This is a nice little summary of the pride Republicans feel in their current leader, referring to speeches made by major Republican figures at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference

FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY: Mentions of Bush: 0. Mentions of Ronald Reagan: 2.

FORMER GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Mentions of Bush: 1. Mentions of Reagan: 0. In the sole reference, Huckabee said, “I supported the Bush tax cuts in 2001. I still support them today.”

SEN. SAM BROWNBACK: Mentions of Bush: 1. Mentions of Reagan: 2. The only reference Brownback made to Bush was when he said, “On Social Security — and President Bush, God bless him, started this debate and discussion [about] personal Social Security accounts.”

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER: Mentions of Bush: 0. Mentions of Reagan: 5.

RUDY GIULIANI: Mentions of Bush: 4. Mentions of Reagan: 15. One of Guiliani’s few references to Bush’s record was the following statement: “You’re going to succeed at some things, fail at others.”

Me, in the Star Tribune

Snow wasn’t keeping Paul Harris home (he lives in Hampshire in England), but he was on the leading edge of a blizzard of online readers who staunchly defended former Vice President Al Gore after a Katherine Kersten column Monday took a less-than-admiring view of his campaign on global warming. Harris, a software tester, reads StarTribune.com to stay in touch with Minnesota after living here for seven years.

“I was disappointed to read the following in Ms. Kersten’s most recent column about Al Gore: ‘Since Gore invented the Internet as a U.S. senator, he’s gone from triumph to triumph.’ Mr. Gore didn’t invent the Internet (of course), but neither did he claim to have done so. Specifically, he claimed to have taken a lead on legislation supporting the creation of the Internet, which is true,” Harris wrote. “I did wonder whether it was an attempt at humor, but given that the rest of the piece lacked any recognizable comedy, I eliminated that possibility.”

Kersten’s editor, Doug Tice, responded: “Gore said ‘I took the initiative in creating the Internet’ and this has produced a long-running story/legend/controversy about his claiming to have ‘invented the Internet,’ one he has himself found humor in. My view: When a claim or legend about a politician has entered the public domain in this way, it is fair game in a jocular column such as Katherine’s today.”

Jocular – you use that word, but judging by the quality of the column, I do not think it means what you think it means.