Why Has One Hotel Chain Banned CNN From Its Television Service?

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Bolton Battle

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton — who has never been confirmed by the Senate — may be another victim of the midterm elections.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid — says Democrats will not allow the Bolton nomination to get a vote in the coming lame duck session and it may never get a vote. A top GOP Senate aide on foreign relations says the Bolton nomination would have to be resubmitted by the White House.

Another senior Republican leadership aide says the president could give Bolton a second recess nomination — but Bolton cannot be paid until confirmed.

Good News, Bad News

Election Day was good news and bad news for East Bronx Public School 71 Principal Lance Cooper in New York. He was a backer of Democratic state Senator Jeff Klein — who won reelection yesterday — that was the good news. But Cooper's endorsement of Klein in a letter to parents last week cost him a $10,000 fine — and that was the bad news.

A New York Education Department spokesman tells The New York Sun the letter violated its ethics rules. He called the letter "a big mistake" and said Cooper acknowledged that he had suffered "a significant lapse in judgment." The fine adds up to almost 10 percent of cooper's $118,000/year salary.

This Isn't CNN

CNN’s decision to show video of Iraqi insurgent snipers targeting U.S. troops has gotten it kicked out of one Midwestern hotel chain. James Thompson — who owns Stoney Creek Hospitality Corporation — has dropped CNN and Headline News from the cable lineup in his 10 hotels in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin.

Thompson tells FOX News he made a "judgment of conscience" after seeing the sniper video — which he calls an "obscenity" that was "personally offensive and shocking." He says his company "will not be a party to propaganda for terrorists."

A Convenient Package?

The DVD for Al Gore's global warming movie "An Inconvenient Truth" is being sent out in what The New York Post calls "a disgusting-looking piece of ragged, speckled cardboard that seems like it recently passed through the entire digestive system of a large animal."

The Post reports a note inside says: "Don't throw this mailer away. Plant it and grow basil. The mailer is handmade from natural, recycled and biodegradable materials." It follows with detailed instructions on exactly how to plant and water the container and — it says — in three weeks — "the paper will recycle into the soil as the seeds burst into tasty basil."

—FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.