Mitt Romney is still the man, at least among the mostly young, mostly rabid conservatives at CPAC; he won the conference's straw poll for the next Republican Presidential nominee with 20 percent of the vote. That's three years in a row for Mitt.

As CPAC closes out to the dulcet tones of the right's dear leader, Rush Limbaugh, I have decided to update my ranking of the 25 most likely people to win the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination, made two months ago.

Big, exciting day at CPAC today: Schlafly, Bennett, Coulter, Horowitz, Limbaugh, Santorum, and oh so many more -- plus Romney's attempt to three-peat in the annual straw poll.

But for me the highlight is the presentation of the Conservative Blogger Award, which is going to Steven Gilchrest.

Now, there are good conservative bloggers and bad conservative bloggers, and there are insane conservative bloggers and there are WTF!?!?!? conservative bloggers.

Watching more videos and live-streaming of the ongoing CPAC conference (and waiting for the 4:30 announcement of the Conservative Journalism Award -- do you think I have a chance?), I have some news for you: the Republican Party is going to re-gain power by explaining to the American people that the economy would have been just fine if the United States Government had never offered to back GNMA mortgage securities with its full faith and credit.

The annual CPAC conference is underway; I've only been able to watch some of today's speeches so far. The biggest issue, from what I can tell, is the so-called "Fairness Doctrine," which as you may know is the Democrats' secret plan to rid the airwaves of all conservative and Christian broadcasting. Never mind that Barack Obama has stated that he opposes bringing back the doctrine, and the US Senate -- including Democrats -- just voted overwhelmingly for a silly amendment opposing the doctrine.

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I have an article suggesting that Congressman Michael Capuano might find himself pulled into a controversy that's brewing down in DC. John Murtha, who like Capuano is one of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's lieutenants, is reportedly the target of a federal investigation involving a lobbying firm.

--Obama: "I've done more in 30 days than most Presidents do in a full term, and I'm going to do a million more things in the next few months." Jindal: "Remember how incompetent Republicans were when we were in charge?"

--I know we're all angry at fat-cat financial execs, but that's no excuse for someone stealing Mitt Romney's wife's jewelry

--I keep hearing all kinds of talk about possible shake-ups and challenges with the state-wide offices next year, but how much you want to bet in the end it's Patrick-Murray-Cahill-Galvin-DeNucci-Coakley again -- possibly all unopposed?

--The rumors are back about Marian Walsh supposedly being on the verge of a judgeship appointment.

As you know, Congressional Republicans held firm against the stimulus bill, voting unanimously against it. On a number of other bills the discipline has been pretty good: only three of the 178 GOP House members crossed over to vote with the Democrats on the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; eight did on the Paycheck Fairness Act; 18 on TARP authorization; 23 on delaying DTV implementation; and 40 on S-CHIP expansion.

More than three years ago, I wrote a lengthy story about a large group of lawsuits being brought by former inmates at the Suffolk County House of Correction, alleging mistreatment by guards in the late 1990s under the administration of Sheriff Richard Rouse. The cases had been together as a class-action suit, which the county settled by agreeing to a number of reforms -- a development I had reported earlier

Dot Reporter gets the scoop that Tomas Gonzalez has changed his mind and will run for an at-large seat on the Boston City Council. Gonzalez has been probably the single most-mentioned name since Council '09 rumor-mongering kicked off, and he'll be a major player. Gonzalez who lives in Menino's own Hyde Park, has served with the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services and Commission on Affairs of the Elderly -- both superb opportunities to become known to voting residents.

--Very few women succeeded in getting their party's nominations in the 2008 US Senate election cycle. And several women considered potentially strong candidates have already decided to pass on 2010, including Alex Sink in Florida and Crit Luallen in Kentucky, while Kathleen Sebelius appears headed to Washington rather than the Kansas Senate seat.

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- out today -- I note that the elevation to Speaker of yet another aging white man, 58-year-old Robert DeLeo, has paradoxically hastened the fall from power of the aging white men in the House. Angelo Scaccia, David Flynn, Dan Bosley, Tom Golden, Jim Fagan, Jim Miceli, Geoff Hall, Stephen Tobin, David Nangle, Joe Wagner.

"Rob" asks:

Who are your unsung heroes in Massachusetts politics that do a lot of good work but do not get enough public acclaim?

An excellent question. If we're talking about elected officials, I think maybe someone like Marc Pacheco, Cynthia Creem, Stan Rosenberg, Kevin Honan, Michael Costello.. .I'm kind of pulling names out of thin air here, but they kind of stay out of the limelight but seem serious about getting things done.

In our only question so far on this merry Ask Me Anything Wednesday, "Bruce" asks:

When will Nancy Pelosi finally get around to "draining the swamp", as she promised she would more then two years ago?

To refresh people's memories, after the 2006 elections that made her Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi promised quick action on ethics reform.

Our last Ask Me Anything day was great -- I got a lot of terrific questions, and at least some of my answers were not immediately proven wrong. Score!

Since then, much has happened: a federal stimulus bill, a complete change of leadership at the Mass. House of Representatives, a Boston mayoral race (although not yet including the incumbent, Mayor McChicken), an about-face from Sen.