Predictable Headlines Dep't.: GOP Lacks Female Candidates

By GottaLaff

Predictable Headlines Dep't. aka Dep't. of Gee, Really?

The NRCC added 14 new candidates to its "Young Guns" program and promoted 15 of its Young Guns to "Contender" status.

However, the Boston Phoenix notes that of the 14 added, one is a woman; of the 15 promoted, one is a woman.

"There are now four women in the program, out of 64 candidates. That's an even lower percentage than the current female makeup of Republican House members -- which is below 10%."

One out of 64. 1/64. 0.015625.

Nope. No surprise there.

Where's Mitt? Fading....

By GottaLaff

Where's Willard, er, Mitt?

Former Massachusetts governor and likely 2012 presidential contender Mitt Romney (R) has not appeared publicly with the Republican candidate Scott Brown since late October, "when almost no one thought Brown had a chance of winning."

"Romney's absence from the campaign trail, several pollsters and political operatives said, is no comment on Brown. Rather, it's a reflection of Romney's diminished political standing in Massachusetts, where he held the governor's mansion for one term before leaving to seek the White House."

Where are they now? "West Wing" edition

By GottaLaff

I've seen a few of them here and there, but now we've got documentation:

The West Wing 1999-2006

1. Donna Moss Janel Moloney has yet to find a permanent home since her performance as slightly distraught oddball Donnatella Moss. She has however found time to turn up as distraught oddballs in episodes of House, 30 Rock and the US remake of Life On Mars.

2. Sam Seaborn Following an early exit from The West Wing, Rob Lowe starred in and was slated for two abortive drama series of his own creation. He eventually returned to politics and ran for president as Robert McCallister in family drama Brothers & Sisters, although this time, horror of horrors, as a Republican.

3. Abbey Bartlet Stockard Channing returned to work as a doctor as Lydia Barnes in the unsuccessful, though well-received, US comedy Out of Practice, about a marriage counsellor who feels inferior to his family of doctors. Somehow even a pun that contrived wasn't enough.

4. Leo MacGarry Actor John Spencer died of a heart attack during filming of the final series, aged 58. You can however take a glimpse at the young Leo as lawyer Tommy Mullaney in early 90s legal drama LA Law. Or you can just watch The West Wing again and again and again until someone has to stage an intervention

5. Jed Bartlet The greatest president America never had, Martin Sheen is due to play Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson in the forthcoming Bhopal: Prayer for Rain. On the subject of atrocities, you may recently have seen him on Channel 4's The Sunday Night Project, performing as a Village People parody of Jed Bartlet opposite a blacked-up Alan Carr.

6. Charlie Young After leaving his job as bodyman to the President, Dulé Hill turned up as sidekick Gus in hit US comedy Psych, about a detective who claims to have psychic powers. It turns out he doesn't. Psych! In America that works as a joke.

7. Josh Lyman Bradley Whitford reappeared with redder, thinner hair but the exact same personality as executive producer Danny Tripp on Aaron Sorkin's ill-fated third TV project, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. He's now filming sitcom Off Duty about the partnership between two police officers with very different personalities. How will they cope?

8. CJ Cregg You might have expected to see a lot more of impossibly brilliant Allison Janney. Oddly, though, Janney's most notable appearances since have been as oppressive mother Prudy Pingleton in Hairspray, oppressive stepmother Brenda MacGuff in Juno, and Peaches the voyeuristic starfish in Finding Nemo. Bring back CJ!

9. Toby Ziegler Last year, perpetually vexed and irritated Richard Schiff appeared briefly in an episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, in many ways The West Wing's obvious intellectual successor. You can also see him in the film Last Chance Harvey, with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, but it's harder to mock that without having seen it.

10. Bruno Gianelli Tragically, actor Ron Silver, who will be remembered for numerous outstanding performances, died on 16 March this year. Bruno really is no more.

And Lily Tomlin? Go here to find out. And what about Kathryn Joosten (Mrs. Landingham)? Well, that one I know. She's on Desperate Housewives as one of the neighbors, plus she's in ab out a zillion commercials.

Is that everyone? Who'd we miss? The daughters? You tell me in Comments, if you know.