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Felicity Huffman, who just won a Golden Globe for “Transamerica,” has always been a favorite of ours, thanks to her propensity for acting like a real human being instead of a publicist-programmed red-carpet bot. There’s something so refreshing about watching Huffman (who gave Salon’s Rebecca Traister a great interview last year here) visibly strain against dishing out the expected, feel-good responses to journalists’ lame questions. She’s been railing against the exaltation of motherhood since “Desperate Housewives” hit the air, but this exchange with “60 Minutes’” Lesley Stahl really takes the cake. Forget all those celebrities who stop by Oprah, Phil, Tyra or “The View” and pretend to be real — Huffman puts them all to shame.

Open Salon interview.

A struggling Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn., went nuclear Wednesday, with an ad that tries to ally challenger Bob Casey with North Korea and China. Ah, the acrid smell of desperation in the weeks before a congressional election! Be prepared for even more of these terror-filled spots in these glorious final days of Campaign 2006, all of which carry a little DNA from the mother of all scare ads: The 1964 Lyndon Johnson “Daisy Girl” ad against Barry Goldwater (bottom ad, below).

From Michael Scherer’s piece today: “The GOP seems to believe that Ford’s appeal to its most reliable voters is working. In recent days, the Republican National Committee has attempted to reverse the troubling polls in Tennessee with a television ad that both attacks Ford’s religious credentials and invokes that old standby of American politics, racial fear.”

This National Republican Senatorial Committee ad against Harold Ford sports an early mention of a Playboy connection that the party hopes will rile Christians against Ford.

Salon’s piece on Rep. Harold Ford Jr.’s senate campaign spotlights his appeal to churchgoers, as in the TV spot below.