Three Quick Items

It Isn't Easy Being Green
The Supremes have ousted the Green Party's Carl Romanelli from the ballot in the race for the U.S. Senate. It was done in a one-line dismissal of his suit, challenging the state Election Bureau's call that it would take 67,000 voter signatures for the Green candidate to get on the ballot. Here is Jim OToole's take on the ruling. See my earlier post on this, The Romanelli Factor. The bottom line: this is bad news for the Santorum campaign.

Get Out the Popcorn
Coming to the tube tonight, the second debate between Gov. Rendell and challenger Lynn Swann. This one is in Pittsburgh. It will be televised there on KDKA-TV and in the rest of the state on the Pennsylvania Cable Network at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. I have satellite and don't get PCN, so I'm going to have to get someone to tape it for me. Here is an Angela Couloumbis piece on the debate and what it all means.

Bang, Bang, Shoot 'Em Up
So much for the effect of the Lancaster slaughter. The state House yesterday rejected a bill to limit hand gun sales to one a month in Pennsylvania. It was an anonymous straw vote -- one of more than 100 taken on various bills to deal with violence. The vote was 130-63. Here is Catherine Lucey's piece on it. My bet is that if the vote was public -- and legislators had to record where they stood -- this bill would have gotten more than 80 votes. Under cover of anonymity, a lot of the lawmakers voted "No" just to make the issue go away.