Winner of the week: Tim Pawlenty. His presidential campaign is gaining no steam in Iowa or New Hampshire, people are starting to publicly ask whether he will have to drop by September, and the state he used to lead is in such financial trouble the government shut down. And yet somehow he's showing a pulse in Florida, picking up surprising endorsements last week from three future state House speakers: Will Weatherford of Wesley Chapel, Richard Corcoran of New Port Richey and Chris Dorworth of Lake Mary.

Loser of the week: Bill Nelson. The last shuttle has launched. Now Sen. Astronaut can expect to spend the next year in a re-election campaign explaining how he failed to prevent the loss of thousands of good shuttle program jobs, even if it did start under the Bush administration.