Last week, Alex took note of the rumors that MSNBC's Chris Matthews is considering a run for Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter's seat. Now, word has come from FiveThirtyEight.com (via Politico’s Michael Calderone) that Matthews has already met with potential campaign staff.

Matthews has denied the report, saying in a statement, "It is absolutely not true."

Of course, since Matthews' contract with MSNBC is up in June 2009, he can stick to that denial for now and still run later if he chooses. That’s probably his best strategy, since he’s already catching flak for openly weighing a campaign while still an employed member of the commentariat. In a post on his blog, Phil Singer, who served as a spokesman for Hillary Clinton during her run for the presidency, wrote:

Chris Matthews has every right to run for the Senate but he shouldn’t risk NBC’s credibility or undermine the faith his viewers place in him. To avoid the appearance of conflict, Chris should do the right thing and remove himself from the air until he has made a decision. If he won’t do it, NBC should suspend him.

Clinton's campaign, it almost goes without saying, wasn't too pleased with Matthews' work during the primaries.

Meanwhile, if Matthews wants to tamp down the speculation, he sure has a funny way of showing it. On Monday, he hosted "Hardball" in front of the Philadelphia skyline.

Whether they know it or not, the staff at the Media Research Center -- a conservative press watchdog -- seems to have hit upon an ingenious new strategy: make a big deal about getting involved in fights in which your enemy is nonexistent. You can't possibly lose!

Monday, the MRC announced the formation of the Free Speech Alliance, a group dedicated to fighting against the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, an old FCC regulation that mandated equal time for opposing viewpoints in opinion programming. The move was announced in a post on MRC's blog, Newsbusters, that was titled "The Free Speech Alliance Declares War on the 'Censorship Doctrine.'"

The MRC is also asking people to sign a petition against revival of the regulation. "In 1987, President Ronald Reagan rescinded the Fairness Doctrine and since then, talk radio has flourished. Conservatives dominate it, and liberals can't stand it. By re-instating the Fairness Doctrine, liberals would effectively silence the conservative leaders of the day ... and would essentially take control of all forms of media," the group says in an introduction on the Web page that hosts the petition. On the same page, the MRC warns, "In recent months, the groundswell for reinstatement is intensifying. In fact, a growing number of liberal leaders in Washington, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, have openly stated their intent to do so."

In fact, as I wrote in a post last month -- and in an article dating back to an earlier explosion of these fears in April of 2007 -- all the hysteria about the Fairness Doctrine's supposedly imminent return is unwarranted. Democrats have little or no interest in bringing it back. President-elect Barack Obama opposes the idea, and in 2007, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's spokesman, Jim Manley, told me, "I'm not aware that there's any kind of debate about the Fairness Doctrine. To be honest, I barely even know what it is ... [Sen. Reid] is not contemplating anything like that. It truly is not on his radar screen."

According to the MRC, Fairness Alliance member organizations include Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, Concerned Women for America and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

On Tuesday, the last potentially pivotal election of 2008 will happen in Georgia. Both Republicans and Democrats have been devoting quite a bit of effort to the race, a runoff between incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Martin. Visitors have included Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John McCain and, today, Ludacris and Sarah Palin. (Campaigning with Palin was the woman who beat her out for Miss Alaska in 1984 -- she's now a Georgia resident.)

The president-elect has been conspicuously absent. The smart money says that Chambliss is a slight favorite, so the likely explanation is that Barack Obama doesn't want to risk his political capital on a losing candidate.

According to the latest Public Policy Poll, Chambliss leads challenger Jim Martin with 53 percent to Martin's 46. While special elections are notoriously unpredictable and Obama volunteers and organizers have headed to Georgia to help out, there’s little reason to guess that Martin will pull off an upset. At FiveThirtyEight.com, Sean Quinn notes that as of Monday morning, 22.5 percent of early voters in the special election were African-American, compared to 34.5 percent in the general election. As you might imagine, black turnout works in Martin's favor; this decrease helps Chambliss.

Hillary Clinton may have been formally introduced as President-elect Barack Obama's choice to be the next secretary of state on Monday, but she's still in no rush to leave her current job. Philippe Reines, a Clinton spokesman, told Politico's Ben Smith,"Senator Clinton intends to remain in office through confirmation."

At the same time, Smith notes, New York Gov. David Paterson -- who will be responsible for appointing Clinton's successor if and when she does resign from the Senate -- isn't giving any hints as to who might be his state's next senator. In a statement, Paterson said, “In order to appoint the best possible candidate to replace Senator Clinton, I am consulting with a wide variety of individuals from all across New York State. I expect to announce Senator Clinton’s replacement when the position becomes officially vacant.” (You can see a list of possibilities put together by Salon's Gabriel Winant here.)

There is still a question as to whether Clinton's appointment would even be constitutional. This is due to a provision of the Constitution that reads, "No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time." The salary of the secretary of state was increased during Clinton's time in the Senate, so that clause comes into play. This situation has come up before, however, and in those cases the constitutional issue was avoided by simply returning the salary in question to its previous level.

President-elect Barack Obama said some interesting things about Iraq during his press conference on Monday.

First, when discussing his decision to have Robert Gates stay on as secretary of Defense, Obama said, "I will be giving Secretary Gates and our military a new mission as soon as I take office: responsibly ending the war in Iraq through a successful transition to Iraqi control. We will also ensure that we have the strategy -- and resources -- to succeed against al Qaeda and the Taliban. As Bob said not too long ago, Afghanistan is where the war on terror began, and it is where it must end."

Responding to questions from the press later on, however, Obama seemed to walk that back a little bit. "We are now on a glide path to reduc[ing] our forces in Iraq," he said. The president-elect also said he thinks his 16-month time frame for withdrawal is still the right way to proceed, though he'll listen to military commanders' advice about that.

Saying that "the national security challenges we face are just as grave -- and just as urgent -- as our economic crisis," President-elect Barack Obama announced the top members of his national security team at a press conference on Monday morning.

"[I]n the 21st century, our destiny is shared with the world’s. From our markets to our security; from our public health to our climate -- we must act with the understanding that, now more than ever, we have a stake in what happens across the globe," Obama said, continuing:

[T]he time has come for a new beginning -- a new dawn of American leadership to overcome the challenges of the 21st century, and to seize the opportunities embedded in those challenges. We will strengthen our capacity to defeat our enemies and support our friends. We will renew old alliances and forge new and enduring partnerships. We will show the world once more that America is relentless in defense of our people, steady in advancing our interests, and committed to the ideals that shine as a beacon to the world: democracy and justice; opportunity and unyielding hope – because American values are America’s greatest export to the world.

To succeed, we must pursue a new strategy that skillfully uses, balances, and integrates all elements of American power: our military and diplomacy; our intelligence and law enforcement; our economy and the power of our moral example. The team that we have assembled here today is uniquely suited to do just that.

Despite these pronouncements about the future, the press conference provided reminders that -- despite his frequent press conferences and the unusual pace of the roll-out of his administration -- Obama is not the president yet. Asked during a question-and-answer session with the press about the terror attacks in Mumbai, the president-elect offered his condolences, but said, "This is one of those times where I have to reiterate -- there is one president at a time. We're going to be engaged in some very delicate diplomacy in the next several days and weeks, so I think it would be inappropriate for me to comment."

There were no surprises in the announcements Obama made during the press conference; all of the nominations he announced, from Hillary Clinton at State to Susan Rice at the U.N., had been leaked to the press beforehand. But there was a slight surprise in that all of the people on stage Monday took the podium to speak briefly, something that had not happened during the press conferences that featured the economic team.

With Clinton on stage, as well as Bush Defense Secretary Robert Gates, there was bound to be a question about the much-discussed "team of rivals" concept and whether it would really work in practice. Obama dismissed the idea that there would be tension, saying the people on stage "would not have agreed to join my administration, and I would not have asked them to be part of this administration, unless we shared a core vision... I assembled this team because I am a strong believer in strong personalities and strong opinions. I think that's how the best decisions are made. One of the dangers in the White House, based on my reading of history, is that you get wrapped up in groupthink."

Obama also specifically addressed Clinton's presence, saying, "This is fun for the press to try to stir up whatever quotes were generated in the course of the campaign -- no, I understand -- and you’re having fun, and there’s nothing wrong with that," and adding that he and Clinton share a basic vision about the country's security.

As the press conference in which President-elect Barack Obama officially named Hillary Clinton as his nominee to be secretary of state was going on, the last Democratic president put out a statement of his own. Through the press office of his foundation, former President Bill Clinton congratulated his wife and briefly praised Obama for making the decision.

The full statement:

As an American, I am thankful that President-elect Barack Obama has asked Hillary to be Secretary of State and that she has accepted. As her husband, I am deeply proud.

She is the right person for the job of helping to restore America's image abroad, end the war in Iraq, advance peace and increase our security, by building a future for our children with more partners and fewer adversaries, one of shared responsibilities and opportunities.

She has already earned the respect of foreign leaders and diplomats through her work to promote human rights and the empowerment of women through access to education, healthcare and economic opportunity. And Americans know, from her leadership in the Senate on national security, that she will always put the security, values and the interests of our people first.

In her service to the people of New York and our nation, Hillary has demonstrated the knowledge, passion, resilience, and capacity to learn that our country needs at this critical time. She loves being a Senator from New York, but as she has in all the thirty-seven years I've known her, she answered the call to serve. I commend President-Elect Obama for asking her to be a part of a great national security team. America will be well-served.

At 10:40 a.m. EST, President-elect Barack Obama will hold a press conference to officially announce the members of his national security team -- and resume his control of the news cycle, which Thanksgiving had interrupted.

At this point, it seems, none of the announcements made today will be a surprise: Obama will introduce Eric Holder as his nominee for attorney general, James Jones as his choice for national security advisor, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano will get the nod for Homeland Security and Robert Gates will get to stay at Defense. Oh, and -- after many days of very public speculation and deliberation -- Hillary Clinton will be nominated to become secretary of state.

Well, we started the day with a little bit of turkey pardoning humor -- let's end it the same way. Here's a funny video from the Onion News Network, entitled "In Thanksgiving Tradition, Bush Pardons Scooter Libby In Giant Turkey Costume."

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

On Monday, South Carolina GOP chairman Katon Dawson threw his hat in the ring for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. Leaving aside the question of his qualifications, Dawson embodies -- geographically, demographically, and metaphorically -- the box in which his party now finds itself.

I'm not just talking about the fact that Dawson is a white Southerner. Certainly the GOP needs to rebuild its strength in other regions of the country, and would be better served looking to the North or the West. Nor am I simply saying Dawson should be disqualified over the little matter of his country club. Though yes, perhaps in 2008, the year in which America elected a black man president, any party that wishes to burnish its image with the booming non-white sector of the national electorate, should think twice before selecting as its head a man who belonged to a segregated institution as recently as September. For 12 years, Dawson was a member of the Forest Lake Club, which apparently has an exclusionary admissions policy, quitting only two months ago as he prepared for his RNC bid.

What I'm saying is that Katon Dawson is an absolute poster child for the Republican party's long-term demographic ills. He exemplifies two trends in white Southern Republicanism that correspond precisely with a shrinking national political power base.

»Continued