Quick Hits

• Possible '08 GOP candidate Sam Brownback pulled off one of the weirdest political stunts in at least a few years last night. He spent a night at the infamous Angola State Prison in Louisiana, apparently trying to either generate some much-needed buzz for his faltering campaign or to drum up the convict vote. Isn't that Dem territory? But since the inmates at ASP can't vote, the only explanation is that Brownback is one desperate man. - On Friday night, Brownback joined hundreds of inmates at a prayer service before prison officials escorted him to his modest sleeping quarters. On Saturday morning, he emerged from his 7-by-10-foot cell to tour the maximum-security facility and take a walk down death row. "There aren't probably a lot of votes for me here," he said. "There can be a lot of prayers, though." - And here PB though that the only prison inmate a politician might visit would be Jack Abramoff.

• Barack Obama is making his first stop in New Hampshire on Sunday, venturing forth for a big Dem shindig in the Granite State. Obama says that his "internal clock" told him to stay away from NH until now. Internal clock? And you though Brownback was weird... This probably means that Obama is on the cusp of his official 2008 announcement, trying to steal the spotlight from the early '07 launches of the Clinton and Kerry campaigns.

• Retiring GOP Senate leader Bill Frist got hammered by both parties on the last day of the 109th Congress for his perceived role in the Republican loss in November and his shifty maneuvering to insert Tennessee pork in spending bills. Quite a fall from one year ago, when Frist was considered a front runner in the '08 race...