If you read politics on the web, you’ve surely heard of Jim Treacher who used to blog at his eponymous website. That is until he was hired by Tucker Carlson to blog at his new web venture the Daily Caller.

Yesterday, Jim was just trying to cross the street when he was hit by a car being driven by a State Department employee. Now he’s got a broken knee, for which he needs surgery, as well as some cuts and bruises.

Here’s my get well note to Jim:

Dear Jim,

Hang in there, buddy! We haven’t met but I’ve always enjoyed your writing. Your sense of humor is so sharp that your writing has actually made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion.

Your post on David Letterman’s Palin attacks – when you famously suggested he’d let you keep the wig – made me laugh so hard I almost fell out of my chair and was quickly distributed to almost everyone I know.

Back in the months leading up to the 2008 election, the positive can-do attitude of your blog posts kept me going some days.

I’ve never broken my knee but I’ve been seriously injured in other ways and I know how much it sucks. Just don’t let it affect your attitude. We need more of your great blogging at the DC Trawler!

So get well soon, Jim! I offer all my best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Sincerely,

Your friend and fan in blogging,

Aleister

Rumor has it that Obama is going to use his State of the Union address tomorrow night to announce a federal spending freeze. Isn’t that a bit like banning the hunting of an animal that’s already extinct?

President Obama will call for a three-year freeze in spending on many domestic programs, and for increases no greater than inflation after that, an initiative intended to signal his seriousness about cutting the budget deficit, administration officials said Monday.

The officials said the proposal would be a major component both of Mr. Obama’s State of the Union address on Wednesday and of the budget he will send to Congress on Monday for the fiscal year that begins in October.

The freeze would cover the agencies and programs for which Congress allocates specific budgets each year, including air traffic control, farm subsidies, education, nutrition and national parks.

Obama’s base is just thrilled with the idea.

Meanwhile over at Breitbart TV, they caught candidate Obama ridiculing candidate McCain for proposing…. The very same thing. Shocker!

You know it’s bad when your supporters aren’t willing to defend you on TV.

Pollster Frank Luntz can’t even pay people to go on the air to explain why they support Coakley.

Just about every election night, Republican pollster Frank Luntz assembles a focus group of likely voters to help predict election results. Tonight you can see Luntz interview an assembly of Massachusetts voters on Fox at 9:10 p.m. EST.

But you probably won’t see all the work that went into it. As of late this afternoon, Luntz was still scrambling to balance his focus group with supporters of Democrat Martha Coakley. “I just lost another one,” Luntz growled over his cell phone from a hotel ballroom at Logan Airport. In the last 24 hours, six Coakley voters have dropped out. By contrast, Luntz hasn’t lost a single supporter of her opponent, Scott Brown.

The problem isn’t money. “They’re getting paid well,” Luntz says, “probably more than they’re making at their jobs. And they still don’t want to do it.”

Instead, says Luntz, they’re ashamed. “They don’t want to be on television defending Martha Coakley. It’s passé. It’s socially unacceptable. I never dreamed I’d see Democrats in Massachusetts embarrassed to admit they’re Democrats.”

We won’t know the outcome of this race for a few more hours but I’d say this is not a good omen for Coakley.

According to a new poll conducted by Suffolk University and Channel 7 of Boston, Scott Brown is now leading Martha Coakley by four points. Brown 50% to Coakley 46%.

This is great news for Scott Brown. The Boston Herald reports:

Riding a wave of opposition to Democratic health-care reform, GOP upstart Scott Brown is leading in the U.S. Senate race, raising the odds of a historic upset that would reverberate all the way to the White House, a new poll shows.

Although Brown’s 4-point lead over Democrat Martha Coakley is within the Suffolk University/7News survey’s margin of error, the underdog’s position at the top of the results stunned even pollster David Paleologos.

“It’s a Brown-out,” said Paleologos, director of Suffolk’s Political Research Center. “It’s a massive change in the political landscape.”

Change in the political landscape. Hmm.. I seem to remember another writer using those exact words.

For an excellent analysis of this poll, be sure to read this post from Allahpundit at Hot Air.

Jessica Taylor at The Politico has more:

Brown’s favorability ratings are also higher than Coakley’s, with 57 percent saying they have a favorable opinion of the state senator and just 19 percent having an unfavorable opinion. Forty-nine percent say they have a favorable opinion of Coakley, while 41 percent have an unfavorable opinion of the attorney general.

Against the backdrop of an election that could possibly play a decisive role in the health care debate—a point both parties have begun to press on their supporters—51 percent said they did not support the health care bill, with 36 percent supported it. Sixty-one percent said they didn’t believe the government could afford such a plan.

A plurality of respondents also believe Brown fared better during the televised debates between the candidates, with 41 percent saying they believed Brown won, compared to just 25 percent for Coakley.

FOOTNOTE: Here’s why Obama isn’t coming to Massachusetts…

With Mrs. Coakley flagging in the polls and Republican Scott Brown closing fast — one recent polls puts him 2 points ahead — Mr. Obama has decided to keep his fingerprints off a race that would be an embarrassment for Democrats should they lose, given that Mr. Obama won the state in 2008 by a 27 point margin.

Scott Brown can win this election and if he does, get ready to hear the loudest gnashing of teeth from the Democrat political establishment since Reagan turned Massachusetts red in 1980.

UPDATE: Scott Brown has raised a million dollars a day, every day this week.

UPDATE II: Martha Coakley says Catholics shouldn’t work in Emergency Rooms.

Governor Sarah Palin.

Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska has signed on as a contributor to the Fox News Channel.

The network confirmed that Ms. Palin will appear on the network’s programming on a regular basis as part of a multi-year deal. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Ms. Palin will not have her own regular program, one person familiar with the deal said, though she will host an occasional series that will run on the network from time to time. This person would not elaborate, but the network does have a precedent for such a series. Oliver L. North is the host of an occasionally running documentary series on the military called “War Stories.”

Many suspected that when Ms. Palin retired as the governor of Alaska last summer she was doing so to pursue some sort of career in television. The Fox News deal, however, would not seem to be all encompassing, and would appear to give her room for other pursuits, as well.

If Palin’s deal with FOX is for more than a few years, we can probably rule out a presidential run in 2012. That news would please some and disappoint others but one thing is for sure. We’re going to be seeing a lot more of Sarah Palin on TV.

Tucker Carlson’s much anticipated news portal The Daily Caller went live today.

In past interviews, Carlson described it as a Huffington Post for the right and also said that he plans to update more frequently than the Drudge Report.

See what you think, check it out:

THE DAILY CALLER

At some point in the near future, it’ll be added to the blogroll on this site.