A second Facebook group supports former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, the black chairman of GOPAC:

"While we all don't agree on who should be the presidential choice, it just makes sense to pick Steele. He's a former lieutenant governor of a blue state. He's an effective communicator and a likeable guy … and has more substance than [Barack] Obama."

PRISON POLITICS

"The Virginia Department of Corrections has neither censored or inspected this item and assumes no responsibility for its content."

So reads red lettering stamped across an envelope mailed to Inside the Beltway by Jeff Lisanick, prisoner No. 176124.

The last time Lisanick sat down in his cell and wrote us a letter was in February 2006, after Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a Republican campaign contributor while on a quail hunt in South Texas:

"Your column item on the differences between 'buck shot' and 'bird shot,' headlined 'Bird Brains,' got me to thinking: Although Vice President Dick Cheney has said he won't run for president, if he ever changed his mind, he'd have a great slogan: 'The Buck Shot Stops Here.'"

The political landscape, obviously, has changed dramatically since Lisanick last wrote. Mr. Cheney, of course, is not seeking the presidency, even though he is five years younger than presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain.

"Now that Barack Obama has sewn up the Democratic nomination, let's see if liberals are true to their principles," Lisanick writes in long-hand, curious in his captivity whether sufficient numbers of supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will show up at the polls to elect Mr. Obama president.

"After all, aren't they the grand purveyors of identity-politics, with Hillary Clinton getting the woman vote and Obama getting the black vote?" he asks.