David Broder Mistakes January 1 for April 1, Promotes Janet Napolitano for Higher Office

I can't figure out when exactly David Broder decided to try his hand at comedy, but he surely does have a gift. Today the "dean" of the Washington press corps comes up with a howler, a satirical tour de farce as he authors the puffiest of puff pieces extolling the calm, mannered leadership of Janet Napolitano. Seriously. I'm thinking Broder starting drinking heavily very early on New Year's Eve.

The Obama Cabinet is filled with talents, but many of the stars are of an age or temperament unlikely to turn them into successor candidates. Napolitano will face many substantive tests -- not just in dealing with terrorism but in playing an important role in immigration reform -- before she is a candidate for anything. But her potential is almost unlimited.

Broder may be even more out of touch with reality than the man who for some strange reason employs Napolitano.

Time To Call It a Career, Dave

David Broder has had a long, distinguished career, but for the sake of his own credibility, he needs to pack it in.

Last week, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg admitted he had no shot at ever being president and Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel polls at numbers Ron Paul laughs at.

So naturally, Broder sees a dream ticket here.

Bloomberg And Hagel For 2008?

Chuck Hagel, the senator from Nebraska, describes himself as a "tidal" politician, one who believes that larger forces in society shape careers more than the ambitions of individuals. "The only mistakes I've made," he told me last week, "were when I tried to go against the tide."

Today, that tide may be carrying him away from his Republican Party and toward a third-party or independent ticket with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- a development that could reshape the dynamics of the 2008 presidential race.

Next month, Hagel will make a threshold decision -- whether to run for a third term in the Senate. He gave me no definitive answer, but my guess is that he will say that 12 years of battling the institutional lethargy of Capitol Hill will be enough. Certainly he is under no illusions about how much he can achieve as one of 100 lawmakers.

On the contrary, while Washington is gridlocked in partisan battle between two equally spent parties, the country is moving rapidly, he thinks, to the conclusion that neither Republicans nor Democrats have the answers to the problems people see.

The war in Iraq is the prime example, a war on which Hagel was perhaps the first prominent Republican to break with the president. Credit problems that have shaken the mortgage markets and fed the decline in housing add to the sense of anxiety. And the abject failure of Washington to deal with the issue of illegal immigration is fueling further frustration.

Yes, but is Chuck Hagel the answer to any of this?

Please.

James Joyner also get a chuckle out of this absurdity.