I thought today’s shows would be wall-to-wall coverage of this afternoon’s unusual Patriot Act debate in the Senate, but then I remembered that most Americans don’t follow intel policy apart from sloganeering. So instead it’s back to the Sunday tried and true, interviews with longshot 2016 contenders who’ll eagerly chat about anything in the name of getting free face time with voters. Among the many pepple appearing this morning who’ll never be president: Martin O’Malley and Ben Carson on “This Week,” Rick Santorum and Bernie Sanders on “Meet the Press,” Carly Fiorina on “Fox News Sunday,” George Pataki on “State of the Union,” and Jeb Bush on “Face the Nation.”

There are a few (slightly) more plausible candidates in the mix too: John Kasich will also be on “Meet the Press” to tease his all-but-certain run and Bobby Jindal will guest on “This Week” after O’Malley and Carson. He and other also-ran hawks like Chris Christie have settled into a nice little mutually beneficial arrangement with Rand Paul on foreign policy, with Jindal seeking to raise his name recognition by slamming Paul ostentatiously as a weakling and Paul rallying his small-donor libertarian base by slamming Republican interventionists right back as terrorist enablers. Jindal was Rand’s main slapfight partner last week; maybe this week is Christie’s turn. The full line-up is at the AP.