[Diddle E. Squat]

Any chance that a conservative/moderate rift between Nickles supporters and Frist supporters might lead to Kay Bailey Hutchison as a compromise candidate?

OK, the Texas tri-fecta might be too much, but I wanted to throw out a 'smoke-filled backroom' scenario (Judge Roy Bean style).

[Torie]

Just who the Texas senators vote for will tell you a lot about what Bush is thinking, I would suspect. Ditto for the senators that are there because of Bush, like Talent and Coleman. Hutchinson would be great from a media perspective. I don't know anything about her inside baseball skills.