HOW LONG CAN FRED THOMPSON WAIT? In the Wall Street Journal (free link) Christopher Cooper says not too long. I wonder if that’s really true, though — with campaigns moving at Internet speed, and individual donors assuming more importance, I suspect you can go from zero to sixty faster than in the past, and that lock-ins of support don’t mean as much.

WALTER MURPHY ON NO-FLY LIST?

My theory involves a disgruntled Beethoven fan at Homeland Security. . . .

(Link added later, as some weren’t getting it.)

UPDATE: Reader Joe Murphy emails:

Prof. Reynolds: I am also on the no fly list, even though I am a right-wing military contractor.. It comes with the territory of having an incredibly common last name. All it means is I have to check in personally and have my ID looked at; and that I am tabbed for “random” screening on a regular basis.

Even though I fly about 25 times a year, its a pretty small sacrifice compared to what our brothers and sisters overseas are going through!

Walter Murphy must be from the hysterical part of the Clan if he thinks this is directed at him personally. The airport agents and TSA folks manning the floor don’t have the slightest idea why someone is added to the list. And no one has any idea how to get off it!

That would seem to undercut Prof. Walter Murphy’s rather self-important claim that he’s being persecuted for his anti-Bush opinions. On the other hand, a dragnet that catches everyone named Murphy isn’t very impressive.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Progress on eliminating the “Road to Nowhere” in Tennessee and North Carolina, thanks to newly elected Democratic Rep. Heath Shuler:

Former Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C., strongly favored the road and secured $16 million in Congress to resume construction. That money in 2000 was the beginning of an environmental study that is still not complete.

What’s happened now is that Tennessee and North Carolina members of Congress have presented a proposal in a letter to the Interior Department, suggesting a final decision within 90 days. This final decision, according to the letter, would mean not finishing the road and using the $6 million left over from the environmental study for a down payment on the financial settlement with Swain County.

The united front among the congressional members from Tennessee and North Carolina is due in part to the fact that Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., defeated Taylor in November. Shuler grew up in Swain County a mile from what popularly is called the Road to Nowhere, and he won the election in part by strongly opposing the road and favoring the settlement.

“This letter asks for a reasonable settlement which will maintain the undisturbed wilderness of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and save the American taxpayers millions of dollars,” said Shuler, a former University of Tennessee and National Football League quarterback.

In Tennessee, Sen. Lamar Alexander, who grew up in Maryville near the mountains, also is a strong opponent of the road.

It’s never seemed like an especially good idea to me. And yes, this is more evidence of how piggishness on pork helped cost the GOP control of the House.