The Christmas (er ... Holiday/Kwanzaa/Winter Solstice/Multi-Religious-Days-of-Significance) season is not a particularly dynamic time for political developments.

There will be little happening in the Alito nomination until the first of the year ... then all hell (er ... insert your religion's place, state or idea of retributive justice or self-questioning reflection) will break loose.

The remembrance that I have already predicted the good judge's confirmation should add a measure of peace to your Holiday/Kwanzaa/Winter Solstice/Multi-Religious-Days-of-Significance season.

In presidential politics, I notice that Mitt Romney has declined to stand for reelection as Massachusetts governor ... a further indication that he will be a candidate for the 2008 Republican nomination.

Romney is perhaps the one candidate who has the capacity to disrupt the carefully crafted predictions laid out in my now famous four-post series on the Republican nomination.

To do so, and become a Tier 1 candidate, he must tack hard right on the social issues and adopt the "I-know-I-looked-like-a-squishy-moderate-but-I-was-trying-to-govern-a-state-that-made-the-old-Soviet-Union-look-conservative" defense.

Romney is an impressive candidate and delivered one of the very best speeches at the 2004 Republican Convention.

My choice for the 2008 nomination, Virginia's George Allen, is profiled in this Newsweek article, which examines the intriguing possibility of an all-Virginia election in November 2008.

Please, my friends, attend to your shopping and family obligations with a mind at ease ... knowing that if there are any political developments worth noting over the holidays, I will surely note them.

In the meantime, I trust that Santa Claus (or your chosen semi-mythical, benevolent holiday gift-bearing icon) will deposit the finest presents around your tree (or bush, pole, zuggernaut, African ritual heap, Mother Gaia likeness, or other religious, secular, or philosophical vertical item).

Oh, and one more thing....

May the Lord Jesus Christ ... the only begotten Son of the one true God ... the one Mediator between God and man ... the only hope for a fallen world ... bless you richly as we celebrate His incarnation as the virgin-born Savior.