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Yes, the Hardball host started a fundraising phenomenon in the 6th congressional district in Minnesota with his Oct. 17 MSNBC interview with incumbent Michele Bachmann. She called for a media investigation into members of congress to see which of them might be anti-American.

But, Chris, come on. Be a little generous to the internet effect. You implied on Monday night's show that it was entirely the power of your show that drove outraged viewers to contribute hundreds of thousands to Bachmann's opponent.

You did good, but what you did was to start a viral effect. Check out the blogs that helped spread the influence of your interview in the first few days. Factor in the rabid use among politics junkies of microblogging tools like Twitter that have replaced our RSS readers to pass around these blog and video links, and there you go.

A single interview in isolation would not have caused the Democratic National Committee to take notice of Elwyn Tinklenberg's campaign. Thank you for getting the snowball rolling, but individual contributions flooded in from the combined influence of your interview and the net effect. The DNC recognized the resultant phenomenon. There was a team at work here, and as quarterback it would be gracious of you to acknowledge the whole squad.

I was about to get all huffy, but no.

Hulu offers embeddable video. If you're trying it out with a local file, as I did, and thought it wasn't resizable -- that it was clipped rather than scaled from the 512-pixel width -- just publish it anyway. It actually does scale like YouTube or most other embeds, once you get it online.

For example here is last night's SNL Weekend Update.

I've limited the width to 450 pixels because that's the space I have available for it in the main column of my blog.

These days, to figure the proportion for such things, I fire up Paint Shop Pro. (I don't want to pay for Photoshop at home, and though I remember how to solve for X, I've grown too lazy to haul out the pencil.)

I think I threw away my proportion wheel 35 years ago right after I took a newspaper editing class. You'd measure a photo, then slide the wheel to match up the photo width with the column width. The wheel calculated the column height, so you could draw a box of the correct number of column inches on your layout, and a percentage, so you could scribble it on the photo with a grease pencil.

Get Meg Ryan to play Cindy McCain.

Miss M responded to this morning's post about the West Wing characters by telling about a Slate story and podcast on other famous "Do it, already, willya" TV couples. I listened to it today. Only 10 minutes and worth a listen if you like this sort of thing.

Kate Aurthur, the Slate writer interviewed in the podcast, mentions Moonlighting and Cheers, too. I guesss Donna and Josh caused lots of people to think of these couples.

Guan Yang picked up on my Northanger Abbey reference, pleading the case for romance in response to my comment that I didn't like Catherine's hero worship of Henry.

Well, yeah, I know. It was romantic, and I wouldn't have a problem with the relationship at all had JA not stuck in her two cents about what was in Henry's mind. Had she left us alone to observe their behavior, I'd think they were perfectly sweet together, but she had to go and say that Henry loved her because she was so head-over-heels about him. Something's always bugged me about that.

I caught the new West Wing last night. (Did you know new episodes are replayed on Monday on Bravo?) I see what Dave was saying about Donna and Josh. I agree they shouldn't have done it. I guess what the story was trying to show is many people use sex to relieve stress or as a distraction, but I thought Josh and Donna were better than that.

Friends becoming more than friends is such a classic storyline, and such an audience pleaser when it's handled in a romantic way. This one could have been one of those perfect moments, and the producers wrecked it. I'm disappointed, but not overly so because I never felt the intense undercurrent with them that was so palpable with, say, Sam and Diane on Cheers, or Maddie and what was Bruce Willis's character on Moonlighting. Of Josh's love interests on the show, I think the one with the Mary-Louise Parker character had the most chemistry.

Maybe I never got with the Donna and Josh thing because it feels like mostly hero worship on her side, and that's no fun for me. I didn't like seeing it with Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, and I don't like seeing it on the West Wing.

Another Sopranos post. Sure it's fiction and superficial. I'm thinking about it, so I'm blogging about it, just like I'll be talking about it at work. So sue me.

Bo Dietl is on Imus with Steve R. Schirripa who plays Bobby Baccala.

Imus and Bobby are making fun of Dietl for saying there's a terrorism storyline brewing, but he's right. They started setting it up last night with the agents and Chris, then showing the Middle Eastern guys.

Dietl has a 911-scale terrorist plot in mind, and that's why he's being ridiculed, but who's to say what wildness is in store for the build-up and finale from the show that's known for OMG surprises anyway. My expectations for being absolutely blown away are pretty high. So who's going to do a Jack Bauer and save the world?

I was wrong about Paulie being out of the picture. He was in the first episode of the new and last Sopranos season and in tonight's ep, too.

Crazy episode. David Chase wrote this one himself. I think he may assign himself the wierd dream storylines. Didn't he write the one when Pussy was taken out -- the one with the talking fish?

I suppose they could make the rest of the series a power struggle for the boss spot. AG's going to get in the business, isn't he?

I mentioned the space between seasons on The Sopranos the other day.

Dave noticed it too. He's also wondering what else the characters were up to when we weren't looking.

I should have elaborated in my comment that I don't remember seeing Paulie in the season opener. Christopher reported to Paulie, right, so if something happened to Paulie, Chris could move up?

Course I could be full of it and Paulie was right there, and I just don't remember!

I disagree with Dave that Chris was in the doghouse at the end of the season. I think that by turning in Adrianna the minute he found out, it probably was considered an act of supreme loyalty, like the first kill of a made guy, cubed.

I like that Dave has comments now for Scripting News on his WordPress blog. Only trouble with the way they work is that the conversation tends to end after the current day. It's quite a bit of trouble to go back and find comments for the right day, and keep the discussion going.

iTunes is offering condensed versions of the NCAA championship games for $1.99 each or $19.99 for all 63 condensed games.

I think I'd rather see highlights than abridgements. I never trust the judgement of editors who abridge books, and this is the same thing.

Sorry I can't link to the deal. The link that came in my e-mail is for iTunes users only. I don't like to give out restricted links like that.

You get these the next day. It reminded me of an idea I've had for a long time about sports on non-broadcast outlets, like cable TV or now podcasting. HBO has shows by Bob Costas and Bryant Gumbel, but it doesn't exploit its advantage. They use fowl language in movies. Why not in sports shows? Talk about sports the way guys really talk about sports.

The leagues might not think it's a good PR move to sell play-by-play coverage using blue language. But, an amateur could do a podcast the way some TV shows have offered commentary tracks played in sync with recorded shows.

I get a kick out of the way guys watch sports, especially when there are two or more avid emotional fans watching together. That's the mood I think would work best. "DID YOU SEE THAT?!! GUY'S A F***ING JOKE. COME ON!"

Speaking of The Sopranos, I guess some time has elapsed in the story. I'm judging by the age of Janice's and Bobby's baby, who wasn't even a twinkle in our eye, I don't think. It must be about real time. The characters went on with their lives while we were going on with ours.