Give Chris Frates a high-five when you see him today. Yes, it looks like Ron Fournier, Justin Smith and National Journal are doubling down on Sir Chris. Influence Alley is expanding. Frates is joining NJ’s crack congressional team and expanding his must-read Influence Alley feature, covering the intersection of …

Have the Rex Ryan pep talks on Hard Knocks fired up the Politico folks? Playbook put on its big boy pants and spent the weekend jacking people up. On Sunday Playbook ran an advertisement (with no sponsor attribution to parent company Albritton) to pop Comcast and NBC: ** ADVERTISEMENT: A …