STATE OF THE UNION TONIGHT

The big news is that tonight is George W. Bush's big State of the Union speech, where he has to face the Democratic Congress--- and the music--- on Iraq.

Also I notice the new political website The Politico is up and running. Check it out, it has plenty of good stuff, including lots of news about this latest rush of Democratic exploratory committee announcements-- Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bill Richardson etc.

BIG FLOOR-CROSSING NEWS

Blogging Tory Stephen Taylor is reporting that Mississauga-area MP Wajid Khan is going to cross the floor tomorrow.

This comes on the heels of the big cabinet shuffle that happened today. Taylor is reporting that Khan will sit as a back-bench MP and will not take on any cabinet or parliamentary-secretary roles. We'll see if it does happen.

DETAILS OF THE SHUFFLE

Here are the details of the big cabinet shuffle with John Baird taking over the environment file from the embattled Rona Ambrose.

Ambrose gets Intergovernmental Affairs instead. Vic Toews moves to the Treasury Board to take over from Baird and there are a few other changes as well. Word is Stephen Harper chose Baird for environment because he has a reputation for getting things done. Okay, then.

They also added five new cabinet ministers including Gerry Ritz, Jason Kenney, and Helena Guergis.

This is widely billed to be a pre-election shuffle and all I will say about this is that my sources have it that the election will be this spring. All I will say once again is that I am fed up with elections, and so are you. This government would be much better off allowing the opposition to force a spring vote and let them take the heat for it, because the people of Canada are super-tired of elections and want to see Parliament get to work. Or in this case, keep working.

CABINET SHUFFLE SPECULATION ------- OR RONA AMBROSE SPECULATION, WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT

It's been a while but I'm back---- here, anyway. Of course over at the other blog I never left but that's another matter.

Rumors keep flying about a cabinet shuffle and I thought I'd post this item I found on the 'Net.

If they are going to have a shuffle then gosh darnet, get it over with already. All I hear in the press is how Rona Ambrose is getting dumped from Environment, and Rona this and Rona that, and what an awful job she is doing. And they keep on saying om the press that the Harper government needs to keep her around the cabinet table because they don't have enough women at the cabinet table, and dumping her will make them look like they're against the advancement of women and all that. And I'm fed up hearing about it, and I'm sure Rona is fed up, too.

It just makes this government look bad, with these rumors about Rona flying all the time. They might as well just get the cabinet shuffle over with already and spare Rona any more agony.

In other news I noticed Rona was number 13 in Frank Magazine's "Hotties on the Hill". Who was number one? Why who else: Krista Erickson of CBC News! I guess nobody in government was hot enough.

I miss politics already.