Another Sunday, another Register poll

Love him or hate him, few Alabamians don't have an opinion about former Gov. Don Siegelman.

Forty-four percent of them want Siegelman to drop out of the 2006 governor's race, while 42 percent hope he stays, according to a recent Mobile Register poll. His favorable/unfavorable ratings, meanwhile, stand at 42/45.

The numbers may look bad on the surface but aren't necessarily fatal to his campaign ambitions, poll director Keith Nicholls said, especially if Siegelman gets acquitted of federal criminal charges and successfully portrays himself as the victim of a political witch hunt. Regardless, Siegelman has vowed to remain in the race unless his head and heart are removed forcibly, so it's fair to assume the poll will change nothing.

In other news, Siegelman's Democratic primary opponent, Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, said she doesn't plan to focus on his indictments during the campaign, but she sure doesn't mind if everyone else does. And in a shocker along the lines of the Indianapolis Colts beating a Sun Belt team, the Register poll found that former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy's popularity among many Alabamians is, well, kind of low.