`Sopranos,' Hillary and more highlights from the politics blog

He showed respect

for this thing of hers

The phone rang late last Saturday night in Johnny Sack's home. The caller wanted a sit-down the next morning at a diner in Mount Kisco, N.Y.

But this was no mob hit. Johnny had already died of lung cancer in prison. And the actor who played him on "The Sopranos," Vince Curatola, is just fine, thank you. The caller wanted him to play a cameo in a Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign video that spoofed the long-running HBO gangster series to announce her new theme song.

Curatola, a Republican who voted twice for Bill Clinton, was only too happy to oblige. And for no fee, just a round-trip car ride. Curatola told the New York Post, "I like a lot about her. Guts, first of all. A lot of guts, a lot of staying power." But no endorsement just yet. Curatola, who's on the board of the Hackensack University Medical Center, tells the Washington Post, "If I see her platform leaning more and more toward a national healthcare plan, I would be very interested in her for president."

In the video, Curatola is sitting at the diner counter malevolently eyeing Bill and Hillary in their booth.

According to the actor, neither Clinton was a natural performer, missing their marks often during the shoot and apologizing each time.

The 'L' word: Rarely uttered

Search the transcripts of the three Republican presidential debates conducted so far this year, and the noun "conservative" appears repeatedly. As in, from Mitt Romney during the most recent forum: "I know I've got conservative credentials."

Perform the same search for the word "liberal" in the two debates among Democratic White House contenders, and you'll come up with -- zero hits.

The Democratic Party in general, and its left wing in particular, may be filled with optimism these days that they're riding the prevailing political tides, but Republicans remain far more comfortable using a succinct term to label their beliefs.

Filmmaker Robert Greenwald, whose works include scathing attacks on the Fox News channel and the Bush administration's Iraq policy, noted to The Times' Robin Abcarian that there's an ongoing dispute on the left over terminology. "There's a substantive argument ... about 'liberal' vs. 'progressive,' " he said.

Greenwald has been describing himself as a progressive for a decade, saying it "represents a way of looking at the world in a strong, uncompromising way and standing up for social values."