Michael Smerconish: What's cookin' this week

HERE'S A carpool: Jon Corzine, Victoria Gotti, Andy Reid, Barack Obama - and the Grimshaws.

Jon Corzine is playing the weight card.

A few weeks ago, the Corzine campaign aired a TV ad that included footage of Republican Chris Christie shuffling out from behind a table in the halls of Congress. At the time, I thought the image made Christie - an admittedly big man - look like a Sumo wrestler. I wondered if it were deliberate. Now I know.

Corzine just did it again. He has a new commercial alleging that Christie used his influence - "threw his weight around," as the voiceover puts it - to skirt traffic violations. The ad's final image is a heavy-looking Christie exiting a car, not a flattering picture. The slow motion doesn't do him any favors, either. And it was surely deliberate, conveying that Christie is so big he has trouble getting out of a car.

It's below the belt, even for a rough-and-tumble state like New Jersey. Time for Christie to respond by offering the "bald truth" about seatbelts.

Victoria Gotti is rationalizing her father's presumptive hit of three decades ago.

The daughter of Teflon Don John Gotti published a memoir this week. Among the stories she recounts in "This Family of Mine" is the day her 12-year-old brother Frankie was killed. It was any parent's worst nightmare, but Gotti didn't handle it like any other parent. Law-enforcement thinks he had the guy knocked off.

She writes: "My brother had borrowed another kid's minibike and was riding in a construction site near the side of the road. But that dreadful day, a drunken driver was speeding down the avenue and struck my brother."

The only problem? I Googled old stories about the incident and couldn't find any that accused the driver, Gotti neighbor John Favara, of being drunk. "The death was ruled accidental and no charge was brought against Favara," reads a New York Times report from April 1989. If a drunk driver killed a child, you'd think there would have been a prosecution.

Andy Reid, stop denying us what we'd love - the mother of all quarterback controversies.

After all, this town has a history of them. Norm Snead, King Hill and Jack Concannon. Roman Gabriel, Mike Boryla and John Reaves. Ron Jaworski and Randall Cunningham. Randall and Rodney Peete.

But the McNabb era has been a relatively stable one. Case in point: After Jeff Garcia led the Eagles to the playoffs in McNabb's absence two years ago, the team wasted little time extending backup A.J. Feeley's contract - essentially signaling Garcia's brief stay in Philly was done.

Now Donovan is hurt again. Garcia is back. Kevin Kolb looks like a legit NFL quarterback. And Michael Vick is in "top physical condition," says offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg. Which makes me wonder why the Eagles, playing without McNabb and Brian Westbrook, so gingerly eased No. 7 into the offense.

I think the team is going to great lengths to protect McNabb. Instead of presenting Vick as a traditional backup QB, they're selling him as a wildcat option - so exotic that McNabb couldn't possibly feel threatened by him. I give it another two weeks, including the off week.

President Obama is headed to Denmark. I think it's a judicious use of 24 hours of his time. Better that than following former Philly Mayor John Street's lead.

Mayor Street didn't attend Philadelphia's presentation to the U.S. Olympic Committee in June 2006, where five cities laid out their bids for the 2016 games. Street was the only mayor who didn't make the trip. A month later, the City of Brotherly Love (along with Houston) was dropped from the running.

Coincidence? Maybe. But in 2005, Tony Blair went to Singapore and successfully lobbied for London to host the 2012 games. In 2007, Vladimir Putin helped win the 2014 Winter Games for Sochi.

Let the president advocate on behalf of his hometown and his country. I doubt any American would argue that bringing the Olympics to their city would be a net negative.

Bill and Jacky Grimshaw are President Obama's neighbors in Chicago. The New York Times reported recently that the Grimshaws are selling their house, which sits a mere 20 feet from the first family's abode.

The Secret Service has already closed the street to nonresidents. Potential buyers for the Grimshaw home have to go through an elaborate screening process.

My first thought? The wrong house is for sale.

No way that post-White House, the Obamas will return to Hyde Park. They'll need more space than that.

My advice to the Obamas: Sell the old house now. Spare taxpayers the cost of protecting a residence you probably won't even sleep in when you return to Chi-town as president.

Let the Grimshaws offer a two-fer.

Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Read him Sundays in the Inquirer. Contact him via the Web at www.smerconish.com.