REP. RALPH HALL (D-TX) has switched to the Republicans. Is this evidence of how the wind is blowing, too?

UPDATE: Reader James Somers emails:

You should have seen CNN Headline News last night when they reported this story. As the reporter was talking about Hall’s switch to the GOP, the CNN headline at the bottom of the tv screen read “A Traitor to His Party.” I’m not joking. Gee, do you think CNN ran that same headline when they were reporting on the decision of Jim Jeffords, Man of noble Yankee rectitude, to leave the GOP back in 2001? Somehow, I doubt it.

I missed that, but I can’t say it comes as a complete shock. Meanwhile, reader Bill Burton notes that Hall’s defection is opportunistic. I think that’s right — though he does say that he’s turned off by all the Democratic presidential candidates — but that’s not my point. Just as with the Iraqi sheiks mentioned below, this is not just third-party analysis, but someone with a strong personal stake in getting things right who’s decided which way the wind is blowing. He could be wrong, of course (Jeffords was!) But for people who wonder about whether there’s a realignment going on, it’s a useful data point.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Bryan Preston thinks that this switch is a big deal. And a couple of readers think that the “traitor to his party” line was a quote, though they don’t say from whom, and when I searched ralph+hall+traitor on Google news I couldn’t find anyone saying that. At any rate, putting that sort of thing in a crawl, even if it’s a quote, seems a bit biased. Reader T.C. Stentz emails:

I have noticed that CNN, MSNBC, etc., have been using their news tickers as another subtle platform for their biases. This has probably been going on for a long time, but something I have only recently paid attention to. A couple of weeks ago, MSNBC ran one that said something to the effect of “Bring Them Home – Poll shows 40% of Americans want troops out of Iraq.” In an alternate universe, the ticker would have read, “Stay The Course – Poll says 60% of Americans want troops in Iraq.”

Or something like that.