NASCAR is expected to announce Monday the location for its new hall of fame. For a week, Charlotte's been touting itself as the winner. If that's so, one of the omens may have been a bill passed by the Georgia Legislature last year, allowing car tags with a NASCAR logo. Bicycling enthusiasts were able to tack a rider onto the bill, permitting a "Share the Road" tag as well.

To start production of either tag, a thousand car-owners had to sign up.

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As of the end of February, the men and women in tights were ahead with 565 applications, to 341 for the Dale Earnhardt crowd.

If not a lights-out, Texas death-match, then perhaps the footwork of a Supreme Court nominee

There's something about Newt Gingrich and Ralph Reed that brings to mind one of those wrasslin' match-ups between Ric Flair and Wahoo McDaniel.

Every month or so, Reed pins Gingrich to the mat, ready to squeeze an endorsement from the former U.S. House speaker. And every time, Gingrich lifts a shoulder blade just before the three count.

It happened again last week -- we think. We weren't there. Many of Reed's campaign events occur outside the sight of mainstream media. We're informed only after the fact.

Sometime last week, at a Reed fund-raiser somewhere in north Fulton County, we're told that Gingrich said many "supportive" things regarding Reed's Republican campaign for lieutenant governor.

"I think having Ralph as lieutenant governor would be an extraordinary asset here, but also across the whole country," is one thing Gingrich said, according to a Reed press release.

But is that an endorsement? We asked Reed campaign manager Jared Thomas. He said to ask Gingrich's people. Sayeth the Newtster's mouthpiece: "The release speaks for itself."

Newt "Nature Boy" Gingrich has escaped again.

The one guy in America who can brag about the value of being a D.C. insider and lobbyist

On another Ralph Reed note: He's set March 20 as the day for a campaign kickoff in Atlanta. Reed's bringing in Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour for the occasion. He's just the guy to reassure Republicans that it's OK to elect a Washington lobbyist as governor -- er, lieutenant governor.

Elephants in the mist: That first faint drumbeat of a presidential campaign

When you can hear lunch-time talks by two potential Republican presidential candidates in less than a week, it's a sign 2008 is rolling around sooner than most of us expected.

One day last month we went to a Fulton County GOP lunch to see Kansas U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, here on a get-acquainted stop which also included visits to Georgia Right to Life and Holy Spirit Preparatory School.

Already a favorite of the religious right, you could hear Brownback in this speech testing his pipes for a more mainstream message --- but still plenty conservative. The Republican talked about Ronald Reagan and the idea of American exceptionalism, and touched on his interest in doing something about Darfur and the spread of AIDS.

Best line: "Where you live should not determine whether you live."

The following week we saw a Republican who doesn't have to get acquainted with the locals, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. He addressed the Atlanta Rotary Club and fielded questions on several hot subjects, from the ports security flap to Katrina, to Congress' inability to cut spending.

Best line: "The model of government we have inherited at every level is obsolete and failing."

When you come to think of it, no Republican is better at running against the shortcomings of government than Gingrich. The question is, can he run against the recent shortcomings of a Republican government?

It must be that subliminal sense of levees collapsing

It's just one of those little word things, but we noticed that in South Carolina, Democratic Florence Mayor Frank Willis has rolled out a radio attack ad on Republican Gov. Mark Sanford. He's calling him an "unnatural disaster" and a "lousy leader," citing a Time magazine rating which put Sanford "at the bottom of the barrel."

As the year moves on, let's listen for how many times the word "disaster" is used in attack ads, especially by Democrats.

Labored logic

Democrats have been buzzing about comments made by state Sen. Nancy Schaefer (R-Turnerville) at a recent eggs-and-issues breakfast in Hart County. We quote from the Hartwell Sun newspaper: "Commenting on illegal immigration, Schaefer said 50 million abortions have been performed in this country, causing a shortage of cheap American labor. 'We could have used those people,' she said."

If only Undecided had a campaign manager, what a candidate she'd make

Jim Martin's campaign for lieutenant governor is releasing another poll this week, this time surveying 812 Democratic primary voters in a primary matchup between the former Human Resources commissioner and former Sen. Greg Hecht.

The campaign poll, conducted by Alan Secrest, has Martin with 23 percent and Hecht with 7 percent, with 70 percent undecided. The poll also has Martin doing better among voters who know him than his rival.

"Unless you're going to release the cross tabscrosstabs on a poll (that is, the underlying details on who was pulled and how they responded) then it's not worth the paper it's printed on," Hecht's campaign manager, Billy Horton, said.

In a recent James Magazine online poll, Hecht led Martin, 47-25 percent.

Arena security in a post-911 world: This may be Georgia's version of the ports blow-up

Perhaps one of the most overlooked bits of news last week came out of Columbus, where the Ledger-Enquirer is looking into an unlicensed mental health facility. What kind of therapy did the clinic offer? How did it keep patients busy? Why they were trucked to Alabama and the Georgia Dome to provide security for Auburn Tigers and Atlanta Falcons football games. On the bright side, there's no evidence they were used to officiate.