This is excellent news. McBride is a far stronger candidate and generally a good guy. The rumors of a big buy by the state Republicans after the holiday are interesting. The last thing you want to do is improve someone’s name recognition when that is his biggest liability.

Perhaps the Florida Republicans are trying to pull a Gray Davis move. The problem with that is Simon didn’t win because Riordan had negative commercials killing him, Simon won because the Republican base in California decided to commit hari kari. Attacking McBride will probably backfire because the strongest argument he has going is he can win. Demonstrating that Jeb is afraid, is the best commercial McBride can have.

Even more interesting is if McBride wins in November. I can’t wait for the spending analysis by the Bush administration to compare pre-McBride and post-McBride. What could be even funnier is if the administration reneges on the off-shore drilling deal.