Quick Hits

On Patti Solis Doyle: OK, enough. How, exactly, is Barack Obama’s hiring of this Hillary Clinton castoff a slap in the former candidate’s face? Solis Doyle may have been no prize as a campaign staffer, true, but she is also not the reason Senator Clinton's campaign failed. Mark Penn, Terry McAuliffe, Bill Clinton and, most importantly, the candidate herself all shoulder more responsibility for this defeat than does Patti Solis Doyle. She is a Democratic political operative in an election year that features $4 gasoline and skyrocketing inflation. We all need a job right now. Why should Patti Solis Doyle be any different? Shouldn’t Obama's willingness to hire Clintonistas be seen as an attempt to unify what is clearly still a fractured party? Obama should be commended for this, not condemned. The crying and the outrage that is going on amongst Clinton supporters over this is a stretch at best. My advice is to keep looking for slights like this to justify your vote for John McCain in the fall, and then good luck finding a job in the new administration once Obama wins in spite of you. These people remind me daily why I could never be a Democrat. You could safely say that I am outraged by their phony outrage. It is outrageous.

On the ESPN Ombudsman: Le Anne Schreiber tackled the issue of Spygate and the role ESPN played in perpetuating the story in her column last week. It is, for the most part, a fair, balanced, and accurate description of a network that allowed itself to go overboard in covering a story that turned out to be much less than advertised. The one area where Schreiber misses the boat is in her refusal to call out ESPN.com columnist Gregg Easterbrook. Easterbrook never missed an opportunity to attack Bill Belichick and the NFL throughout the 2007 season, and was given a hat-tip in each of Mike Fish’s articles from Hawaii concerning Matt Walsh during Super Bowl week. Since that time, Easterbrook has regularly referenced another shoe that would soon be dropping concerning Spygate. Once it was revealed that Walsh was a fraud who had nothing new to add to the story, Easterbrook refused to back off or admit any error in is his reporting. His response to the Walsh news was to write that it didn’t matter, that Bill Belichick had never been properly punished and needed to be suspended, despite the fact that the coach had already been fined $500,000 and the team had lost a first round draft choice. Schreiber defends this by arguing Easterbrook and his readers were experiencing only a difference in opinion. She lets him off much too easy concerning the rest of his conduct.

On Tiger Woods: I don’t care.

On Al Gore: That was a great endorsement speech last night, one of the better ones in recent memory. In hindsight, I am glad that you opted to pass on another run at the White House. You’ve become quite the statesman over these last few years, and are now respected both here and abroad in a way Bill Clinton no longer is. Who would have ever though that possible? But Al, really, couldn’t you have spoken up a little sooner? If you had made this speech back in February, when Obama was busy racking up eleven victories in a row and the Clintons were busy imploding, it may have helped to bring an earlier end to this campaign. You were right on Iraq, you were right on global warming, and even though you eventually lost you were right to dispute that election. Where would we be today if it had gone the other way?

On the NBA Finals: Could tonight be the night? Sloppy play in Los Angeles has hidden the fact that of the Lakers two victories there both featured either Bennett Salvatore or Dick Bavetta. When you can not only predict who the referees will be but also their impact on results long before the games are even played it illustrates what an enormous problem the NBA has on its hands right now. This series was once a lock to go seven games. Given the last week and the stories that have come out, it may suddenly be better for all involved if this wraps up in six.

Beat LA!

UPDATE: The NBA released the names of tonight’s referees as I went to post this. Bennett Salvatore and Joey Crawford (who sat our last year’s playoffs while on suspension for challenging Tim Duncan to a fight) will both be in the house. David Stern and ABC both want a 7th game. Here is hoping they will learn to live with disappointment.