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The not-really town hall meeting

Free tonight? MoveOn.org is hosting a virtual town hall meeting on Iraq with the 2008 presidential candidates, and Dems across the country are holding house parties to watch it.

Thing is, it's not really a town hall in the sense that you'll be able to interact with all the candidates.

Gov. Bill Richardson's message, for example, was taped before he left for North Korea.

Oh, and you might have to do some driving to attend. You can find the sites of the parties by logging on to MoveOn's Web site. The Albuquerque party is full, so you're left with a trip to Cedar Crest, Placitas or Los Lunas. Enjoy the carbon emissions, loyal Dem.

Of course, you could always watch from home. Virtually, of course.

A personal pollster

Richardson's campaign has hired Paul Maslin, a longtime Democratic pollster who once worked for Howard Dean.

"Paul will be a great addition to my campaign and will serve as a senior adviser," Richardson said in a statement. "His over 25 years of political experience will help guide my campaign and our message to the American people."

Maslin has advised six presidential candidates, as well as a dozen U.S. senators, governors, mayors and members of Congress. In 2003-04, he was the pollster and one of the key strategists for Dean, who, we'll note, lost.

Axis of evil

On his way to North Korea, MSNBC reports, Richardson and his delegation watched this odd in-flight movie: "Behind Enemy Lines II, Axis of Evil." Why odd? Well, it's the tale of U.S. Navy SEALs who have to fight their way out of North Korea after being sent there to destroy a missile site.

Sounds too much like watching "The Shining" before checking into a big Colorado hotel in the offseason.

Wanted: one adult

At "The Daily Kos," a blogger named Rook said President Bush sent Richardson to North Korea because he needed the kind of adult who can stand up to an attempt at humiliation via propaganda. That was in reference to the tour Monday of the USS Pueblo, the warship North Korea captured in 1968. Richardson called the tour "unpleasant."

"The point was to rub Richardson's nose in the propaganda and vitriol being force-fed to the North Korean people," Rook wrote. "They wanted to humiliate him, and by proxy the U.S., by smiling defiantly on their pathetic souvenir of war. . . . This is what the U.S. must endure if we want to return the remains of our brave troops to their surviving families. And someone had to go endure it."

That's why Bush sent Richardson, Rook continues. "The White House needed an adult to stay calm, roll his eyes and let out a deep sigh, while North Korea threw its little tantrum and tried to act all tough. The White House needed an adult who would sit there and take it. . . .

"In other words, the White House needed a Democrat."

OK, OK, Rook, we get your point.

But here's another one: The Republicans have diplomats, too. Not only that, but they go by their real names. You might want to try it yourself.

Slow and steady

Political commentator Donna Brazile, who knows a thing or two about presidential elections, has some encouraging words for Richardson:

"After six years of unilateral, aggressive, bullheaded foreign policy that has succeeded only in making the United States reviled internationally, voters are eager to elect a true statesman - someone who can mend the fences so thoroughly destroyed by President Bush's pre-emptive wars and cowboy diplomacy. In this arena, Richardson has credentials unparalleled by any other presidential candidate of either party. . . .

"Richardson is far from a shoo-in, but there's a decent chance he could end up surprising a few donors who are so heavily invested in the so-called front-runners. Just as you wouldn't walk out after the first inning of a baseball game figuring you knew the final score, it would be wise to keep an eye on Richardson. He is behind, but it's only the beginning."

Green guvs lead the way

Columnist Ron Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times has kind words for Richardson and other Western guvs regarding global warming and energy efficiency. "Across the West," he writes, "governors from both parties are advancing the nation's most ambitious policies to promote clean energy, encourage conservation and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases."

Curiously enough, Brownstein notes, the West was built on exploiting everything that could be ripped out of the Earth:

"Since the arrival of the white settlers, the American West has been shaped by the discovery and extraction of natural resources, beginning in the 19th century with silver and gold, and then extending to timber, copper, uranium and fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal.

"For decades, the industries that grew around these resources mined state capitals as thoroughly as they did the riches beneath the earth. As recently as three decades ago, the Mountain West states erupted in what was known as the `sagebrush rebellion' - a loud and sustained clamor from the extraction industries and their political allies for the federal government to open millions of acres of public land for resource exploration and development."