Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, Mideast Meltdown, And Losing An Important Satellite (Monday's Second Hour)

Hey guys. We're kicking it off this hour with repeat coverage of the disappearance of Jessie Davis and that's followed by a whole bunch of speculation from Kris Mohandie, forensic psychologist. Then we have Peter Bergen again for discussion about the Taliban graduation. After that we transition to some coverage of Fred Thompson and Anderson says, "when it comes to the actor and former Senator, we haven't seen this kind of buildup since the Olson twins turned 18 -- badumpa, thank you. Be here all week. Try the veal." Ha! Such a dork. Anyway, a Candy Crowley piece breaks down the Thompson coverage. Basically, this guy is nothing special and if you ask me, if he actually declares, he's going to fizzle out soon after. Sometimes the unknown looks more appealing than the known. We learn that he didn't do much as a Senator and his abortion position is kind of wibbly wobbly. Presidential!

Next up we have an interview John Roberts did with Mitt Romney. For a good part of the piece they're in a car and I am very pleased to see seatbelts. Nobody's making that mistake after Corzine, huh? So okay, Romney has no foreign policy experience, but he does have lots and lots of money. And according to John he also has "movie star looks." Um, okay. We'll go with that. They also talk a bit about how Romney has to be "on" all the time because people are always watching...and possibly recording. The republicans learned a lot from "macaca" is what he's saying. Ah, George Allen, you're...not missed at all. After this interview we're joined by Mike Murphy for discussion. Mike thinks Romney is doing so well right now because he dumped so much money into advertising. Also, he thinks the religion thing is kind of going to be a problem for him in cycles. When Anderson asks about the flip flopping, Mike says that all politicians flip flop, "Otherwise you could train a chimp to be president if you wanted to lock in some of these opinions and never have them rethink them. George W. -- excuse me, George Herbert Walker Bush, Ronald Reagan both evolved," he says. Bwah! As soon as he said chimp I was thinking of Dubya and then he has to correct himself because apparently Bush hasn't evolved. Too funny.

Moving on now to Anderson noting that he should have mentioned before that Canadians are fighting in Afghanistan too. Man, you do not want to make the Canadians angry. (I love my Canadian readers!) After that we're joined by Ambassador Dennis Ross to talk about the mideast going to hell in a handbasket. Again. Dennis tells us the two state solution is out the window now that Hamas and Fatah have split the West Bank and Gaza. Anderson wonders what we do now, pointing out that Fatah has always had a corruption problem. Dennis thinks we should give money to the grassroots in order to deliver services. The talk then soon turns to Israel and Dennis says that the real issue is Palestinian identity. Are they a national or religious movement? He thinks Israel should help Fatah.

Our last piece of the night is from John Zarella and he's keeping NOAA honest. We learn that there's a satellite called QuikSCAT that has been a tremendous help in hurricane prediction and warning. But the QuikSCAT is only designed to last three years and right now it's in its eighth. Hmm. Bill Proenza, director of the National Hurricane Center, has decided to go public with this potential crisis and his bosses are none too happy. Basically, NOAA wants everybody to chill out. But a study published by NOAA itself seems to find QuikSCAT pretty important. Senator Bill Nelson thinks NOAA just doesn't want to ask for the money a new satellite will cost. Since when are people afraid to ask for money from the government? Something fishy there. And...that'll do it.