming out that we are going to spend $700 billion to promote economic prosperity.  I think that is troublesome.  That will not do the job that they want it to do.

A test of U.S. elected officials (via Instapundit):

Asked about the electoral college, 20 percent of elected officials incorrectly said it was established to “supervise the first televised presidential debates.”

We like Jim Zorn’s reaction to the Redskins beating the Seahawks:

“Now I can reflect back and I got a win over Mike Holmgren. That’s something. That’s not just split pea soup.”

No better way to mix Andy Warhol with Jason Campbell…

Poor Rick Sanchez.

From Howard Kurtz profile of Dana Perino:

On Thursday, she complained to CNN after anchor Rick Sanchez showed video of foreign leaders shaking hands with each other but not with Bush. “He seems like the most unpopular kid in high school that nobody liked, the one with the cooties,” Sanchez said. Perino says the president had shaken hands with the leaders earlier. CNN says Sanchez’s show will air a clarification today.

In the new Weekly Standard, Vic Matus quotes Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia:

“My problem with wine is I always taste apples.”

If that’s anything like what you see in the below photo, it sounds like one lousy judicial sobriety test.

If Hillary Clinton becomes America’s top diplomat, we’ll have to ask, do Senators make good Secretaries of State?  We might consider Edmund Muskie — the last Senator who became Secretary of State (for Jimmy Carter).

Here’s Ed Muskie, when he ran for president in 1972, nearly crying in New Hampshire.

And here’s Hillary Clinton, when she ran for president in 2008, nearly crying in New Hampshire.

You may not like Jack Bauer in a post-torture, post-Gitmo world, but you gotta at least give the makers of “24″ credit for targeting a new villain, the United Nations.

Here’s one preview of tonight’s new “24″ season premiere:

Jack isn’t about to let the bureaucrats tell him what to do. But in spite of his best efforts to lie low, Jack’s save-the-world instincts kick in when an African warlord tries to kidnap the school’s pupils and make them fight in his army. Of course, the local United Nations representative is a sniveling coward and the U.S. embassy official Jack has to deal with is such a vile weasel that he might as well be twirling a handlebar mustache.

The UN having a “sniveling coward”?  Sounds like “24″ is becoming even more realistic with every season.

David Brooks in the New York Times:

If a foreign enemy attacks the United States during the Harvard-Yale game any time over the next four years, we’re screwed.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) during this week’s hearing on the auto industry:

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a few questions. I hope you can make your answers short, because I`m sure your bladder feels about like mine does right now.”

And Jon Tester’s a big guy …