It appears that Sen. Judd Gregg will be named as President Obama's Commerce Secretary and, according to The New Hampshire Union Leader, a deal has been struck that would ensure his replacement would caucus with the Republicans in the Senate. I just could not imagine a scenario whereby Gregg would leave the seat and allow the balance of power to shift in the Senate. As for Governor Lynch, he will take some heat from his fellow Democrats for not picking a Democrat and, thus, getting the party to 60 votes in the Senate. But I think he believes (and in this I believe he is correct) that getting Gregg out of the way will make it much easier for the Democrats to win his seat in 2010. So, the death spiral for the GOP in New Hampshire continues unabated. I would like to think that former Governor John H. Sununu, who is now the Republican State Committee Chairman for New Hampshire, will be able to revive the party, but I have my doubts. New Hampshire was the last holdout from a different era, when New England was a reliably Republican region. Now the Granite State has joined it's neighbors in becoming a reliably Democratic state, part of a reliably Democratic region. This will probably last for decades.

A fixture on the New Hampshire political scene, former Speaker of the House Marshall Cobleigh, has passed away.

Robert J. Samuelson says the stimulus package provides too little bang for the buck.

That Alaska volcano continues to rumble, with signs that a hole has opened in it's glacier.