Seriously, he's still in charge

Lots of Alabama Republicans, if you hadn't noticed, don't much like the Alabama Education Association or its executive director, Paul Hubbert. To eliminate any lingering uncertainty on that point, the state party's executive committee, a political group, on Saturday approved a resolution to blast the AEA's "politicization of Alabama education." Hubbert, ever the realist, observed, "You don't take politics out of anything that spends public dollars."

The Birmingham News reports that the committee also pondered a resolution "suggesting that candidates who take AEA money might jeopardize their chances to run as a Republican," but practical considerations left that one destined to fail on a voice vote. After all, according to Hubbert's estimates, about 90 percent of GOP legislators have taken AEA contributions in the past, and 10 to 12 already have called the group about money for 2006.