At least Day 1 wasn't boring...

The obvious observation: This Emerson thing, and to a lesser extent the Fortier one, is insane. Here's a good news day at the start of the honeymoon, and we should all be talking about the smaller cabinet, the wealth of provincial experience, etc. Instead, Harper cuts the honeymoon short so he can show an electorate that just voted against politics-as-usual that he can do politics-as-usual.

The less obvious observation: I'm not going to sit around griping about the number of women in Cabinet. On this one, I'm with my conservative colleagues - merit should trump gender or any other demographic considerations. But where I do get uncomfortable is in Diane Ablonczy being bypassed in favour of Rona Ambrose.

Nothing against Ambrose, who seems sharp as a tack. But if they were short on spots for Alberta ministers, it's Ablonczy - smart, experienced, decent and a real soldier for her party over the years - who should be in. I hesitate to say this, because Ambrose may prove a great minister, but I can't shake the suspicion that youth and physical attractiveness worked in her favour here - especially considering the way she was blatantly paraded around as an appealing face for the party in the past year.

If that's the case, it's flat-out wrong. Male MPs don't get marketed as "hotties" and then handed jobs over equally or more qualified candidates; neither should female MPs.

I asked, you started to answer...

I'm a little too overloaded with wings, beer, chili, crab cakes and various other stuff consumed while unfavourably comparing the Super Bowl to the Grey Cup to do anything particularly clever with the leadership stuff sent my way yesterday.

On the straight, only moderately stale gossip front, word is that a few aspirants - Brison and Stronach in particular - were beating the drums with considerable enthusiasm at last week's caucus meeting. This is not a huge surprise. Slightly more surprising - or perhaps not, considering he was the out-of-town kid at his first day of school - is that Ignatieff was apparently much less enthusiastic.

A few other observations, starting with this: Much as I kinda like Cauchon, he's got a lot of work to do if he's serious about this. Even centre-left types who'd have to be his base seem either indifferent or unimpressed.

Second, virtually every Liberal I've been in touch with has expressed their utter distaste for Belinda...then proceded to acknowledge she's going to be a force to be reckoned with. To some extent, that's inevitable - as we saw during the Tory leadership, money can buy you love. But unless she has at least a few Liberals actually keen on her, I don't see this going far.

Third, everything I'm seeing tells me Dion is running, or at least very seriously thinking about it. That's good, since Liberals and non-Liberals alike have to recognize the guy as a valuable voice. But I have to say, having sat down for an editorial board meeting with him, that there are going to be major language problems unless his English improves substantially.

Anyway, thanks for the tips, analysis, etc...even on Super Bowl Sunday. Keep it coming.