Inside the Beltway: Teachers and targets

The changing cast

Very liberal James Carville and sensible Republican Mary Matalin, the original “he said, she said” political couple, are no longer commentators for CNN, as of Tuesday. The network and the pair cite their distance from Washington as the biggest driver here. The couple live in New Orleans; CNN wished they lived on Capitol Hill.

Erick Erickson is something else again. The co-founder of the conservative RedState.com joined the network in 2010 with much ado, a symbol that CNN hoped to attract a wider audience and perhaps draw the attention of Fox News loyalists. Easier said then done. Mr. Erickson is also departing CNN and is bound for Fox News.

“For all those liberals who lost money thinking Keith Olbermann would outlast me at Current TV, well, sorry,” Mr. Erickson says. “Me at CNN was not an easy fit. The first month was tumultuous with several tumultuous times throughout. I liked to think of myself as job security for the public relations department. About the only thing the far right and far left could agree on was that I did not belong at CNN.”

He adds, “For three years I have received unmitigated hate and loathing from the left and, ironically, from a lot of folks on the right. Frankly, I’d like to thank some significant people responsible for my time at CNN, but they know who they are, and it’d just generate hate mail for them so I better not.”

Poll du jour

• 76 percent of Americans agree that public high schools “should be allowed to sponsor prayer before football games.”

• 53 percent of Americans believe that “God rewards athletes who have faith with good health and success.”

• 72 percent of “minority Christians,” 67 percent of white evangelicals, 56 percent of Catholics and 49 percent of mainline Protestants agree.

• 50 percent overall approve of athletes expressing their faith publicly.

• 60 percent of minority Christians, 77 percent of white evangelicals, 46 percent of Catholics and 47 percent of mainline Protestants agree.

• 27 percent overall says God plays a role in determining what team wins a sporting event; 25 percent of Republicans and 28 percent of Democrats agree.

• 40 percent of minority Christians, 38 percent of white evangelicals, 29 percent of Catholics and 19 percent of mainline Protestants also agree.

Source: A Public Religion Research Institute poll of 1,033 U.S. adults conducted Jan. 16 to 20.

• Murmurs and asides to jharper@washingtontimes.com.

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