Public Policy Polling: Arlen Specter is leaving office a hated man. The second worst “net approval” rating in the entire senate, with -31. Twenty-nine percent approval, 60 percent disapproval. Your Bob Casey is at 36 percent approval, 40 percent disapproval, which goes to show what we’ve been saying all along: An entire 24 percent of Pennsylvanians have no position on Bob Casey. [Public Policy Polling]

NFL broadcaster Al Michaels said a “senior Eagles official” told him Rendell’s comments were made because he’s “just too attention starved.” PhillyClout then asks, “Is Rendell ‘Just Too Attention Starved’ In Eagles Dust-Up?’ But of course! [PhillyClout]

Unemployed former Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell is under federal investigation for “campaign money misuse.” Fox Nation, a website by and for wingnuts, is calling this “Payback” for some reason (“some reason” = Barack Obama’s justice department finds, imprisons and puts to death those it disagrees with politically). During the 2010 campaign, O’Donnell admitted she used more than $20,000 of campaign funds to pay her rent – that’s illegal. She also asked where the separation of church and state is in the Constitution. And said she wasn’t a witch. [Salon]

Any time Tucker Carlson is in the news, it’s because something stupid has happened. Either he’s being fired by a cable news station, getting ridiculed by Jon Stewart, bragging about beating up gay men, emailing with Stu Bykofsky or saying Michael Vick should be put to death. (I swear this is the last time I talk about this.)

And yet, he’s survived in the TV business, mostly because CNN and MSNBC had to give off the guise of being “balanced” by adding an infantile nutjob to their staff to compete with Fox. Now that he’s actually on Fox, he has total nutjob security because the people who watch Fox are often looking for someone as crazy as they are, telling them crazy things to clarify their own personal struggles in between purchases of “The Overton Window” from the Conservative Book Club for their families. Carlson fits the bill because he lurks in the background of Fox, and those are always needed in case your familiar wingnut is sick, or on vacation. But he’s not one of these superpatriots like Glenn Beck, nor is he an RNC staffer like Sean Hannity. He’s just a pacifier-sucking douchebag no one cares about. At least not until he calls on a football player to be “executed.”

Carlson is actually big on animal rights (so I’ve read recently), but does he really believe Eagles Quarterback Michael Vick should be executed? Probably not. Though this was his big break. He was sitting in for Hannity when he made said comments, who’s show has an average of 2-3 million viewers nationwide, and perhaps there were certain people watching he was trying to impress, possibly for a more expanded ‘contributor’ role at Fox or his own segment. After all, we’re talking about it here, it’s linked over at Drudge, on Huffington Post, CBS, NBC, etc., forevermore, and that’s what the cable news gods want: Not news, just attention. [AP]

UPDATE: Fox 29:

“As somebody who is also a pastor, Christians believe that you forgive, “ said Joe Watkins, was also a regular co-host of CNN’s Crossfire from 2004 until 2005. “If you want God to forgive you, then you have to forgive others. I disagree with that. Michael Vick is not only a great quarterback, but I am so proud of the way he has responded coming out of prison.”

Philadelphia radio show host Bill Anderson says Carlson was just trying to draw attention to himself.

“It was about trying to generate controversy. It was an ignorant comment on so many levels,” Anderson said. “He’s now targeting someone who wants to get his life in order.”

[...]

“Good guys aren’t going on national television saying you should be executed,” Anderson said. “Maybe he should be executed … for making that statement.”

Host Jokes About Executing Tucker Carlson: MyFoxPHILLY.com