Today is the runoff in the Republican primary for governor of Alabama, and it’s hard to imagine the GOP could have wound up with two bigger goofs than Bradley Byrne and Robert Bentley. One has defended himself against charges that he’s an evolutionist; the other has embellished his stateside military service during the Vietnam era. The sad part is one of these guys will actually win.

First the Russian deep-cover spy ring. Now that Iranian scientist “missing” for the last year has turned up in the Pakistani embassy in Washington. The Iranians claim he was kidnapped by the CIA; the U.S. denies that and suggests (without officially saying so) that the scientist defected.

The Pakistani Iranian interests section is the proxy for the Iranians in Washington since the countries do not maintain diplomatic relations. It now appears that the scientist wants to return to Iran, and Iran says it’s making arrangements to repatriate him.

But the circumstances of his disappearance remain murky at best. As the New York Times puts it: “If the Iranian version is true, it is not clear how the man escaped his alleged captors to reach the Pakistani Embassy. If the second version is accurate, it is not clear why he would want to escape, or whether he had been taken under duress.”

There’s a flurry of news reports right now — many of them unconfirmed — that Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has been hospitalized in Tampa. One local TV station is reporting that he has died (*Late Update: The station has since pulled back that report and now simply says he’s been hospitalized.), but CNN says he’s in critical condition.

WABC in New York reports that Steinbrenner, who turned 80 on July 4, suffered a “massive heart attack.”

The New York Daily News is now reporting that Steinbrenner died this morning around 6:30 a.m. The AP is also reporting that Steinbrenner has died. There has been no official confirmation.

More soon …

After a flurry of unconfirmed reports, the family of George Steinbrenner has confirmed to the New York Times that The Boss, the legendary and often notorious owner of the Yankees, has died after apparently suffering a massive heart attack last night at his home in Tampa, FL.

As much as I delighted in seeing David Vitter pick up a serious primary challenger, I can’t say that I expected former Supreme Court Justice Chet Traylor to go right after Vitter’s personal scandals. Thank heavens I appear to be wrong.

Stephen Largen reports in the Monroe News-Star, the largest paper in the northeastern part of the state where Traylor hails from, that the Traylor campaign admits there’s little difference between the two Republicans politically and it all comes down to Vitter’s personal foibles: Read More

Hank Paulson: I sure could have used these new financial reforms when things were melting down.

We take a closer look at how ex-health-care-CEO Rick Scott’s enormous $20 million play to be governor of Florida has left Bill McCollum, who had been the presumed Republican nominee, with only $800,000 in the bank and struggling to come up with enough cash to make it through the primary.

Ben Nelson relents and Harry Reid says he’ll file cloture on financial reform later today, setting up a vote on Thursday where it looks like reformers will have their 60 votes to overcome the filibuster and move the bill to the floor.

The U.S. says the Iranian scientist holed up in the Iranian interests section of the Pakistani embassy in Washington is free to go — and was never held against his will.