Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) locked horns with Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) on a Philadelphia radio show Thursday. The subject was Obama's first year in office, and the two politicians kept talking over each other.

Suddenly, Specter told Bachmann: "Don't interrupt me . . . and act like a lady."

It wasn't the smartest choice of words on the senator's part, but the over-reaction by the Republican National Committee has been the best show I've seen since grade school, when one eighth-grader called out another in the cafeteria, and they met after school in the alley for a would-be rumble.

Here's the statement the RNC issued Friday:

"Senator Specter's rude and arrogant comments yesterday were not only disrespectful to Congresswoman Bachmann, but demeaning to all women," sniffed RNC Co-Chairman Jan Larimer in the statement. "Senator Specter should immediately apologize to the Congresswoman and to all of his constituents for such disgraceful behavior. Women should never be treated as second class citizens."

On Friday, Bachmann told Sean Hannity of Fox News that she was "stunned at the arrogance" of the senator, and bloggers have since entered the fray.

Please, spare me the drama. It's not like Michelle Obama and Laura Bush started throwing punches in the East Wing.

Specter's actions weren't "disgraceful," Specter did not "demean" all women, and Specter should not apologize to Bachmann and "all of his constituents"

If I were Bachmann, I think I'd feel more insulted by the RNC's comments than by Specter's. They suggest she couldn't quite hold her own with him in an interview, which couldn't be further from the truth.

The incident proves once again that in the world of politics and 24-hour cable news, no slight is too small to be perceived as a slur and turned into an opportunity for a huge, breaking story.

A win-win for both sides. Cable news gets a mini controversy and the Republicans get face time.

DENVER -- "I've decided not to run for re-election for the sake of my family." It's a phrase spoken so often it's cliché, generally met with scoffs, rolled eyeballs, and hoots of laughter.

But Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter's case may be the exception. For him, it may be true.

Wednesday morning, the first-term Democratic governor announced that his family is precisely the reason he won't seek re-election this fall. And he received wild and sustained applause in the marble halls of Colorado's gold-domed Capitol, where he delivered the news during a press conference attended by staff and supporters shortly after 11 a.m. Mountain Time.

"Over the past years, but particularly over this last year, I have attempted to balance many roles in my life. I have been governor, I have been a candidate for re-election, and I have also been a husband and a father," said Ritter, 53.

"It is my family who has sacrificed most -- my wife, Jeannie, my kids, three of whom are here today. I have not found the proper balance where my family is concerned, and I have not made them the priority they should be. So today, I'm announcing that I am ending one of my roles. I am no longer a candidate for re-election this November."

The news, leaked Tuesday, came as a shock to most political hands in Colorado. For the past two years, Democrats have reigned in this traditionally red state, basking in the national spotlight during the history-making 2008 National Democratic Convention, which Denver hosted.

Ritter has been a tireless promoter of his administration's new energy economy, trying, and largely succeeding, in making Colorado a leader in alternative energy technology.

Since his election in 2007, Ritter has made more than 250 tips outside the metro area to bang the drum for green energy jobs and manufacturing, said Todd Hartman, spokesman for the Governor's Energy Office. "His people ran him hard," said Hartman.
But Ritter has been hamstrung by a shrinking state budget and weak employment numbers. Polls show him trailing 7 to 9 percentage points behind Republican challenger Scott McInnis, a former congressman representing the southern and western regions of Colorado.

And Democrats here, as in the rest of the nation, are girding for a bloody battle in the 2010 mid-term elections.

Some say Ritter, a pro-life Catholic who grew up on a small dairy farm and once served a religious mission in Zambia for three years, has lost some of the fire in his belly.

Others, like Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams, say Ritter is running from the fight because Democrats have lost their mojo.
"Colorado is a far cry from that heady night at Invesco Field in August 2008 (when Barack Obama addressed a crowd of millions in the stands and on national TV) from what it is today," Wadams told The Denver Post. "Just a little over a year later you've got a Democratic incumbent governor cutting and running from office. You've got an incumbent Democratic senator (Michael Bennett) who is being challenged by another Democrat," former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff.
Democrats respond they have a deep bench in Colorado. Names mentioned as front-running possibilities to replace Ritter include popular Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
Eleven months, they say, is plenty of time to turn McInnis' leading poll numbers around.
Several Democrats who spoke with Politics Daily following Ritter's press conference said there was no doubt in their minds Ritter's decision to withdraw from the race was motivated primarily by concern for his family.
"His love for his family is not a show. It's the real deal in his case, " said Hartman, the energy office spokesman. "There's always a knock on politicians when they site 'family' as the reason their stepping down, but with Ritter, I take him at his word.
"I have gotten to know his family, and I don't blame him. But it does make me sad."
Former State Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, who is helping Romanoff in his bid for U.S. Senate, had a similar reaction. "Yes, I buy his reason (for withdrawing). A lot of times it's phony, but I don't think so with Ritter."
U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, a Democrat, said he was as surprised as anyone by the announcement. He described Ritter's short speech as "eloquent and articulate."
"He made the right decision," Udall said as he paused briefly and reflected. "You knew that when you took a look at the faces of his wife and kids."

Coffman, a former Marine who keeps buff at age 54, was jogging on the golf course bordering his home in Aurora, Colo., when he stumbled on a rock or some other obstruction hidden in the snow. He fell, cracking his ankle.

The congressman and his wife went to an urgent care clinic in a strip mall, where he paid $30 for a temporary cast and a prescription, and later he went to the famed Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail, where he paid $350 for an expert opinion, he told The Denver Post.

"I successfully tested our health care system," he said, with a laugh. "It works,"' he told the Post.

Some 3 million-plus Americans will retire in 2009. The following overworked words and expressions should pack and go with them.

Narrative -- As in, "The pro-Obama narrative featured an almost mystically talented young idealist . . ." The word is not bad in itself, especially as an adjective, as in narrative poetry. But why use it when a much simpler word will do? Like story. Doesn't story do the job as well, without the pretense? Apparently not. Especially when talking about President Obama. "Obama narrative" shows up more than 33,000 times on the Internet.

Robust -- Another fine word, but not when it has to work a room harder than Harry Reid on health care. Today, robust describes everything from U.S. foreign policy (the administration intends to pursue a policy of "robust engagement" with China) to women's shoes: ("Think women's 'menswear' shoes, with sturdy or wedge heels, maybe a robust but low platform.") Robust is the purview of coffee houses and wine critics. Let's not turn it into a literary bar towel.

Meme -- Ask five people what this word means, and you'll get five answers, not to mention pronunciations. A good friend, a man of letters, in fact, told me with a straight face it's meh-me (rhymes with hemi). Of course, meme is pronounced with a long "e" and rhymes with steam. According to Merriam-Webster, a meme is "an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture." Meme may make you look smart for five seconds, but the word has definitely lost its way. It needs about a century in rehab.

Grand Junction, Colo., where President Obama will host a town hall Saturday, is a model of efficient health care. The community of 120,000 on the scenic western edge of the state delivers gold-standard health care at cheaper prices than almost any other place in the country -- $5,873 per Medicare patient in 2006, about 30 percent below the national average, according to Dartmouth University researchers.

What does President Obama's choice of beer - Budweiser Light -- say about the man?

In anticipation of Thursday night's "Beer Summit" at the White House, Politics Daily went to Colorado - home of Coors Brewery and the Great American Beer Festival -- and asked brew expert Jay Dedrick for his insights about the choice of drinks of Obama, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge, Mass., Police Sgt. James Crowley. Dedrick writes about beer for www.cobizmag.com