Never for a moment have I doubted that politics was as rough-and-tumble as anything I see on the sporting fields. Still, for all the name-calling and smear tactics of presidential campaigns present and past, never have I witnessed such a low blow as the one inflicted on Hillary Clinton last night. And this one apparently didn't come from the Obama camp, but from anonymous Democrats, who compared the New York senator to Tonya Harding. According to ABC's Jake Tapper, they believe she is pursuing "the Tonya Harding option"--kneecapping your rival so that he can't win. Maureen Dowd took the notion a step further in today's New York Times, suggesting that Clinton knows she can't win the nomination and her only hope for the presidency she so desperately covets is to make Obama unelectable against McCain--so that she can reemerge as the party's savior in four years.

Calling Sen. Clinton "a monster" is one thing, but giving a name and face--especially that name and that face--to the monster is far worse. I don't know Sen. Clinton, but I sure do know Tonya whose career I covered extensively. And she was a true guttersnipe, a compulsive liar and cheat. The kneecapping of Tonya's rival, Nancy Kerrigan, just before the 1994 U.S. Nationals in Detroit was carried out by Tonya's proxies, a band of stooges led by her former husband. With Kerrigan sidelined by a low blow from a baseball bat, Harding went on to win the national title and her more important goal--a spot on the U.S. Olympic team for Lillehammer.

Those lacking an intimate knowledge of the sport often wondered why such desperate measures were necessary, when finishing second would have enabled Harding to make the Olympic team anyway. But figure skating can be like horse racing. When a horse knows it is running against another horse that is out of its class, it can't compete as well. Had Kerrigan taken the ice in Detroit, Harding would have been pushed harder and, as she did so frequently those days (and would do again at the Olympics in Norway), would likely have crashed and burned--and stayed home for the Olympics.

Of course, the mess wound up in court, where the best efforts of the U.S. Olympic Committee failed to get Harding banned from the American team. And Tonya, who was unabashedly unashamed, got the worldwide showcase she wanted. Though her Olympic performance was a debacle, the whole affair kept her career alive as a carnival act and a handy perennial for the lowest reaches of reality TV, In other words, kneecapping essentially worked for Tonya as a competitive and career strategy. We may have to wait another four years to find out just how effective a political strategy it turns out to be.

Newsweek is blogging on the NCAA tournament, here. Here's my first entry:

I saw nothing but positives for Yankee fans when the Steinbrenner II regime surprisingly bypassed Yankee legend Don Mattingly as successor to Joe Torre and opted instead for Joe Girardi. Girardi, no Gentleman Joe like his predecessor, would, I believed, shake up the New York clubhouse, roiling the staid, business-like squad and making it a bit more aggressive and contentious.

But Girardi has only looked foolish in his first public dust-up of spring training. First he called out some poor Tampa Rays kid for barreling into a Yankee minor-league catcher on a play at the plate. The catcher, a AA prospect, broke his wrist as a result of the collision. Girardi, himself a former catcher, insisted that kind of play had no place in spring training, ignoring the fact that spring training was the only place the youngster had to impress Tampa's brass and that Girardi would likely have praised that kind of aggressive, but clean baserunning from one of his. Moreover, while all men may be equal in the cosmic scheme of things, it isn't so on the baseball diamond. And it wasn't like the Tampa Bay player bowled over Yankee star Jorge Posada and knocked him out for part of the season.

But Girardi's comments led to a predictable result in this week's rematch between New York and Tampa. In the first inning Wednesday, Yankee pitcher Heath Phillips hit the Rays' prize rookie, Evan Longoria, and was ejected. Then far more egregiously, New York's Shelley Duncan, who had mouthed off a bit after the earlier game, slid spikes up into the groin of Ray second basemen Akinori Iwamura. Duncan was ejected, but not before both team's benches emptied onto the field--and later Yankee veterans pointedly offered no defense of his baserunning assault. Girardi, however, was unapologetic following the game, saying that nothing upset him that day except "that my catcher's having surgery today."

In 2006, Girardi was fired from his last managerial job with the Florida Marlins after a season which would earn him Manager of the Year honors. His downfall came when he popped off at the team's owner for his caustic comments aimed at umpires from the stands. While I still think Girardi will invigorate this unusually youthful Yankee team, one has to at least wonder if there's some loose wiring in his brain-mouth connection that might eventually lead to a swift downfall in what is one of baseball's toughest towns.

Before March Madness consumes you, check out a film that pays homage to basketball's black pioneers.

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UPDATE: A number of readers have taken issue with my unkind post on Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's ongoing battle with the NFL over "Spygate". They insist I am not nearly unkind enough. I didn't give Specter enough credit (or perhaps more accurately discredit him enough) when I suggested that his actions were apparently motivated by lingering distress over the loss of his Philadelphia Eagles to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX.

 "Just follow the money," readers counseled me, citing that famous "Deep Throat" Watergate mantra. And the money would suggest that nothing as trivial as fan sentiment is behind Specter's campaign. Both Comcast and the Blank Rome law firm, where Comcast is a major client, top the list of Specter's major contributors. And Comcast, of course, has been warring with the NFL over the league's NFL network and the cable company's desire to charge a premium for fans to watch it.

The enemy of my friends is my enemy is another very familiar congressional mantra. So by softening up the football league with charges of wrongdoing and sullying its upright reputation, Specter is doing yeoman work on behalf of his biggest benefactors. Nothing sentimental about it at all. Business as usual in Washington.

Apparently Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter is not a NASCAR fan or doesn't have a favorite driver as a constituent. Otherwise, Specter might not be satisfied with the stiff penalties assessed on driver Carl Edwards and his racing team following his victory in Las Vegas earlier this month. After a post-race inspection determined that his car was missing its oil cap, a boon to the car's thrust, Edwards was docked a whopping 100 points in the standings, knocking him all the way from the top spot to seventh place, and his crew chief was suspended for six races--but NASCAR officials refrained from commenting on rivals' suspicions that the incident may represent deliberate cheating.

Specter, however, is still hammering away at the NFL for its "Spygate" investigation of the New England Patriots--and apparently to some effect. The NFL is reportedly near a deal--one repeatedly urged by the GOP senator--that would enable the league to hear Matt Walsh's story. Walsh is the former New England Patriots employe who, according to published reports, has hinted that he holds damaging material that might propel the scandal to another level. What Specter has failed to do, though, is to establish any justification for his involvement in this matter. The recent congressional baseball hearings at least concerned a public health issue and the Mitchell Report was essentially a response to prior congressional committee hearings. If Specter is genuinely concerned with serious matters of integrity in the NFL, he should be spearheading an investigation into something more critical like the league's handling of concussions and other brain injuries.

But Specter's motivation appears to stem solely from his continuing distress with the Patriots' victory over the senator's beloved Philadelphia Eagles back in Super Bowl XXXIX. He has repeatedly implied that the Patriots seemed to know what plays the Eagles were going to run in the second half, though the Eagles scored 14 of their 21 points in that half and quarterback Donovan McNabb passed for 357 yards in the game, including 189 in the second half. My recollection of the Philly failure has more to do with porous pass protection, which had McNabb sucking wind late in the game and the fact that the Eagles wasted precious time in the game's waning minutes getting plays in from the sidelines.

None of that makes me any less anxious to hear what Walsh has to say. But the Pats' brass has said that Walsh, who worked on the team's videotape crew and later in its scouting department, was fired in 2003 after he had secretly audiotaped a meeting with Scott Pioli during which the Pats exec was criticizing Walsh's job performance. If the Pats can document that transgression, then Walsh not only has to show that the Patriots' videotape operation exceeded what the team has already copped to and been penalized for, but he would have the added burden of having to prove that he was not taping on his own initiative without the team's knowledge..

Walsh apparently requires immunity from the NFL before he cooperates because he has materials that the Patriots may regard as stolen property. Regardless of any legal protections he receives, Walsh, who has been working as an assistant golf pro in Hawaii, has already been reminded that NFL ball is a contact sport. Today's Boston Globe has an exhaustive front-page feature on Walsh's life, which had some former associates portraying him as a bitter and vindictive man who inflated his role and responsibilities with the Patriots. It also reported that Walsh was booted off his college golf team for boobytrapping his bed with steel blades in the belief that his roommate might be using it for romantic endeavors. In addition, the Globe reports that Walsh's PGA membership was suspended late last year for failure to progress with required educational courses.

Walsh's character may be less of an issue once the NFL goes to the videotape and sees what's on it. Regardless, Specter's sanctimony is hard to stomach. No senator who played a prominent role in the Clarence Thomas hearings for the Supreme Court--let's check out that videotape--should get away with seizing the ethical high ground.

We fans are a fickle and forgetful bunch. It was only a few years ago that many of us were pleading with Brett Favre to hang 'em up. We fervently hoped that after a pair of seasons in which he was foundering—he threw more interceptions (47) than touchdown passes (38), and his completion percentage in 2006 was the lowest of his career—he would spare us more embarrassing, over-the-hill performances that might further tarnish his illustrious career.

He didn't listen, and we are all grateful for that. Now, at 38 years old, it's time for Brett to go. Favre may not have gotten his fondest wish, the rare Elway exit in which a superstar goes out on top, but this past season he came close—closer than he or anyone else had reason to expect. Despite playing with a bunch of no-name receivers, Favre put up his best passing numbers in years, including the highest completion percentage (66.5) of his 16 years in Green Bay.


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