Anwar Acquitted Of Sodomy

Good news in Malaysia, as opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is acquitted of sodomy charges. The ruling party's strategy in responding to Anwar's political rise, both in 2008 and in the late 1990s, was to make highly implausible sodomy accusations against him. Many Malaysians realized that the charges were nonsense, but prosecutions went forward anyway. In 2000 he was convicted and sentenced to 9 years in prison before being freed on appeal in 2004. So if you wanted some news from the other side of the world to go along with your Santorum-related speculation, there you go.

If you want to see how utterly insane Malaysian politics can be (the deal with the Mongolian actress and model getting blown up with C4 is one of the craziest things I've ever heard) you can take a look at this post from 2008.

Rick Santorum Photos as New Yorker Cartoons

You may have seen the meme of Buzzfeed, where New Yorker cartoons are re-captioned using Rick Santorum quotes.

I'm intrigued by the possibilities of the reverse. What happens if you take photos of Rick Santorum and caption them with "Christ, what an asshole."?

Good News From The ECB

The cause of more pro-growth policies from the European Central Bank seems to have scored another victory, as new bank chief Mario Draghi has appointed Peter Praet, described as a pragmatist on inflation issues, to head up the Economics division. Praet replaces stereotypically inflation-obsessed German Jürgen Stark, who objected to the ECB's bond-buying program.

With American economic numbers ticking slightly upward, one major danger is that collapse in Europe will bring everything back down. Democrats hoping to do well in the 2012 election should be rooting for pro-growth forces in Europe to defeat the people who want to use recession to fight inflation, with no concern for jobs. Replacing Jean-Claude Trichet with Mario Draghi seems to have been a positive step in that regard, and we can hope that Draghi keeps the good news coming.

No Senators In The GOP Primary

One odd feature of the Republican presidential primary is that there aren't any sitting Senators. This hardly ever happens. The Republicans had McCain and Brownback in 2008, McCain and Hatch in 2000, Bob Dole, Gramm, Specter and Lugar in 1996, and Bob Dole and Laxalt in 1988. On the Democratic side, we had Obama-Clinton-Dodd-Biden in 2008, Kerry-Edwards-Lieberman-Graham in 2004, Bradley as the sole Gore-alternative in 2000, Kerrey and Harkin in 1992, and Gore-Simon-Biden in 1988.

Why did this happen? I guess part of the reason is that Democrats did really well in the 2006 and 2008 Senate elections, clearing out lots of possible candidates. Rick Santorum would've been able to run from the Senate, and George Allen might've been in the race if he hadn't already run in 2008. Even so, the fact that 0 out of the 40 GOP Senators in office during 2009 ran is pretty unusual for a time when the weak economy made Obama look vulnerable. (My expectation early on was that Jim DeMint would run and win, but he decided not to get in for reasons that are his own.)

Santorum Comes From Behind, but Can't Top Romney

Sadly, the final results show Romney ahead by 8 votes. But Rick Santorum (yes, that Rick Santorum) had a remarkable showing in the Iowa caucuses. I still think Gingrich is the most viable NotRomney—if he can finish ahead of Santorum in New Hampshire, and win South Carolina, there's still a path to victory for him—but even then it's a very tough road ahead, and Gingrich obviously doesn't provide the same opportunities for hilarious headlines.

The best news to come out of Iowa is that instead of Nate Silver just sort of guessing what's going to happen next, we have some actual data! It's muddled, because Iowa is a Caucus, and because five candidates contested the state with serious resources, but at the very least, we can say that Romney's voters look more like the median voter in some respects (more female in particular) but don't in others (richer, more educated). And that people who self-identify as Republicans seem very uninterested in voting for Romney.

Use the comment thread to make your best Santorum-related, double-entendre-filled headline.