A great big "Thank You'' from Betty Montgomery

Betty Montgomery may have jettisoned her gubernatorial campaign, but not her good manners.

Most politicians could stand a trip to MisteRogers' Nieghborhood for a lesson in the virtues of the words "please'' and "thank you,'' but Montgomery showed Thursday that she is not among them, sending a letter to supporters on her gubernatorial campaign's e-mail list thanking them for their help and asking them (politely) if they would be there for her as she runs for her old job, Ohio attorney general.

Montgomery wrote that she and her campaign staff recently received a new poll that she said identified her as "the most well-known, most well-liked, anmd most trusted candidate in the race.'' Unforutnately for her, it also showed her dead last behind Ken Blackwell and Jim Petro.

"Although I wasn't behind by an insurmountable, the kind of campaign I'd have to wage in the current atmosphere is not the kind of campaign I was willing to run,'' Montgomery said.

"A negative campaign,'' she said, "would poison an already toxic political atmosphere in our state.''

She wrote, too, about her admiration for Ronald Reagan, implying that the Great Communicator would not have appreciated seeing Republicans slinging mud at each other all over Ohio.

Mister Rogers probably wouldn't have thought much of it either.