“One of the key arguments made by David Horowitz and his supporters in recent years is that a left-wing orientation among faculty members results in a lack of curricular balance, which in turn leads to students being indoctrinated rather than educated,” Inside Higher Ed notes today.

But is the issue really that big of deal?

“A study that will appear soon in the journal PS: Political Science & Politics accepts the first part of the critique of academe and says that it’s true that the professoriate leans left,” the IHE report continues. “But the study — notably by one Republican professor and one Democratic professor — finds no evidence of indoctrination. Despite students being educated by liberal professors, their politics change only marginally in their undergraduate years, and that deflates the idea that cadres of tenured radicals are somehow corrupting America’s youth — or scaring them into adopting new political views.”

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“Look for some sort of story to come down this weekend, possibly Sunday when newspapers typically get the best exposure,” according to those in the know.

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Several GOP seats in the Senate are up for grabs, according to a new poll commissioned by Roll Call and conducted by automated polling firm SurveyUSA. The survey finds presumptive Democratic nominees beating Republican rivals by large margins in Virginia and New Hampshire.

“In the likely general election race in Virginia between former Gov. Mark Warner (D) and his predecessor, ex-Gov. Jim Gilmore (R), Warner was preferred by 57 percent of those surveyed compared with 35 percent for Gilmore,” writes Roll Call’s Josh Kurtz.

“Things also look bleak for the GOP in New Hampshire, as the state’s former governor, Jeanne Shaheen, maintains an 11 point lead over Sen. John Sununu (R), who previously defeated her for the seat in 2002,” Raw Story reports. Read more…

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Are times a changin’ for gay GOPers? With Larry Craig as an unlikely poster boy, some gay Republicans interviewed by Reuters sure seem to think so.

“I believe that the approach of the social extremists eliminates our party’s ability to grow in the future,” said Doug Warner, a member of the Log Cabin Republicans who drives an SUV and likes hunting and fishing.

“Somewhere along the way our party was hijacked by the social extremists who say that government needs to regulate things that were once considered private,” added Warner’s partner Truman Smith, who works as a private consultant and is the president of Log Cabin’s South Carolina chapter. “If we believe in lower taxes and less government, what are we going to do? Become Democrats?” Read more…

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“The ‘brains’ surrounding Hillary Clinton didn’t make any friends last Friday at Condé Nast when they balked on a firm, long-standing commitment to let the candidate pose for Vogue, while the astute Julia Reed hung ten waiting to write about her and the giant fotog Annie Leibovitz had her cameras at the ready for nothing,” Liz Smith tells us today. “A source inside Hillary’s camp supposedly informed the Vogue contingent they’d decided some time ago not to honor the commitment, but Vogue wasn’t told until the last minute.”

Why the last minute dump? “Handlers for the senator decided Vogue would be ‘too elitist’ and Hillary might come off as ‘too glamorous,’” Smith says.

More strange is that Hillary already appeared in Vogue in 1998. Guess she didn’t mind appearing elite during the White House years? Also, the Hillary camp didn’t have a problem when her top aide Huma Abedin appeared glamorously in the mag earlier this year.

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Give this lady a break, fellas!

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Bigwigs at The Price Is Right are wondering if maybe they’ve made a mistake by hiring rotund comic Drew Carey to fill the legendary Bob Barker’s shoes. And not because Carey isn’t doing a fine job of navigating the likes of Plinko. No, what’s got their proverbial Big Wheel in a tizzy is the fact that Carey has gone out of his way to tout his political beliefs by forging a partnership with the libertarian Reason magazine.

“We didn’t expect him to become political,” one CBS-TV insider admitted to Big Head DC. “We sure hope it doesn’t hurt the show’s ratings.”

In contrast to Barker, whose most visible political action over the decades was to support controlling the pet population, Carey made a splash in Washington over the weekend on the arm of Reason editor Nick Gillespie (shown at right). Carey is expected to contribute regularly to the magazine’s Web site, espousing his own conservative viewpoints.

Carey seems to know he’s treading dangerous waters — for a game show host, that is. Read more…

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Turkish newspapers are printing gruesome pictures of Iraqis killed by U.S. soldiers in response to American political efforts to label the country as having committed genocide. The headline on this page, “Soykırım diyene bak,” is translated directly into English as, “look who is talking about genocide,” and it links to several graphic photos.

The Turkish press closely followed a U.S. Congressional committee meeting last night, during which a resolution describing the 1915 slaughter of Armenians as a genocide was voted through. House leader Nancy Pelosi has long supported the measure, and it’s believed a majority of the House does, too.

It’s a move the White House predicted would severely damage relations with Turkey. “This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings,” George Bush told reporters just hours before the House Foreign Affairs Committee met to consider the measure. The president is desperate to keep Turkey as an ally.

Anti-war protesters, too, are angry that the U.S. government is focusing on foreign killings from decades ago, rather than definitively trying to end the war in Iraq.

More Turkish media presentations of the “shock and awe” after the jump: Read more…

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Harold Ford, Jr., the former congressman from Tennessee, is gearing up to sponsor an upcoming educational event with his new fiancee, fashionista Emily Threlkeld, Big Head DC has learned. The power couple is helping to plan a glitzy benefit for NYC’s East Harlem School to be held on Nov. 8.

Washington insiders expect Ford to continue to ramp up his social schedule with his new first lady by his side as he preps to soon run for governor of his home state. As we first told you in July, Tennessee’s governor seat will be ripe for the plucking in 2010, and our sources said then that Ford has been very keen on running for the position. He’s also looking to have children soon, we’ve been told.

During Ford’s failed run for Senate in 2006, some opposing members of the GOP attempted to paint him as a philandering bachelor. In the past, he has been linked with infamous NYC D-lister Julia Allison, who had been caught up in a shifty plagiarism scandal during her Washington college days.

Related: Harold Ford, Jr.: Not a Cheap Date

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Big Head DC hears that Maria Bartiromo, CNBC’s perennial “money honey,” is quite dismayed by some remarks Chris Matthews made regarding Republicans at last week’s 10th anniversary Hardball bash. The financial reporter is scheduled to co-host a GOP presidential debate along with Matthews on Tuesday night, to be aired on both CNBC and MSNBC.

TV news insiders tell us that Bartiromo is concerned that Matthews’ statements could hurt ratings for the debate, and she’s already apparently received some blow back from conservatives regarding the situation.

“God help us if we had Cheney during the Cuban missile crisis,” Matthews was quoted as saying last week regarding the vice president. “We’d all be under a parking lot.” He added that the VP’s office has called MSNBC honchos many times to complain about the content of his program.

“They’ve finally been caught in their criminality,” Matthews continued.

Bartiromo had hoped that the debate would shine a positive spotlight on her network with the launch date of a new competitor, FOX Business Network, fast approaching. Read more…

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